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Little Christmas Eve Traditions

Tuesday - December 23rd. Andrea's husband Mike has Norwegian ancestry and the coolest Christmas tradition!

On the 23rd of December, Norwegians gather together to decorate their Christmas trees and have an open-faced sandwich making contest. Mike and Andrea's tree was already decorated, but we did have a sandwich making contest, complete with prizes.

The rules: make a sandwich and you have to eat it. If you do not eat something on your sandwich you are disqualified.

At first, I must admit I was stumped. What do you do with bread, cheese, sliced sandwich meat, pickles, sliced avocado, sliced cucumbers, sliced eggs, smoked salmon, sardines, condiments, etc.? How do you make them into edible art? Karyn is a fairly picky eater and was the most nervous about making something cool that she would also eat.

Once we had started it was a great deal of fun. Everyone made awesome sandwiches. Mike took pictures so we could vote on which sandwich we wanted for each of three categories: Silliest, Most Creative, and Prettiest.

Karyn made a silly face with a dip goatee; she won silliest. Richard (Karyn's husband) made a log cabin complete with someone standing at the door and a chimney of cheese cubes on a toothpick and won most creative. Andrea made a pretty display on her sandwich and won prettiest; her sandwich reminded me of the spread they laid out on the cruise.
Me, I made mine into a butterfly with red pepper strips outlining the wings and eggs and black olive slices and tomatoes and salmon making patterns on the wings; I used miniature pickles for antenae. And don't forget the avacado slice for its body!

Andrea may post pictures. I can't remember if Karyn or Melinda had their cameras, but I didn't have mine with me.

The kids ate what they would and mostly ran around and had a good time together. Laura sat on my lap several times to tell me made up stories about fairies. What a smart and imaginative little girl she is!

The evening was great fun! Thanks for sharing your tradition with us and hosting a great party, Andrea and Mike!

After the sandwich party, I went to Tina's and then later to Daphne's. An uber fun Merry Christmas-ing day!

Comments

Melinda said…
You made an awesome sandwich. And, though I am slow, I finally posted some pics. Also, thank you so much for my headbands. I have already worn both of them and I had to fight my neice to get one back from her. You RULE!
Andrea B. said…
I was so glad you came. I will post, but it may take me a while. BTW, I thought you should have won prettiest!!!

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