And the sun comes up like thunder...

First it was a grey dull morning. Then there was a line of red, turning to gold lighting up the horizon. Would we see a sunrise? Suddenly the sun was there - no creeping up from below the horizon today. POW! Full sun direct!  The title of this blip, a line from a poem, fell into my mind at that moment, and when I searched to see where it came from I found I'd paraphrased the final line from Rudyard Kipling's Road to Mandalay:
An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!
Our dawn comes up from Finland 'cross the Bay of Bothnia...
Naturally we both rushed for our cameras and so today there are two blips of the sunrise over our village, mine and Jan's.
We were out a little later to the Christmas Market at the county museum, meeting many friends. Then on to Rose's for some brunch. We planned to take the food but Rose surprised us by providing a Christmas Brunch. Rice pudding to start, followed by ham and mustard sandwiches, and finishing off with cake and coffee.
Tomorrow is St Lucia's Day and we'll be up very early to go to town and listen to the Lucia singing. There was an article in the Guardian yesterday about how Britain is taking to the Nordic Christmas traditions including Lucia. 
The Swedish TV will be broadcasting a Lucia procession and singing at 7 o'clock tomorrow. It comes from Tällberg, very close to where we spent Midsummer.  I'll post a link to it tomorrow because it will be available to the world for 6 months after its broadcast.