Christmas Eve

Installment 2 - Christmas eve.

I arrived home (New Mexico will always be home) late December 23rd after a frustrating morning of trying to find pretty wood to give to Dad for Christmas. I also had been up since 5am since who can sleep when you are about to drive home 10 hrs to spend Christmas with family?

So.... I had a WONDERFUL nights rest and was ready to prepare for Christmas. Christmas Eve is probably even more important than Christmas in my family.

List of Activities... in order of appearance.

1. This year we went shopping for Mom and Dad by wandering around the small shops in Los Alamos buying funny things and stopping at the hardware store (where they know my father by name) to get wood. I found a BUTTER CURLER for my mother's stocking!



Unfortunately, because of this Emily and I missed all the set up for the luminarias.
Sad... But Emily said it was OK cuz it means we would get to light more.
















2. The luminarias.
This is a wonderful tradition in New Mexico and the southwest.
We put sand and a little candle in a paper bag to light the Christ child to our home.
This year we did... well, I'm not sure (see number 1), but I think 10 dozen. (I tried to get a picture of it without my flash but as u can see it didn't quite work!)








3. Make dozens and dozens of cinnamon rolls for our Home Teachers, Home Teachee's, Visting Teachers, and Visting Teachees. For some reason, the number gets larger every year. I heard 7 dozen rolls bandied about. I'm sure we ended up making more like 9 or 10 dozen because we have to have some for ourselves! Mother also made bread in a pot this year to try and cut down on the cinnamon roll needs. (notice the laundry basket behind my mother filled with cinnamon rolls as well as the one she is carrying. She also has the ward list so we can figure out where these people live!)

4. Clam Chowder for dinner... with REAL oster saltine crackers. Ah.. memories of trying to get as many as you could into ur bowl without the wrath of nearby siblings falling on ur head.

5. Then it's off to go caroling. I LOVE caroling. I couldn't believe my oldest sister said in her blog that she dislikes it!! I LOVE IT! Remember the 7 dozen cinnamon rolls? This is when we give them out. It was sad this year with no small ones to go up to the door with the offering. Every year, we try to get out early so we can get home in a reasonable time, but it never works. At least this year we didn't add anyone to our caroling list. Some people only got cinnamon rolls or a bread in a pot with no singing. I don't think they missed it.

6. We open our new pajamas (that my mother had wrapped that afternoon),
a reading of Luke 2, and its off to bed. I did get Spree's stocking ready, Angela did Thorpes (her assistance dog), and Emily and I got all the nuts and candy ready to go in the stockings. We were trying to help the parents reduce the staying up time. Its just not the same with only 4 unmarried children at home.

Let me say... I do like silk pajamas. I never knew! I think they are going to be nice and cool during the hot summer.