Reese's Baptism

What: Reese's Baptism

When: June 7, 2015 (Sunday)

Where: (church) Presentation of the Child Jesus Church, BF Paranaque / (lunch) Vikings Executive Buffet, SM City BF Paranaque

welcome to the Christian world!

Backstory

We did the preparations for our baby's baptism about 6-7 weeks before the actual date, which is June 7 (a Sunday). We picked this day to coincide with the visit of O's sister and her family from Sydney. It is also a day before Reese turned three months.

One of the first challenges we encountered in organizing it is our local parish's Sunday baptism schedule which only happens at 12NN. The two restaurants we are looking to reserve for the lunch celebration (Vikings and Max's) can only hold their respective private rooms for until around 2PM. Kung 30-40 minutes ang binyag, mamumuti ang mata ng guests namin before they can have lunch AND we will only have several minutes above one hour to finish the event! Nu'yun??

at Vikings - SM BF

For Max's we can pay extra to extend the time but the amount is not justifiable. That, and the relative advantage of Vikings's discount and convenience of having a variety of food and drinks to choose from made us consider the latter. 

To solve the problem, we just opted for those who don't need to be in the church to head straight to Vikings by 11PM (store opening) and start dining. After the baptism, some of our family members, the ninongs, and the ninangs arrived to a bunch of happy guests in Vikings by around 12:30PM so I guess our solution worked.

Presentation of the Child Jesus Church - Phase 3, BF Paranaque
The baptismal rite is quite organized with church hands helping out in orienting us and the godparents about the flow of the event. There is only one other infant lined up for christening so hindi masyadong crowded yung lugar (it's an alcove beside the church's altar).

Kaso mainit yung room. Yung kaisa-isang electric fan ay nakatutok pa kay Father. LOL. As expected, iyakan ang mga babies sa init (pati mga ninong at ninang din tingin ko). We were able to appease Reese kahit papano to still understand what's happening on the proceedings. I can imagine it can really get unruly kung more than three na ang mga binibinyagan in addition to all the godparents and relatives crammed on that space.

taking a bath

May misa right after the Sunday baptismal schedule kaya hindi masyado makapag photo-ops ng matino. Ilang pictures lang and we need to be off. Yun ang hassle.

Vikings - SM City BF Paranaque
Disappointing yung branch na ito ng Vikings dahil ambagal nila mag refill ng pagkain at drinks. Paalis-alis pa yung staff sa carving station at naramdaman namin na sobrang limited ng options sa dishes. Hindi namin ito naranasan sa ibang branches ng Vikings (2 others, in all).

Service is good though, and na-address nila agad yung issue namin with the tarp na mailipat sa mas tamang spot near the exits para maging photo wall kahit papano. Hindi nga lang namin napatakbo yung photo montage ni baby dahil may compatibility problem yung projector nila sa laptop namin.

the Espiritus

the Aures

the Parcons

Still, hindi na kami uulit sa branch na ito. We'll still head to the tried and tested branch near MOA for our future buffet needs. Nag-expect kasi kami na magkakakatulad lang lahat ng branches.

Ninongs - Ninangs

For posterity and so Reese would know who to bug in the future (haha!), here be the names of his godparents.

ninang lysa dyosa?

• JC (O's maternal cousin)
• Jason (O's maternal cousin)
• Aina (O's paternal cousin)
• Bon (O's sister)
• Kaye (K's sister)
• Royce (K's paternal cousin)
• Bubung (our friend from SST)
• Jake (O's friend from Shak)
• Gelo (O's friend from Shak)
• Philip (O's friend from SJRM)
• Jensen (K's friend from Eastwind)
• Owel (K's friend from Eastwind)
• April (K's friend from Mapua)
• Kate (K's friend from St. Paul)
• CL (K's friend from St. Paul)

the godparents

Guests
Salamat sa lahat ng nakapunta, both in the church and the lunch at Vikings! One of the reasons why we preferred that private setup is for us to easily catch up with everyone. Yun na din ang paraan namin para makasama ulit ang mga kapamilya at kaibigan, since we've been "absent" for the past 3 months habang nakatutok sa pag-aalaga kay baby.

We're blessed to have assembled you all in one place!

• O and K's relatives
• O and K's college friends
• O's friends from the SJRM
• O's friends from the Shak
• Our family friends
• Our past and current office mates from EW, HP, SST, and CG

the shak detachment of reese's guests

Acknowledgments

Special thanks goes to the following:

• The guests. Again, thanks!
• Jan and Jara, for taking care of the guest list. 
• The good staff of PCJ and Vikings, for the accommodation.
• The godparents, for saying "YES" on this journey with us and our baby.
• Our parents and family, for the all-out support.
• The Man Upstairs, Lord God, for welcoming our daughter to His flock.

thank you, from baby meow