On May 1st, Mackenzie Skye Anne was christened. We had the ceremony in Bavaria in the same church where Stefan and I had our church wedding ceremony almost 7 years ago. This beautiful church is in a small town called Metten which is very close to where Stefan’s parents live.

We selected it instead of a Catholic church in our neighborhood for several reasons: One, of course, was because we had been married there and the same priest would be doing the ceremony which made it feel extra special. Although we are not active members of the Catholic church, Stefan was christened Catholic and it is a Bavarian tradition. Also, most of his family that was attending the christening lived in that area and our church here doesn’t even have a priest right now. So we were really pleased we managed to work everything out.

This is the inside of the church. A bit blurry unfortunately but at you can still tell, the place is really quite grand. We had about 20 people attending the ceremony but seating was clearly not an issue!

Mackenzie wore the same christening dress that Stefan wore 30 years ago. It has also been worn by several of his cousins and other family members since then for their christenings. She was convinced that the pink bow was there to be eaten but at least we kept it mostly clean until after the ceremony.

She totally had her game face on for the day, taking all the events in stride. Calm, happy and relaxed – just as she always is. 🙂

When we met with the priest the day before, he was discussing how the water would be poured over Mackenzie’s head. He asked if she reached out for things and we said yes. So he suggested that he’d just hold out a tray with a bit of water, let her reach for it and then would pour the water when she least expected it. We were fairly certain she would start crying at this point, but she didn’t seem disturbed at all.

Then the priest marked her head with rose oil (he did a mark on her chest before the water blessing). Once again, not a peep from her although she was starting to wonder just what was going on here.

Stefan had a bit of trouble lighting the candle so the priest helped him out. They had just started a new one on Easter so it was not an easy task. Not even the priest managed to get it on the first try and he’s done it a few times!

The ceremony was really touching and the priest made lots of little personal touches for us. We were all a little teared up at the end. There was one last step which was the blessing of a cross necklace Stefan’s parents bought for Mackenzie. When she saw the priest bringing out another book, she started fussing and crying a bit. I guess she thought he might be settling in for the long haul when he brought it out. But no one minded and before long she was heading off to sleep in munchkin land. Mackenzie was totally wiped out from being so perfect and nursed quickly before falling asleep in the car.

Her nap lasted all the way back to the grandparent’s house…but there was much more excitement in store for Mackenzie there…which will hate to wait until the next post and perhaps Mack’s next nap! 🙂