Post-Christmas Catch-ups

For the second year in a row, my family and I had Sunday brunch at the Peninsula Manila. We do this for a several reasons. First, I have Manila Pen membership and one of my vouchers gives me 50% off on Sunday brunch at Escolta. Second, it's nice to get the family out once in a while and enjoy a lavish spread of delicious food in a lovely setting. Third, celebrating like this towards the end of the holiday season feels like the best time to do it. We get to avoid the craziness of Yuletide rush but it still feels very festive. In fact, the Manila Pen lobby was still beautifully decorated with Christmas decor. And finally, my nephew's birthday is also around this time so we get to have two celebrations in one.

Peninsula Manila lobby

As always, the food at the buffet was grand. Also, the dessert spread still had a holiday vibe. There were gingerbread houses with Santa and Christmas trees. There was panetonne, which is bread from Italy that is traditionally enjoyed during Christmas and New Year. And there was trifle, a traditional holiday dessert from the UK. I really loved the trifle. Actually, I loved our entire meal. We were all stuffed by the end of our Sunday brunch and it was great to be able to start 2026 with a bountiful feast.

Dessert spread at the Sunday brunch buffet at Escolta

I also got to catch up with my friends. For the first time in a while, I had dinner at Florabel in Estancia for post-Christmas dinner. My friend Pia always goes home to the province during the holiday season so we don't often get to see her during the Christmas get-together of our set of friends. As such, we normally meet up in January when she's back in Manila. It was also a pleasant surprise that our friend Celle joined us that evening. It's been years since I last hung out with Celle so it was great to catch up with her too.

Dinner at Florabel in Estancai

I then met up with my ex-teammates over dinner at Lugang Cafe. I randomly saw an ad on social media that said that elite BDO card holders can get 50% off at Lugang Cafe. Michelle had one, so we agreed to have dinner there before the promo ended. I actually also hadn't been to Lugang Cafe in ages but I have always loved the food here so I should try to eat here more often. I should definitely keep an eye out on their annual feast-all-you-can promo.

Finally, I got to have a couple of board game nights. I have two regular groups but there are five people that are in both of them, including Jovan who celebrated her birthday this month. For our first board game night of the year, we asked her what cake she wanted and she said she wanted Avocado Cheesecake from Lia's Cakes in Season. Unfortunately, we made a bit of a mistake in that we incorrectly ordered the Avocado Cake instead. We kinda felt bad that Jovan didn't get exactly what she wanted but since she would also be in that second board game night of the month, we got her an Avocado Cheesecake then. This also served as our post-Christmas get-together because this second board game group didn't get to meet up in December due to badly conflicting schedules. It really was great that we got to have a double celebration and enjoy a great cake along with it.