Thursday, September 26, 2024
The autumn season officially arrived earlier this week
and we’re ready for the cooler temps and changing landscapes to come!
The first day of fall also happens to be Laura’s wedding anniversary
and this year she and her hubby celebrated a BIG one!
Today, she’ll share a few quick anniversary highlights
and then she’ll move on to the day’s topic!
Happy 40th to us!
Look at those (blurry) babies!
Last Sunday (September 22), we enjoyed a lovely dinner
at one our favorite outdoor restaurants.
The weather was perfect and the food… sooooo good!
Then we headed home to reminisce!
We looked at old photos that took us through
our newlywed era, our parenting era,
our empty nest era
and now here we are... our GRAND era!
We’re grateful for each stage along the way
and ever thankful to God for giving us each other to love through it all!
As many of you know,
one of the greatest joys of looking back at 40 years of loving and living
is to see your own children grown and happy!
A few short weeks ago, Hubby and I had such an occasion to reflect on this
when our Little P - our youngest grandchild - was baptized!
In today’s post, I’m sharing details from this special celebration,
including the menu and a few extra touches that made the day memorable
in every way!
As you may recall, our oldest, Daughter J, and her family live near Madison, Wisconsin,
while we live in the western suburbs of Minneapolis.
My brother is a Lutheran pastor (in the southern suburbs)
and has married many family members - including Daughter J and her husband!
A few years back, he had baptized Little L and now it was Little P’s turn!
It was a special moment, indeed!
SIDE NOTE:
I love my brother’s bible… It is so well loved!
AND
I love the way Little L is watching everything so intently!
Oh, my heart!!! 🩷
Since my brother’s church is a distance from our home,
in both instances (two years ago and then again a few weeks ago),
our niece and her husband offered their family’s home for a gathering space!
(THANK YOU! THANK YOU!)
Daughter J (and our SIL) had invited about 35 people to the morning service
and then to the party immediately after,
I share this background info because the timing and location of the celebration
had an impact on how this event was planned!
My daughter (with some help from this Grand and others) needed to make decisions
that would allow for most of the set up to take place the day before.
She also chose a menu that could be prepped ahead of time
and easily transported on Sunday morning.
And, most importantly, the food needed to taste good!
Daughter J’s vision of a Grazing Table came together beautifully!
Doesn’t it all look good enough to eat?
Daughter J had brainstormed a list of everything she wanted to include:
a variety of bagels & mini croissants
several spreads
several proteins (including two egg options)
savory and sweet add ons
and more!
Saturday morning found us busy at our home prepping!
We cooked the bacon and mini quiches,
I made two kinds of egg bites,
Daughters J and A sliced and assembled veggies and more!
That afternoon, Daughter J and her crew loaded up the car
and drove to our niece's family's home.
They put craft paper down to cover the center of the kitchen island
and added platters and serving dishes/utensils to the space.
They double checked to make sure everything was where it needed to be!
Saturday’s food prep was done!
On Sunday morning, when we arrived at our niece’s house after the church service,
everyone got to work!
It was fun to see our Grazing Table come to life!
Everyone’s edible creations looked so tasty!
Be sure to come back early next week,
when we’ll have a follow up post for you!
We’ll share details of all the items we included on our Grazing Table
and I’ll provide the recipe for two versions of my Easy Egg Bites!
Our SIL’s mom and aunt offered to provide fruit for Little P’s baptism,
and, boy, did they deliver!!!
They brought this beautiful platter to the party,
all set and ready to go!
Hopefully you can see how the watermelon was cut into triangles
and then the slices were criss-crossed to make the large cross
in the center of the platter.
Other varieties of fruit - grapes, melon, pineapple and berries -
had been cut and placed around the cross!
Our SIL’s aunt also used a few mini leaf cookie cutters
to add a bit of autumn fruit decor to the platter!
This was such a refreshing addition to the menu!
THANK YOU, Lu and Sue!
What celebration would be complete without a few yummy desserts?
No worries here!
I provided the sweets for the party
but what I haven’t told you is that Hubby and I were at a wedding
the afternoon and evening before the baptism.
Also, Daughter J and her family had arrived on Friday morning
and we had last minute shopping to do,
we had a birthday to celebrate (Hubby’s),
we had bacon to bake and egg bites to make
AND, more than anything,
I needed to build in plenty of Little snuggle time, too!
SO…
anything I contributed had to be super easy and quick!
While all of the desserts I provided were purchased and not homemade,
Little L and I were up early on Sunday morning
and we were able to add a few small touches to make them our own!
Then it was time to pack up and head to church!
We sprinkled rose gold edible glitter on the icing of the pumpkin bites
and we put white sugar candy crosses on top of the mini chocolate cupcakes!
I also picked up macarons from Trader Joe’s.
The pastel colors and assorted flavors provided a delightful third option
and complimented the day's decor.
All of the bite size desserts looked so cute on the footed platter!
As a final touch (and in honor of Little P’s baptism and Hubby/Grandpa’s birthday),
I had ordered a champagne cake from a local bakery
and a “God Bless” cake topper from Amazon.
The mousse frosting was so beautiful and I wish you all could have tasted the cake….
It was delicious!
Our dessert bar, filled with sweet treats was perfect!
We enjoyed every single bite!!!
There were a few things we did to add a few personal touches…
Each made Little P’s celebration extra special!
