chicken tortilla soup recipe

Friday was the official beginning of spreading Christmas cheer. First, we had the Holiday Sing at my daughters school. They always put on a great show and it always manages to be a tear jerk-er, in a good way. This year especially since it was the music teachers last Holiday Sing before he retired. The fourth graders started out by playing a few Christmas songs with Boom Whackers. It was so fun, the boom whackers are hollow plastic tubes, each one is different note. The kids had so much fun bonking each other on the head to play the tune. One kid was out so the teacher took his place, they really got a kick out of being able to knock him on the head. They would be a fun family gift. The low tech Rock Band if you will.

Later we had our annual evening of Christmas caroling in the neighborhood. We met up for dinner at our house first, I made chicken tortilla soup to prepare us for the cold walk. It was delicious if I do say so myself, incredibly easy too. A friend brought Glühwein to keep us warm on the walk. The rainy weather was not as festive as hoped, though it did start snowing later in the night.

I remember caroling as a kid regularly each year. People would give us money or cookies. Definitely not the norm anymore. People always look so awkward standing there while we sing. I almost feel bad for them. No one gave us money or cookies, though we did get some fabulous rum balls at one house. Pretty generous considering we woke them up. Someone finally invited us in, so we ended the evening at their house. They even had some tasty pizza delivered that arrived moments after we arrived. Or maybe we ate their dinner, who knows. As tradition dictates, they will join us next year as they showed us the most holiday cheer.