It's my mama's birthday this coming weekend and we initially planned to just have a simple celebration at home like cooking some special food and I'm going to buy her the cake she's been craving for. However, my Japanese little sister, Yui and her family are going back to Japan on Saturday, so mama asked me if we could celebrate her birthday together with them.
Yui's family's free time was yesterday because from today, they'll be staying in a hotel near the airport until they're departure this weekend. We invited them over as we originally agreed on, but we didn't tell them it was mama's birthday celebration as well. Yui might be pressured to get mama something if we did so, so it's just the usual family dinner we have together.
Last time, it was just Yui and her baby who came over. You may check my previous blog --> HERE. This time, she's with baby Kairi and also Maki, her Filipino husband. <3 So, it's indeed our small family reunion.
Yaaaay! It's our first family picture with baby Kairi. We had our family picture years ago with Yui and Maki before they left for Japan in 2018.
When they knew it was mama's advance birthday celebration, they automatically sang her a birthday song. haha Baby Kairi also danced for his lola which made mama very happy.
We talked about a lot of things like their life in Japan, how they felt about visiting the Philippines... and it's just so interesting. There's this one thing that they pointed out which made me realize that the Philippines have a bit of a toxic culture especially in terms of family abroad visiting them.
It's quite sad to hear about it, but it does make sense. Yui told us she's happy and feels at home when she visits our place because it reminds her of her mother and sister in Japan... and that our way of accepting visitors is like Japanese omotenashi or the culture of hospitality in Japan. Maki also shared his fun and also stressful or depressing stories about his experiences both in Japan and upon visiting here.
Being an only child, I'm glad to have these two as my younger siblings. I'm happy that they're able to confide and tell me both their happy and not-so-happy things. I'm also able to open up with them easily like they're my real family, too.
Despite not knowing mama's birthday, they brought this box of donuts for us to share. Such thoughtful people. It was delicious but too sweet for me. haha Mama and especially Papa would definitely enjoy these treats.
We prepared mama's specialty "Humba" as called in Cebu, but "adobo" in other places. haha Mama's humba is really delicious that all my friends crave for it. The same went for Yui and Maki. They were curious about mama's recipe... and I don't blame them. It's really good.
As for me and baby Kairi, we enjoyed spaghetti a lot. Kairi was so funny because he was too eager to eat that he almost cried trying to tell his papa that he wants to eat. haha
Mama has always been craving for this Mano Cream cake from Cardinal bakeshop. Since the first time she saw the picture of this cake in the bakeshop's Facebook page, she shared it to me and papa because she's really curious about it. She loves mango cakes, so she wanted to try this as well.
It was pricier than the other cakes from that bakeshop, but it was worth it. It wasn't too sweet, it's so fluffy and the mango was perfect... it also blended perfectly with the cream. I'm glad I could satisfy mama's craving for this cake on her special day... well a few days in advance that is. lol
All in all, we had a fantastic time together. We won't be seeing Yui and her family in person for the next few years because it's costly to travel and she might start working again, so taking a long vacation would be very challenging. We'll definitely keep in touch like always, though. They're my friends who I chose to be a part of my family... and they feel the same. Though it might take some time, but I'm already looking forward to spending time with them again. :)
I'll end this post here. Thanks a lot for checking it out. See you around! (^^,)/
Felix cumpleaños, un fuerte abrazo y que la siga pasando súper bien.
Thank you very much... 🥰🥰🥰
Yay! 🤗
Your content has been boosted with Ecency Points, by @tegoshei.
Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!
Support Ecency
Vote for new Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more
Traveling far and wide has these benefits, just to be able to see family is great, and spent time with them, it is worth any amount of fuel and planes, great photos, and i know im kind of late but Happy bday <3 to your mom :)
That's so true... It's always worth it when it comes to family... 🥰🥰🥰 And don't worry, her birthday is still on the 6th, so you're not late... 😁😁😁
Hope she gets my good wishes in that case :)
For sure she will... 😁😁😁