Yesterday was a Big Day for Jessica and her parents: the day of her naming party! Ian and I had been planning it for what seemed like ages, worrying about the weather (rain, rain, rain seemed to be the order of the day for June and July and we were kind of relying on using our new garden to have enough space for everyone), food and drink, and what type of little ‘ceremony’ we could have to mark the special occasion. When the party finally was underway, with all our expected guests present and conversations as well as drinks flowing, it felt like we’d managed to pull it off after all…! We were a bit sad, of course, that not everyone we would have wanted to be here was able to, but it was good to see so many friends and family still and we had a really good time.
We didn’t want a very big or formal affair and we felt that we managed to strike the right balance. We had a buffet and drinks between 2-6pm and to our great relief the weather was fantastic and all our guests were able to mingle and relax in our garden. At around 4pm – a bit later than we initially planned, but at what felt like the right time on the day – I first held a little bit of a speech, when I welcomed everyone, talked a bit about Jessica Sofia and explained why we had chosen the names that we had for her (three reasons: names that worked both in English and Swedish, names that we both really liked and names that didn’t already belong to any friends or family of ours but to us could be uniquely hers). I had decided to finish off with asking everyone to join me in singing one of Jessica’s favourite songs: Incy Wincy Spider, and was pleased to find that most happily did…! After that, Jessica’s farfar Albert held a speech, which was also about Ian and I as well as Jessica (giving the background to Jessica’s coming into being, of sorts). Jessica’s faster (Swedish for paternal aunt) then read a poem before farfar Albert finished off with proposing a toast to Jessica.
All guests wrote some comments in a book that we passed around, to which we will add photos from the day and our comments – a book which we will keep for Jessica to read in future, as a memento of the day.
Gabriella