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!

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!