Sundays can be such busy days during Advent!  Two of our  children are  involved in choir, and they have been singing so much this month – two masses today, solo singing a part last week in a piece for the adult choir (they were so excited!), preparing music for Christmas Eve….And sometimes the feast days, especially when they fall on a Sunday, have a way of sneaking up on me.  Does that ever happen to you?  Like you really want to celebrate St. Nicholas Day or Santa Lucia Day but all of the sudden, there it is and you were not prepared!

I am here to give you some encouragement.  I don’t think festivals have to be “all or nothing”.  You can build little by little over the years.  You can start small.  It doesn’t have to be perfect or like something you see in a magazine or on the blog of someone whose family seems perfect.  My family is not perfect.  I am not perfect!   

And our children grow and change. The traditions that you start slowly and build upon will be there through the years, but they may also change and morph a little as your children grow.  It is okay.  No child stays three years old forever! (Anyone sighing with relief out there?)  Tonight we were hoping to go our local Nordic Lodge’s St. Lucy festival celebration – food and singing in Swedish! We were exhausted from this weekend of singing and our middle daughter’s birthday, but wouldn’t that have been a lovely community way to mark this day?

So, if you didn’t have buns ready this morning, or a beautiful candle- lit headpiece for your oldest daughter or a star boy hat for your son, all is not lost.  You still could make and have buns for tea, or at least make some Scandinavian cookies and have them with dinner.  Most of all, you could do an act of kindness.  St. Lucy brought food to the people of Sweden during a terrible famine.  Other legends say she brought food to the Christians in the catacombs.  So perhaps collecting food for your local food pantry would be as much in the spirit of this day as buns in the early morning (not that those aren’t festive and wonderful!).    I encourage to mark this day as you can, where you are today.   Shine your light where you live and go from there.  That, to me, is the light that this season is all about.

Embrace where you are and live it in joy! Most of all, let us be sweet and gentle to ourselves!  It doesn’t have to be big or grand or perfect to be wonderful.

Lots of love and joy today,
Carrie