A Baptism for Blossom

On Sunday, bright and early for a 9am mass, our baby blossom was baptised into the Catholic faith which I grew up in. Having Eleanor become a part of the parish where I went to primary school and attended mass as a little girl was incredibly important to me, and the service was just as special as I imagined – when we booked in the baptism date it was unknown who the priest would be officiating as our parish priest Father Bernie is recovering from an operation, we were told we would have ‘a fill in’. Then much to our surprise when we arrived on Sunday morning we were greeted by Father Michael – a family friend and priest who married my sister and brother-in-law, was a part of all my youth group camps throughout school and was actually on the school camp in 2003 where Matt and I met and became a couple! We couldn’t have planned for a more appropriate priest to welcome our baby girl into God’s love, Father Michael has been a part of our story since the very beginning. My mum made Eleanor’s beautiful gown, using leftover lace from my wedding dress, with the sweetest of Peter Pan collars and puff sleeves. She was also very lucky to be given special rosary beads blessed by the Pope from Grandi’s travels to the Vatican.

My cousin and his wife made the trip from Brisbane to have their son Ben baptised in ‘our’ church also, making the day extra special as we celebrated the next generation of our family. Despite my northern cousins being so far away, they are in a lot of ways our ‘closest’ cousins who we grew up with, lots of family holidays spent together, sailing with their dad, flying with our dad. Incredibly blessed to be sharing our parenting journey together now after growing up together. My Nan had all of her seven great-grandchildren there together, pretty special. Ben is two and a half months older than Eleanor, but she put him to shame in the rolls and chubby department! Oh dear…

After the early morning service we had a celebration at my childhood home, Grandi’s house! The absolute buzzing hub of our family (but is currently for sale, want to buy it?!) Champagne, barbeque lunch and cakes – yes THE cakes! Certainly not my finest efforts in cake decorating, but a beginning at least, hoping to improve as Eleanor grows and I have more occasions to make cakes for, the only way is up, right?! Saturday afternoon there were some pretty choice words flying about our kitchen as Matt insisted I should have just bought the cakes if it was going to stress me out that much! Totally made with love though, which was the main thing…

A beautiful day for our beautiful Blossom – absolutely spoiled for choice in the love stakes, so much love from her doting big cousins, our friends, family, her grandparents and now godparents to guide her. My mum lives for days like yesterday, all of us together, especially welcoming a new bubba into the Catholic faith which was a big part of our own childhoods. Thank-you Grandi for all your hard work leading up to the big day – you’re our suuuuper Grandi!

Feeling amazingly blessed that Eleanor is part of our crazy lot. Blessed…and tired! Now for a more sedate and quiet few weeks…oh wait, it’s December, and a slippery slope indeed to Christmas!