Emmy's Baptism

I know, I know, it's been a week and no post. But most of you who actually read this blog were here for her baptism, so I figured you weren't chomping at the bit for me to give you a run down of the weekend's activities. Plus, I was tired after Thanksgiving plus Baptism plus decorating the house and I concentrated my efforts on doing as little as possible and then doing a bunch of Christmas shopping that had been pushed to the back burner.

It was a good weekend! After an exhausting day of cooking Thursday after and exhausting day of cooking Wednesday we went to bed early on Thursday and woke up Friday morning and went and picked out our Christmas tree. I have never bought my tree that early and I think we may have been their first customer since the masses were all shopping for Black Friday sales. It was home and in the stand by lunchtime and falling out nicely awaiting lights and I was up to my neck in pulling out decorations when my parents arrived Friday afternoon. After a quick trip to church to drop off the cake, soups, poinsettias for the tables, and other essentials I wanted out of my dining room and kitchen, we spent the rest of the evening decorating, frying turkeys, and eating at Rhinehart's. Meredith got in just after we came home from dinner and in time to kiss Emmy goodnight before we put her to bed.

Saturday we got up and decorated the tree. Emmy loves the lights and we have had her walker positioned near the tree most of the time since we put it up so she can see it while she's playing. Charles' parents had gotten to their hotel late Friday so they came over around lunchtime Saturday. While Meredith and I did a last minute store run and picked up lunch, the rest of the family started arriving! Saturday afternoon was spent with family in and out, watching Clemson Carolina, attempting to get Emmy to nap with our loud families in the house, and doing last minute preparations for Sunday's lunch, like carving up turkeys and arranging food on platters.

Saturday night 20 of us had dinner at the French Market Grill as a group. It was good, just hard to visit with everyone. Of course, dinner time is way to close to bed time, so before we could even order dessert (you must have peanut butter pie at the French Market) it was evident it was time to go home, so Charles and I got our dessert to go and headed home to put Emmy to bed. Aunt Priscilla and my cousin Michael came back with my parents, sister, and grandmother so we could see Michael's wedding photos from earlier this fall and they visited while I finished putting family baby pictures in frames for the tables. Finally, it we bed time!

Sunday was a lovely day. In some ways it's a blur. There were so many people who came to the service and I feel like I didn't get to really visit enough with everyone! Emmy did so great during the service. She was just a cute little thing, though her hands were up in her mouth all the time, but then that's par for the course these days! Our pastor, Gary, is wonderful and we're so glad he baptized her. As I took her out to the nursery when the baptism was done, she sang a happy little high pitched "song" as we walked out the door, which made everyone giggle.

Lunch was delightful, thanks in large part to my dear friends who helped cook and make everything go so smoothly. There were I think 55 of us for lunch, so it was quite a crowd, but we had plenty of food. I mean, have you met my family? I don't know how to NOT have enough food!

We were just overwhelmed by the number of people who were able to travel to be with us to celebrate. It's been such a year for us and what a way to rejoice in how blessed we are, and how appropriate over Thanksgiving weekend and at the start of Advent.

I'm not going to even attempt to put up a representation of the weekend in photos here because it would take to many photos and that's more decision making than I can do right now! So, there's a family shot of the three of us and one of Emmy with Gary, and MANY more (273, I think) can be found in Picasa.

P.S. The cross she wore for her baptism was Emmy's great-great-grandmother's, my grandmother's mother. Grandma gave it to her the night before. What a special gift!