Huzzah!

Yay for the powers of the mighty little yeasties! What a lovely morning surprise.

(Good lesson, too.)

Sometimes the universe hits you over the head with featherweight sparklies and gold stars.

Mine are sometimes heavyweight sparklies. Yes.

Also, it just figures that while other people have Santa coming down the chimney with toys, instead you get St. Lucy sneaking in and making your dough rise.

Mikulas was here last week. There are toys in all the stockings already. So I get both!

How wonderful.

Have a happy day.

And to you!

The kind of metaphors with blueberries in can't possibly be bad for you.

This whole thing just makes me smile.

And blueberries, too? That's bliss.

Traditionally they are made with raisins, but we prefer dried blueberries.

How "traditionally" are the raisins in the recipe? They're no more local than the saffron, are they? And much bulkier/heavier? Whereas dried berries of local kinds were probably more available. (Of course trade has been going on for about as long as we have any evidence for anything, so being non-local means at most being more expensive and perhaps rarer.)

And therefore for special!

Mmm, special.

Vikings got to China by carrying their boats on their heads across Russia. I think getting raisins was probably an absolute doddle.

For years and years my nieces did Santa Lucia for the local Swede club for my grandmother, but alas they are now all too old. Memories!

Oh, M'ris, I'm so pleased.

Happy Saint Lucy's Day to you, and to the Lads, and to Miss Ista the Valiant.

Miss Ista the Valiant is not sure dried blueberries are food.

St. Lucy truly blessed you!

We celebrate with cinnamon rolls, which are in the oven as I type.

Have a joyous feast day!

If the dead dough has risen, does this make it Yeast-er?

*GROOOOOAN*

Just so you know, I'm sitting here grinning after reading this.

I keep saying its the little things that get you through. It really is.

Onward, Marissa. Ever onward. :)

I think I'm going to do a little feasts of light post soon. If I can carve the time out of thin air.

I got your Christmas card -- thank you so much! That was very sweet of you.

And I am still waiting for that book of yours, the one that you were looking for feedback on. Is it not to that stage yet? Christmas would be a good time to read it...

It is indeed not to that stage yet. Several people have said Christmas would be a good time. I am doing the best I can.

Well good. :)

I came here via elisem and I'd sure like to friend you. Would you friend me back?

Yeah for the yeasties that never died. And for lussekatter.

Please e-mail me at my gmail address, which is marissalingen. (Although I will be gone all weekend, so don't worry -- I'm not asking you to e-mail so I can yell at you where no one can see or anything awful like that, and I'm not ignoring you!)

As a Lucia myself (though spelled Lucy), this is my favorite holiday we never celebrated when I was growing up. I so like the way this story turned out.

Here via elisem. Who had the kindness to link the post from last year, as well as the two from this year.

I thank you, deeply. I'm in the midst of my own personal darkness, and I very much needed this reminder to keep fighting.

You are quite welcome. I'm happy to hear it.

Feel free to copy the icon (I made it) above!

Fabulous!

I too followed a link from elisem's journal, read your three lussekatter posts, and I decided I'd like to read what else you write. I don't think we've met in person, but we have friends in common.

So we do! And from different groups of friends, too; so hi!

Yay!

My baby sister is no longer attending a Minnesota college, so I've had to beat down my ambition to have a niece or nephew writing posts like these in twenty or thirty years. You'll just have to keep doing it.

The recidivism rate is quite high.

timprov is right: a lot of people leave after college and then find themselves wandering back. It is their dessssstiny. [/Darth Vader voice]

I don't think it'll stick. She was only in Mankato for a semester-- not the school for her. Though she was going to take either Greek or Norwegian, so who knows.

States and cultures that have themselvesness (and I apologize for the word) make me envious. I'm in Iowa, and there's this sort of corn pride going on, perhaps because Iowa's the Midwest state people point to when they mean the Midwest. Illinois doesn't have that so much. Minnesota has its traditions, as well as quite a few very interesting people.
This may be a symptom of girlcrushing on you and several others. Not crush-crushing, in the sense of wanting to date/Like/whatever, but wanting to imitate/be/live vicariously through, in a noncreepy way, I promise. I can fake being an Iowan because I'm in contrast to a Californian or two, but I don't think I could pull off Minnesota.

Which is an imprecise way of saying what I want to say.

Well, thanks. I think I know what you mean about the noncreepy way. No worries.

As for Minnesota -- it's pretty hard to fake being a Minnesotan. But becoming one is a different thing completely. I know many people who have pulled it off.

When we lived out there, I had a very hard time spotting Californianness as opposed to Southern Californianness or Northern Californianness -- or else West Coastalness. I'd like to see whether an expert could point out unifying features that are not unified with parts of coastal Oregon and Washington, or whether the stateness of California is really (at least) two states.

I don't think I can pick out Californiarity. The Californians I know are defined in opposition to Iowa-- they don't fit here, so they assert their otherness all the more strongly. I'm certainly not Iowan, but I'm Midwestern, and that counts for something. So far, CA/IA is as much urban/rural as anything else.
Of course, what I count as Iowanness is actually Iowa City. Iowacity, more or less.

I knew several people in the Bay Area who had moved out there with the notion that it would by God be better, more liberal, more culturally endowed, etc. than where they were from. And so they were overgeneralizing from "small town in the butt end of nowhere, from whence [they] came" to "the Midwest." And they'd eat at a perfectly normal restaurant and sigh that you'd never be able to get that kind of food in the Midwest. (Maybe not in Mudville, kiddo, but this is Minneapolis.) Or they'd talk about how the cultural experiences they weren't doing weren't available in the Midwest. (Strike two, bucko: we have theater here, and anyway having theater in town that you ignore is maybe not the most important thing in life?) My favorite was how conservative the Midwest was compared to California, from Bay Areans who wanted to pretend that Berkeley was all of California and a truck stop on I80 in Nebraska was all of the Midwest. Bleh.

I think it would bother me far less from Californians in Iowa; I have a great deal more sympathy for people who don't feel at home where they're currently living (for obvious reasons!) than for people who have decided that the way to feel at home where they're living is to unjustly run down my home.

Minneapolis impressed me more than Chicago for years because I knew Chicago as a place you drive to, walk around, can't complain because it's Chicago, and can't go in anywhere because you're *walking*, while Minneapolis what a place I could walk around with a friend, shop a bit, and anyway it was Fringe Festival and so we got to see plays.

Iowa City is where I fit right now. It's small enough that I don't get lost, but big enough (for values of 'big' that aren't all related to size) that there are things to do. I don't see the point of complaining that the jazz outside downtown is a high school rather than a bunch of spontaneous musicians if you're not going to stay to listen to it anyway. Grbowf. But I should not complain about those specific friends, because as you said, they aren't entirely at home. Besides, when I visited Riverside CA, I was kind of freaked out the entire time. Too many roads, dear Mozart.

I'm glad you like where you are right now. I'm also glad it has proximity to other places you can enjoy. Sounds good all around.

And the same to you.

That is awesome.