Mom’s day!

Last December 1 was my mom’s day and the start of ALL celebrations in our family in this festive and expensive (haha) December (this month is what I’ve been panicking about since September!). They came here from the province (just a 4-hour drive) to celebrate her birthday with her unica hija. Well, if I knew better, it’s just because there are finer restaurants here (peace mommy!).

And so, according to her wishes, we celebrated her birthday in Greenhills. We rarely go there nowadays since we are now staying in Paranaque (we used to stay in Katipunan), and she loves the place—the bargain shops and the restaurants in Promenade.

I fell asleep on the way there so I did not notice if there was traffic, but we had to wait for about 15 to 20 minutes to park. All the parking spaces are full, and you can only park once a car leaves. We ate pizza for snack, then it’s bargain hunting! She and dad went together to look for clothes and shoes for mom. Poor dad, mom really takes a looonnng time to choose anything, only to buy the first one she chose. haha. I and our family’s extension members (eks and pedro) strolled the hallways of Shoppesville, with eks looking for girls in skimpy shorts (joke!) and I just looking around. Fortunately (unfortunately, really), I found a shirt and a dress (yes, kooonin, I’m a girl! :p) that I like. I bought the shirt right away. But I had much deliberation on the dress, and from the approval of the two boys, I also bought it. And the whole budget for this month is officially ruined. haha. In my defense, it’s rare that I find a dress that I like!

After 2 hours of shopping and window shopping, we met up with my parents. Guess what? Mom wasn’t able to buy anything. haha. She said there were few clothes to choose from because of the Thailand problems, etc. I knew it! So, we headed up to Promenade to choose from the restaurants there. Again, there was a discussion of where to eat, but we all agreed to eat at Burgoo because it has credit card promos there. Practicality comes first.

Initially, the staff were firm that they could not split our bill for us to get two promos (one from HSBC and one from Citibank), but with my mom’s miraculous convincing power, they conceded.

That’s my hand computing in the table with crayons the best way to split the bill to get the best deal! After that, eks and I played XOX while Pedro drew figures.

With a bill of at least 1,000 pesos, you get this 500-peso-worth grilled salmon for free!

This is the grilled porkchop free from HSBC. You can get this if you purchase a meal with the same price or higher.

This is what the five of us ate: grilled porkchop, seafood jambalaya, N’ Alins platter (chicken, mushroom, shrimp), grilled salmon, chicken fajitas, and chicken barbecue.

The meals were delicious. Mom enjoyed them. She was really happy when the crew sang her their birthday song and gave her a free ice cream. It was one of those times when she gets delighted by these little things. When she blew the candle in the ice cream, she wished for a good, good, good, good, good health for us, and I’m wishing that she and dad, as well as all my loved ones, get that. It was really a good day for us, simple but happy. She was happy, and I was happy that she was.

Presenting the birthday girl and dad (mommy gets really annoyed every time daddy refuses to have his hair dyed black)