I'm a Godmother! (No, not the fairy kind :)

St. Andrew's Cathedral & Fountain, next to St. Paul's Church

I'm a Godmother (again :) today! My friend asked me to be one of the sponsors (or as they say it in Filipino, a "Ninang" or "Ninong" if you're a male) to her newborn son. It was held at St. Paul's church, which is a Philippine Independent (Episcopal) church. I should bring my Mom here, maybe actually hearing the word of the Lord in Ilocano (instead of English) might be more touching or something. Hehehehe!

I got lost (luckily I got there an hour early), so I parked next to St. Andrew's church (a prominent Catholic church in Honolulu) and walked around until I finally figured out where I was. :) In the middle of getting lost, I passed by a woman wearing all red and a golden cape, who I thought was part of the church ceremony but turns out she was just wearing the costume just because. :o

Inside of St. Paul's

I've been to several churches within the past year or so, and it seems like each church has it's own way of conducting service, yet the message is still the same throughout. The baptismal was held near the middle of the mass, and they brought baby to the rear of the church where there is a marble bowl on a pedestal and they conduct the rites of baptism. The sponsors also gather around to read responses from a prayer book to say that they welcome the baby to the world of the Lord and will do anything to help and protect the child. He's a real cutie, he's about a month or so old, and didn't even cry when they poured the water on his head. :) I didn't get to take pics of it because I was part of the ceremony, but it was a very lovely service.

Proud parents, grandma and priests

Awww he's a cutie!

Baby, mommy, and 2 of his ninangs!

Of course, what do most people do in Hawaii after a baptismal service? They have a big party and EAT, of course! This family always has LOTS of food; so I decided to have a little bit of certain things but enough to enjoy myself of course. They had a huge roasted pig of course (I admit that it troubles me to eat something whose face or eyes I've seen...LOL), noodles, meats and other Filipino fare, including desserts!

Porky gets skinned!

I settled on having a little bit of this and that: rice, beef broccoli, 2 banana lumpias (yeah it's fried, but 2 lumpias = 1 banana so technically that's a serving of fruit. Mwahahaha! I actually burnt the roof of my tongue because the lumpias were so fresh and hot!), a small bit of the roast pork (even aiece of the crunchy skin), a little bit of this coconut dessert and a small square of bibingka (sweet rice cake):

It's getting easier now to choose wisely when dining out, watch my portions, eat what I want to eat (within reason, of course) but still enjoy the meal. :)