Nadine's Invite

I am making up through my niece what I never did for Anne’s christening.

My husband and I snatched me the chance of fussing over Anne’s christening. It was January 2007, I was still on maternity leave and Anne then was only a month old, January 12 Friday, husband came home from work with news: “Bibinyagan si Anne sa Sunday” and all I can answer was a yes and ask where? And the husband told me the details, the baptism will take place at the Binondo Chinese Parish wherein Anne’s Ninong, my office mate and Dzune’s friend Davy is an active member and it was he who took care of everything so Anne can be baptized even if I don’t have a copy of her birth certificate yet, reception will be at the nearby Presidents Restaurant and Davy also took the liberty of choosing the menu. Well I trust him so wala akong angal. He he.

So Anne doesn’t have a dress and no souvenirs and invitations and of course my main concern was who will take the photos! Hubby has all the answer to the question: Tomorrow is Saturday we have a day to take care of the dress and maybe buy some souvenir, for the invitation just text everyone you wanted to invite, for now I’ll go home to Nanay (our apartment then was just a stone’s throw away from my in-laws) to let them know.

When Dzune came back that afternoon he was carrying Therese’s (Anne’s cousin) dress when she was baptized three years ago complete with her shoes. The dress was really in a very good condition and the white shoes that go with it is from Italy, a gift from my brother in law’s bosses who works in Jeddah.

The next day, Saturday. Dzune and I left Anne with my Mom and went out to buy myself a thing to wear cause none of my dress fits me. I was able to buy myself a simple white blouse and another white dress for Anne. At the end of the day we were able to buy some cute angel figurines that we wrapped in pink tulle and wrapped in pink ribbons that we gave out as Anne’s souvenir.

Even without the preparation, Anne’s baptism was success. The food was good and the church was nice, the parish priest was accommodating and we personally know him, that is important to me since someday I can tell my daughter that someone we know christened him. The only glitch was that we didn’t prepare candles since we were told by Davy that it’s ready at the parish and there was none, we made do with the mga naiwan na candles got by one of the staff there. And all our closest friends and relatives came so we were really happy.

So now, what I never did for Anne’s christening I am making up now, for my niece’s christening. As a start, the invitations. My sister chose this: