The tradition is to have the ordination service, then a reception at the church, then a party at the home of the newly ordained minister. I didn't think the new minister should have to plan her own party, so I told her that she could worry about the service, and a couple of my other friends and I would handle the party.
The minister friend's favorite colors are pink and orange, so we planned the party theme around those colors. I was skimming a crafty-type blog one afternoon and came across this entry from a girl who was planning a wedding on a budget. She took dinner-sized and cocktail-sized paper napkins and made flowers for her wedding. It might sound like a third-grade art class project, but they were actually really pretty. She included the instructions, so I followed the process and was pretty pleased with the outcome. I think I made about 20 flowers -- pink with orange centers.
Biscuit watched me make the flowers and desperately wanted to help me. But seeing as the process required scissors, delicate folding and floral wire, all he got to do was watch.
I placed each finished flower in a vase on the coffee table, and every time I added a new one, Biscuit said, "Oooo! Another flower. I have to smell it." He would drop whatever he was playing with and run over to the coffee table, sniff the flower and say, "Nice flower, Mom. It smells good," then he would run back to whatever he was playing with.
I did a lot of cooking and baking the day before the event, and Jeff was working a double shift that day, so Biscuit didn't get a whole lot of attention. But he seemed to take it in stride. Then the day of the event came, and we basically asked him to be on his best behavior for ... oh, maybe 10 hours. And I mean that seriously. We left our house at 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon and got back home at 11:20 p.m. that night. There was one meltdown during the whole day. I would say that's pretty good behavior on the little man's part!
Ever since he turned 2, Biscuit loves birthdays. He went to a birthday party in July and will still occasionally sing "Happy Birthday" to the little girl. So when he saw me baking and decorating a cake, then found out we were throwing a party, he immediately decided that it was a birthday party for the new minister. She thought it was great and didn't bother correcting him when he sang "Happy Birthday" to her at least four times.
Biscuit sat with Jeff during the service. I was moving around the church taking pictures. The church has a really nice "chapel" at the back of the sanctuary for kids and parents. It's a sound-proof room with big windows overlooking the sanctuary where parents can take antsy or unruly kids during the service. It also has a sound system, so the parents can still hear what's going on.
Biscuit sat through a good part of the service, but Jeff took him to the chapel as a pre-emptive strike before the actual ordination part of the ceremony took place. Right before they left, I was on the opposite side of the church, and I heard Biscuit heave this huge sigh. Well, it probably didn't seem huge to anybody else, but it was enough to make me jerk the camera away from my face and look to see what was going on. It's funny how you can immediately recognize something as simple as a sigh when it comes from your own child.
All in all, it was a nice, if tiring, day. The service was well done and my friend is officially a reverend. And as Jeff would say, "Refreshments were served, and a good time was had by all."
Here are a few pictures from the day -- Jeff and Biscuit during the service, the flowers I made, and a family photo taken by one of our friends.
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