First Communion

The main reason we went up to PA last weekend was for to celebrate the First Holy Communion for Bob's niece, Amanda. It was also a good reason to see Bob's family, who we hadn't seen for awhile, and have them all meet Faith.

The service was at the local Catholic church, and let me tell you, they were not really a church interested in having visitors return! There were 40 kids taking their first communion, and the church was absolutely packed with relatives. Here is a picture of 3 rows of Bob's family, for example, all squashed together like sardines!
As we got there, we were a little early because Rose had warned us that it would be really crowded. The lady in charge of their CCD program was talking to the parents, and she didn't like it that there was not complete silence while everone else was finding seats. "What part of 'be quiet' do you all not understand?!!" she hollered. Okay. Then she came up to the front later to tell us all that there needed to be "reverant silence" until the service started. That is certainly a reasonable goal, but there were so many people there, including a lot of little children, and there wasn't even any music or anything to mask little sounds! So there was not silence. Then the priest came up, without his robes on. He said, "WHERE do you people think you are." Just like that! It wasn't even a question, just a condemnation! Then he went on about how he knew Catholics knew how to be reverent, but definitely implying that no one else did! So like I said, not a real welcoming church!
Our kids were so tired from our long drive the night before. Faith slept through most of the service, and Jonathan and Grace also dozed off. Here Jane is holding Grace.

Afterward, we took a bunch of pictures outside. The church had a professional photographer who went around and took pictures of each family. I hope the one of all of us turned out, because it was quite a good showing.

Amanda looked really beautiful. Anna definitely thought she looked like a princess in her dress! The brother of Chuck (Rose's ex-husband) has his "special friend", Steve, who does hair, so they came over early Saturday morning to do Amanda's hair. He did a lovely job. I should have been paying closer attention! As a side note, Matt and Steve were definitely the nicest of all Chuck's family, including his girlfriend Suzanne, the one he had the affair with that ended the marriage. She happens to look almost exactly like Rose. Interesting family.

Here are all 6 of Bob's living siblings together. This is a rare occurance, so I made sure pictures were taken to mark the event! Bob's oldest brother Dennis is on active-duty right now with the Army Reserve, and he was able to make it from New Jersey. The back row is Bob, Dennis, and Paul, and the front row is Ann, Rose, and Jane (left to right).