Le Bapteme!

Before I had moved to Paris or even before I had accepted a family to work for, I would always ask if Sundays would be mine for attending church. I did not realize how much of an impact my weekly church attendance would make in the life of my family.

Pretty soon, Fred and Delphine decided that their "project" for the year would be to get their kids enrolled in Catholicism classes and get them baptized this year. Woo! Who cares what church they go to, my host kids now know Bible stories and who Jesus is. I was so excited to have set that example!! And now as of April 10th, my kids are baptized!

A huge family party followed the very traditional Catholic church service/baptism ceremony that morning in their local church. The water on the head, the oil on the forehead, the candle lighting, the whole enchilada. It was quite interesting to see! My 13 year old, Julie, was excited that she was clean from sin now and was almost perfected...(we may have differing views but I'll let her have that one for now:))

I was in charge of making "the really fluffy kind of frosting" for the cupcakes that were made while Delphine prepared a lot of other different types of foods and desserts. At the commencement of the party, it was the champagne that was brought out first in order to do the very traditional toasting and clinking with each glass. Once again, the round of questions came. "You don't drink anything, Julia?" "Do you want some sparkling water to pretend?" "Not even a little champagne?" "Woooow, elle est tres serieux!"

Yes, thank you. I'll be "serious" as long as I live. :)

Then some very traditional northern France thing happened: the kids stood together under a dishcloth while the adults sang some song. Then suddenly, they all took their champagne glasses and dumped them on the cloth which rained onto the kids! A champagne shower! Apparently it is done at any big events; weddings, baptisms, birthdays, anniversaries...

Next up- the food, the mingling (me trying and failing), the entertaining, the gift-giving from grandparents and God parents. It's a lot to handle with a bunch of family members who don't speak English! Traditional gifts that are given at baptisms are alarm clocks, watches, fancy pens, and a medallion necklace. Julia got a beautiful tree pendant, Alex has one with his name on it, and Malo opted for a bracelet with his name inscribed on the plate.

After the people had left and the food was cleaned up, everyone lounged outside in the hot sun and snoozed a bit. It was a beautiful day for baptizing!