How to celebrate your 60th birthday

Here are the steps on how this is done:

1. Give your kids the chance to plan for it. In other words allow them to surprise you. It doesn’t matter that you were in charge of all the parties in the past and that you want to personally prepare for this particular one.

2. Ask your granddaughter secretly if she knows where the birthday dinner will be. Her answer? “At a wine factory” and then she corrects herself – “at a beer restaurant.”

3. Allow your family to drive you to the venue and let the photos complete the story

 The wine factory aka beer restaurant was actually the Tawandang German Brewery. Be sure to get there a little bit earlier to avoid the TGIF evening rush. That's the granddaughter.

 the giant vats where the beer is brewed. they have 3 types of beer.

 the main ground floor and balconies on the side. there are more private rooms at the first and second levels.

the first mug of dunkel with the most beautiful lady in town. What else can an wizened bloke ask for? this was taken while waiting for the rest of the gang to arrive.

 the party getting underway

 some of the delicious dishes. a mix of thai and german

really great tasting brews

 the variety show with an authentic thai rendition to start it

 complete with theatrical effects

 The band and performers were really awesome

we were surprised to see ImStiew (the guy at the center with a drum) the BF of an office-mate.

 "and now the end is near..." yeah - "my way" and he really sounded like the original. luckily he survived, unlike some poor dude in the philippines who got stabbed for singing that song. lol

another surprise... and yeah - that's the face of happiness

hahaha... a bike!

 the nth toast for the night

Mandatory pose at the foyer before heading home. the ones who drank the least get to drive home.

This time they won't let me take the tab and i got some presents to boot. So this is what it takes to turn 60? Thanks family for making this event most memorable. Love y'all. 

Now let's see what else life has in store!

Still growing at 58

At this brittle age my dad stopped growing… I mean - he literally stopped breathing. The credit for this heart-stopping event goes to the Aedes Aegypti mosquito – the vector of Dengue Hemorrhagic fever. For me now to be at this defining point in my dad’s life - and death, is quite awe-inspiring.

“Growing” in the truest sense of the word includes growing old, growing wiser and growing balder as everyone can clearly see.

The year that ushered the 58^th milestone in my life was full of fun and blessings. My previous blog entries duly recorded each reunion, each dive and each family event that helped shape what that year was like. This piece will just summarize how God graciously led me through another year in my life.

 i team up with God's most awesome bible smuggler and some 

German friends for a medical mission into Burma

 and we get the rare chance of seeing to the needs of

some school children under the watchful eyes of the military

 malapascua islands and the thresher sharks give me the

chance of a lifetime

 reunion with high school best friends in Coron Palawan

the best dive expedition among the world war II ship

wrecks in Coron Palawan

 i get to help organize the first-ever class reunion 

from medical school in 31 years.

 my frat meets up for dinner and we have fun reminiscing 

and planning.

 i get the chance to visit my aging aunts from both maternal and paternal sides of the family

my son and his fiance finally join me in running

my daughter and her band do a concert at the sundowners bar to raise funds for the typhoon victims in Leyte

Kailee - my granddaughter, moves up to the second

grade with the highest honors while her grandmom refuses

to grow old.

a three-week vacation to the US west coast... 

 ...and a reunion with my sis' family caps the 
year that brought me 58 years nearer to seeing my
Lord and Savior - Jesus. to him i give all the
honor, glory and praise.

Happy Birthday 2013

A birthday party is an event to celebrate the aging process one year at a time up to the point when one ceases to live. 

One birthday party has been celebrated down the centuries for more than 2,000 years now. It is the most expensive and elaborate, and involves more than a billion people all over the world - a percentage of who just happen to be caught up in the festivities but not quite acquainted with the celebrant.

Christmas indeed is the biggest birthday party for a baby who was born for one single reason - to give eternal life to the human race. 

Ever since I became a Christian seven years ago, I have found a new and more profound meaning to the birthday of my King and Savior Jesus. 

There is no birth certificate available to prove that December 25 is the exact date that he was born, but that doesn't matter. It is the chance and honor to celebrate Jesus' coming for our salvation that drives me to spend hours of preparation, emptying out my pocket for gifts and food and making sure that the family is together.

The photos below documented how Jesus' birthday party was for us in the year 2013.

this is the mezzanine floor of our building which serves as our living/dining room. The building has 5 floors and is home for a newly wed couple, a young couple with a baby, and my wife and her loving husband and their daughter + granddaughter. My wife's son lives with his fiance in her parents' home a few minutes drive from here.

I'll leave out the description and names of the dishes that we served. all were home-cooked and baked by each family and western cuisine predominated the table.

the only Thai in the pinoy crowd and she belongs to my lucky son

our guests were friends who didn't have immediate families to connect with for the season and in a sense they were 
'adopted' for the noche buena.

a mysterious hand picking on the cherry tomatoes

dessert table

jp and nok

jj and kukie

gifts waiting to be torn open

that's the family

the most beautiful daughter in the whole world

Christmas was for a "Child" born in the manger and still is for a child in our family.

this precious kid had the fun of her life and didn't hold back her joy and pleasure in appreciating each gift that she received.

even to the point of being emotional and teary

... and how did her granddad take this moment? the cam caught him wiping away a tear - damn! hahaha. yeah, this is what Christmas is all about - sharing tears of joy and happiness. 

Happy birthday Jesus!

p.s. we had tequila, games, singing and a lot more activities which photos i intend to display in a different album.