tretton -- Lucia

Lucia day! We made it. As you might remember from last year December 13th is particularly important in Sweden. It is a day to celebrate light in the midst of darkness, and to do so in excellent Swedish fashion, encorporating song, baked treats and candles aplenty.

We'd be lying if we said it isn't dark here these days. There is little to no snow, and little daylight as well. Case in point: today sunrise was 8:52 and sunset 14:58. A few weeks ago I coined the term 'greylight' - as in, the greyish colour that comes at the brightest point of the day when it is too cloudy for the sun to poke through. We have had plenty of opportunities of late to use this new vocab.

At this point last year I felt like a wind up toy that had wound down. And the tradition of Lucia picked me up, filled me with an energy and warmth I desperately needed and helped me make it to Christmas. This year has, despite the lack of snow, been a lot easier. All the same,  we have really been feeling the darkness the last week - not helped by a nasty bout of stomach unpleasantness that knocked me down hard over the weekend (think it was something I ate) - incidentally, my apologies for a rather un-inspired blog effort yesterday, but what can you expect from a girl who has been in bed for two days straight!

But I digress.

I have looked forward to Luciadag (Lucia day) since being completely captivated by it last year. And today did not disappoint.

I added a few new items to the docket of Lucia celebrations (I missed two days being in bed, after all). And so, today's post: snapshots from an extremely full Luciadag for this Canadian gal.

07:45 - Riding through downtown en route to meet Becca and David - the old City hall building is in the background

Someone lit the bike path with a lovely train of marschaller - large outdoor tealights

Downtown Gävle - pretty quiet this morning!

07:50 - Stop Number One

 Épi bakery - glögg and lussekatter (the saffron flavoured bun for the day)
with Becca and David at our gorgeous sourdough bakery. The staff all dressed for the event.

 Next up: the University Library

8:45 - Gävle's Luciatåg comes to Högskolan i Gävle (bad photo quality courtesy of your forgetful blogmaster who left behind her camera and was forced to rely on her iPhone)

Then there was a full day's work (un-photographed), before heading off to the big cathedral in town for Luciatåg round II. This time I had my camera in hand and tried to capture a bit of the magic of the train of singing girls in white ...

17:45 - Heliga Trefaldighets Kyrka - Gävles Luciatåg

Finally, as my stomach was still holding up and I was still on my feet, I tried to make good on a missed treat from the weekend and we headed to Högbo Bruk for a julboard extravaganza. This was not exactly how we had planned it, but our delightful plans to go with Camilla + Urban + kids along with Becca and David last Sunday kind of got canned in the midst of the stomach trauma. This was to be Richard's only Christmas buffet (julbord), and he stayed home to look after me. But tonight there was space and I was game, so off we went!

19:30 - Julbord extravaganza begins.

 The julbord is really worth an entire post to itself, so I shall only give a few teasers.

smoked fishes - after the herring course

hand made sweets ...

 10:30 - Home sweet home for advent calendar opening and blogging

intense conditioner - excellent!

And now, dear reader, it is time for bed!

Glad Lucia to all. And may you come into some light to help you through the final darkening days: soon, soon, the light will grow again!