Sophia's Baptism!

This year, I became a godmother for the first time - twice!  Chris and I became godparents of my brother's daughter in January, and this fall, my best friend from high school, Karen, asked me to be their new baby's godmother!

They live in Jacksonville, Florida, and we had visited them briefly in August when we were there at the beach, but we'd not yet met Sophia, as she was just a few weeks old and still in the NICU since she'd been born about eight weeks premature.  

The baptism began in the narthex after Sunday Mass - October 21st.  An old friend of Jason's (Karen's husband) was the godfather.

Here we are at the baptismal font.

Caroline was excited that father asked her to hold the book for him!

Anointing Sophia with chrism... such a wonderful scent it has!!  I just love baptisms!

Happy mommy and baby!

We ended the ceremony by walking up to the altar, and afterwards, we took some photos... Jason, Karen, and Sophia

Godparent photo

Reception time!!!  There was lots of yummy food - dips and chips and crackers, lunch meats and cheeses and rolls, punch, and of course... 

the baptism cake from Publix!!  Yum.  If I have any more babies myself, there is *supposed* to be a Publix in town by then, ha ha!!

Our family was staying at a nearby hotel... we visited my grandparents on Saturday and had dinner with Karen and other out of town family on Friday and Saturday evenings.  On Sunday, Lucy and I helped get some of the food prep done before Mass.

Here's Lucy with one of Sophia's stuffed animals

Caroline with her godmother, and now her "godsister" as well!

Look at all those girls, ha ha!!

God bless you, Sophia Vivian!!!

Lucy's Baptism

Lucy was baptized last Sunday, October 2, which in years when it does not fall on a Sunday is the Feast of the Guardian Angels... it just happened that this date worked best. Truly her guardian angel has been watching over our baby girl! It was also Respect Life Sunday, which falls on the first Sunday of every October. Attending the baptism were both sets of grandparents and my brother Mike and his wife Crystal and their daughter Julianne (and their second daughter Chloe was there in utero, to be born the very next day!).

Caroline narrated her version of the day to me, and I will share her retelling of the events below:

When we went to church, Gran and Grandad were already there, and we weren’t expecting Aunt Crystal to come because baby Chloe was going to be born sometime that week, the next week after that Sunday. And Aunt Crystal did come, and there were some pews reserved because Lucy was getting baptized only that Sunday – there wasn’t another baby being baptized that Sunday, and there were two pews reserved just in case lots of family members came, and Uncle Mike and Aunt Crystal and Julianne and Mommy and Daddy and Lucy was sitting on the pew in front, and Gramma and Grampa and Gran and Grandad and me and Cecilia were sitting on the one behind the one that Mommy and Daddy were sitting on.

When Lucy was going to get baptized when we went up to the front, I got to hold the candle until Deacon Stu was going to light it, and Cecilia held the towel. And Uncle Mike took a video of Lucy being baptized, and Gran and Grandad took some pictures. And Gramma and Grampa took some pictures. And she was asleep when she got baptized, and she woke up for like two seconds or one minute after she got baptized.

Caroline's story to be continued further below... Deacon Stu performed the baptism, as he did for Cecilia too. He is anointing her with the chrism oil above. I love that smell... four days later and I can still smell it on Lucy's head, just barely...

The girls were excited to be able to watch up close!

My mom gave Lucy this baptismal bonnet... it is a handkerchief with ribbons on it and is intended to be carried just as a handkerchief on her wedding day! I sealed it in a baggie and hope maybe it will retain the chrism smell over the years...

Our family in front of the altar after Mass

My parents - Lucy's godparents

everybody all together!

with Chris's parents

Some photos taken by my mom in the narthex after Mass... I wanted a few showing the baptismal dress. This is the same dress that my mother and I were both baptized in, as well as all three of our girls now. My mom thinks her grandmother must have handmade it!! In one of the pictures above, you can see that the back of it has to be fastened with a gold pin... apparently this is what used to be common for closing baby's dresses...

In this one you can see the white garment they placed on Lucy right after the baptism. They didn't do this for Caroline or Cecilia's baptisms for some reason...

You can click on the photo to see the detail of the dress... it is beautiful!

When we got home, I hung the dress and bonnet along with a blanket we'd wrapped around Lucy (it was an unusually cool morning - 40 degrees when we woke up!) so they would be out of the way of the food but still on display.

