THIS was the day I was most excited about in the grand scheme of Thanksgiving. I had planned it out myself, and it was pretty much my most perfect day. Minus the necessary driving. And an exciting addition was Allison who had never been to Philly before this!
Getting our entire family to the temple at any given time is proving difficult as everyone grows up and moves away. Either someone inconveniently lives out in Utah and spends most of her life there, or some other persons decide it would be fun to have a baby so they have to tag-team it, or someone else is frequently on call, or someone else has decided that concerts and rehearsals take top priority. Yep, it's not always easy. (I would like to point out that I am always completely available...)
So, the idea of having everyone at home and under my rule of thumb made me happy indeed. And what better way to spend time together than in the Philadelphia temple, a temple that nobody but myself has visited post-dedication and open house.
Seriously, it's my idea of heaven. Being in the temple with people that I love.
And it was probably the nicest baptism session I've ever done. The temple matron led the entire thing, and spoke to us beautifully before we started. She shared her own story about being baptized: that her non-member father wouldn't allow her to be baptized until she was 18, and how that felt so very long to wait. On the day that she was finally baptized, she woke up early enough to catch the sunrise, because she was determined not to miss a single moment of that day. And she expressed how happy she was. She then had us think about our ancestors and how long some of them have been waiting. Just imagine how happy they are that their baptism day is finally here! It was really beautiful. Too, she commended us for spending the morning there in the temple when there were so many other things we could have been doing, seeing as it was a day off work and school and shopping was a major draw. I was thankful that she thanked all of us for that, because the four hour drive there wasn't anything to sneeze about.
I had more family names ready for baptisms than we had time, but we got a good start on all of them. Each of the women were baptized for eight other women, and the men were baptized for ten. Poppie took a bullet for the team and had a Poppie/Baby date outside the temple while all of the rest of us went in. Ethan and Mark did all of the baptisms for us (and some for others) and then helped with the confirmations. It wasn't busy at all so we were done faster than I thought we would be.
I can't say enough how happy I was to be there. While I would have been happy at any temple, it was so beautiful to be inside the Philadelphia temple. I know the Washington DC temple is technically "ours", but Philly must run a close second. It's our town, and we have been going there for years. Too, seeing all of the things that we love about Pennsylvania was touching. There are three large paintings of Joseph Smith being baptized in the Susquehanna river surrounding the font. It's probably the closest we could be to being outside in the real Susquehanna while still being in the temple. And the furniture looks so New England. But more than all that, it must feel what heaven is like. No influence of Satan, and just those we love the most together, while thinking about the rest of our family members.
I think we were all thinking a lot about Allison too. She had only been baptized seven days previous, and here she was, entering the House of the Lord. We were all so excited for her, and she looked so incredibly happy.
I honestly didn't want to leave. However, Glo had a lesson scheduled with Amy, and we had a lunch date at Campo's!
Every time we visit Philly as tourists (and not music students), Hannie insists that we go to Campo's. It's an iconic cheesesteak place. Thankfully, we found parking nearby (thanks to me for being able to parallel park the rental van) and thanks to the Kennedy Klan for piecing together four tables in a room that really should hold only two but has ten.
Afterwards, we left for Longwood Gardens, one of my favorite places on earth. We did it all--we walked through the entire conservatory, we sat for the holiday sing-along, we even walked the outside path of decorated trees. It was so beautiful. We spent a good four hours there before we headed home. I am a firm believer in someone figuring out how to teleport, because driving home four hours after a long day is for the birds...but it was all worth it.
Getting our entire family to the temple at any given time is proving difficult as everyone grows up and moves away. Either someone inconveniently lives out in Utah and spends most of her life there, or some other persons decide it would be fun to have a baby so they have to tag-team it, or someone else is frequently on call, or someone else has decided that concerts and rehearsals take top priority. Yep, it's not always easy. (I would like to point out that I am always completely available...)So, the idea of having everyone at home and under my rule of thumb made me happy indeed. And what better way to spend time together than in the Philadelphia temple, a temple that nobody but myself has visited post-dedication and open house.
Seriously, it's my idea of heaven. Being in the temple with people that I love.
And it was probably the nicest baptism session I've ever done. The temple matron led the entire thing, and spoke to us beautifully before we started. She shared her own story about being baptized: that her non-member father wouldn't allow her to be baptized until she was 18, and how that felt so very long to wait. On the day that she was finally baptized, she woke up early enough to catch the sunrise, because she was determined not to miss a single moment of that day. And she expressed how happy she was. She then had us think about our ancestors and how long some of them have been waiting. Just imagine how happy they are that their baptism day is finally here! It was really beautiful. Too, she commended us for spending the morning there in the temple when there were so many other things we could have been doing, seeing as it was a day off work and school and shopping was a major draw. I was thankful that she thanked all of us for that, because the four hour drive there wasn't anything to sneeze about.
I had more family names ready for baptisms than we had time, but we got a good start on all of them. Each of the women were baptized for eight other women, and the men were baptized for ten. Poppie took a bullet for the team and had a Poppie/Baby date outside the temple while all of the rest of us went in. Ethan and Mark did all of the baptisms for us (and some for others) and then helped with the confirmations. It wasn't busy at all so we were done faster than I thought we would be.
I can't say enough how happy I was to be there. While I would have been happy at any temple, it was so beautiful to be inside the Philadelphia temple. I know the Washington DC temple is technically "ours", but Philly must run a close second. It's our town, and we have been going there for years. Too, seeing all of the things that we love about Pennsylvania was touching. There are three large paintings of Joseph Smith being baptized in the Susquehanna river surrounding the font. It's probably the closest we could be to being outside in the real Susquehanna while still being in the temple. And the furniture looks so New England. But more than all that, it must feel what heaven is like. No influence of Satan, and just those we love the most together, while thinking about the rest of our family members.
I think we were all thinking a lot about Allison too. She had only been baptized seven days previous, and here she was, entering the House of the Lord. We were all so excited for her, and she looked so incredibly happy.
I honestly didn't want to leave. However, Glo had a lesson scheduled with Amy, and we had a lunch date at Campo's!
Every time we visit Philly as tourists (and not music students), Hannie insists that we go to Campo's. It's an iconic cheesesteak place. Thankfully, we found parking nearby (thanks to me for being able to parallel park the rental van) and thanks to the Kennedy Klan for piecing together four tables in a room that really should hold only two but has ten.
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| Probably one of Hannah's favorite foods: a cheesesteak sandwich! |
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| This picture realistically captures the size of the place ;-) |
A great day with a great family and what a cute pic of baby at the end!!
ReplyDeleteIt really was such a fun day! It's always a good time when the Kennedys are together!
ReplyDelete