Lucia

In the early morning hours of December 13, all over Sweden and the other Nordic countries, "Lucia" brings light in the darkness of winter. Each school and each city chooses a girl to represent Lucia, the lightbringer, and she is followed by a procession of maidens carrying candles and sometimes treats such as gingerbread cookies and lussekatter for the people.

When this tradition first started out back in the late 1600's, December 13th was believed to be the longest and most dangerous night of the year and many stayed up through the night with candles burning. In the morning, they knew the darkest part of the winter was over and with only 11 day left until Christmas, it was time to celebrate!

This is my favorite Swedish tradition, in school I always loved getting up early in the morning and dressing in the gown, making sure I knew all the songs and had the candle ready. It was such a magical feeling when the school is completely dark except for the procession lit up by candle light, moving through the hallways lined with people while singing songs that have been sung for hundreds of years.

A friend of mine recently pointed out that it seems a bit strange if you haven't grown up with it, and I suppose he has a point, but here, judge for yourself :)

Hot chocolate the Swedish way

Today is one of those days; the wind is howling, the rain is beating hard on the windows and the sky is just grey.
In short, perfect hot chocolate weather! For some reason, I almost never made hot chocolate in LA, I always bought it, but being back in Sweden it felt perfectly natural to turn on the stove and make a cup :)

To make traditional Swedish hot chocolate, you mix cocoa and sugar with a little bit of cream in a cup and pour hot milk over and it's so yummy!

Walk by the Water

Today I decided to walk home along the water, and it was such a good feeling!
Seeing all the lights on the mainland (for those of you that don't know,
I live on an island), and feeling the beginning of winter ice under my shoes made me smile.

The harbor, and "Castle Hill" on the bottom. Can you believe it's only 5pm though?

Guess Who?

Ok, if you saw this man on the cover of a book, who would you say he is?

If I didn't know that face, I would think he was a serial killer and that the book was called something along the lines of "Portrait of Evil". It might also have something to do with him scaring the crap out of me when we did a scene together when I was 11 years old.
Today, he is one of Sweden's most well known actors turned professional chef, who has his own cooking show! Well, he's not exactly Paula Deen, is he? Jeez, lighten up Mr. Morberg...

Seriously, be more creepy...

Christmas Treats!

This week is completely dedicated to baking and making candy :)
Over the weekend we made "Lussekatter", they are sweet saffron buns, tradionally eaten for Lucia and Christmas.

 

And today, I decided to give Peppermint Bark a try! I had never heard of this wonderful treat until I went to America, but now I got mhy whole family hooked on it after bringing tins of it home every winter :)