Many Hands Make St. Lucia Bread

Our Saint Lucia day was made possible by many little hands, eager to help. In lieu of the traditional saffron buns we made a beautiful braided bread. I found the recipe here.

It was so yummy! Just sweet enough with a hint of orange. My little helpers zested oranges and cracked eggs...



Mixing and kneading....



And then we all rolled the candles to adorn our bread.







Perfect! We do nothing too much for this particular day. We make our light and celebrate with an ease. There's no need to overdo.

Hope your light is shining brightly through these darkened days!

A Day of Giving

Here are the sweet little deer that I had told you about from my seasonal swap with Erin from Tiny Twist Creative. We added them to our table yesterday as we lit the third light of advent, the light of beasts.

The third light of Advent is the light of beasts.

Animals of farm, field, forest, air and sea.

All await the birth in greatest and in least.

Today is Saint Lucia day and our first time celebrating. Well, I have apparently lost all ability to make yeast breads at all. Just like the past half dozen of so (different types) I've attempted, our Lucia buns refused to rise and were hard and dense. I've tried different flours, yeasts... I am thinking perhaps I've just become a little heavy handed with the flour and am adding too much. It's been quite some time since I've made any yeast breads and I guess I have just lost the touch. I have not given up but the buns were a bust. Though, all was not lost. I decided to celebrate the day, as we did on St. Nicholas day, doing as she had done and gathering up and donating food to the local Christian Crisis Center. It's so important to me that we find the relevance in our celebrations and not just focus on the pageantry and gifts and glittering lights. A life worth celebrating is a life worth emulating.
I leave you with this beautiful version of Sankta Lucia. The song and the video are breathtaking!