Ray's Wonderful Suggestion For Eóghan's Baptism Celebration

In my last post I wrote about my sister Diane suggesting that Eóghan be Baptized on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  And while Thanksgiving weekend was a very busy weekend (Thanksgiving we had the family over, the next day we put up and trimmed our Christmas tree, we took the Fall decorations out of the front window and put up our Nativity window display, and on Friday we also decorated the outside of the house too, then on Saturday we had a Sweet Sixteen party to attend),  still, all in all, having Eóghan Baptized on that Sunday was a wonderful way to end such a happy weekend.


After Church we went to our favorite restaurant ~ Exo ~ it's a Greek restaurant right down the street from us.  Ray suggested that we celebrate there instead of the usual catering halls in the area.  And since we have a very big family (fifty-three of us were there that evening), the owners were exceptionally kind to us and they closed the restaurant to other patrons in order to accommodate us.  They also explained to us that they usually serve all the food 'family style' for parties rather than present each guest with a choice.  I was a little leery of that at first since we have some very "picky eaters" in the family, and, also, some family members have some medical issues that prevent them from eating certain foods.  But it all worked out well as there was such a variety of food that kept coming out, so everyone found something to their liking and something they could eat.  (I, of course, found EVERYTHING to my liking and I could & did eat it all!)


Here's some pictures of the celebration:

(This used to be the outdoor area, but Exo put in a 'three-season' room, the glass walls can be taken down for the summer.)




(Below is my cousin Kathy, my Aunt Marion, my cousin Mary & her husband Lenny sitting in the 'indoor' part of the restaurant.)

(Our family has two sets of "Katies, Saras and Jimmys"!  Ray's brother Kenny & his wife Eileen have Sara & Katie {in the photo below} [Ray's brother Kenny & his nephew Jimmy weren't able to make the party]...

SARA

KATIE

...and my sister Marybeth's daughter Rebecca & her husband Jimmy also have a Katie & a Sarah & a little Jimmy [we call him 'Jamesy Boy!])


Below are photos of Marybeth's daughter and her grandgirls:

REBECCA

KAITLYN

SARAH

And in the 'kissin' cousins' photo below is Jamesy Boy with Mia & Jayden:

And, yes, Eóghan got passed around A LOT!

(Proud Grandpa!)

(Sister-in-law Eileen)

(Sister-in-law Ann)

(Donald)

(My niece Erin)

(Ray's Mom & sister ~ Helena & Susie with Eóghan)

(Eóghan getting some loving from his Great-Grandma)

And while this was Eóghan's big day, we also had lots of fun with the other little people in attendance!

(Mia being entertained by Rudy)

(Erik, Virginia, Lori, & Sophie being entertained by Mia)

(Lori & Mia)

(Virginia & Sophie)

And I was having lots of fun raising little Miss Sophie high in the air and playing "What are doing up there?  Get down!"  ...

...BUT...

...while Sophie usually loves that game, she was having more fun playing with Grandma's necklace!

And she wasn't very happy when Grandma put a stop to it!  But in my defense, she was trying to eat the beads!  I had no choice.

Just some random pictures:


Godparents George & Erin

(Here with Eóghan)

(Parents Katie & Jayson and Godparents George & Erin)

(Erin with her Mom ~ Ann)

Helena

Erin & Ray

Erin, Eóghan & Mia

We got the cake from a local bakery and I thought they did a beautiful job decorating it:

Not only did it look good but it was delicious, with a whipped cream icing, and half the cake was filled with chocolate mousse while the other half was a canoli filling.

Just look at how big Eóghan's getting!  He looks like he's been eating lots of cake!  Beautiful healthy boy!


Ray took this picture of this motley-looking crew outside the restaurant ~
(Doug, Linda, Donald, myself & Susie)

Excellent food, excellent service, excellent company!
Exo was a very good call on Ray's part!
It was a wonderful celebration!