Caroling and Christmas Eve

On December 23rd our countdown calendar included the rest of our caroling to friends and neighbors, so even though it was FREEZING and sleeting (not snowing, boooo), we bundled up to deliver our goods.  We stole a tradition and recipe from some dear friends back in Dallas and presented Tosca Kaka (fancy name for Swedish almond cake, a Christmas staple at our house!), accompanied by Avery and Isaac on their violins.  The best part of the evening was caroling to two families, both with children who are friends of our children, that had never received carolers before.  One cried, which made me choke up.  Darn my easy flowing water works.  The other was our wonderful neighbors, who clapped and cheered and requested an encore.  The children treated them to "We Wish You a Happy Hanukkah."

Christmas Eve we watched "The Polar Express" and decorated our gingerbread house.

The remainder of the day was taken up by John making thousands of wontons to add to our traditional Hawaiian Christmas Eve celebration.  Yes, I know wontons are not Hawaiian, but they eat enough of them in Hawaii, and the kids love them so much, we decided to bend the rules a bit.  We got to share our celebration with some very sweet, gracious Young Women from our ward.

No Christmas Eve would be complete without reading the account of Christ's birth from the bible, which we did, each child or guest adding a piece to the nativity when their turn came.  It was beautiful.  Then we opened our pajamas, with an added gift this year of Christmas Eve pillows, which she made completely on her own for the boys out of leftover pajama fabric.  Then it was off to bed for the little ones, for sugarplum visions that didn't come until much later in the evening when their fatigue finally overpowered their anticipation!