Confirmed in Christ

On Sunday, we celebrated the Confirmation of my youngest cousin, Bradley.  He took St. Patrick as his patron.  What a great, Irish choice!  Here he is processing out of the church, all Confirmed by Christ!

This is my family on my father's side!  I like to think of us all as the Gorman Gang!

 Michael and I gave Bradley a rather large statue of St. Patrick so that he may never forget who his patron is.  We did this because I realized recently that my first statues were all gifts that I received from family members, either at my First Communion or Confirmation, and these visuals helped remind me to grow in faith.  I hope it does the same for Brad!

St. Patrick, please watch over and guide through life my cousin Bradley!

 This is the cute gift bag I used.  Isn't it awesome?  Michael and I had received as a wedding gift a beautiful icon (given to us in this bag) from our dear friend Shawn who is currently in his postulancy at a Benedictine monastery.  Pray for him, please!

It was so nice for us all to be together -- and there was a great bunch of us!  After the mass, we met up with additional family members and filled a HUGE table at the Olive Garden.  The food was out of this world!  I had forgotten how much I LOVE that place!

On the way home, it was time to see my mother's side of the family!  We stopped at my grandmother's house for an impromptu party to celebrate my Uncle Fred's birthday and retirement!  He was literally walking on clouds!