At home, we had a luncheon party to celebrate! I love celebrating the children's sacraments and like to make a big deal of it as a way to show them how important their faith milestones are... more important than a birthday, so it deserves a big celebration! I hope this makes an impression on the girls as they get older... and it is lots of fun, too - I can't wait to plan a First Communion party! :)

Caroline's narration of the day is continued below, in orange:

For the baptism party, we had some croissants with chicken salad on them, and we had some egg salad with bread, and we had a fruit salad, and Gramma made some pimento cheese. And Gramma got a baptism cake at Publix, and it was big! It was shaped like a cross and it had some pink flowers made of icing and some blue flowers made of icing and some yellow flowers made of icing, and it had some green leaves made of icing on it. And all around the edge, it had a pink line around it that kind of went like a swing: it went up and down and up and down, and on one arm of the cake it said, “God Bless” and on the other arm it said, “Lucy Marie,” and it said “God Bless Lucy Marie.” And she was almost three weeks old when she was baptized. And Mrs. Swinford came, and Aunt Mimi and Uncle Chet came.

I have gotten into the habit of displaying the girls' baptismal candles on baptism days. I need to get my own candle from my parents' house! On the china cabinet, you can see some holy cards displayed: St. Lucy, and not visible are some baptism cards.

Caroline and Cecilia helped me choose shells for this little craft... we will display these baptism scallop shells each baptism anniversary! The shell is a symbol of baptism: a small shell-shaped scoop is used to pour the holy water over the baby's head during the baptism. Each shell has the name and date of the baptism on it and it attached to white ribbon so that it can be hung around the baptismal candle.

caroline and Cecilia colored some baptism pictures and hung them up as decorations.

On the Menu:

Sweet Tea

Coffee Punch

Chicken Salad on Mini Croissants

Egg Salad Tea Sandwiches

Homemade Pimento Cheese Tea Sandwiches

Homemade Cheese Ball and Crackers

Artichoke Dip and Crackers

Assorted Cheese Cubes

Fruit Salad

Baptism Chocolates: Shells, Crosses, and Bibles

Vanilla Cake

Caroline cut out these water drops with the dove symbol in them to make party picks which we stuck in the cheese cubes. I found these online - if I remember where, I can come back and link to it!

I had fun making these chocolates using a mold and some candy melts from the craft store... note to anyone who hasn't made them before: stick them in the fridge to harden or they don't work!! I made white as the traditional baptism color along with dark chocolate for some variety!

Here's the cake - a beautiful cross cake from Publix! Thanks, Mom!

I also put these dove decorations on the floral centerpiece... our celebration was rich with the symbols of baptism: water, doves, shells, the color white... My mom picked the flowers up before coming, which was helpful because I'd planned to stop and get some on Sunday morning! My parents came up on Saturday afternoon to help get things ready (my dad first checked to make sure we got CBS so he could watch the Gators game, ha ha, which was not worth watching, it turns out! ;). My mom made the chicken salad, pimento cheese, and egg salad, and the next morning she and Chris's mom put the last things together in the kitchen so I wouldn't have to overdo it and could just hold and nurse my precious baby. :)

Cecilia and Caroline opened gifts for Lucy... this sheep was from my Aunt and Uncle, who drove over for the luncheon! We had a wonderful day welcoming Lucy to God's family! She celebrated by sleeping through it all on me and then partying a bit overnight... or maybe that was the extra caffeine I had in all that coffee punch! ;)

God Bless you, Lucy Marie!

The Baptism of the Lord

We ended the Christmas season with a simple celebration: we got out the girls' baptismal candles to decorate the table and made Nacho Stuffed Shells for dinner.

After dinner, we prayed the Apostles' Creed as part of our nightly decade of the Rosary. We had attended Mass that morning and were pleased to see that the nativity and the Christmas decorations were still up for the final day of Christmas. We slowly took down decorations during the afternoon, and we have just a few things left out now - some Christmas books which will slowly disappear (lest Cecilia notice and mourn the loss of her Hanna book!;) and our main nativity and the Fisher Price nativity. Those will remain out until the Feast of the Presentation on February 2.

And now, back to Ordinary Time - back to school for us!