family day

saturday was mom's birthday and we decided to go out and have lunch. we finally managed to convince my brother to go with us and despite all our differences, it was great to go out as a family. it is during these rare ocassions when we hang out together that our family feels more "normal." we decided to go to mall of asia for lunch mostly because we wanted to check out the bazaar at the world trade center after. during the drive, my nephew was all smiles and excited not only because he loves going out but because he had most of the family with him that day. i wondered if there was a lot of people out there who wished they had a different family. when i was younger, i always dreamed about having the perfect family and what probably amounted to at that time a perfect life for me. looking back, i realize how foolish those thoughts are - and despite the problems and the burdens, i have this family for a reason.

it was quite a challenge figuring out where to have lunch - we did not really plan on anything extravagant that day so we just settled for a quick bite at terriyaki boy. i like terriyaki boy - terriyaki chicken is probably one of the my most favorite things to eat (lol!). quite honestly though, i don't really get why mom loves ebi tempura so much because i find it quite bland and tasteless most of the time. we roamed around for a bit when we finally chanced upon the SM appliance store and i invited everyone to come and check refs and gas ranges. i was thinking about buying the family a new gas range since we recently found a passion for cooking and after 30+ years of service, our gas range needed to retire. the gas range that i really dream of is pretty expensive and pretty big and since i have been taking care of the family expenses, it wasn't a wise choice to buy the dream. so i settled for something probably 1/2 of the cost but still was gorgeous enough to fuel our passion for cooking. maybe when we have a bigger house then we can replace it - teehee.

when we passed by the trade center it was packed and we couldn't even find any parking space so we decided that going was not worth it - at least that day so we decided instead to have our weekly trip to S&R. we bought stuff for lumpiang shanghai, home-made sausages and barbecue pork ribs. yum! its 15 days before christmas, 21 more before the year ends. look how fast time flies and the merriest month of the whole year is going to end soon. its probably better to enjoy december while its here but i can't help but feel a small pang of regret about the days passing by so soon. i probably wouldn't mind being trapped in an endless december - christmas, then new year then christmas again. work 2 wks, then christmas holidays the next 2 weeks. then start all over again. back to reality, we need to start planning for our christmas dinner - i'm so excited to start cooking in our new gas range. hihihi ang babaw di ba?