The Sturgeon Story: Ethan's Baptism

I have been horribly remiss in updating the blog. Life has intervened. To be more accurate, I'm trying to figure out this whole working-mother-of-two-thing. Yes, I know it's ONLY two, but ach, there IS a learning curve I'm discovering. A lot has happened since I last posted centering largely on Aiden and his new hearing aid, but that deserves a post of its own, so I will have to return to that another time. This post is dedicated to Ethan's baptism as my none-too-creative title indicates.

The baptism weekend started Friday night when I went to the airport to pick up Michelle and Drew from the airport. Turns out, I'm not a fan of NOT being the one being dropped off or picked up from the airport. ;) I was happy to go get them, though, and feel blessed and honored that they came all the way back from WY for Ethan's special day. Mostly we are grateful she agreed to be Ethan's godmother!

We got back to the house late, around 11:00. We stayed up and talked and both boys woke up around midnight (maybe because I took Michelle and Drew into look at them and maybe monkeyed with the boys a bit--hmmmm) and stayed up for a while, so Michelle and Drew got to meet Ethan and see Aiden for a while. We didn't get up til around 7:30 Saturday, and I got to start prepping for the rest of the day. The big concern was weather. We were supposed to get freezing rain and snow, especially farther north of us. This wouldn't have been overly concerning except Grandma, Grandpa, Grandma Jan, AND Dave, Jennie and family (who had come over from West River and spent the night in DeSmet Friday night) were coming from where is was supposed to be the worst. Fortunately very little of the freezing rain developed and everybody made it down. The only exception was Grandma Jan who didn't want to risk bad weather and the dark, and we can't blame her, but we are sad she couldn't be with us.

Dave and Jennie brought a TON of food for lunch: taquitos, egg rolls, guacamole, shrimp and more. It was a great snacky kind of meal. (Actually, the amount of food they brought supplied us with snacks after supper and lunch today!) We had a great time talking and finishing getting ready. We left on time and Mass was very nice. Father Mason is wonderful and gave a very nice homily. After Mass, we had Ethan's baptism. Sean and Michelle were godparents, and Ethan loves them both. He was more than happy to have either of them hold him, so it went smoothly. Having the water poured on his head bothered him not even a little bit, but he did seem to think having a bunch of us form the sign of the cross on his head was a little odd. He thought the chrism / oil was strange, too, but he took it all in stride which is amazing especially when you consider he was over-tired and hungry. We even managed to get some really good pictures of him smiling (thanks Megan's friend Morgan for being photographer extraordinaire). He looked amazing in his white Chinese silks!

When the baptism was done and we had taken a few pictures, the whole crew (plus Father Mason) made our way back to our house. And a crew it was! There were close to 25 of us; we filled two entire pews during church. :) When we got home we had pork loin, served two ways, corn, mashed potatoes and jello salad (thank you, Mom, for the taters and salad!). Fortunately it turned out very well, but we had JUST enough. It was ALL eaten -- and that was 8 1/2 lbs of boneless pork loin!

After supper and a very light clean up, we all sat around and talked and laughed and had a wonderful evening. The boys had a heyday and are going to hate to come back to reality. They were spoiled rotten with all the attention and playmates. I am never happier than when I have a house full of people who are well-fed, having a good time, and laughing! My heart was full to bursting!

Michelle and Drew left late morning when Jenny and Andrew came to get them to go to a family Christmas gathering; Mom and Dad headed to DeSmet around noon; Dave and the kids left early afternoon -- half time of the Vikes game more precisely. We are now back to a quiet (relatively speaking with two small boys around) household. It is something of a let-down (but it must have worn me out; I just realized I am still in my jammies at 6:30 -- ooops), but I feel content and beyond blessed after such a beautiful weekend....and we will have Christmas in just eight days!! Thank you, God, for such a fulfilling and heart-warming weekend.