St. Lucia Day

This year we began a new celebration in our house. It is St.Lucia Day from Sweden. We adapted this holiday from the same book "Celebrating the Christian Year" by Martha Zimmerman. The oldest daughter is supposed to rise early, dress like St. Lucia (which means "Queen of Light") and serve the family breakfast in bed with a candle crown.

While Anna didn't have an actual candle in her crown, she DID make a crown and delivered breakfast in bed with a candle on the tray.

Then she told each family member the story of St.Lucia.

"There was once a girl. Her name was Lucia. Back in those days there wasn't allowed to be any Christians, but Lucia's mom taught her what it meant to be a Christian and to love God. When it was time for Lucia to get married, she wanted to give her dowry to the poor instead of to her husband. So she asked her mom and she said it was okay. When her husband heard about this, he told the governor, and the governor decided to have her killed on December 13th. Her name means Queen of Light. Lucia was a good example of loving God with all that she had. "
Anna kept the secret about celebrating this holiday all week before December 13th. Each day she listened to me read the story and then she secretly worked on her crown. Toward the end of the week she practiced retelling the story from memory so that she could tell it to Jeff and Sarah on Saturday morning.
She was SOOOO excited to do this and put on my white robe, her crown, and prepared a breakfast of fresh buns, fruit, and apple juice to deliver to each family member. She then told the story as I have transcribed it above. She definitely surprised Jeff, Sarah and Ben with this treat. It will probably be the first of many times that we remember this precious girl and how much she loved her Lord.