Christmas in November

I had my craziest 27th of November to date. It was the night before our early morning flight to Pinas. Dad threw a party for his brods. Miggz was just recovering from three days of fever. We are still packing some last-minute items into our carry-ons, and we needed to leave at four in the morning. YIKES. I don’t know how we managed to do what we had to do in the little time we had left before driving to the airport.

Being that it was our last night with the family for the year, my siblings and I agreed to have an early Christmas at home. And so in the crazy last weeks before our flight, Te and I managed to buy most gifts, wrap them, and even write out Christmas cards for the immediate fam, all before November was over. We exchanged gifts that night, in the midst of the hustle-and-bustle of my parents’ home. Rushed as all of this might have been, it all turned out fine. It wasn’t as I imagined…I pictured that night to be relaxed, laid back, and with even some sleep to spare.

We didn’t have any sleep, of course. But what I remember most from that night was this boy’s energy and excitement at the sight of his gifts and upon opening them (and everyone else’s).

Miggz loves his new Crocs from Uncle Tedi.

Leave it to a child to wipe out a month’s full of tired-ness in a minute’s matter of time =)

Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

 

Life should not only be lived. It should be celebrated.

—Osho

Today ends more than a week’s worth of celebrations in my family. It started with my husband’s birthday, followed by my youngest sister’s two days later, and then followed by mine five days after.

My hubby celebrated a significant birthday—his 35th. On the evening of his birthday, we went with the whole family to The Keg Steakhouse and Bar. It was a nice place…great food, excellent service. He always chooses great spots to eat, and this one is definitely worth coming back to. After dinner we headed home and lit his “3” and “5”candles atop a red velvet cake we got from Costco the day before. What a find it was! Very yummy…I’ve had different red velvet cakes/cupcakes from different places, and Costco’s is definitely a winner…the icing was not too sweet, and the cake was just nice and moist. I don’t usually eat a lot of cake, but after that night, I’ve had leftovers of that cake for breakfast (with coffee), and also as a midnight snack. So bad, yet so good.

My sister is in college, so she did what typical college kids do and threw a party at her off-campus apartment. We were not there of course LOL. Who invites family at their college parties?!?! That would have been funny.

I celebrated my 29th a little early…we picked up my Louis Vuitton travel tote last Sunday. And then yesterday, my parents cooked what to them was a normal dinner, but it certainly felt like a feast to me! Dad made sopas (macaroni soup in chicken stock with chicken, vegetables, and milk), mom fried some lumpiang shanghai (Asian egg rolls with seasoned ground meat and vegetable filling), and dad also mixed up some cocktails (vodka with orange and cranberry juice garnished with maraschino cherries). Honestly, THAT could have been my birthday dinner. But being that my two sisters live away from home, they were not here to enjoy all of that (and my little sis called mom early today asking, “what are we doing for Ate’s birthday?”). We really made no plans until today, and decided we should try Kona Grill. My siblings have been there before, but Te and I haven’t, so I figured this would be a good time to try it and bring the whole family. Food was good too, but the service was so-so at this place. I’m a little biased because we really had such great service at The Keg last week…I guess those are really hard to come by these days. So at Kona Grill, I had my first try of hot sake (I got light-headed shortly after drinking a tiny bit, and this was after my meal…LOL. I think at 29, it’s too late to break me in. I don’t—and will probably never be able to—handle my alcohol well. At the end of dinner, I got a hefty slice of…guess what, more red velvet cake, which was soo yummy-looking, but I barely had the stomach space for. Thankfully, everyone else took a bite. We didn’t even get to eat the Harry & David Chocolate Mousse Cake waiting at home that my sister-in-law sent for our birthdays. It’s okay…that means there will be more cake waiting to be eaten tomorrow 🙂