Luciadag!

The 13th of December is Lucia Day. The tradition of Lucia is that she is a saint who brings light to a darkened world. (The actual history is a little more gruesome and that we'll take another day.) The tradition is that kids line up and go from door to door dressed as Lucia (in along white dress with a red sash carrying a crown with 4 lights on their head and a candle in their hand), "gingerbread men", "santa clauses", and other swedish christmas figures. I guess kind of like caroling, but not as fun and hyped-up.

Samuel had a little program at his preschool last Friday. All week he's been going around the house singing at the top of his lungs all these little swedish christmas songs (i'm trying to learn them, so I can sing along). It's been so fun, and we were so excited to go see his little performance at school, but when Friday rolled around, he got a bit nervous with all the other parents there, and ended up sitting next to us the whole time...maybe next year...

Then Saturday evening, we got together with all the cousins and went to visit "gamla morfar" (great-grandpa) at his nursing home and brought him gingerbread cookies and rolls and sang to him, then we went to farfar and farmor (grandma and grandpa Malm) and sang for them. I really love this tradition...especially because it is so dark these days over here (sunrise: 8:54 sunset:3:26!), and seeing all the lights and seeing all the children dress up in white dresses with candles visiting others is so heart-warming. Here are some pictures, so you can get a little taste of it.