Christmas Caroling Follies

It was sooooo cold, that baby Seth and Mama skipped the caroling and came for the chocolate.

FROZEN! Noses and cheeks!

Enjoying chocolate, sugar dipped spoons and hot chocolate!

Each year, as a tradition, we host the annual Christmas Caroling and hot chocolate party. This year, after passing out invitations and inviting the entire ward, we watched the weather turn dangerous! On Monday, it snowed all day, then towards afternoon, the snow slowed down. I was getting excited as I scoured the house and made treats and hot chocolate. Then I looked out the window and saw the wind whip the snow into a white out! I watched and waited and answered phone calls asking if we were cancelling. Finally we decided that there was no other time we could do it and we would have to brave the weather, and we headed out. We had fewer families attend due, I'm sure, to the weather. But we still had several small children in attendance. We started walking and took a "short cut" to get to our starting point. I hadn't thought through the fact that the path wouldn't be shoveled yet. The snow was about 18 inches deep on the path. That's pretty deep for little ones. The wind was howling and we trudged forward through drifts up to 2 feet or more.

We ended up going to just a few houses before the weather turned severe! No longer gentle flakes were blowing in our faces! The wind hurled shards of ice into our eyes and frozen noses and mouths. We had a van set aside just in case the kids needed respite from the weather, but after we finished the last house, the van was no where to be found. The driver had driven off with his little boy who was screaming. We quickly herded the remaining children back through the drifts of snow towards our house. We felt like the Martin Handcart Company! We had just a small taste of what they must have gone through. I was grateful for my down, fur lined hooded, coat, snow boots, scarf, and gloves. Those poor saints out in that horrid weather with their feet wrapped in fabric and no more than shawls on their heads and wrapped around their bodies! I was grateful to enter a nice, warm home with hot chocolate waiting to warm my insides.

I learned a thing or two that night. Tradition is not worth risking life and limb--especially when little children are involved. We should have just cancelled the out door caroling and had everyone in for cocoa and a sing a long. I also have greater appreciation of what those early saints went through. One of my relatives was in this party. She ended up losing her feet, but made it to the Salt Lake Valley. I would not be here today if it weren't for her great suffering and endurance!