Our Santa Lucia Celebration and thoughts about last week

Last week was a blur but I wanted to slow down and share some moments. We'll go backwards a bit a start with Santa Lucia day.

We started our morning with the Lussekatter buns, dressing in the proper attire and endless singing. Then off to school for K.
While K was in class, C, Little L and I hung out in the halls with friends to watch both Santa Lucia processions. The first was the twelfth grade girls who visit the early childhood rooms and the second was the eighth grade class who visits all of the grades.

My girls still fit into their dresses from last year (just barely) and Little L somewhat still fit his star boy hat so we just went with it. I'll make new ones for next year's celebrations. I must admit that I needed a little break! The girls and I did make Little L a 'star pole', though. He needed something to add to his special day.  K just needle felted a star (like the ornaments she was working on a few weeks ago) and then we glued it to a smooth bamboo stick we found in the woods.



This year I was able to sit and reflect on this brave saint my little L was named after. The more I pondered, the more I realized just how appropriate his name is. He has always been our little light in the darkest of times but something that really jumped out at me this year was that Saint Lucia (or Saint Lucy) is the patron saint of blindness (including Spiritual blindness), eye diseases, and eye problems. Some of you may remember that Little L has Horner's Syndrome which affects his eyes (more specifically - his left eye). Dealing with it was rough at first but has been relatively smooth the past year or so. I know it won't always be so smooth for him, but knowing that he has his patron saint to help him really comforts me.  I hope he will turn to her if he ever needs to. He truly was meant to have this name!









Oh, and if you were wondering what I was working on last week, here it is! The girls received Our Lady of Guadalupe skirts for the feast day last Wednesday. K holds her very close to her heart so I wanted to do a little something for her and C. They have already worn them twice so I think they like them. They also made their own paper bag tilmas and pretended to be Juan Diego pretty much the rest of the week.

I hope I can protect their sweet innocence for as long as possible. As my heart breaks over the events of last week (one literally down the road from my house!), and tears trickle down my cheeks without warning, it has been a little challenging keeping them sheltered. I try to remember what stage of life they are in, 'the world is good', and to see it as such myself. This has been making it a bit easier to get out of bed in the morning.

I try to stay out of anything political or controversial but I hope you don't mind me sharing this with you:

In memory of the recent tragedy in Newtown we are hoping to come together as a community in the thought that “those children are our children” and show the people of Newtown that we are in this together. So many of us watched the news with broken hearts and a feeling of helplessness. Here is the opportunity for all of us to show our love for Newtown, to let them know they are not alone. To let them know as they piece their lives back together that we are there to shed tears with them, prayer with them, and ...

help in anyway we can.
Here is what you can do: Cut out a paper heart, decorate it, and write a message of love (positive messages only please). Address them to Hearts of Hope and send one or many and mail them to:
Newtown Congregational Church First Church Congregational
14 West St, Newtown, CT 06470 or 148 Beach Rd, Ffld CT 06824

We are going to take these hearts and cover Newtown with our love from around the world. We are going to take these hearts and hang them up in local businesses, churches, and banks so that no matter where the people of Newtown go they will be surrounded by love and reminded that from hate rises love and support. That humanity is still very much alive and if we band together with love and hope in our hearts we can accomplish so much more. It really does take a village...

 

You can learn more here.

Our Santa Lucia Celebration and thoughts about last week