I forgot to check the old camera card for December 2021 pictures, and, lo and behold, St. Lucia Day I found thereon. Millie played the part of St. Lucia last year, because who knows how many years she'll be here to do so? She was a good sport when I woke her up early to don the white and red )and put fire and prickly pine on her head).
I lightened all these pictures considerably so something more than candles was visible, but though the pictures are terrible, the morning was full of sleepy magic like it always is.
The first step is to wake all the sleeping people.
And then a slow feast of lussekatter and coffee, which barely takes the edge off drowsy eyes.
I've been watching you do this tradition for many, many years and ooh-ing and aah-ing at the beauty of it.
ReplyDeleteBut today, something struck a cord in me in a different and more powerfully poignant way. Today as I look at these beautiful pictures, all I can see is you manifesting beauty in many generations of households because your children have been raised to value these sweet traditions. You will grow old and will one day be no more, but you have a raised a whole household who do beautiful things in beautiful ways simply because they are good, simply because they are beautiful.
A houseful of children eating together buns by candlelight on an early morning carpet really WILL change the world.
Thank you for the encouraging observation!
ReplyDeleteBittersweet, too. :)
I was just talking to the girls the other day about what traditions they think they'd continue in their own homes someday, and St. Lucia made the cut.
Gingerbread-people-all-nighters, alas, did not.