WEEKEND RECAP:

Wow... what a weekend!

We celebrated my son's 1-year birthday this weekend at nearby PF Chang's... 20 kids and 30 adults! *phew!!* But all the running around started earlier in the week. See, we didn't decide to have a party for Jacob until last week (such bad parents, right?). =T So while fighting off a cold that the birthday-boy himself was kind enough to share with the rest of us, we managed to secure a restaurant, send out a handful of invitations to a few local friends here, then CHANGE the location to another restaurant (mentioned above), RE-send invitations (followed up by phone calls), then prepare the house for some stay-over guests (my brother Paul and his family, my other brother Larry, and BOTH moms from the Bay Area)!!

DeGuzman Family November 2006

My older brother arrived Thursday night, then I went to pick up my kid brother at the airport on Friday afternoon. HieRan's mom arrived on Saturday morning, then I went back to the airport to pick up MY mom later that afternoon (after Mia's soccer game). The event took place on Sunday at noon-30. Before all of us heading out, our ranks were increased by 3 with the arrival of HieRan's sisters and Uncle Alvin (well, my kid's "uncle"... not mine). So we all swarmed PF Chang's (I hope they appreciate all the free advertising I'm doing here... *ahem*), and got the outdoor patio set up for our guests. The service was excellent, by the way. If we ever have to do another event of this magnitude I would gladly have it there again. Everything went off without a hitch - it was great, and the food was way better than I expected.

I think my family members were surprised at how many of our friends came to join us. I have to say that in the past 2 years we've been down here, we have been fortunate to find friends such as these. I found myself telling my family again and again that these are the kinds of friends you only hope to meet when you move to a new city. HieRan and I would even go as far as saying that we would trust them with our own kids - yes, they are THAT special a group to us. I only hope they ate enough at the party! But everyone did seem to enjoy Jacob's 1 year celebration, even the Korean tradition that he performed later that day.

It's my understanding that in the Korean culture, for a child to make it to his (or her) 1st birthday it's a milestone. With infant mortality rates being as high as they were back in the olden days, they make 1st year b-days as big a celebration as a wedding... no lie. As one of the traditions, the 1-year old is placed in front of 3 objects of which he chooses one at a time. The items are symbolic: a pen (for education), money (for wealth), and a spool of thread (for a long life). When it was time for Jacob to choose, (mind you I don't personally subscribe to this belief - so this was more for my wife and her family... still, it was neat to see what he'd pick), and he chose the following:

1st - the pen
2nd - the spool of thread
3rd - the money

So I don't know the exact interpretation here, but if he's going to be smart (first), and have a long-life (second), then he better find a way finance his own lifestyle without mooching off of US!!! (heh - j/k kiddo!) And then he grabbed at his cake (which turned his entire hand blue thanks to the blue icing). Yeah, that was a lot of fun to clean off!! We DID order a personal-size cake for him to tear into... and he totally dug into it!! That's my boy!



After the party we paid the bill, said good-bye (and thank you) to our guests, then headed home. You'd think we could just get home and go right to bed, ya? Ha HA! Ya-RITE!! We invited more of my extended family to our place... my cousins and their families. At our peak, we had... let's see... counting it up in my head here... we had 25 people in our house!!!!

Good thing we had plenty of leftovers from PF Chang's, BABY!!!!

So now the weekend has come and gone - two more houseguests to transport to the airport, then it will be just the 4 of us once again. My mom leaves tomorrow morning, then dad *sadly* heads back home to the Philippines on Wednesday night. He's been here for about 3 months, and his visit STILL seems too short. HieRan, Mia, Jacob, and I look forward to his next visit.... okay dad? =)