On Santa Lucia Day, all I could think about was how last year at this time, we were all anxiously waiting to meet Baby Gus—without even knowing he WAS baby Gus! I will never stop being amazed at the way you can go along being perfectly content, living normal life, not having any idea of the existence of an entire soul who exists and will someday mean everything to you. And then you catch a glimpse—perhaps a veil parts just a little—and suddenly nothing can ever be the same.
Anyway, he is here now! Living his best life, as you can see.
The morning started a little rough, when Teddy wanted to help us make the rolls and the girls insisting, "No! We are going to SERVE you!" There were tears…and compromises…
…and some of us were a little grumpy about it…
…and didn't appreciate being "helped" (not to say bossed) by older sisters…
…but time and baking smoothed things out, as they always do. And then we had a lovely time.
Daisy is getting to be a really good baker. Look at her whip that rolling pin around! I am becoming less and less necessary to this process…which is nice because then I can just stand around and take pictures.
(I suppose the girls also had a little help from their dolls)
Daisy announced that she was going to make "the perfect Santa Lucia bun." And then she did.
She's also the only person I know who actually clasps her hands when speaking earnestly.
A snake mishap
A little silliness
We allowed the boys to join us in the kitchen once it became clear that they wouldn't be kept out.
"Don't eat things, Ziggy," we said. "Eating is tasting," he replied, inscrutably.
It smelled so good in the house! Abe even made a brief appearance—in between finals—to investigate, and was promptly shooed away. We bring Abe breakfast nearly every day during his online morning class anyway—but the girls still wanted to make sure they had the chance to deliver his tray of saffron buns!
Oh, poor Gussie! Someone made him get out of the cupboard.
Of course, he's never allowed to remain sad for long!
Finally it was time for everyone's favorite part—putting on candle crowns and serving the boys with saffron buns and cocoa! Daisy always gets the real crown—which is pretty hard to balance. She gets better at it every year, and this year even managed a full mug of cocoa on a tray at the same time. Impressive!
Junie working on her crocheting while the buns cook. Daisy and Junie are both madly crocheting Secret Christmas things these days.
The girls did serve Malachi his breakfast in bed, but he said "Breakfast in bed is overrated" and joined us at the table anyway. He's not wrong! But he did take advantage of the girls' offer to do his share of the cleanup—with some alacrity—so maybe having your sisters serve you all day is not completely overrated. Ha ha.
The girls served Gussie too, by breaking up his food up into bits—instead of letting him grab an entire bun, stuff the whole thing into his mouth, and then choke on it while still attempting to cram more of it in while we pry it out of his vise-grip fingers, as he would have wished to.
Teddy was a little shy about being brought food on a tray. But he liked it.
Happy Santa Lucia Day!
The description of how Gus WOULD eat — given the chance! Haha! Yes! I know it exactly perfectly! I have many times lived out that scene of trying to release a vice grip on some food squeezed and falling apart in a tiny fierce fist while a mouth is jammed full and near to choking yet trying to fit in more. What clever girls you have to serve him his tiny pieces.
ReplyDeleteAnd there is nothing better than seeing them become proficient bakers themselves! One of my favorite things now is sugar or gingerbread cookies bring all prepared and rolled and cut out mette my ever lifting a finger.
This is such a fun and happy tradition you’ve created. And fun to think of how they’ll each have their individual memories of it. The boys — of smelling good things and having them brought in. The girls of this secret baking that no one is a part of (well ... except maybe toddler brothers) all leaning towards bringing joy. Bravo to all of it!