I think it was a beautiful day. I really don’t know how better to describe it. Father Newton performed a beautiful ceremony. He met us at the back of the Church just before Mass started, and basically, we just followed what he told us to do. We walked into the back of the Church, and he introduced Grace to the parish and asked if we had come to have her baptized. He asked Megan and Brett something about being Godparents, and then we all processed into the Church together. We sat in the front pew, and we went through the beginning of the Mass. After the homily, Father Newton called us up to the Baptismal font. Grace was so good – she slept through the whole Mass, including the pouring of a generous amount of water on her head, and including a good rubbing in of the Holy Chrism. Her Baptismal candle was lit and handed to Brett. Bless his little heart, he didn’t know quite what to do with it, but we have some nice video of him looking confused 🙂 Then, after she was Baptized, Father Newton took her and held her up like Rafiki did with Simba in the Lion King for the entire congregation to see. I know my family thought it was a little corny, but I just thought it was beautiful.
We made our way to the reception at the Marian House, where Falcone catering did an extraordinary job on the food. There was a table set up with cold hors d’oeuvres, and then they butlered trays of hot hors d’oeuvres. I’m not sure what there was to eat, since we were so busy getting in, getting the baby situated, and greeting the guests who had already arrived and continued to arrive. At about 1, they opened the buffet. There was huge stuffed shells, veal scallopini, hot roast beef with gravy, and my favorite – chicken marsala. They also had green beans almondine, a nice tossed salad, and some delicious rolls. There were three other salads at the cold hors d’oeuvres station, but I never got over there to see what they were. I heard they were delicious, though!
I am pretty sure everyone had plenty to drink. We had Steve from Steve and Company DJ the affair, and he really catered to the kids. He played all kinds of musical games with them for 3 hours. The kids had a blast. We did request at one point that he play a polka so that Bob could dance, but other than that, the grown ups didn’t do much dancing at all. It didn’t matter – the kids had so much fun.
We had about 100 people there, and it felt so good to be surrounded by family and so many good friends. I was so glad that there were so many people who wanted to hold Grace. She spent the whole afternoon sleeping, but she got hugged and loved by some really wonderful people.
At the reception, Jim announced that Brighid had gotten into Honors Algebra at school. She didn’t know that, and was a little embarassed by the announcement. Then she followed the announcement up with a bit of a dance, and everyone clapped and cheered for her.
I wish I had taken more pictures. I hope everyone who remembered to take pictures sends them to me! There is not one minute of the day I would like to forget.