Xander's baptism

This morning Nadia and I quickly got dressed and joined Laura at her place to prepare the buffet for the lunch after the baptism. The buffet was a mix of home prepared food and ordered food. For example the beef roast was cooked here but the vegetables were ordered. A typical way of preparing a buffet, I was told. Truth be told he did make a difference to have half of the food already to re-heat vs. cooking everything but deeply inside, I know I would have cooked it all :)
At 1pm we arrived at the church and joined the other 9 families whose babies were getting baptized. As usual in the US, everything is big. Why baptize only 1 baby when you can baptize 10?

The ceremony was simple. The priest was a bit odd, searching pages and his lines (like it was his first time). Xander didn't cry when put into the water (unlike others making the family very proud). Later he was dressed in Mike's grand-father's baptism dress... a legacy.

After the ceremony, we took pictures, a bit like for a wedding except this time it was the baby with everybody.

Once back home, we heated the food and enjoyed the buffet all the way to the carrot cake.

I'm really happy I got to be there and share that important moment in Laura's life.

 

PS: I'm not very satisfied with my pictures. I guess by spending quite some time with an expert I get to start to see things I would have ignored in the past. I actually got frustrated because the light of my flash was not good making big shadows or not allowing to focus on everything I needed, especially a moving baby. I'm now seriously considering buying a external flash.