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My Nephew's Baptism - The Complete Album

After a Christian dedication in Kidapawan last February, Xanti is baptized into the Catholic Church today, Sunday.

The baptism ceremony was held at the Mother of Perpetual Help Shrine Parish at Mabini, Cabanatuan City. Xanti's dad, my brother Jason, chose this place, which was also the site of Naya's (Kuya's eldest) baptism for its beauty and its relatively fewer baptisms compared to the cathedral. Jason had to do some hanky-panky to accomplish this.

Our Tito Jay, my dad's youngest brother and therefore Xanti's lolo is one of the godparents together with Ate Jade, my sister in law (who was, I think a better choice than my kuya *wink, wink), Jason's high school friends, three of our cousins from the mother side along with a set of Jason and Rhoda's common friends.

I was supposed to be proxy for many of the godfathers who were not around but a miscommunication with a food provider (lumpiang shanghai) made me miss the ceremony. Mommy, Xanti's one and only Lola Baby was not present too for obvious reasons. Somebody also had to stand (a misnomer for my mom!) guard at the house to entertain the early handaan birds.

Handaan, it was finally decided after some considerations, two nights before the whole thing, was to be held at our house and that we will not get any caterers ("katerers" according to my dad). It will be the cheapest option yet will guarantee the most amount of food (yey!).

Jason was initially reluctant to agree with this plan, but Mommy was quite persistent. I was originally in support of Jason since I feared that Mommy would be in a lot of stress because of the preparations and that holding the reception at another place or even holding the reception at the house but getting a caterer would require lesser work on my part. Eventually I relented and decided to side with our dear old mother since the two of us had experienced working together in entertaining large numbers of people in the house and we were very successful. Jason ended up repeating his one and only condition: lechon will be served (yey ulit!)

Daddy and Kuya of course pitched in to finish the work. The majority of the visitors will eat inside the house since it was airconditioned. However, chairs and tables were placed in the garage and terrace just in case there is an overflow of people. They will have to contend with the heat with the help of electric fans.

Ate Jade, Naya and Aysha helped a lot too. Fruit salad was placed in small cups. The souvenir photo album of Xanti was finished as well as chocolate bundles for visitors to take home. The two girls were also very prompt in dressing up for the Sunday mass and eating their breaksfast before leaving for the Perpetual Help Parish at around 10:30.

Nana Eliza and Nana Lita, did much of the actual footwork for the cooking of extra food, cleaning the house, refilling the serving plates and getting directions from Mommy, almost unbelivably given their bodily frames that had witnessed the passage of time. Of course, the fact that Mommy's friends from the DMII arrived early to help out and that none of the visitors is maarte went a long way.

Personally, I am satisfied with the whole affair. The house might have gotten crowded at one point and Jason expressed a bit of disappointment for not being able to properly entertain everyone, but none of that matters. The people who are most essential to the event (excepting our immediate family) joined us, they were fully fed, and for me entertained the way they should be entertained. Some even went home with "food to go bags." Pancit and Sopas were shared to neighbors and clients from the market were invited in the evening. None of the family's nerves are that permanently frizzled. I am now writing this five days after the whole thing in the house where it was held, and everything is back to where it was. I was even able to share the lechon and fish fillet with many of my colleagues in Xavier. Above everything, I am grateful that we all were able to concretely show how much we appreciate this little guy as another gift of God to our family.

Besides, much of the lengua, kaldereta, fish fillet, chopseuy, pancit, sopas, lechon, puto, ice cream, remain in the ref for me to enjoy over the weekend.