Baptism Ceremony

WOW!  Talk about a long ceremony!  This morning's/afternoon's Baptism took a total of almost 2 1/2 hours.  Actually, the ceremony itself wasn't all that long, but from the start of mass until the end of the actual baptism took that long.

First, the parish where the ceremony was held apparently sprinkles in the first communicants over the entire Easter season.  They have a few kids do their first communion at each mass rather than holding one, special mass for all of them.  So we had 5 children making their first communion, which was part of the mass.  Then, after mass we had to wait for everyone to take their turn taking pictures on the altar, with the priest, with the families, etc.  We didn't even get to start the Baptism until almost 1:00.  

We had the Deacon perform the ceremony (I didn't know they could do that) instead of the priest.  There was one other family who was having a baby baptized and only a few family members each, so the ceremony itself was relatively small, which was good (and fast).  It wasn't a typical ceremony, or at least typical in what I am used to.  It was a little too free form for my taste, but that was how that parish handles baptisms I guess.  After it was over, it was picture time.  And again, everyone was taking pictures, so we didn't finish up until around 1:30.

After the ceremony was complete, I realized I had to drive back home quickly before going to the get together afterward, because as I was walking into church for mass, I realized that I had left Lillie's gift and card at home (DOH!).  Coincidentally, when I was about to head back to West Bend, I ran into Kris coming home from work.  Kris obviously couldn't make the ceremony since she was working, but since I was home and heading back, she was able to come along for the party afterward.  So I guess it was good that I forgot things.