A weekend to remember

I can’t believe how quickly it came and went – but thankfully it turned out to be the weekend we’d all been hoping for.

I’m not entirely sure why, but we decided to celebrate our boy’s first birthday and have his christening on the same weekend (Feb 11-12).

And not only that, we had to prepare and cater for the two events having only just returned from a five day break away in South Wales on the Friday.

That night was a manic one with me hurtling down the supermarket aisles after 10pm frantically filling up the trolley.

My wife had already been out with our daughter to order balloons and get a new pair of shoes to go with her outfit for the christening.

Talk about leaving it late. In fact, I’m starting to realise that being late is something we excel at.

Will we be late to the church on Sunday? Probably.

We were up until midnight putting up birthday banners and building the boy’s main present which was a trendy little scooter (made by Jamm Scoot). He looks like a little mod when he’s on it!

Our three year old enjoyed helping her little brother open his presents and was very surprised to find she had a present of her own.

We didn’t know how she’d react to his first birthday as she’s so accustomed to the limelight.

Maybe we underestimated her maturity and just how much she would take it all in her stride as she informed us it wasn’t her birthday so why did she have a present.

Nevertheless, she was delighted to unwrap a brand new Topsy and Tim book of stories.

After breakfast and mum’s trip out to collect the christening cake, we opened the doors to our humble abode and let the visiting commence.

In the evening my two younger sisters, who some reading this will be aware came back into my life at the start of the year, visited our home for the first time which meant a lot to me personally.

Food and drink was consumed, the solitary candle blown out, and soon it was time for bed.

Well, not for everyone. My wife deserves a mention here.

She stayed up until beyond midnight cooking a big chili for the christening and getting everything organised for the main event, with the help of her dad.

She was up first the next day too, even before the kids miraculously, to start the arduous task of cooking scores of jacket potatoes and wrapping them in foil.

My role was to look after the kids (second nature now!) while she headed to the local social club to set up the room and have the food ready for consumption when we arrived back from the church.

It would be a lie to say it wasn’t in any way stressful but the money we saved doing most things ourselves made it all worthwhile. The quality did not suffer either.

We even managed to get to church on time. I told you we would, didn’t I?

It was a lovely service and the boy was in great spirits despite a slight wobble when he was dunked in the water!

When we did our daughter’s christening we invited so many people and because we catered for that event too, it was too much pressure in the end and we simply didn’t relax and enjoy the day as we should.

This time we reduced the guest list to immediate family and close friends.

That was a tough decision in some respects but you have to do what you feel is right for you. So we did.

The kids and all their friends loved the party afterwards. We hired a soft play set for children up to five years old and it went down a storm.

The room looked fantastic and on this occasion I was able to take a step back and soak it all in.

To see such warmth and love in the room for our little family was very humbling.

We chose our oldest and closest friends to be godparents as I see it as making them a true part of our family. I know that’s not for everybody but it’s right for us.

I really didn’t want it to end but you know what they say about good things.

The boy and his big sister had a fantastic weekend, as did we, and the memories will remain with us forever.