Bee Stings and Christenings

We traveled up to Roseville this weekend for a very Genovese weekend - my cousin's itty bitty baby was Christened.  We weren't at the hotel for 5 minutes and I got my first bee sting ever.  In my neck.  The sucker was sitting on my neck and I didn't even think about what was on there.  I was in my mom's hotel room and hadn't noticed a bee at all.  I swatted at it and the rest is history.  The good news: I don't appear to be allergic to bee stings.  The bad news: OMFG, those suckers HURT.  I don't want another one.  My pain level stinks anyway, but no!  I of course took Benadryl, in case I was allergic.  Which made me drugged at 3 pm through the rest of the night.  No operating heavy machinery for me!  It took a while to kick in.  I was laying down to try to take a nap.  It didn't work out so well..I couldn't fall asleep.  I thought I'd get up and was so whoozy.  Then I proceded to walk into the bathroom door.  I'm thinking it was doing its thing by then.

We had an amazing dinner at the Claim Jumper, which totally reminded me of Tahoe Joe's in SLO.  Of course, if you haven't been to either, they are like woodsy steakhouses with antler lights, fireplaces, wood everything, and huge portions.  I split a meal with my mom and it was the perfect amount!

We saw our good friends Erin & Jerry that night - they live there, and we sat around talking.  Love them!

The next morning (today) was the Christening, and it was at a Presbyterian church.  One thing about my family is that we're Catholic, and we're not exactly seasoned going to other religions' services.  So, here comes the stories: A person asked my nonni if her rosary was a necklace and my nonni was flabergasted.  My cousin has two little girls and one future step-child.  Her two little girls spent half the ceremony either next to me or on my lap (they are 7 and 3 years old).  Every time they sang a song, the 3 year old, Mia, would start dancing.  In her seat, from sitting in the pew, while standing - anywhere.  At one point she did her little dance and was pressing her finger on the Bible, trying to match the tune of the piano.  When she was done she turned to Ryan and wanted a high five.  And she would say in her adorable 3 year old voice, "it's time to sing now!"  And everyone in my family almost had tears from trying not to laugh during church.

Amy gave her daughters gum during the service.  I instantly thought, "OH NO."  My nonni is a stern believer that you should NOT have gum in church.  So you have my nonni telling Amy, "You can't have gum in chruch!"

Mia's older sister, Lily, was a good little girl.  She sat by me, listening and reading the words on the big screen.  They had a screen with words on it.  Each pamphlet had a white fill in the blank sheet.  Like Ad Libs for church (but not funnies).  Of which, at the beginning, everyone in the family was confused that there was a test?!  Anyways, the huge screen is a novelty as well to us.  Here goes the conversations with Lily sitting next to me:

(The screen had words on it regarding birth and re-birth during the minister's (?) homily):
Lily: How can you be born twice?
Me: You know, I don't know.
Lily: Really, you can't be born twice!

Lily: What is he talking about?  I don't understand a thing he's saying.  (he was very long winded)
Me: Yeah, me neither.
Lily: He's not making any sense. 

When the missionaries going to Mexico stood up at the front:
 Lily: Why are those people going to Mexico?
Me: Umm, I think they are going to go build churches (I really didn't want to get into the notion of them spreading God's word to others - it's not my place to explain that)
Ryan: (whispering to me) They're not going there to build churches
Me:  (shrug with a slight smirk.  I hope I didn't just lie in church.  They could be going to build churches, right?)

Lily: They are going to build churches?  Why?  Aren't there a lot of churches already?
Me: (nodding) Yeah, there are lots of churches, Lil.

The minister's homily was about Presbyterians leaving the church for "PC USA."  Of which I spent half of it wondering what the heck he was talking about, because didn't PC stand for Presbyterian Church?  How can they leave the Presbyterian Church for the Presbyterian Church?  Turns out it meant "Politically Correct" USA.

At the end of service, the lady behind us gave Mia a hug (who was standing on the pew).  She said, "I'm going to give you a big JESUS hug! :) "  Mia's like, ok, whatever.  Then the lady goes, "So, did you like the church service?"  "No."

Mia rounded the service out by dancing on the alter after it had concluded.  All in all, both girls were actually very good girls in church.  No crying or screaming = thumbs up in my book.  Sierra, Amy's 9 year old step-daughter, sat there by my Aunt Patty like an angel the whole time.  And baby Sierra, who was the guest of honor, was an angel as well.

Ahh, it was an experience for us Genoveses, that's for sure.  Now I know how Ryan feels going to mass.  Lost and a little bit bewildered.  The service and subject matter was not what we were used to.  Just different.  To end: the priest during his homily, was talking about how there are more Christians in China than in the US (and that was not a good thing).  As my mom later pointed out: "Yeah, but China also takes up half the world's population!"