Zoe's Christening

For the last eight-plus months, Zoe has been an eat/sleep/poop machine.  Mom, Dad, Situ and Yiayia have slowly but surely indulged her newfound tastebuds with soup, pureed fruits and vegetables and yogurt to supplement her diminishing diet of breastmilk and formula.  Along with these new foods have come new varieties of poop!  Zoe has had bath after bath after bath to get clean, but there's one blemish that can't be washed away in our tub.
Enter the Greek church for baptism!

For those of you who don't know, the intent of a baptism is to cleanse the body of original sin and join the God club.  The Greeks don't take this lightly, so the ceremony is big and the party is bigger.  For Zoe, it started in the morning with primping akin to a wedding.  While Mommy got her hair and makeup done, Daddy did Zoe's hair (which is pretty easy since she still has less hair than Dad).  Zoe was also dressed in the first of multiple outfits.  Her pretty new dress for the first part of the ceremony was all white, with raised white flower patterns and and a white bow across the middle.  This dress will be hard to top, but Zoe will do it!

The church ceremony started sharply at 1pm at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Wyckoff.  All of our closest family members and friends were there, presumably to see what would happen when Zoe got completely dunked in the baptismal font.  But first, the ceremony began at the entrance of the church where the Godparents speak on behalf of Zoe and reject Satan, including spitting three times on the floor (I told you the Greeks don't mess around).  After carefully stepping over the wet floor, Mom and Dad take a seat while Kathy and Ernie (Zoe's Godparents) take over at the front of the church.  Up to this moment, Zoe is fascinated by the atmosphere and attention she's getting.  She's a perfect angel while she takes in the experience, but everyone is fixed on her every reaction as the priest rubs oil all over her body.  Lucky for us, she's still enjoying the experience.  
After Yiayia and Situ undress Zoe from her her first dress, Zoe is oiled up, Ernie takes off his jacket and rolls up his sleeves, and Father Jim adds some water from the Jordan River in Jerusalem that Yiayia smuggled back from her trip to Israel.  Zoe is about to be dunked three times into an ornate round tub from head to toe, to symbolize her unity with God.  

Here comes dunk number 1....success!  Zoe likes it!  Dunk number 2....still having fun!  Dunk number 3...no crying!  The audience erupts in huge applause to give Zoe a well-deserved ovation for being a great sport!  After the third dunk, Father Jim passes Zoe to her Nono (Godfather), Ernie, and she is wrapped in a special towel and whisked to the back room for her next wardrobe change: her fancy baptismal dress.  This dress was much more involved and intricate in design.  It was also all white, with white beads across the middle and a flowery pattern down the bottom half.  It also had little upside-down crown-shaped designs around the bottom of the dress.  To top it off, Zoe had frilly socks, cute shoes and a white bonnet on her head.  Although putting clothes back on was her least favorite part, she looked like a delicious marshmallow baby. 

After Zoe received her cross of gold, she greeted all of her guests that applauded her incredible dunking skills.  At this point her tears tell us she just wants a bottle and a bed, but she powers thru some niceties before the car ride to the reception (aka naptime).

The reception was as grand as a reception could be.  People thought the cocktail hour was the party!  Mom and I enjoyed about half of the cocktail this time around, and spent the rest of the time taking photos with Zoe and family by the fireplace.  Our guests enjoyed foods like purple sweet potatoes and sushi galore. 
When the ballroom opened, everyone found their seats and enjoyed toasts by Zoe's Nouno and Nouna, followed by a traditional Greek dance.  Little Miss Zoe took center stage (literally) on the dance floor while the Greek band rocked and all of her guests danced in a circle around her.

After about two hours of dancing and dining, she was pooped!  In spite of all of the attention and commotion, she was still able to squeeze in a nap.  Maybe it was construction earmuffs that helped her snooze.  

By about 815pm the party was over and Zoe was excited for sleepytime...and presents!

Thanks to everyone who made Zoe's baptism so special!  And a special thanks to Situ and Yiayia and Kathy and Ernie and for your help leading up to and at the baptism...see u at Zoe's first birthday! 


Zoe's Baptism Ceremony Description