Our sixth Santa Lucia Day

Our St. Lucy's day this year was a test of stamina.  My usual helper is dealing with a cough and the asthma issues that brings with it, so I was on my own when I hopped out of bed at a quarter to five to start the dough rising for St. Lucy's crown. Our lussekatters were yet again a product of the refrigerated dough section of the store, but I did manage to make our braided bread from scratch (thank goodness for this really easy recipe!)

Because Anni needed to be to school early for her class' recitation of The Night Before Christmas, she wore the rather floppy crown (I've got to figure out how to fix that!) but no traditional white dress and red sash this year. I am looking forward to 2020 (yes, I looked it up) when we can have a weekend St. Lucy's day to throw another tea party! 

Daniel is actually the first one of us up usually, so this was a rare chance to let him "sleep in" a little. (I still refuse to refer to 6:30 as sleeping in, but it *is* a lot later that his usual 5:45!)

Then, because we had heard Mlada start to stir anyway, we headed into the little girls' room, where Mlada immediately burst into tears and Colette jumped up to blow out the candles and asked, "Is it my birthday?!"

Here's to a very sweet St. Lucy's day to you all. My she ask Christ to bring light to your darkness.

St. Lucy's Day V

Our Santa Lucia traditions has had to adjust a bit with Anni being in school. While we are looking forward to the day St. Lucy's Day will be on a weekend again and we can resume our community tea parties, we don't want Anni to miss out, so we have actually become a bit more traditional in how we go about things.

Anni and I woke in the wee hours to make some lussekatter... or rather some canned orange rolled re-shaped to look like lussekatter, because sometimes you've just got to do what you've got to do, and saffron is not always in the grocery or liturgical celebration budget.

Then we snuck and sang to Daddy, who then came out and read our St. Lucy book to the girls before we had to get Anni off to school.

Simple, yes, but I'm glad we still managed to keep our tradition somewhat. It's one of my favorites!

St. Lucy, pray for us!

Magic

I often forget, amongst the craziness that is having children, that they are magic.

They are unspoiled by our grown-up worries. We get to worry about the world and its insanities, and they get to worry about the best way to weave a flower crown.

Or who gets to water Mary's flowers first.

They take joy in letting the littlest have the first crown, and in being together.

Magic.

Hallelujah is our song!

Oh, my dears. Three sweet little ladies in pink all ready to celebrate the resurrection. As much as I love picking out their dresses, it worked out perfectly with hand-me-downs and already existing dresses. Miss Mlada's little smirk? My favorite. Then she proceeded to vomit all over me throughout Mass. I'm sorry I attempted dairy again, little lady, results are duly noted!

I went a wee bit overboard on Easter baskets this year. What can I say? The cuteness called to me and gifts are my love language. 

After Easter Mass, we made our first trip with the babe up to my wonder in-law's for Easter egg hunting and general Easter fun.

Colette was so excited to hunt for eggs, and Anni was such a sweet big sister, making sure to point eggs out for Colette.

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Triduum

I say this all the time, but I am all about tradition. Lucky for me, Catholicism is all about the tradition as well. This year, we added a Seder-esque meal on Holy Thursday. In the process, my girls became obsessed with matzah bread. I have swept up a whoooole lot of matzah crumbs in the last few days.

On Good Friday we made our traditional hot cross buns (and taught Colette the song while she waited desperately for them to bake and cool). We didn't make it to Good Friday services this year (different seasons, right? Hopefully next year), but we did do the Stations of the Cross at prayer time. Doing the stations are one of Anni's favorite things. It melts my heart every time we tell her we're going to pray them and her face lights up.

Then, of course, was our Holy Saturday tradition of dyeing eggs. One of our favorite people joined us, which is good since it took every extra hand available to keep a certain three-year-old from cracking every last egg. I mean, there are some definite cracks from the moment when she knocked over the container with every last dyed egg in it, but it could have been worse.

We had the prettiest eggs ever this year, thanks to my sister's visit (she brought five dozen eggs from their chickens with her, yum!)

Waiting is hard. Maybe that's the lesson in dyeing eggs on Holy Saturday.

Also, don't worry, Mlada was part of the fun as well. In between her less than lengthy naps, there were snuggles with our dear friend, and big smiles with big sister. (Every time Anni talks in her vicinity, the smiles emerge. Sisterly love!)

Anni's dragon egg, the last one to be finished, also won the coolest egg award. All kinds of fun crackles and layers of colors. I love having kids and getting to see all of their creations!

It's almost Easter! I hope your preparations have been lovely... there's so much beautiful anticipation around here tonight!

Family (Number Two) and St. Paddy's Day

 The second round of visitors arrived just in time for the loveliest of St. Patrick's Days. There was much cuddling of the tiny one by professional big sister, Z. For serious, she is pretty amazing.

In fact, Miss Mlada was well cuddled this week. Aunt Kaikee is a professional baby snuggler, so life was pretty good.

Because I was still in the midst of the crazy cold/laryngitis and Anni still had school, my sister and her family would go on adventures and then come hang out in between. There was quilting, running in snow, and a whole lot of a darling little boy fixing the house up once he discovered Colette's tool box.

And of course, there was a certain little lady's baptism anniversary. Life is good, my friends, life is good.