Bel-Air Neighbors Christmas Party

Everybody has been so busy during the holiday season so we decided to have our Christmas party last December 28.

Everybody = Mia, Babita, Lia, Tricia
                      Pudgy, Mabel, Cat, Shey

Babita was generous enough to allow us to have the party in her house.  Thank you!

Shey was our official photographer and she made a very nice video of the night's happening.  I really love it! Thank you, Shey!

Will share it here in my blog.

Bel-Air Neighbors Xmas Party Video

We were not able to take photos of the food because we were so excited.

Tricia brought the artichoke dip.

Pudgy's brought the bread for the dip.

Baked prawns from Mabel.

Shey cooked meatloaf!

Babita served chinese ham.

Cat bought Mango Torte from Cuervas.

I wanted to bring Galantina but holiday food was already coming out of my ears!  Hahaha.

So instead, I brought Spicy Thai Sausage and Cucumber Salad.

450 gr. Thai sausage
4 pcs. thin cucumbers
4 pcs. shallots, sliced into rings
6 pcs. bird's eye chile, chopped
1 bunch of wansuy, chopped coarsely

Dressing
3 Tb. lime juice
2 Tb. Thai fish sauce
1 Tb. white sugar
1 Tb. cane vinegar

Bake the sausage in the oven or oven toaster for 8 minutes or until oil comes out.  Be careful of the timing because it burns easily.

Slice the sausage diagonally then set aside to cool.

Peel the cucumber, then deseed. Slice the cucumber and put in a salad bowl.

Add the shallots, chili and wansuy.

Mix the ingredients for the dressing in a bowl then pour over the salad.

Lastly, add the sausage and toss the salad.

Batgirls in Bataan

The batgirls, Jing, Mariger, Mona and Lia together with Lisa, Batman (Jon) and Robin (Sherman) had a Christmas celebration in Bataan.

The kids were also with us. James, Michael, Mariel and Raile.

We left early in the morning. It was very cold in the van.

I brought my own little pillow and a blanket which I used to cover my head.

I thought I looked like the Virgin Mary.  But they said I looked like Mama Mary on Steroids!

Hahahahaha I really do have funny friends.

We arrived in Bataan at 11:30!

The breakfast became brunch. We had Fried Okoy from the market.

Tocino and red eggs.

I really love the tocino from Balanga Public Market!  I will buy the next time I go there.

Tinapang bangus. (not in photo.)

After brunch I already cooked the Sinampalukan Hipon.  Mayette bought live suahe.

Since we were still full from brunch, we went to Mt. Samat.

I did not go with them to the museum because it was drizzling and foggy so I just stayed in the van.

We went to the market to buy tinapa, tuyo and Geno's ice cream.  Jing and I shared the 1 gallon mais keso ice cream.

I was able to buy the baby Coke Zero!

The mom of Lisa gave me 1 pack and I bought 2 packs from the market.

A very late merienda at Wanam's.  It was already past 5, I told the waiter to hurry because we were going to eat dinner at 7 pm.

Food we ordered on our end of the table.

Pancit Bihon

Lumpiang shanghai

Fried chicken

Mango shake

Thank you Sherman for the merienda treat!

We went back to Mayette's Forest Greens Farm to prepare dinner.  We just put salt on the pork tadyang, a special cut of meat in their market.

Our lovely table was set by Mayette.

Time to eat!

Sinampalukan Hipon

Grilled tadyang and talakitok

Grilled eggplant

We were very satisfied with our food.

My friends and I are easy to please.  We can have a simple fare and be ecstatic about it.

That's what I love about them.  We don't need fancy stuff nor food, we just need to be with each other and the happiness and fun factor are off the charts.

Thank you Mayette and Jon!

Merry christmas! I love you all!

Christmas With My Family 2017

Merry Christmas Snowball!

Hahahaha My immediate family is Snowball.

Then the rest are my extended family.

The celebration started on the 23rd. The birthday of PD, my Mom and Kuya.

PD and I had breakfast at Wildflour.

Then in the evening I had dinner with Kuya and his family at Dad's.

My Christmas Eve snack after mass.

The family always celebrates on the 25th.  I did not cook anything anymore except for Nilagang Baka. We just ordered a whole lechon.

After lunch everybody opened the gifts one at a time starting from the youngest to the eldest.

Renzo

Gilly

Sophie

Nicky

Lia

Suzette

Ate

Kuya

Butch

I already gave Snowball her presents when I got back from my trip so it was just photo ops for her.

She is checking out the Husky I gave her from Ikea, Bangkok.

Kids are getting bigger each year!  Time flies so fast!  We were very happy with our celebration this year.

Spending The Holiday Season With Friends

Tita J went home with me to Manila and our friends and her relatives spent time with her.

We went to Lotus Pod in Bae, Laguna.

Jodie, Cristina, Eric, Mona, Tita J, Lisa and Bernie

My favorite kind of lunch is a simple Filipino ihaw ihaw,

Inihaw na Liempo

Grilled Eggplant Salad

Pako Salad

Halabos na Hipon from Bangkok

Pinakbet cooked by Tita J

Inihaw na Tilapia (from the pond)

Mango Sago for dessert.

Mona also invited us to have breakfast at Casa Avancena in Alabang Hills.

Longanisa

Daing

Red egg salad

Banana cake

Fruit cake

Then it was Cristina turn to invite us to her house. 

She wanted to show Tita J the rooftop garden of Bernie.

I invited Bernie and Cristina to have lunch in my house the day after we arrived from Bangkok.

The next day, they treated us at Max's restaurant.

Jing's family also visited Tita J in the house. Tricia, Erik, James and Michael.

The night before, it was the turn of Bo and Millie to invite us in their condo at The Grove.

After Christmas, we had our Tiramisu dinner in Jodie's house in Paranaque. 

We just brought our Christmas leftovers (tira-tira) hence, Tiramisu!  This is already the 2nd year we have been doing it.

Good thing we were able to find time to spend time with each other in this busy and "trafficful" holiday season!

Merry Chistmas and a Happy New Year dear friends!

A lot of adventures await us in 2018!