Meeting New Filipina Friends @ Baby Tom's Birthday Party

I have been extremely busy lately between so many things that going out with my friends became close to impossible lately. My friend, Jeanny, invited me over to her son's 2nd birthday two weeks ago, and she asked me if I could help her prepare a "bam-i". It is a Filipino food that is suppose to be present on every Filipino birthday party. Well, I told myself; "I need a break". This could be a perfect break for me, catching out with my friends and at the same time, eating our own Filipino foods that we miss so much. So, I requested a day off from work for the particular day... and everything happened as planned, only for one thing though, my husband was not feeling good, and was not able to join us.

I had the chance to meet two wonderful new Filipina, and became friends right away with them. I met Jelly and her family who drove all the way from Palm Beach. I also met Elvie and her family, who, to my surprised, just live to the area where we live; and who also, prepared all the foods including desserts (except of bam-i and cake). She is a superb cook. We all indulged ourselves with the Filipino foods. We shared our funny experiences as wives and mothers. And of course, any gathering can't be complete without the excitement of picture taking here and there... again and again... We had such a blast.

On next Saturday, Elvie will be hosting another party. It will be her birthday party. We are looking forward that more will show up on that day. It will be another day of fun. It will be another "stress-reliever", fun-filled and tummy stuffing day. I just hope and pray that my husband will be feeling well on that day and so that he can be with me on enjoying this moment.

Back-to-Back New Year's Eve Party

We had a back-to-back New Year's Eve party last Friday night. It worried me a bit because I need to work at 9:00 in the following morning. Well, it was either I will enjoy the party and still be there at work on the following morning with possibly less sleep; or stay at home to sleep early.
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The first party was in Dolly's residents. It was primarily consisted of "Fil-Am" couples, with exception to Riza's and her mother. We had varieties of Filipino food on the table, but the star of the night was the "lechon" (roasted whole pig). We (the girls) had a happy night sharing stories, good laughs and the all-time favorite which was the picture taking, while the men were having their fun, too, by catching up with each other with drinks, and the ham roll that I brought that they like very much. I was surprised that the (american) men never had ham roll before. Well, I guess it was a good idea that I decided to make ham roll for the party then.

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Too bad that we can't stay longer as we would have like it, because we have another party to catch on before the eve will be over. Good thing was that the "Fil-Am" party started early, and we had the chance to have fun with them for 3 hours.

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I would like to thank Dolly, for being the host; to Fhey, for making the "lechon" possible, and to everybody who came, making the night successful and happy. Special thanks, too, to Annette and Ed who drove us to the party and back to home.

The second party was in the office of MICHA. It was with the family, friends and neighbors that surrounds the complex. There were varieties of foods, too. My share was the "lumpia", which I'm glad that they all liked. There were music, cocktail drinks (bartended by Orville), and the "trivia game" (hosted by Mary), which became part of the New Year's Eve party that started 5 years ago.

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It is always so good to be with our family and friends as we all gather to meet the new year 2011. May this way of life or tradition will continue on every year, and passed them to our children and grand children, giving them the value of being a family.

Family Christmas Party 2010

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We had a successful and happy Christmas party last Saturday. There were 20 people in the party. These are few of the pictures that I took during the party. We had a very sumptuous dinner prepared by everybody with the special mention to Annette, Aunt Sallie and Mary.
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We had exchanged gifts after the dinner. Everybody was busy giving, receiving and opening gifts. I believe that was the most exciting part... especially, at least to the kids. I can't wait to see what I got and I can't wait to see what was the reaction of the person who got my gift. I hope Annette is happy with what I gave her. I like the gift that I got. It gave me inspiration to do something to myself for this new year to come, because it is what I always neglected to do. I always wanted to have it, but felt guilty to buy it for myself. Now that somebody gave it to me, I feel happier having it. Thanks, Aunt Sallie.
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To my husband and I, the best part of the party was having Danyale (our daughter), David (her boyfriend), Ciara and Corbin (our grandkids) with us. Danyale and David came from Michigan, took Ciara and Corbin, and made it halfway to the party.

Holiday Cheese and Wine Party

Guest post written by Deb Gordon

Instead of doing the regular old holiday dinner party like me and my husband have been hosting the week before Christmas for the past couple of years, we decided this year that we're going to just have a wine and cheese party. I thought that it would be a much easier thing to host by just buying a bunch of cheeses and crackers instead of baking a whole bunch of holiday themed food. Even a dessert party takes quite a bit of trouble in the kitchen.

But I wanted to make sure that I would have some really good cheeses and a wide enough selection, so I went online with my wimax 4g and found all kinds of different cheeses to put on my grocery shopping list.

I'm taking care of the cheese and crackers and I'm letting my husband take care of the wine for the wine and cheese party because he knows more about wine than I do. I'll have to make sure that he gets enough of each kind though. We'll also be encouraging people to bring their own favorite wines, of course.

So Ladybug Like

Post contributed by Leonard Phelps

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This was our daughter's first Halloween and we were so ecstatic. To make it memorable, we wanted her to have the perfect costume. After traveling to a variety of stores, we finally chose a cute ladybug costume for her.

Although she may not remember everything that happens, we made sure to take enough pictures of her to look back on. The night was perfect for her to go trick or treating. Don't get me wrong, we weren't going to let her eat a lot of candy (she's only 10 months), but we did want her to have fun on her first trick or treat night.

Once Halloween arrived, the weather for the night was perfect; it wasn't too chilly for her. I must admit, I think I was more excited than she was. When we headed out, I was relieved to find that she did actually enjoy herself. She's very friendly and she loved pushing the doorbell of people's houses. She would smile or sometimes laugh when the owner would finally open the door to give her a treat. Instead of being scared of the kids with scary costumes, she'd either stare at them with curiosity or let out a cute laugh. It was fun.

Overall, the night was a sweet success. We ended it by cuddling on the couch to watch some dish.t

Two Graduation Parties In A Row

We have two members of the family that will graduate on the end of this month; my husband’s sister (Bobbie) and his son (Ean), too. That would mean two graduation party celebrations. I bought some materials yesterday for greeting card-making from Wal-mart. I am very happy to do it for them. We are now in the process of planning for their graduation party. They deserve a sweet ending after all those that they have been through.
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We will be renting a place for the location of the graduation party. And we will decorate the place with black & white sash or crepe papers. Their invitation cards are all set and ready for mailing. Foods and drinks are all carefully planned, too. Oh no, I almost forgot the “give-aways”. Anyway, I still have enough time to do so.
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This is the design of the cake that we think we will be ordering for them. Isn’t this perfect for the graduates? A 2-tier honor roll cake for the straight "A" student. We will create an inter-active photo album and a space for the guests and visitors to sign up, too. Oh, this is really exciting and I will keep looking for great ideas.
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For your graduation party ideas , let Celebrations.com help you. They have a lot of creative ideas to inspire you, whether you're buying your cake from a bakery, decorating a plain store-bought cake, or making your graduation party sweets at home; you can find them there.