Growing Up .... or Older???

Getting ready for the party

We have experience when it comes to giving garden parties with a little rain. After all, when we had our 25^th anniversary party at Lake Hopatcong in New Jersey, it rained some – well, a bit more -- around 15 inches fell in that day – but the party was very successful.

So when it rained here, poured at times, the two days before Hans’ 70^th birthday party, we weren’t too worried. Our concern was needless – it was dry the whole time during the party, with the exception of a few drops early in the afternoon.

We had a guest book ready so friends could record their presence at this historic event – however, somebody moved the book and most guests did not bother. We’re not sure how many people attended – somewhere between 100 and 125. Also I’m not sure if they came to sing “happy birthday” or to take a good look at our recently completed house.

The first guest to arrive, in the morning, was one of my fraternity brothers who came by to drop off a case of black label – much appreciated later in the day. My godson came with his wife and two kids [and yaya/babysitter] right after lunch. The next set of guests included one from Calgary who’d arrived in Manila a week earlier with a suitcase full of nice steaks from Canada [good steaks hard hard to get here].

As usual, the guest list included a variety of people whose lives had intersected with ours – fraternity brothers and sorority sisters of Hans, a couple of former Folklorico Filipino members, some of Noel’s relatives, and some neighbors from Ponderosa.

We had arranged with one of our friends to bring a piano player so we had entertainment – during his breaks, some of our piano-playing friends filled in.

The food was catered and was OK but not something to write home about. In fact, after most of the guests had left, Noel noticed that the catering crew was not eating the catered food but seemed to prefer the adobo, menudo, and pancit Noel had prepared for the drivers [yes, many people come with drivers so you always have to have extra food prepared].

Since we live a more rural area known for its pineapples or pinya, we had arranged for a load of pinya for guests to take home as well as plenty of bananas or saging. Our drink options included buko juice or coconut milk thinking that a few of our city friends might appreciate that – we expected some to be left over but the juice was gone within the first hour of the party.

I didn’t have time to take pictures during the party – only a few during the setup. Several friends took lots of pictures and promised copies so we can upload them to the blog.