Dec. 13th, Hope's birthday, is also St. Lucia Day. It is a Scandinavian tradition which is the kick off for the Christmas celebration and one of the most important calendar days in Sweden. Since my husband has Swedish roots and it is Hope's birthday - we enjoy carrying on the tradition in some ways. This year Matt's mom managed to find some really cute white knit dresses (you can't really tell from the picture, but they are really sweet and have little white sequins too) as well as an "official" Lucia crown. The candles in the crown are thankfully battery operated and you just add the fresh greens each year. Hope dressed as St. Lucia and Maddie as her attendant. An added bonus was American Girl Kirsten's Lucia dress for Hope's Felicity doll. Since the day fell on Sunday this year and Matt has to leave quite early before the rest of us for church, the girls weren't able to bring us coffee and buns in bed (shucks! maybe next year!) so instead the girls brought some Swedish gingerbread cookies that we baked to Sunday School.
Both girls wanted their ears pierced as their birthday gift from mom and dad this year, so in the afternoon we headed out to do that. I've got one word - DRAMA! Poor Hope. She has been so excited about this for so long. But I guess because of all of the excitement, she really didn't sleep well last night. She also appears to be coming down with a bit of a cold. By the late afternoon she was worse off than I realized. Let's just say the piercing didn't go over very well - oh the wailing and gnashing of teeth! She did get them done and loves them now. Suffice it to say that Maddie decided not to get hers done after watching Hope's drama and chose to get a build-a-bear instead. Now she says she wants to get hers done when she is six. With all the fussing, I didn't even manage to get a picture of Hope's ears. I tell you what- girls are born with drama! If you have girls, you know what I'm talking about - and having multiple girls just escalates it all!
Did you check out the sale at Polarn O. Pyret this week? www.polarnopyretusa.com. One item each day will be 40% off. Great Swedish clothes at a great price.
We also like to celebrate this in some way each year. This year it was the day after our xmas party so it was TJ buns for us. Love the dresses and the doll!
Posted by: Linda | December 14, 2009 at 06:54 PM