Sunday, April 30, 2017

Nanay's 90th birthday

What a momentous occasion this was. My grandmother Nanay turned 90 and our family gathered together to celebrate this incredible milestone. I helped my tita organize and we agreed that we would keep the celebration simple since Nanay herself didn't want something too grand. We chose Relish in Tomas Morato as our party venue. I had taken Nanay to Relish before so I suggested a few menu items that I know she enjoyed so we could include them in our buffet spread. Despite having the party on a Friday night, a lot of our relatives were able to join us.


We didn't really have a program planned but a few days before the event, my mom asked me to put together a video that we could show during the party. My brother gathered some old pictures from Nanay's photo albums and I of course had a ton of pictures with Nanay, a lot of them during local and even international trips that we had taken with her. I am not handy at all when it comes to making and editing videos and I just used Windows Media Maker to showcase the photos we have. My mom also told me to use the kundiman song "Minamahal Kita" as background music since this was the love song that Nanay and Tatay used to sing to each other when Tatay was still alive. Despite my very amateurish effort and the grainy quality of the pics, the video was very well-received, mainly because we had some really obscure photos that included relatives and friends in their younger years. Everyone actually asked me to play the video again so they could take another look at the pictures. I ended up projecting the raw photos on screen after the second video screening so people could actually look at and identify each person in each picture.

I did have one big miss. I ordered a cake from Earnest Bakes but I very stupidly confirmed the wrong delivery date. Such a bad error on my part!!! Thankfully, one of my aunts and my cousin were staying with Nanay that weekend so my mom and I brought the cake along with some food to Nanay's house so that we could have a second (albeit impromptu) celebration to make the cake presentation a bit more special. We naturally took lots of pictures. I have to say, Earnest Bakes put together a truly amazing and beautiful work-of-art. I also love that the fondant figure actually resembles Nanay!

Cake by Earnest Bake

What I am very happy about and thankful for is that Nanay is still quite healthy and mentally sharp. She remembers, and is often the best person to ask about, people's birthdays and anniversaries. She still has a lot of landline numbers memorized. When I visit her during the weekend, she will normally remind me about certain things that need to be done or tell me to remind my mom about some important matters. From a physical standpoint, she can also still walk without a cane. Nanay is my only grandparent who is still alive and I am thankful that we are still able to have many wonderful moments with her.

Happy 90th birthday, Nanay!

No comments: