The McCall Clan: Ronan's Christening

Now that Ronan is three months old, I'd better get caught up on my blog posts from when he was two months old. :)

Here are the photos from his Christening. It was wonderful having a full house full of family and lots of kids running around.

In an effort to decorate the house in a child-friendly way, I decided to make several huge posters of Ronan and put them up around the downstairs. Alan was a little nervous about it being too showy, but when have I ever been worried about that sort of thing? ;)

Ronan wore a very special Christening gown. It's a treasured, hand-made heirloom that's been passed down from my grandmother Dahleen. I asked Alan to iron it, because I certainly didn't trust myself to do it.

I was curious about the dress's background, so I emailed Munna (my nickname for Dahleen) to get more details about it. She sent this to me:

About the Christening Dress (and the bonnet) -- my Mother made it for your Dad.

We were still in the Air Force, and living in San Bernardino, CA, and she came out to be with me, as she did when each of our babies was born. It was in Nov. 1945 and I'm sure she came early, but don't really remember details. She bought the Swiss organdy that had an elaborately embroidered border, attached plain organdy for the top, then did embroidery around the sleeves & neck. Later, I embroidered the initials of each child that has used it in the scallops around the bottom. (Haven't finished those.) It has been used by each of our babies, then Jason, Ryan, Molly (Stephen was too big!) Connor & Ronan.

There was no time for her to make a slip, so we used one I'd made & added to it to make it longer. So I made the slip.

The war was still going strong when we were in CA, & it was very hard to find nice fabric...

Needless to say, it's a gorgeous set. You'll see a closeup down below...

Walking the 1.5 blocks to the church, St. John Vianney.

Fr. Bobby performed the Baptism. He was a dear friend to Ambrose, Alan's father, too. It was nice having a priest with a strong family connection.

The Godparents, Joseph (Alan's eldest sibling) and Kathleen McCall.

There's an interesting tradition here about the Baptismal candle: it's saved and when the child gets his Confirmation (a sacrament in which a child becomes an adult in the eyes of the Church), the candle is reused as part of the ceremony. It's a lovely ritual, and Ronan's godparents were kind enough to give Ronan his candle.