Communion Photo Shoot

As you know, MadHatter had her first Communion last Sunday (click here to see the pictures).  I knew that the day of the ceremony was going to be hectic and I probably wouldn't have time to take her portraits so a few weeks before the actual ceremony I helped her get dressed, drove her to the church and captured this very important moment in time.  She was so happy to pose for me (I am not kidding when I say that almost all of the poses she thought of herself) and she looked absolutely gorgeous...though I am not sure what happened to the baby girl we baptized seemingly yesterday.
I hope you enjoy them - I know we had a lot of fun together doing them...

First Holy Communion

For the past 9 months, MadHatter has religiously been attending RE classes at our St. Thomas Church here in the city center.  RE stands for religious education  (I'm pretty punny, aren't I?) and the classes prepare the children for receiving their first communion.  It is a pretty intense period as the kids are expected to learn the 10 commandments, understand the difference right and wrong, define what is a sin and even be able to explain what their conscience is.  They also have to prepare a reading that they do in front of the congregation, memorize the Act of Contrition, the Hail Mary and Our Father, and learn how to properly make a confession.  Like I said, it is pretty intense.

Throughout the entire process, MadHatter has really taken ownership of her education.  She has been studious, and interested, and very involved in the learning.  She practiced her prayers and learned her readings and did her homework without any much prodding/reminding/pleading from us.  She learned to apply what she learned on Sunday's to her life outside of the church and she became an integral part of her church community.  B and I were very proud of how she took on this huge undertaking and never once complained or asked to skip class.  In fact, she was usually disappointed when we had a week or two off for holidays.

This past weekend, all of her hard work paid off.  She participated, with her whole class, in receiving her first communion, the 3rd of 7 sacraments.  The first was her baptism, which MadHatter was lucky enough have celebrated in her Papa's church back in Caracas when she was still a baby, and in April, she completed her second sacrament, The Act of Penance, by reciting the Act of Contrition and making her first confession.  (I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall to hear what an 8-year-old considers a sin).  On Sunday, she completed her third when she took communion in front of the congregation.

She was a bit nervous that she and her communicants would be the center of attention for the whole service but the nerves were offset by her excitement.  She could hardly contain herself as we got her ready.  And as we were walking through the streets to get to the church, she couldn't stop smiling at all the people that paused to wish her luck and take her picture.  She was a sight to behold.  And when she met up with her friends, you could almost feel the energy buzzing around them - they were very ready for this!  And they rocked it.  The ceremony was sweet and went off without a hitch - well, except for the fact that the wine was spilled all down the front of MadHatter's dress.  Thankfully it was white wine. 

Congratulations on your big day! We are proud of you beyond measure.

A, MadHatter and L-M are all in the same grade at ISP.  I am so glad that they got to do this together.

Congratulations to all of the Communicants!

A Day of Water

Our final full day in Dubai and we had nothing planned.  Except to have fun, of course.  So, I let the girls set the itinerary.  They talked between themselves for a bit and then brought me their proposal - first we would head to the beach, rinse off and play in the showers for a bit before hitting the pool.  We would stay there until we were hungry and then go get ice cream/smoothies with our last tokens.  Once we finished desert we would head to our favorite lunch spot to dine al fresco.  When our bellies were full be would get ready to go to the Dubai Mall so we could spend some time at the Aquarium (do you sense a water theme to their day?).  We would finish the day off with dinner at someplace that the girls picked (I did reserve veto power) and head back to the hotel in time for bed.  Sounded like a great plan to me, so we made it happen!

We picked up our towels and headed out...

The beach flags flying said that we had to watch for jelly fish.  We didn't see any but made sure to watch where we stepped. 

Looking for jellyfish...

And then not caring so much about it and splashing to her hearts content.

And MadHatter preferred the sand today...

 We gathered our things and wakled past this...

 And headed to the showers to rinse the sand off...

 

OK - and play a bit...

Clean and hungry - it was time to spend our last tokens...

 We cleaned up and headed out.  The girls were ready for a bit more water...This time watching others play in it while they stayed dry.  The Dubai Aquarium, like many things in Dubai, is over the top and still so very incredible.  It has the World's Largest walk through tunnel holding 10 million liters of water, over 140 different species and measures 51 meteres in length.  Impressive to say the least.

 We spent some time oooohhhing and aaaahhhhing at the things that kept floating by over our heads (or under our feet) and then walked up two flights to see what else the aquarium has in store for us.  Which was a lot of cute creatures...including my own.

We then got a special tour in a glass bottomed boat.  We floated above the tunnel to watch the from above this time...

And then we called it a tour.  And headed next door to the RainForest Cafe to have dinner.  Girls choice.  And since the Hallmark store (Hallmark!) had made me a bit homesick, I didn't have the heart to veto them.

We soaked in a bit more of Dubai and the heat and of our waning days of vacation.  And then cabbed it back to the resort.  We went to sleep dreading our early wake up call but knowing that we had made memories that would last us a lifetime.