Klaire's Baptism

Klaire was christened on 14 March 2009. The Sacrament was given by Fr. Oca Duran, the same priest who prayed over and blessed us with St. Claire of Assisi's relic on 18 May 2008. I wished to have Msgr. Bart to do it but unfortunately he had to be in Baguio for his students' retreat.

We got the 11am slot at Mary the Queen parish in Greenhills, it was to be a solo baptism and we had to bring our own priest. We got there at 1030am and aside from Ninang Odie, Ninang Daday and Ninong Frenz, everybody else were late! Yes even the priest, hehe. The Saturday traffic jam did it to most of them. The Church is kinda strict about being late and locks the door to the Baptistry so I was sorta stressed that the others didn't come on time. Good thing though that Fr. Oca was late himself. I just worried that the Sacristan would kick us out, LOL! Of course he didn't.

Ane made all the necessary arrangements with the Parish Office and I can say that they were easy to talk to. We just had to present Abi's Birth Certificate (from the hospital) and reserve a slot. We didn't have to submit a letter from our Parish in Malabon. A copy of our Marriage contract was submitted on the day of the baptism. They also required that we submit a copy of the Bapstimal certificate of one of the Godparents, which we did the same day. Two weeks before the our schedule, we had to attend a seminar that lasted for less than two hours. Ninang Rissa came with us, as we had to tag one Godparent along. The baptism in this church is free and by donation only.

Reception was at Max's Restaurant at Connecticut Carpark, Greenhills. With my desire to close off the entire second floor, we reserved for 100pax. Turned out they still have a small function room in the second floor that's not included in our reservation. Imagine my surprise when during our event, strangers would pass by in between our tables! Que horror! I was peeved and I had to let it out to our AE after the guests have left. We only got apologies, darn. Hehe.

The morning of the baptism, can you believe that, we were still getting "regrets" messages! I was kinda sad and tensed that our invitees weren't coming. And some who confirmed their attendance didn't come either. I was frustrated because I didn't want to be labelled as "maluho" and "magastos" and that we lacked planning! My friends helped me relaxed a bit, telling me that it's not our fault the absentees didn't come since they were informed at least a month early. And they were really a trooper, they ate for two! So yeah, there were three or four unoccupied tables and we had to eat Chicken and Embutido for three days! LOL! The rest were given away to my relatives and Ane's parents.

The food was okay. We didn't get the basic menu because I wanted Buco Pandan for dessert, haha! The Beef with mushrooms was a bit salty, the embutido was yummy and the Cake's icing wasn't to die for (akala nga ni Mommy Ellen, styro eh!). The rest of the food, I was not able to try. They also gave us a discount voucher for our next event.

Photo courtesy of Abi's Ninong Papita. The rest of the pictures are here.