Countdown to Christmas - Day 24 (Christmas Eve Traditions)

Olivia with Santa's Food
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

Christmas Eve is filled with annual traditions and routines that the girls look forward to doing.

In the late-afternoon, the girls sang in the church choir. The music during the service was beautiful. Afterwards, we drove around a bit and enjoyed seeing Christmas lights.

After feeding the horses and dogs, we ate dinner and had a peppermint ice cream dessert.

Here's the recipe for Peppermint Angel Roll:

1 package (16 ounces) angel food cake mix
1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar
1/2 gallon peppermint ice cream, softened
1 jar (11 3/4 ounces) hot fudge ice cream topping, warmed
Miniature candy canes and additional confectioners' sugar, optional

Prepare cake batter according to package directions. Line a greased 15" x 10" x 1" baking pan with waxed paper and grease the paper.  Spread batter evenly into pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched.

Cool for 5 minutes.  Turn cake onto a kitchen towel dusted with confectioners' sugar.  Gently peel off waxed paper.  Roll up cake in the towel jelly-roll style, starting with a short side.  Cool completely on a wire rack.

Unroll cake and spread ice cream over cake to within 1/2 inch of edges.  Roll up again.  Cover and freeze until firm. 

To serve the dessert, I cut slices and put some hot fudge on top. The recipe called for crushed peppermint sticks sprinkled on top, but I figured that was more than enough sugar...and I needed the girls to fall asleep early.

Peppermint Ice Cream/Cake Dessert

After dinner, we checked Santa's progress on the computer. He was in the Canary Islands, and was fast approaching the United States. The girls stepped up their pace and wrote a letter to Santa:

Sophia's Letter to Santa

The girls put cookies and water on the table along with their letters.  They don't put milk or juice out because they "could spoil and then Santa would get sick...and that wouldn't be good" as they remind me each year.

They cut up carrots and put them on the mudroom roof for Santa's reindeer.  They wanted to throw the carrots out on the mudroom roof. I highly discouraged them from doing this because they "might get buried in all that snow....perhaps it might be easier if they were in the bowls so the reindeer can find the carrots." Thankfully, they agreed.

Carrots on the roof for Santa's reindeer.

Before going to bed, they each opened one present that was under the Christmas tree.

Sophia opening a gift from an uncle and aunt.

The girls went to bed by 8:30...and were asleep by 9:00.  Santa visited around 1:00 a.m.