Filipino party style

It was the biggest combo party I'd ever gone to. My parents threw a party that consisted of two siginificant birthday years, two retirements, and a super thanksgiving party to all the friends and family who had gotten my parents to this point.

The MC, whose name I'll place here as soon as I find out what it is, is an old pro who did an aunt's 40th wedding anniversary 10 years ago, and my cousin's wedding a couple of months ago. An excellent singer, he serenade my parents with "My Way" and another song favorite for my grandmother, who he said doesn't look a day over 56, while she danced with my uncle. While choosing which tables go up to the buffet first, he had a couple of them sing for their supper with table singing of Happy Birthday and the number 1 table chanting, "we're No.1! we're No.1" but they were really the 6th table called.

The party was mostly "close" family with several tables of City of Oakland employees where my retired from, and a few tables of second cousins who come out to all the big parties. 15 tables in all.

It was held at "The Banquet" in Vallejo next to Seafood City in the mall on Sonoma Blvd and Redrood Rd, where half the guests got lost due to roundabout yahoo directions. The Filipino food spread was excellent! We didn't mention to the vegetarians that the vegetable dishes were cooked with the Filipino secret ingredient of pork. Because when you tell a Filipino you only eat vegetables, they just assume that so long as you can't see the meat hidden amongst all the vegetables, then that's a vegetarian dish. And even when you can't spot the tiny pieces of pork, you'll never be able to find the crushed chicharones (fried pork skin)added for flavor.

My cousins came up with their newborn, who is so big and such a cutie. She got passed around alot and I'm sure she was wondering who all these people were. My sister-in-law thought she was really big. Well, I said you had two of these, and she only had one. If you add the twins weight, I'm sure they're bigger than her.

My brother-in-law and hubby set up their photo studio in the lobby. The lighting set up was fantastic! Could even catch the hair highlights against a black background. Plus got two gigs later this year, possibly three. The family knows it's photogenic and never misses an opportunity to have its picture taken. Good thing I married into family who enjoys taking pictures!

Other cousins filled the entertainment program. The littlest cousin giving us three costume changes and three different hula, polynesian and tahitian dances. My brother sang Joey Ayala's Ultimo Adios a capella and gave it a more concert singer flair. The MC called him the Singing Engineer for the rest of the night, to which all the engineers in the crowd were quite amused, because really how many engineers sing? Another cousin had some technical difficulties with the karaoke mic but got through it to sing a Tagalog love song.

After that it was dancing and pictures and hanging out. It was good to see one of my older second cousins hit the dance floor to Cha-Cha Slide which looks like a mix of "Simon says" and "Dance, Dance, Revolution" video game. I still don't know what it means to "Charlie Brown" as the song instructs.

Late in the evening when it was just a handful of families left, the dj hit a Filipino music montage that went from otso-otso, macarena, then sex bomb when they blew a bit of a fuse. Goes to show that too many Philippine gimic songs in a row might break your equipment. When they finally got it back up, only my cousin's daughter took the dance floor. She had this dazed look on her face as if wondering why everyone else wasn't on the dance floor. It was fun watching the other little girls watch the ballroom dance on the dance floor.

My cousin's son, Shaolin, was his hyper headcrashing self. Only lifting him upside down gets him settled. At one point I had him over my shoulder holding onto one of his feet, so he couldn't wrestle himself out of it. I spoke with another cousin's wife who said her eldest son was just like that his age, who also got his head stuck in a banister and has scars on his head. I mentioned to Shaolin's mom, you see that tall handsome lad over there, his mom tells me he was the same way. I think she was relieved to know that 1) her son would survive this stage and 2) she had a chance of surviving this stage.

More family festivities today for the post-party party where we eat leftovers and really get with the tsismis.