Naming Finlay

Last weekend the whole family descended on a small village in Derbyshire to celebrate the official naming ceremony for Finlay, who was born in January this year.  What a delightful child he is and he behaved beautifully.  Saturday night we all arrived and headed off to the pub.  It was great that my brother was over from Denmark/Tanzania (he has a hell of a commute!) and his sons Joe and Nickwere there.

The Valentine boys, Joe, Steve and Nick.

On Sunday it was all hands to the pump to get the food and room ready.  There was enough food to feed about 400 people and 70 were expected!  Sarah and Paul had written the ceremony themselves and it was perfect.  Paul choked slightly while he was making his promises to Finlay and I was thankful I’d stocked up on tissues.  I then did a reading from the book, The Velveteen Rabbit which is becoming a family tradition.  Each of the grandmothers gave Finlay a present which represented an element, so an oak sapling for Earth, stream water from Pia’s garden in Denmark for water, a candle that was burning as he was born for fire and then finally Kate my eldest and ‘godmother’ sprinkled fairy dust on him for air.  Each spiritual guide made a promise to Finlay and then finally Paul and Sarah officially named him Finlay Jack McCarthy.  So welcome young man.

He was such a good boy, looked at the right person and the right time and smiled and gurgled all the way through.

And his great Aunt got a cuddle also.