So in Sweden in December it is dark really early. If it is an overcast day, which is often, it is dark by about 3 pm. The sun sets about 4 pm but it dark earlier than that. A Swede told me that is why there are so many traditions and celebrations around this time of year and most of them involve light. St Lucia Day is on December 13th and the day celebrates St Lucia who brings light to the dark winter days. We went to a St. Lucia concert the weekend before the holiday at Domskyrkan (a huge cathedral in the middle of town). It was beautiful but very hard to capture on camera. It began with about 35 people carrying candles as they sang the traditional Lucia song. A song a knew pretty well by then and I will tell you why in a few minutes. This concert was special because it was specifically for children and families which means that Annalise got to sit in the aisle with her friends and get an unobstructed view of this awesome concert. Of course she spent the majority of the concert playing and talking to her friends and enjoying the freedom of sitting with the other kids but that was fine. It was so beautiful to hear the songs sung in Swedish.
The reason I knew the Lucia song is because both Ray and Annalise had been singing it over and over again preparing for St. Lucia Day. Both of them performed in a program on St. Lucia Day. The day began earlier than usual as Annalise's program was supposed to begin 7:15 am. This was Annalise's first school program and it was in Swedish! She knew all the songs because she had been singing them over and over again for a week but during the program she stood in the back with her mouth closed! Even during the English songs, not a peep. it was fun anyway! After listening to the kids sing we had fika and ate yummy Lucia rolls! Next it was Ray's turn! Lucas and I took the bus to work with Ray so we could watch the program, and enjoy another fika!
In my department they make all the newbies sing Lucia songs in Swedish. There were 10 of us and we performed two Lucia songs in Swedish, jingle bells, Lucia in Italian and our special parody of a parody which we called Food project (think a bad remake of Bad Project which was a great parody of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance). On a side note, I caught an HBO special of Lady Gaga's Monster Ball at MSG and it was fantastic. We had food costumes and food props for the Lady Gaga remake. I was the Lucia and wore my lab coat as my white gown, a red ribbon around my waist and a crown of candles on my head. Our performance lasted about 10 minutes and everyone enjoyed the off key singing. It was a ton of fun. Lucas and I loved it and we have it all on video!!!
Spending Christmas thousands of miles away from family and friends is hard. We knew it would be. It was one of the big cons on our pro and con list. So we decided to embrace Christmas as much as possible. This involves getting a real tree which we hadn't done since I was pregnant with Annalise. But how do you get a Christmas tree home with no car. First we asked to borrow our friends' cargo bike but that didn't work out. We decided we would have to carry it in the stroller somehow. We brought bunjee cords and we felt prepared. But let me tell you how you know if you are Swedish. If you bike to pick out a Christmas tree with your two kids and then after you buy it you put your kids in their bike trailer, heave the 6 foot tree over your shoulder and bike home with one hand. The guy was so fast I couldn't get a picture!
Another fun Christmas activity is building gingerbread houses. Ray's dept has a party every year where everyone makes a house from start to finish (quite a long process!) and then they get judged by the Sustainability Engineering Dept. This was a first for Ray, Annalise, and I and we had a lot of fun but we have a lot to learn about making gingerbread houses! We could not get our roof together and had to bake another piece of gingerbread and try to glue it on! Needless to say we did not win; but we did not finish last either. The mushroom house pictured below won!
We finally got a chance to take some pictures of Christmas lights and Lund all decorated for the holidays but I have not uploaded the pictures- I will soon.
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