Such a lovely description of family events! Thank you! I remember in 4th grade standing on stage to give a presentation on the Yule log -- in those days, it was still a Christmas pageant. I've wondered ever since if Yule logs were actually ever in practice and I love your expression that it is the light on the darkest night of the year. Those words, or something very similar, holiest of holy, the darkest night of the year, are in the Catholic Midnight Mass.