David's baptism

We spent this weekend in South Carolina celebrating David's baptism. We decided to have him christened at St. Martin's, the church where I grew up and was baptized and where Kevin and I were married. We arrived Thursday night and spent some time playing trains before bed. We enjoyed dinner with the Starnes family Friday night. David was a huge fan of the chicken and pasta Jennifer made for us but wasn't quite sure what to do with his enormous gingerbread clown. He did, however, manage to share my piece of chocolate pie without difficulty. He had a lot of fun playing with Haley. At one point, Haley was explaining in dramatic fashion to Jennifer that she wanted to wear her Princess Aurora dress. Jennifer was obviously not moving fast enough because David walked up to her, looked her straight in the eye and said "Aulola!" very emphatically.
David two-fisting fries on our flight, playing trains with Granddaddy and checking out his cookie with Haley.

Saturday we had breakfast at the "Pandy House" (aka Original House of Pancakes) before a walk through of the service at the church. In the afternoon the Chicago contingent took a tour of the state house and ate an authentic Carolina dog at Sandy's. That night they joined us at my parents' house for some wings, Chick-fil-A nuggets and boiled peanuts. It turns out David is a huge boiled peanut fan and has been begging them off of Uncle Adams and Aunt Leslie all weekend (see below).

The service Sunday morning was lovely and significantly shorter than the 2 hours everyone was expecting with 6 baptisms on the agenda. David looked very handsome in one of the outfits we got for him while he was in China. He also wore the jade pendant we got there. Jade is supposed to protect the person who wears it. In an attempt to minimize his freaking out, we'd been talking to David about the baptism--about how we would go to church and pour a little water on his head 3 times--and practicing in the tub at night. It seemed to help because instead of writhing and screaming like we were lighting him on fire (his typical reaction to washing his hair), he gave a short little cry and calmed down pretty quickly. He got a little fussy towards the end of the service (who cam blame him?) and was asleep by the end of the closing hymn.

David crashed after his baptism. David with me, Kevin and his godparents--Jennifer and Steve.

Lamb cake and the 3 of us with Allen, Amanda and Aimee at the church reception after the service. Aimee and Al introduced Kevin and me, and Amanda is our goddaughter, so we were thrilled they were able to be there.

After the service and a quick stop at the reception at the church, we headed to Aunt Judy and Uncle Bruce's house for the real party.

Here with are with Kevin's family, Kevin's grandma and my family at Aunt Judy's.

We feel very fortunate to have been surrounded by so many family and friends for this special occasion. Thank you to everyone who endured a lengthy Episcopal church service and shared this day with us! Thank you to Aunt Judy for a great party. A very special thanks to everyone who travelled through Chicago snow or Texas heat or who drove up from Atlanta on very very short notice to make it here. Thank you to Paris, our priest in Chicago, for her help in our preparation and to Furman, who was so willing to work with us so that David could be baptized at St. Martin's. Most of all thank you to Jennifer and Steve, two very special friends whom we are honored will be a special part of David's life.