💗 The Baptismal Gown!
Little P’s baptismal gown was my baptismal gown! I was the first one to wear it 60+ years ago! My brothers and I were baptized in this gown as were Daughter J, Daughter A and Little L two years ago! Now it was Little P wearing it! So special!
💗 Altar Flowers!
I had purchased a bouquet of white roses, greenery and baby’s breath when I was at Trader Joe’s. These made a lovely bouquet that we then took with us on Sunday morning to place on the altar at church!
💗 Simple Decor!
As mentioned, while Hubby and I were at the wedding on Saturday, our Middles and our Littles headed to our niece’s home to set up for the next day. Within a few short hours and with our niece’s family’s help, they were able to get things ready for the big day!
Ahead of time, we had put a collection of photos of Little P in a variety of frames. It was an easy way to decorate! While I don't have photos from the party, some were placed near the entry, others by the serving area and a few decorated the tables.
I also looked around my home ahead of time and gathered items that might come in handy - serving pieces, utensils, extra decor. This made it easy for Daughter J to pick and choose what worked for her - a wooden “P” (which also happens to be the first letter of our last name), a plaque and a bible verse or two that I had printed out and framed were some of the items used.
They also prepped a few balloons that could be added to the outdoor spaces quickly on Sunday morning and prepped a few flower vases - mason jars that they filled with greenery and baby’s breath! While I didn’t get a photo of everything - especially the tables and area outdoors - hopefully you can sense how pretty everything was. Simple yet beautiful was the motto of the day!
An Added Bonus… Keeping things to a minimum also made for an easy clean up when the festivities wrapped up… definitely a plus!
💗 Favors!
We always love to add a small memento for guests to take with them. Two years ago, Little L’s guests received a favor of a Plantable Seed Paper Cross. Have you seen these? We ordered them from Etsy and were able to customize the cards for Little L!
This time, I made the graphic myself and we ordered these Mini Hand Holding Crosses from Amazon. I filled little gauze drawstring bags I already had with the graphic and the cross and placed them in a basket near the entryway.
💗 Our GRAND Gift for Little P!
A few friends have asked me what, if anything, we give our Littles as baptismal gifts. When our own daughters were baptized, we gifted them with a baby ring that they wore that day. Daughter J then had the ring woven into her bridal bouquet.
I knew that I wanted to give them each something with the same intent in mind but, at the same time, unique to them. I knew that, most likely, each Little’s parents or godparents would give them a cross necklace so I needed to come up with a different idea. I found this baby bracelet at Etsy. I was happy to see that, in addition to personalizing the bracelet with our Little’s first name, I could also customize the birthstone and the symbol (I chose a cross rather than the flower shown in the photo below).
This photo is from the Etsy shop!
I love the idea of my Littles looking at their bracelets in the coming years as they marvel at how they’ve grown! Hopefully they will always feel our love surrounding them!
Little P’s baptism day was a blessed event, indeed!
Of course, the party and all its details made the day memorable.
At the same time though,
we all know that the most important reason we were gathered together
was to welcome Little P into God’s family!
Thanks so much for stopping by
and for allowing me to share Little P’s baptismal day with you all!
We’d LOVE to hear from YOU!
If you have memories of your own Littles’ baptism,
please share!
As we’ve said many times,
one of our favorite things about writing this blog
Is to share with and learn from each other!
Feel free to comment at the end of this post
or, if you prefer, you can reach out to us at ourgrandlives@gmail.com!
(You'll find our social media links at the top of each post!)
Check us out there - we’re always sharing new content
OR feel free to tag us, too!
We love connecting with and learning from each other!
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Don't forget... we’ll be back early next week
with that follow up post that provides more details about our Grazing Table.
We’ll also share the recipe for my Easy Egg Bites!
I’ll leave you with two sweet photos from Little P’s special day!
This photo always brings a smile to my face!
And the photo below reminds me of God’s richest blessings
- family, faith, fellowship, love -
even on a really windy Sunday morning!
💗 We are delighted to join the following link up parties and blog hops! 💗
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SUNDAY
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TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
What a wonderful celebration. I, too, love how well-loved your brother's Bible is! :) What a special day. I commented on the grazing table on that post, but I do love it! And happy anniversary--we're celebrating our 30th this year. Thanks for sharing this post with us at the Will Blog for Comments #48 linkup! We hope you'll share more at #49, too. Happy weekend! -Jennifer
Happy 40th Wedding Anniversary! I really enjoyed all the photos you shared. Love is wonderful, especially when you get to share it with the people who make it special. It's truly a blessing. Also, the baptism for your granddaughter was beautiful. Thank you for sharing with us at The Crazy Little Lovebirds link party #57. We always look forward to your posts.
Steph@CrazyLittleLovebirds
Happy 40th Wedding Anniversary to you and your husband! How nice to see a photograph for each phase of the marriage so far. Your newest little granddaughter is gorgeous and such a beautiful baptism for her. Love the grazing table and sweet treats and the decor and outfit - all beautiful. It will all be such a treasured memory for the family. Thanks so much for sharing and linking up with #WWWhimsy ~ Min from Write of the Middle
Happy Anniversary and I so enjoyed hearing about little P's baptism and reception. Everything looks so delicious and beautiful.
Visiting today from Will Blog For Comments 48 #23&24.
That looks like a truly special day!