Reuel's 31st Birthday

We celebrated Reuel's 31st birthday last week at our house. My original plan is to invite his family without him knowing so we could surprise him with the 5 adjective words that best describe him (which I ask my in-laws to prepare) and have a simple yet worth remembering birthday celebration that he would ever had because this is the first time that we will celebrate his special day since we got married. However, his rendezvous with his friends fall on the same date that I scheduled the lunch thus, I don't really have the option but to tell him about the afternoon meal with his family so he could cancel their get together for our family activity.

Since the lunch is a simple one, I decided to cook chicken teriyaki and pearl balls (from Connie Veneracion's online recipe) as the main entree and a blueberry cheesecake (recipe is from the box of cream cheese) as the final course. I wasn't able to take photos of the food as everyone is in a hurry to eat because most of them are late. We were able to eat the lunch at 2pm.Imagine how starved we were.

The lunch was successful and one of my sisters-in-law (Annabelle) requested that we do the pearl balls again in New Year's Eve and if we could celebrate Gabee's 2nd birthday (my younger son) and hers together on November 1. I think that's how good and fun it was.

Anyway, the supposedly lunch only celebration was extended to merienda (afternoon snack), to dinner and even breakfast on the following morning because everyone are indulge in surfing the net, watching movies and bantering that no one grasp the time. Palitaw is what I cooked for merienda and Sinigang sa Miso na Maya-maya (Maya-maya belly sour soup in Miso) for dinner. The 5 adjective words that we prepare took off before the dinner. Here's the recap of how my in-laws describe Reuel:

Tatay - gwapo (good looking)
Christy - antukin (lethargic)
- sobrang bagal kumilos (slow-acting or sluggish when doing his thing)
Allan - mapagbigay na kuya (a giving brother)
- mabait (good-hearted)
- mabuting halimbawa (good example)
Annabelle - mabagal kumilos (sluggish)

Of course, I also gave mine, here it is:

R - responsible (not just with his family but with his work as well)
E - endurable (as long as he can bear the pains he will)
U - understanding (his perception or judgment of a situation is what I really admire)
E - encouraging (he always give me support on whatever I want to do)
L - Loving husband and father ( do I need to elaborate this?!)
&
I - indispensable (oh, he's absolutely necessary for me to keep going in life.)


And because we ended up late, we offered Annabelle and Christy (my sisters-in-law) and her family to spend the night with us since commuting on that time is unamicable for them.

Overall, Reuel's birthday is indeed a successful one. Thanks to my in-laws for partaking in the celebration. I hope I have pictures to share here but I was not able to shoot pictures of everything. Next time, Im gonna take pictures.

To end this, let me share you our small talk in the day of his birthday (Oct.2) as I would never ever forget that day in my/our life. Right after he awoke I greeted him and asked this question, “How’s the feeling of being 31?” and he answered with a gloomy face, “Ayaw ko’ng tumanda. Naalala ko noon si tatay ang nagcelebrate ng ika-31st birthday, ngaun ako na.” (translated as “I don’t like to grow old. I remember then daddy celebrated his 31st birthday and now its my turn.”) I don’t know how to react that moment and I commiserated about what he feels. I just told him that I am always here for him. So, I am giving the following verses in the bible for you, Mahal:

Proverbs 17: 6 (KJV)“Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.”

Proverbs 20:29 (KJV)“The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the gray head.”

Mahal, if we would base our definition of being ‘old’ in the bible, you still don’t belong to the oldies. So cheer up!