It’s been a reasonably productive day, despite the fact that I didn’t get out of bed until nearly noon.

Lydia had plans to play over at a friend’s house this afternoon, so after we dropped her off, Olof, Tage, and I went to the big toy store in town to do some Christmas shopping. Lucky for us, Tage is still little enough that we can shop for him even if he’s with us, so we managed to get everything we need for our two kids, as well as gifts for the other kids in the family. We decided to scale back somewhat on our gift-giving this year, so I anticipate that there will be some protest from Lydia when she realizes that she’s getting only one present (plus stocking stuffers) from us. It’s a pretty major present, though, so I’m sure she’ll be okay with it once it’s opened.

When all of us were home again, we put up the downstairs Christmas tree and decorated it. The trees have been something of a point of contention between Lydia and me this year — she wanted to put them up on Thanksgiving weekend, but I wanted to wait until this weekend to do it. In the end we compromised and put up the upstairs tree when she wanted to do it, and held off until today for the downstairs tree. Judging from all the complaining she did over the past two weeks, however, I suspect that I was the only one who accepted the spirit of the compromise. In any case, both trees are up now, and I even managed to find a lost box of ornaments, meaning that the downstairs tree is much less sparsely decorated than it’s second-floor counterpart.

This evening we unearthed and gathered up Lydia’s Lucia dress and accoutrements, so she’ll have those ready for tomorrow. Rather than being awoken in the wee hours with coffee and buns, we’ve decided to go down to Olof’s parents’ house tomorrow after school for a Lucia fika*, and all of the kids will be decked out in their Lucia finery. If I feel really motivated, I may even make homemade lussekatter** for the occasion.

Last on my list of accomplishments for the day is the updating of Tage’s webpage. I’m still a couple of months behind, but the October page is now up and available for your perusal.

*getting together for coffee and treats, can be merely a “coffee break,” but is most often an actual social event — a very important custom in Sweden
**the saffron buns traditional to Swedish Lucia Day celebrations