From my earliest memories, Christmas eve was the most important night of the year in our family.  I grew up at the Bethany Indian Mission as my parents were missionaries to the Winnebago and Onieda Indians in Wisconsin.  My mother was Norwegian and many Norwegian customs and food were part of our celebration.  The jule-ring in the center of the table has 12 candles, one for each month of the year.  These candles represent Jesus in our hearts not just at Christmas but throughout the year.  Our traditional foods; lute-fisk, pork, mashed potatoes with butter, rutabagas and jule-kaka (Norwegian Christmas bread) are all on the table.  The chairs are all the shapes of the chairs I loved to look at as a child in the Bethany Indian Mission dining hall.  This is a memory of childhood, the pine scented air of northern Wisconsin and the delicious food my mother made and the incredible joy and patterns of Christmas Eve.