Our 5th First Communicant!

Prologue: These days—and my life—are flying past. Why, I can still remember, clearly, being in labor with this little girl. It was around 7 o’clock in the morning and I was waiting for our neighbors (Gloria & Emily,  shown in a photograph below) to arrive; they were coming to watch our other children while John went with me to the hospital. This was October and the days were turning  brisk, so I thought…with one last burst of pre-labor nesting…that I’d quickly place an online order for Hanna Andersson mittens. The contractions would come and I’d pause for a moment…breathing in & out and  rocking back & forth…until the 60-second wave washed over me. Eventually, I placed the order; our neighbors arrived; and our third little girl (a blue-eyed blonde!) was born.

And now…and now…it’s seven years later. She has reached the “age of reason,” and has, as of Sunday, received Our Lord Jesus for the very first time.

I can’t really believe it.

Every day is such a gift.

“What wonderful majesty! What stupendous condescension! O sublime humility! That the Lord of the whole universe, God and the Son of God, should humble Himself like this under the form of a little bread, for our salvation.”

– St. Francis of Assisi

I. The Food

Well, after such a lofty beginning, let us turn to something more mundane: the food for her First Communion party.  Grace builds upon nature, after all!

And speaking of Grace…

This is Grace of Our Field of Little Flowers fame. She makes cookies.

Does she ever make cookies!

Grace generously offered to make two dozen cookies for Angela’s First Communion after noting my stress level in this post. Actually, she offered to make four dozen cookies—free of charge, out of the goodness of her heart—for both the First Communion and Joe’s Confirmation, but with great restraint (and only just keeping my inner Mrs. Greed in check), I said, “No, really, that’s too much. Let’s just go with the First Communion.”

And so we did.

And they were lovely.

(To see more of Grace’s beautiful cookies and/or order a batch for your next big event, visit her blog You Smart Cookie. She really does an amazing job.)

For those of you who may be interested in such things, here is the whole of our First Communion menu:

II. The Faith

And now for the photos of that sweet little face. 

This is the part of the ceremony where words pretty much escape me. I wish—how I wish—that for one brief moment, God would lift the veil and let me see what was happening. It’s like we know and yet, we don’t know. We see without really seeing…and we are nowhere near as humbled as we should be.

Moving onto lighter fare…

III. The Friends & Family

Of course, I had to get a family photo before my crew scattered after the ceremony. 

I call this one “The Widower and His Kids.”

My goodness, could my men look more cheerful if they tried?

Sometimes I think all my husband needs is to get out of that suit and grab a cold Diet Coke. He is very much a “The ceremony’s over so let’s go home” kinda guy.

Oh, and that’s my neighbor Gloria above—the one on the left laughing with my friend, Ruth Ann—and that’s her daughter Emily helping herself to some punch.

Both Emily and her sister, Megan, babysat our kids for years.

And then they had the gall to go off to college.

Eventually I forgave them.

Only because they’re so sweet.

Speaking of sweet, here’s a shot of the cake.

(Isn’t it pretty? I bought it myself.)

And with that last quip I’m going to close this long post. Are you still with me? Because here’s the best part:

(Hug ‘em close, dear moms & dads, ‘cause these days are flying by so fast.)

(And remember…)

“If angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion.”

– St. Maximilian Kolbe