Caroline's First Holy Communion!

 

Caroline made her First Communion on Saturday, May 11.  The church was filled with all the First Communicants from both the parish school and the parish religion classes (PSR) which Caroline was in.  She wore the same dress and veil that I wore for my First Communion in 1987 - that my mom made for me!!! It fit her almost perfectly!

 

Group photo time before the Mass began

 

 

The children all processed in at the beginning of Mass - here Caroline enters our family's pew.

 

The children all went up to receive Our Lord first, one at a time, before the rest of us did.  Here, Caroline's PSR teacher stands beside our pew to cue her to get ready to go up for her turn.

 

Caroline receiving the Eucharist for the first time!!  We also have a print of a close up from the side that they had someone taking to give to the families.

 

Each child made a banner to hang on the side of the pews.  I am not sure how or when this became the norm, but I made a banner when I was in 2nd grade preparing for my First Communion, too.  Except mine was on a wire coathanger instead of a nice dowel rod, ha.

 

After Mass, Father Patrick was available to bless any personal items the children had brought (Caroline brought a new rosary from Gramma and Grampa)...

 

...and to pose for a picture with them.

 

Caroline with her PSR teacher, Mr. Lewis, and the assistant, Ms. Theresa, at the reception afterwards.

 

Caroline with her friends Emma and Claire at the ceremony (yes, they are twins, and yes, Caroline is taller than most kids her age!).

 

Here she is with her friend Raina (who is one of the few kids her age close to her height!).  She also wore a family dress that had been worn by several older relatives for their First Communions!  These three friends (plus three more we didn't get pictures with)are all homeschooled... they made up quite a large chunk of the 2nd grade PSR class this year.

 

We stayed briefly at the reception and then headed home for our own family party, and for more photos!  Cecilia and Lucy posed with their big sister.

 

Caroline with her godparents: Karen, who was my best friend in high school, and Mike, one of my brothers.

 

Caroline with Gramma and Grampa...

 

...and Uncle Tim...

 

...and Daddy and Mommy...

 

...and Gran and Grandad...

 

...and Aunt Sara.

Then I finally let her go change her clothes! ;)

 

The party food - yum!  Tim monitors everything from his spot in the corner.  He'd gotten permission to come home from the seminary a day early and driven here from Ohio early in the morning to be able to make it in time, after having just gotten over an illness - we were so glad he could be here!

We had roast beef with horseradish, turkey, ham, cheese, rolls, a fruit tray with dip, blue cheese buffalo chicken dip with carrots and celery sticks, cheese cubes, an olive cheese ball and a cream cheese bacon dip with crackers, a veggie platter with dip, and ro-tel sausage cheese dip with tortilla chips... plus cake and cookies!

 

The cake, from Publix.  I had bought a decorative chalice to place on it, but... I couldn't find it. :/  Maybe it will make an appearance before Cecilia's First Communion!

 

The cookies!!  I made some lamb shaped cookies because Caroline prayed the Little Lamb of Jesus novena for nine days prior to her First Communion day.

 

I also made these chalice and host cookies and had a blast decorating them excessively with royal icing and sprinkles and shimmery powder stuff... trying to make them a super special treat for a very special occasion!

 

Here is a close-up of one of the cookies.  The sprinkles were done in several different patterns for variety.

 

And a picture with the flash.  I couldn't decide which was better.

 

You can see the First Communion  paper dessert plates we used under the cookies.

 

The best way I know to celebrate a huge milestone - lots of food for lots of family members!

 

Aunt Crystal helps Caroline put on a necklace from her and Uncle Mike.

 

Pretty!!!

 

The cookie recipe made a ton of cookies... more than 50 of them, I think.  So we served them on the table along with putting some out in a basket as favors for people to take home (and I still ate waaay too many of them!).

 

I found the First Communion tags here at Shower of Roses.  Just printed them out and tied them on the baggies with pretty white ribbons!  Everything white on this day!! :)

 

The drinks: mango iced tea with honey and coffee punch!

 

Caroline opening presents from everyone... she got so many generous gifts, including a Bible,bookmarks, jewelry, a rosary, and holy cards!

It was a special day for her - how I love to celebrate these special days in the faith formation of my children!

