Holy water and oil x 2

Elora's two younger cousins, Pascale and Charlotte were baptised this morning in a nice joint celebration.

Back row: My brother Chris, me, Dante (cheekily popping his head into the photo), and my brother Tim.
Front row: Pascale (my dress), Elora (my baby), Charlotte (my shoes).

All week my mother has been busy, busy, busy with my sister-in-laws helping to organise the event and the food for the lunch afterwards. One of the reasons we had a house full of kids yesterday. Did I mention that? We couldn't even fit all of us in our people mover. Dan and I were wrecked by the end of the day (compounded with Thursday's outing).

It was a crazy child-filled chaotic affair. The church part was solemn-ish - as solemn as you can get it with two crying babies (hey, wouldn't you cry if someone splashed cold water over your head when you are starving and/or trying to sleep?) and zillions of other kids being unsuccessfully shushed and restrained by their parents... There were so many kids there! I thought there were lots of kids at the last christening we went to. I couldn't even count the number of kids today. At least two dozen, I think.

My brothers were very proud of their achievements and Father David was very pleased to be able to baptise the daughters of two brothers at the same time. They even included Elora in the ceremony, giving her a special little blessing near the end. I was so pleased that they had thought of us in this way. Another nice touch, a link to me, was that Pascale was wearing my old christening dress and Charlotte was wearing my old shoes. So cute!

I was a little bit miffed and more than a little bit hurt by the choice of Charlotte's godparents. I was quite upset all week when I realised that the godparents of her two older sisters were my two other brothers and the two maternal aunties. I'm the only sibling that didn't get to share this special honour and I felt really left out and unwanted...

But then today I met Sarah and Phil, her godparents. And I understood a little better why they chose them. They are two of the loveliest people I've ever met. I mean, I've heard about them for a few years now - Sarah runs the child care centre that my niece Jasmine went to at first - but never actually met them before. I exclaimed to Sarah, "It's so nice to meet you after all this time. I've heard so much about you..." and she said she felt exactly the same way. Our two child care centres are related, run by the same group with one administrative officer for them both, but we just never had a reason to go to the other place. So, anyway, I still feel a little bit hurt and rejected, but I'll live. They're family... you can't stay mad for long when you love them so much. Maybe they'll have another kid (a boy, next time??) and I'll get my chance then :)