St. Lucy Feastday....And A Few Odds And Ends

Today is the feast of St. Lucy and we celebrate following the Swedish traditions. You can read more about it here.   Last year I had trouble with my yeast, so this year I was very careful.....and oh my did it rise well this time!!  It came out huge.  This is a traditional braided St. Lucy bread.  It is seasoned with orange zest and orange juice and some dry cranberries.  It came out so delicious!  I might make it for Christmas morning since my stepmother loves orange cranberry flavors.

Anna is dressed in a white dress with a red sash to symbolize St. Lucy's purity and martyrdom.  And she has a wreath with candles on her head.  The bread was VERY heavy and so she is concentrating very hard on not dropping it LOL..

Tradition has the oldest daughter waking early in the morning to bring treats to everyone in their bed, but I just didn't have time to make to bread yesterday and at 33wks pregnant I am not up to getting out of bed before my three early risers....so we did our celebration after dinner and it worked great.

My odds and ends...Just a pic of our Jesse Tree...

 

Daddy came through with his saint peg dolls at the last minute again....So St. Joseph, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, and St. Katherine Drexel 

 

 

 Buggy had been very unhappy about her crib lately.  So Claudio turned it into a toddler bed.  She is happier now but she has kept us on our toes for sure!!  This is where I found her the other night.  Poor Anna is such a trooper.  Buggy just really wants to sleep in the bunkbed.  So Anna thought it would be best to bring her regular bed into the room, remove the crib, and let Buggy have the bunk.  This has worked out much better and so things are settling down in the kiddie room!

St. Nicholas Has Been Here!

The kids put their shoes out before bed and lo and behold St. Nicholas showed up right speedy!!  He left them gold coins and candy canes in their shoes and the Three Wisemen....they have shown up to find the Baby Jesus!!

First Sunday of Advent

It's our most favorite time of the year!! Today was the first Sunday of Advent..

Advent is the official beginning of the new year in the Catholic Church and it is a time of hopeful waiting and penance for the coming of Christ at Christmas at the end of the month.

 It is a liturgical season filled with such wonderful traditions.

On the first Sunday of Advent we always set up out Nativity scene.  We have a large Fontinini set and we set it up on a large table in our dining room.  These pictures are a bit out of order, but you will get the idea.

At the left side of the table is our "desert".  Towards the back the Roman soldiers are declaring the census and Mary and Joseph are off for their journey. 

Some shops in the middle..

In the back is the stable.  Currently uninhabited.  Next to the stable is the "chicken house" and we assume they own the stable.  The sparkly stuff behind the well is our running river.

a view of the whole scene

Our Advent Wreath.  One candle is lit for each week of Advent.  Three purple candles and one rose.  The rose candle is lit on the third Sunday, which is known as Guadete Sunday.  Guadete means rejoice...the birth of Christ is ever closer.

Our mantle is pretty stripped down.  All the way to the left is a little statue of St. Lucy, whose feast is on Dec. 13th.  Then a wooden St. Nicholas, whose feast is on Dec. 6.  In the center is our Advent calendar.  Behind each door is a scripture reading for the day.  And then the three round containers next to it contains a treat a day for each day lovingly prepared and wrapped for each child by my stepmom and dad.  Next to that is a little statue of the Three wisemen.

This is a little Holztiger nativity set for the kids to play with.  And next to it there  you can see a little St. Nicholas nesting doll we found at a flea market a few years ago.

And a reminder of what the season is about.  Not quite time to celebrate yet, but a time to prepare our hearts and mind for the birth of Jesus Christ at Christmas.

We also set up a Jesse Tree but things have been busy around here and we just have not had the time to get it set up yet.  It is on my list for tomorrow.