Christmas in Atlanta

We went to Atlanta to visit my family on Christmas afternoon.  We stayed over a few nights and got to see all three of my brothers.  Here is Cecilia with my parents' nativity - my grandmother painted the pieces.  She never got to finish all of them before she died... but she had painted the most important ones first - Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, of course, and the three kings, a shepherd, and sheep had been painted.

Here's their tree.  They waited to open all their gifts until we got there.  I told them to go ahead with their own gifts, but apparently my mom didn't let them, ha.  it is always fun to open gifts in a big group, though.

My grandmother painted some ornaments too... this one was always my favorite when I was a kid.

Snacks!  We had cheese and crackers, apple slices with a caramel cream cheese dip, and... eggnog, of course.  One of the cheeses was a specialty cheese from Kroger with apricot in it - yum!!

Tim forces Gabby to enjoy the festivities.

And there are the yummy snacks we had during present-opening.  I got to them too late to get a photo of them before we'd mostly destroyed them...

Caroline and Cecilia opened some rustic dollhouse furniture from Gramma and Grampa.

Lucy opened her own toddler dollhouse family my mom got her from the teacher store.  We were laughing at the box, which called this product the "safe and soft" "white family."

Lucy waited very patiently but attentively as Uncle Stephen extracted a baby doll from its box.

Caroline was very excited to get a mini American Girl doll and the set of books - the doll shares her name!

Still waiting!

Caroline was very happy about the Caroline books and doll!

Cecilia gives Uncle Tim a high five after he gave her a book of children's Bible stories.

She really loved this stuffed horse from Uncle Stephen - she carried it around for days afterward.  She named it "Pinta" because it is a pinto horse.  Caroline named hers Pinta pronounced with a long i, ha ha.

Lucy got this adorable soft nativity from Uncle Tim.  I love the little cloth figures, and they all velcro inside the stable.

Here they are opening something big and heavy from Gramma and Grampa...

What is it???

Here's Caroline's expression once she realized what was in it - the Magic Cabin tree fort!

Chris and my brothers Tim and Stephen

My parents open their gifts on the piano bench

Lucy shows off her cute Christmas outfit.  All of my kids have been able to wear this at Christmas, although I thought Lucy might be too big for it by her second Christmas since the older girls wore it on their first Christmases... nope, it fit her fine in length!  The funniest thing about this is the tag in this outfit says size 3-6 months.  Ha!

Me opening my super-comfy kitchen floor mat from my parents - yay!!

Then my other brother and his family decided to come over that evening too instead of the next day... so we had another round of present-opening!

Our birthday cake for Jesus!  The older girls and I made nativity cookies a couple days earlier, and we brought them along with the eggnog cake I made and then set them up on top.  They sang Happy Birthday to baby Jesus and then got to eat cookies and cake with their cousin Julianne!

The next day... here's Lucy with Uncle Stephen in the sunroom.

Just as popular as any of their gifts was Uncle Tim's Marble Works toy from when he was about seven years old...

Here's Caroline with her doll.

Mike and family came back for dinner the next day, too... trying to get a photo of all five granddaughters proved to be quite difficult!  This was really the best one I got!

This one actually had everyone looking, but Mike had to go get in the way, ha ha!

Lucy looks up, but Chloe and Julianne have lost interest...

And now older kids are okay, but neither baby is looking...

...and then Dutch has to walk through and interfere.  He doesn't like to be left out.  luckily, Julianne doesn't mind dog kisses.

Caroline tries to move Dutch out of the way.

Lucy tries out Uncle Stephen's new fishing reel.

Chloe was thrilled to sit in this little decorative sleigh until...

Lucy joined her.  That was the beginning of the end of the world, apparently!

Lucy figured she'd done something wrong and climbed out to figure out what was wrong with Chloe... she's looking up at somebody, like, "Who, me??  I made her howl like that??"  Ha ha!

"Nyah, nyah, I get the sleigh all to myself!!"  Chloe was too upset and so as soon as she was out of the sleigh, Lucy climbed back in.

Then Chloe decided there really was room for two.

And she and Lucy even made up for their misunderstanding.

Uncle Stephen poses with the girls the next day before he left.

And Lucy got some time with Tim, Grampa, and Gabby.

She actually loves to sit in laundry baskets and sometimes even cries when we take her out.

Trying to learn "gentle touches" with animals...

We had a great time visiting, gifting, and eating to celebrate the first few days of Christmas!