Something sacred
This weekend, in addition to her eighth birthday, we celebrated another milestone in Elisabeth's life: her First Holy Communion. It was an exciting, sacred day; one that we had been preparing for in a fairly active way since the beginning of the school year.
I don't really have a lot to say about it here, because it's obviously part of our family's personal religious tradition, other than the fact that it was so moving to see our daughter having grown into a very reverent young lady. Otherwise, I'm mostly sharing it in this space because it was beautiful and a detail of our lives that I don't want to forget.
We had her hair up in rag curls the night before. (Thanks to my friend Meghan for teaching us how earlier in the week! I love you, M!)
Most of the girls wore flowers in their hair.
Our church is so pretty.
The children each made banners, which will remain in the church throughout the Easter season. They were a collaboration between the children and a professional artist in our church, who transferred the children's designs and concepts to fabric and other media, and quilted, appliqued, and put them together beautifully. This one is Elisabeth's. I wish I had more pictures so you could see how amazing they all looked hanging together!
Elisabeth's dress was from Strasburg Children. It was a long search for us, because we wanted something cotton and fairly simple. I found a coupon on Retail Me Not, which was helpful! Her necklace had been a baptism gift eight years ago from her Godmother.
What a joyful thing it is to be welcomed to the Lord's table! We've all been so excited all week.
PS: If a first communion is coming up in your future, we really enjoyed reading the book Today I Made My First Communion by Dianne Ahern. It contains all the information, but it's a storybook format, so it keeps it all interesting, and has a section in the back for recording the details of your child's first communion day.