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The welcoming ceremony for our little girl Twyla was on Saturday. (Here for background.) About 45 people were able to make the event, which happened at a local park, Hamlin Park, in the park building which we rented out. The five grandparents led the set-up decoration, which transformed a regular room into a sacred space. Guests came in from Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Michigan, as well as the Chicagoland area. The event was part ceremony, part pot-luck party.

Hannah and I designed the 25-minute ceremony. It featured prayers from us parents, Twyla's aunt and uncle, the grandparents, the godparents, her great-aunt, and the entire group. It was topped off by a wonderful performance of the song "My Favorite Things" by my brother Christopher, who offered a very cool interpretation. If you want to read the specific prayers we used, you can download this 4-page PDF and feel free to steal from it.

We received very nice feedback about the ceremony, that it was full of heart and a refreshing change of pace, so I'd have to say it was a successful 'ritual creation'. Not easy to do but it was fun and an opportunity for more intimacy between Hannah and me. And the success of the ceremony made me feel much better that, as I explained before, we had chosen not to do a traditional Christian baptism. Our ceremony seemed a much better fit for our beliefs, and a better opportunity to forge bonds between Twyla and her welcoming community of family and friends. Call it 'neo-baptismal' or 'post-baptismal', and in general terms that was what we were going for, to preserve what we liked of Christian baptismal ceremonies, but to include symbolism more in line with our lifestyle.

Here is a picture of the altar we created for Twyla.

We distributed ribbons to the group, and asked each write a wish to Twyla and then attach the ribbon to the tree. The two candles in front are important. On the left is the Unity Candle from our wedding, which I used to light the Twyla candle on the right, symbolic of the new light in the world. The other flowers were fresh-cut from various people's gardens, including that of Grandma Kris and Grandpa Larry's house. Also notice the bird's nest, which has a self-evident symbolism.

Twyla did great for the ceremony. She was mostly alert and awake, quietly watching everything and taking it all in. I changed her diaper a couple times, and she nursed with Hannah as well. After the event was over, however, it was a different story.

Which spoke for us all. (Especially after three bottles of wine with Twyla's aunt, uncle, godparents, grandfather, and mother. Yep, daddy passed out cold. Yep, haven't done that in a while. Yep, won't be doing that for a while, either.)