Mayer's Brit Milah

mayer's naming and brit milah (Bris) 

The brit milah (Hebrew: בְּרִית מִילָה‎ Hebrew pronunciation: [ˌbʀit miˈlä], Ashkenazi pronunciation, bris milôh, "covenant of circumcision"; Yiddish pronunciation, bris) is a Jewish religious circumcision ceremony performed on 8-day-old male infants by a mohel. The brit milah is followed by a celebratory meal (seudat mitzvah).

it took place on July 29th, a sunday morning. 10 am. we sent out an email invitation through punchbowl since there was not enough time to formally invite people. jered mond from izzy's catered the event and several family members (softa, aunt janet, cousin brittan) helped set up the day before. beautiful white and yellow flowers in clear glass vases with a teal ribbon were placed on each table. it could not have been a more perfect celebration

we arrived about 45 minutes before everyone else arrived so that we could make sure mayer was fed, everything was set up and we could take some photos. we definitely had no shortage of photos that day. a good friend of our family, andrew bernstein, took many of the photos for me throughout the celebration. it was wonderful knowing my camera was in his hands and he would capture all of the memories i would want to cherish. 

daddy and asher ready for the party

asher hamming it up before everyone arrived with his nana and poppy

great uncle jay, great aunt estelle and nana

harris teeter did a great job with the cake, thanks nana!

everyone wanted to see the tiny baby (tahli and lila are taking a peek)

our sweet family of four!

cantor bernard chatting it up with mayer man

those sweet long fingers...just like his momma

we had a full room... over 100 people attended mayer's bris and naming

 laura checking out the little man

the table with all of the sentimental items for the ceremony.

the kiddush cup is a michael aram cup given to mayer by the Kenmore's (aunt/uncle/cousin), the Agam wedding talis and kippah, philip's bar mitzvah tallis and bag, a special dress worn by Philip and Asher at their brit milah ceremonies and a new blessing blanket from softa

little mayer davi

love that sweet face and button nose

asher's girlfriends from school 

my big sweet boy

gigi with her two youngest daughters

we were so honored and thrilled so many people came in for Mayer's naming/bris.

janice and diane came up from atlanta and grandma flew in from montgomery, alabama

I decided that I wanted to put together a welcome table so I used a bunch of frames we had around the house and/or nursery and printed out photos from the first week including hospital photos and some posed. softa also gave us a plate that we had everyone sign who attended and then cooked it in the oven to seal the writing. love this idea and its a memory we will always cherish

Renee and Sherman. 

sherm will grow up with Mayer as they are only 8 weeks apart.

is that hair not insane for an 8 week old???

Dinh and Tran (she does my nails and softa's nails....we adore her) and she is like family to us.

we were so thrilled that they were able to come. she said that the ceremony reminded her a lot of what they do at her church

nana and poppy with their big girl

relaxing on softa before the ceremony

 tying the kippah on, just like we did with asher

showing off his kippah

wrapping him up in the tallis

showing off my new pride and joy all wrapped up in philip's tallis

getting ready for the service led by our assistant cantor mary thomas.

we are good friends with mary and her family and prior to delivering mayer i had asked her if she would be so very kind to lead the service. at the time we had planned to do the naming and circumcision at the actual event, but once we realized we couldnt get a mohel to come at the time we needed we had to change plans and we REALLY needed mary. technically if a mohel performs the service/ceremony you dont need a rabbi/cantor or clergy member. we of course knew we would have both in some way shape or form. mary exceeded any and all of our expectations. she was amazing at the pulpit and i was thrilled that we had the opportunity to have her lead our ceremony. i could not have selected a better person to do it. it was so very personal and well thought out. she was eloquent and well spoken and she impressed many! we decided to just do the naming and ceremony in front of the community and friends and we scheduled the actual circumcision later that afternoon when the mohel we wanted (dr. James) was available. (he came to our house.... another separate post)

 parents participating in the blessings

 asher throwing back some wine after we said the kiddush (which he knows by heart and participated fully) he also blew us away throughout the service with wonderful behavior. when we were reading responsively he was attempting to repeat the words with us. to say it was precious was an understatement. my eyes filled up with tears of pride and joy as he embraced judaism all on his very own.

family blessing under our Agam wedding tallis

our dear friend Rabbi Noam stepped up to say a few words, crack a few jokes (about us) and to say the blessing over the challah. the ceremony would not have been complete without his participation. we adore him and his family... (that's your shout out Tamar!)

 Dr. Matt (aka. the boys pediatrician) caught in the act of snagging some food after the service. we were so thankful he was able to come.... and he also did a little diaper rash tushy inspection for us in the kitchen before everyone got there because Mayer' had a horrible diaper rash that we had to treat with special sulfadine cream...

what Jewish gathering wouldn't be complete without bagels, cream cheese, lox...

we also served a french toast casserole, tuna salad, fixings for the bagels and a fruit salad....

 Dessert Spread

chocolate and vanilla Cake pops made by yours truly to match the colors!

i definitely made these my 40th week of pregnancy while I was anxiously awaiting Mayer's arrival. it kept my mind off my aches and pains and focused on the prize!

homemade chocolate mandel bread

homemade merigune's

AJ and Frida getting some food from the spread!

Desserts!

poppy and his 2nd grandson...forming his baseball team one kid at a time

great Aunt Janet who came from Nashville with Papu

Dinh with mayer and mommy

Courtney and Josh with Emily's boyfriend (they just had a baby girl!)

Mayer with his Great Aunt JanJan and Diane and Great Grandma Gigi

Asher with his teacher from last year, Ms. Elise

 Great Aunt Estelle and her Grand babies

Our happy family all together!

what a wonderful blessing this celebration was to our entire family. we were so thankful to have our closest family, friends and jewish community present with us for this very special event. cantor mary put together an amazing service with so many personal anecdotes and stories...that made it so very memorable for us. we are forever grateful.