Monday, December 24, 2012

Christening

Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 19:14

Little Man and Sweet Pea are baptized! We had a beautiful ceremony Saturday, surrounded by friends and family and love. The babies didn't even cry during the baptism. In fact, after water was poured over her head, Sweet Pea even gave the priest her brilliant trademark smile!

Our close friends Tom and Carol are serving once more as the godparents, although Carol couldn't make it (she stayed back home with their two boys). But Tom represented both of them well.


The priest had CC stand on a chair right next to the baptismal font so she could see what was going on.  I'm so glad he thought of that -- I hadn't even considered it, but having CC participate in the baptism was priceless.


I was in a bit of a quandry about what Sweet Pea and Little Man should wear. The Morrison family has a beautiful christening gown that's over 150 years old, which CC wore for her baptism. The twins were baptized at the same time, so there wasn't time to take the gown off one child and put it on the other. And although there is the gown I was baptized in, and another that my mom and all her siblings and cousins were baptized in, I felt strongly about having all three of my children wear the same gown for their baptisms.

Fortunately the Morrison family gown has two parts: the outer layer and a separate garment meant to be worn underneath. We put the outer layer on Sweet Pea, since it's a little more ornate and "girly." Little Man wore the slip, which is a beautiful garment in its own right. In the coming weeks, I will dress them each in the full regalia, as well as my christening gown and my mother's, for more formal pictures.


The day went smoothly, except for a bizarre repeat of Tom and Carol's traveling nightmare when they came down for CC's baptism: both times the initial flight was cancelled, the second flight took off only to turn around and go back, and then they were booked onto a nonstop flight here. But fortunately Tom made it, although he ended up being here only 8 hours before returning to the airport to go home.  I'm sure the poor guy was exhausted!


Special thanks to Susan for taking all the pictures, and Alice, who raced back to our house to meet the caterers when the ceremony ran long.

After the party was over and the last guests had departed, MJ turned to me and told me what a great day it had been, how special it was to be with all the people we love most, how amazing it was to stand up with our children and bring them into the faith. I couldn't agree more!

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