pure soul

Our little Sonia Annick Esperance was baptized today! She did not even cry when Deacon Tom poured the water over her head. I think I will have an easier time remembering her baptism day since today was Epiphany. I had to look on the baptismal gown box to remember Isaac's (how sad is that? - August 9). 

I wasn't sure if we should have Isaac stand up there or not. He and London wanted to stand up there, so I figured it was fine. After all they are part of the family (and London is our goddaughter) too! I did have to signal to someone to come get London though when she said "I gonna ride the cow" and headed for the camels in the large Nativity scene. I could just picture a broken camel and injured London resulting. 

Lisa and Bobby are Sonia's godparents! I was not meaning to have a trend of choosing godparents with the same birthday as the child. I was really going to ask them anyway, then it just turned out that Sonia was born on Lisa's birthday. I am so glad we have such good godparents for both our babies. We are really happy they said yes!

Here is Sonia just after she got baptized. Happy girl!

 A picture with everyone! 

 A little detail of Sonia's baptismal gown

 The gown was first worn by Sonia's great-grandma DeBen (nee Hurliman - who is in the picture below), and has been worn by many other babies in the family since. 

Sweetest precious girl

The elusive cousin Mary :)

 Everyone sat down to eat - yum! I made chicken enchiladas and great-great-aunt Christy made lots of other food - beans and tamales and possibly other things I don't remember, but ate and enjoyed. Papa made attieke (he drove up to Portland this last week exprès to get it) with a mackerel-like fish from Côte d’Ivoire and the usual tomato, onion, and bell pepper with oil and salt mix. He put these hot peppers in there but left them whole and unfortunately fantastic-aunt Christy ate one. Luckily, Mama had had the foresight to make cheesecake for dessert, and that helped cool her mouth off. Actually, the cheesecake was a coincidence. I just really wanted to make cheesecake. So I made two of them. I made a chocolate and peanut butter mousse cheesecake that had won grand prize in one of those Taste of Home recipe contests, and I made "cool lime cheesecake" too for the non-chocolate eaters (Papa, Isaac, see also Mary "the elusive" above). Luckily a good amount was eaten and the rest found loving homes.

 The kids also ate at the kids table. Notice they chose other things to eat, primarily. 

 And we couldn't have a party without  London! She was so funny - she helped me open one of Sonia's presents and found a little outfit. "Oooh, these cute!" she said. London is our littlest fashionista so we are glad of her approval. Don't you like her little dress? Auntie Anna told her only once this morning, "This is a dress Auntie Gigi made for you." When she got to church she told me, "Auntie Gigi, look!" I was initially worried that it wouldn't be a good color but I think it does look nice on her after all. It would be fun to make a few more dresses before I go back to work. We will just see what I have time for. 

We love you little Sonia Annick Esperance, our newest little Catholic!