Months before my birthday, I initially planned to bring my family to Tagaytay for an overnight staycation and lunch at a Filipino restaurant with an overlooking of the Taal Lake. But the unexpected surgery happened and made me change my plans to a simpler one since I cannot afford to travel yet.

Realizing that I haven’t brought to my family to any Bistro restaurant yet, I had this desire of taking them to Italianni’s to celebrate my birthday. I had good experiences with Italianni’s in the past with their excellent service and delicious food, so I wanted my family to experience it at least once. I just chose the one in Bonifacio Highstreet so we wouldn’t be stressed with the rush hour traffic.

Family dinner at Italianni’s

I took a leave from work and waited for dinner time with my family. My sister has work in the morning and my family had errands in the day to take care of. If the celebration falls on a weekday, we usually hold dinners in the evening. My family loves to eat in restaurants to celebrate occasions because my mom loves to capture memories with everyone dressed up. They also dislike the idea of getting exhausted of cooking the whole day. My mom gifted me with a two-tone gold earrings from The Jeweller which made me teary-eyed with the note attached to it.

Thanks, Mom for the earrings!

It’s good that my family liked the food and service despite waiting for almost half an hour to be seated. I will write another post about my dining experience with Italianni’s soon. It was a memorable birthday dinner for me.

With Lola and Carl, my sister’s boyfriend

Celebrations with Friends

I am blessed to have friends who insist doing a mini celebration with me either before or after my special day.

Three days before my actual birthday, my two best buddies from church planned a dinner with me after our Sunday service. I chose Modern Shanghai as our venue since the food is good for group sharing and the prices are reasonable. Not only we did enjoy the food and service, we enjoyed each other’s company. I particularly appreciated this quality time of catching up with each other despite our changed responsibilities, hectic schedules, and whatever we may be going through at present. They gave me a beautiful cake from Hearts and Bells which I appreciated very much. The crew even sang a birthday song for me which made it even more special. Thank you Jem, Helen, Jun and baby Amara!

Dinner at Modern Shang with the gang
Chinese food at Modern Shang
With Helen and Jem: my two soul sisters
Thank you for this luscious Mocha Cake!

This weekend, Kit and I agreed to meet up in BGC after her trip in Malaysia. We dined in Samgyuniku in Uptown Mall and had coffee in Key Coffee after. I appreciate that she always sees to it to see me after my birthday to celebrate over simple food and give her presents. This year, she gave me a blush-on from a famous make-up brand in Japan, Kate Tokyo. We updated each other with the recent happenings in our families, careers, and travel plans. What I like about our catch-ups is that we are always drawn to relating our experiences with Christian values and anchoring them to the purposes God has intended for us whether in blessings or challenges.

Late lunch at Samgyuniku
Mandatory whole body shot 😁

Birthday Realizations

I told Kit that although I just had a simple celebration, (just dinner with family and friends) and I was not expecting grand gestures from people, it’s the joy and peace that comes from within that made it extraordinary for me. It’s realizing that my happiness does not rely on circumstances or material things, it’s from the love of God and the people around that makes all the difference.

I am just thankful that I had a huge progress in my recovery and was able to get back to work two weeks ago.

Thirty six years of unmatched grace, forgiveness, and love from the Father above.