St. Lucia Day

For the second year, we honored St. Lucia Day in our home with a celebration of hope and light. Selby was beautiful and confident delivering homemade sweet buns, pepparkakor and coffee to our multi-genraltional household. She first served Daddy, then little sister Sage, then Nana & Papa, and finally, I crawled back into bed and enjoyed being served my goodies too.

Like last year, I gifted my girls new holiday outfits on this morning, to remind them of how they light up my life. And to mimic the sweetness of Lucia buns, they received a couple of felted cupcakes I got at a craft & food swap last weekend.

Speaking of Lucia buns, we did not get to making the traditional lussekater (a yeasted saffron bun) served on this special day. I was prepared to let it go, okay with just serving cookies and coffee. But not my gal; as we spoke about her duties the evening before, her face clouded and she said in a panicked tone, "But we didn't make the buns!"

I told her my thoughts to go without and watched disappointment fill her eyes. So, I woke Selby early in the morning to make a non-yeasted sweet roll dough. In the quiet darkness, we rolled out the dough and twisted it into traditional lussekater shapes. We glazed them with a sugar & milk wash, and sprinkled them with vanilla sugar. The sweet buns were a perfect stand in, and the act of baking them together was preserved thanks to my little love.

It's been my goal, last year and this year, to begin new holiday traditions with my family that honor this very special season. As they grow older, it's my hope that my children will hold holiday memories of togetherness and love close to their heart. So you can imagine my pleasure that this sweet, simple tradition had already impressed upon my girl - a beautiful gift of hope and light for mama, indeed!