God Bless Tess

Our sweet baby Tessa was baptised this past Sunday.  We had an absolutely beautiful day for the celebration.  Here are some of the highlights from the day.

Tess wore a baptismal gown that has been in the Brooks family for over 100 years!  Colin was also baptised in this gown, so was I, so were all of my brothers, so was my Dad and all of his siblings, so were countless other Brooks relatives.  I think it is so cool that we have such a special family heirloom that gets to be used on this occasion.


Here is a picture of all of the Brooks relatives who were at the celebration who wore this same gown when they were baptised.

In addition to Tessa's special Baptismal gown we also had two very special bonnets for her to wear during the ceremony.  One was made from the material of the original baptismal gown.  The gown was recently refurbished.  Originally it was a gown and a slip.  Over the past 100 years however the gown started to get very worn in several places.  The best parts of the slip and the gown were used to create a new gown.  The extra material was used to create a bonnet to wear with the dress.  Tess also received a new bonnet as a gift from her Aunt Jen, Uncle Don, and cousins Nora and Luke.  We held this bonnet throughout the ceremony and it has become Tessa's own special keepsake from the day.

Msgr Jack preformed the Baptismal Service.  He did a great job with the service and mentioned several things throughout the ceremony that really made me think.  He suggested that each year on the anniversary of Tessa's Baptism that we light her baptismal candle and celebrate the day that she was Baptised.  I think this is a really cool idea!  It was especially symbolic for us to have Msgr Jack preform the service because he was actually the priest who baptised me not so many years ago.

Tessa's Godparents are her, Uncle Nat (my brother) and Aunt Julie (Keith's sister).  Aunt Julie traveled all the way from LA to be there for the special day.  Julie, I can't tell you how much this meant to us.  Thank you so much for being there!  Tess is truly blessed to have such great Godparents!

After the service we hosted an open house for our friends and family.  The service went a little longer then we had anticipated and some of our guests arrived at our house before we were back.  Luckily we have amazing friends who helped get the house ready and greeted our guests.  Thanks you Pete and Molly and Lori.  You guys are the best!! Seriously I don't know what we would have done with out you guys.  And special thanks to Tony and Colleen for taking pictures for us at the ceremony, they turned out great!

While it was a holiday weekend and many people were out of town we were very blessed to get to celebrate with our friends and family who were in town.  It meant more to us then I could ever say to have so many wonderful friends and family who came to help celebrate with Tess on her special day.  I am so sorry that I didn't get to visit with all of you more.  Trust me though when I say that you all being there really meant the world to us.  It was a day I will not soon forget and it will be one that I will be sure to tell Tess all about in the years to come.