Hard to believe our little one is already 4 months old. Here is a look at the baptism, which was at the end of October, but I thought was appropriate to share as we celebrate the feast of Theophany this week.
The new icons in our temple! Dmitry Shkolnik and a crew of 3 other iconographers, 2 flown in from Russia, came and spent a month at our parish creating these icons. They were completed the week before I was churched - so I left with a sanctuary of blank white walls, and returned to this!
The table overlays were unbleached cotton muslin from Hobby L*bby, very inexpensive, but has the look of raw linen. Since it was fall, I used a lot of white pumpkins to decorate, but didn't go with a complete fall color scheme since I still wanted to enjoy the pastels of a little one! Instead, I used a lot of white with milk glass vases on each table and beautiful blues for the flowers.
Buttermilk spice cake iced with cream cheese frosting, yum!!! I decorated the cake with gumpaste sugar roses and hydrangea. The roses were some I made years ago when experimenting with new techniques for realistic sugar flowers. I also had hydrangea left over from my brother-in-law's wedding cake, and I made a handful of new ones to fill in. Hydrangea are my favorite flower, and I love them in sugar almost as much as live ones.
I also made pumpkin pies in a jar, a quick uncooked version of this seasonal favorite. These were a huge hit, and the best thing is, you can make them up ahead and they store wonderfully! I put them in the mini mason jam jars, and stored them with the lids on in the refrigerator.
Loved this take home gift idea, honey from Holy Cross Monastery, in jars from Betterbee (it appears they no longer carry the 4 oz size).
Jordan almonds are a baptismal tradition for us as well, so the kids helped me stamp muslin bags with a blue cross design, and we filled them with blue and white Jordan almonds as favors.
Cider punch served from the glass jars I usually store my pasta in, and jam jars from the pantry for glasses.
Menu:
selection of cheeses and fruits, cheese phyllo triangles, proscuitto and phyllo wrapped asparagus, stuffed mushrooms, stuffed pumpkin, mini quiche, individual pot pies, stuffed eggs, Captain R*dney's cheese bake, corn dip, fall salad with pumpkin seed oil vinaigrette
For the little ones, we rolled brown butcher paper across the children's tables and taped it in place. Twig styled colored pencils were placed along the length of the table. The kids had a great time coloring on the paper while they ate!
I hope you all had a merry Christmas and blessed Theophany! My blogging is a bit sporadic these days, but life is full and I thank God for that.
7 comments:
Wow! I'm always amazed at the fantastic receptions after baptisms! Many years (belatedly!) to your newly-illumined one. :) And a beautiful family picture.
what a lot of time, thought and work went into this! how beautiful! Thanking God for His gifts in your life!
I the iconstasis is lovley, what a gift to welcome your little one!
I admit I went a bit over the top this time :) but since it was my last hurrah, I really wanted to do all the things I had always dreamed of doing. Someone once pointed out the importance of the sacrament of baptism in comparison with the sacrament of marriage, and how much time and effort we put into the celebration of a wedding. I know it is the sacrament that is important, but it was such a joy to make this day a celebration for family and friends to enjoy. It was an honor to have so many be a part of such a special day, and it is my way of saying thank you to them all!
Such a beautiful day, thank you for sharing these photos! It was a blessing to attend!
Anna, what a beautiful celebration. As a mom of three Orthodox little ones, I follow your blog and get so much inspiration from it. How do you find time to do it all AND take care of a newborn?? -Alexis
What a wonderful celebration!
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