Silent Night

In our home, as in my parents, I always feel like Christmas Eve is the more sacred time--almost more of the holiday--than Christmas Day is. Being (relatively newly) married makes for interesting, sometimes awkward Christmas traditions until things are smoothed over. I feel like Mike and I are really settling into our Christmas Eve traditions now--although we both agree the salad I made tonight needs to go. Salad, yes; this particular salad, no. 

Oyster stew is always our main, and this year I made a ruby red jello salad--both my family's tradition. I made stollen for the first time and I have got to say it was a huge success. That's not exactly Mike's family's tradition, but I decided to do it instead of rolls because (a) Mike feels a particular connection with Germany through his father's family, and (b) I don't love my rolls. Sometimes they're great, other times, not so much. We made a green salad, but we've already covered that. 

In Mike's family, their Christmas dessert of choice is peppermint ice cream roll. I'm not a huge fan. I mean, it's good, I enjoy eating it at my mother-in-law's or Mike's grandma's. But I don't necessarily want to make it. In my family we have pavlova. I love pavlova. It's quite sweet, but if you don't sweeten your whipped cream, it's perfect. Mum always covered it with kiwis and pomegranate seeds and it was just a beautiful, bejeweled ring. I made that for the first few years before Mike told me he wasn't a great fan of it. So two years ago we decided to just do something totally different from either. I suggested gingerbread. I found a recipe and made it and we both really liked it. Last year I made the same recipe but baked it in a square pan like it said, and I felt like it was very dry. This year I went back to a loaf pan and we served it with custard sauce. I would say that was a hit. And there's just something about gingerbread that seems so homey and warm and particularly Christmassy.

Then, as so many before us, comes the reading of Luke 2 and a live nativity acted out by the children of the family. Oh, you are all in for a treat.

Here's an elated Mary.

Joseph was something of a sporadic leader.

And as soon as Mary got off that donkey, Joseph was all over him.

Madie actually really wanted to be Mary and was excited for this, but we had all the missionaries over and she was feeling a little self-conscious. 

The donkey finally told Joseph he needed a break.

Joseph's gift to the new born Jesus was a token of his livelihood. At least that's what Finn probably thinks.

Merry Christmas!