Oliver was Christened today at St John the Baptist Church in Heaton Mersey. He was a very happy chappy throughout the service and behaved impeccably, though perhaps the moment when he kicked the vicar in the face wasn't exemplary behaviour.
The whole day flew by in a blur. We arrived at the church around 10am. Dave and Susan (Godparents) were already there and my Mum drove up as we entered the church. By 10.15 we were fairly inundated with arriving guests.
We took our usual place in the back row which is wider and has room for buggies. It was also well positioned as the font is at the back of the church.
Oliver had a little nap but was awake when we were called to stand by the font. I carried him up and he sat upright on my right forearm looking alternately at me and then the surrounding scene with an interested expression. He was so cute and happy. I felt very proud to be his Dad.
Gavin (the curate at St John's) was leading the service. When I gave Oliver to him I was aware that he was nervous about his shoulder injury from rugby. He took him from me and turned to me to ask "what names are we using?" As he did this Oliver (who loves a good kick of his legs at any time) swung a firm left boot up under Gavin's chin. This was so noticeable as to make half the congregation laugh out loud.
He then lowered Oliver towards the water and splashed three large handfuls of water onto his head. Oliver didn't object in the slightest and was still all smiles.
Although Gavin was leading the service, there were also a few words from Marcus (the vicar) too. When the time came for the lighting of a candle Marcus had to nudge the woman who was meant to light it as she seemed to have nodded off on her feet!
As this part of the service went on Oliver started to get a touch bored of watching the proceedings and decided to eat my shoulder instead.
After the service there was much confusion as people attempted to make convoys from the church to the reception at The Blue Cat cafe in Heaton Moor. Dave and Susan (Oliver's Godparents) who lived in Manchester for many years managed to get lost twice while trying to lead my family to the venue. They gave them an unexpected (unguided) tour of Heaton Mersey and Heaton Moor.
At The Blue Cat we had to re-arrange the food slightly and put out the cake as our caterer had been more interested in getting to her concert rehearsals in the Bridgewater Hall than in doing a professional job for us. Once that was done we were free to mingle... or so I thought! Neither of us seemed to get any decent amount of time to talk to anyone.
I said a few words to thank everyone for coming and we presented the Godparents with some cermaic plates that hand been hand decorated by Hayley and Oliver (with his big footprint featuring heavily). Then I thanked Hayley and she got a round of applause for all her efforts arranging the days events. I didn't notice at the time but she did a little courtsey. (What a cutie.)
And that was the cue to tuck into the food! To be fair to our caterer the food itself was good. It was a shame that we forgot to tell the veggies there that the "chicken" sandwiches were actually Quorn chicken. In fact almost everything was vegetarian. (Just the chicken drumsticks and tuna sandwiches were "no go" areas.)
Many months ago when Hayley was 9 months pregnant we went to Longnor in Derbyshire. While there we met Chris Stevenson, a professional magician. At the time we said how fun it would be to have him perform at the Christening. Although I thought we had decided against this, in fact Hayley booked him secretly as a special surprise for me. He worked the tables for 2 hours and thoroughly impressed everyone with his close magic. One person said to me "I don't know how much you paid that guy but it wasn't enough". Being one of the best in his field (third in the British close magic chapmionship) he wasn't what I'd call cheap but he was certainly woth every penny. He also entertained the kids with tricks balloons.
I also managed to get a picture of what I cheekily call Oliver's harem! You see, out of our ante-natal group he is the only boy! So he is forever surrounded by women. Lucky fella'!
Before we knew it, the afternoon was moving on and people started to leave. It flew by so fast! We packed up some of the leftover food and headed home. Oliver's first social engagement was over.
He has set himself a high standard for future events. One 3-year-old guest summed it all up nicely when she left, telling her Dad simply "that was fun!".
There are some pictures from the day here.
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