From time to time, i will be posting some letters i wrote to my son to document important events which he might probably not remember when he's older. So bear with me as some of these are very old letters.

Here's one which was written last month:

November 19, 2007

Dear Vince,

We spent the weekend in the city because Mama’s cousins were visiting from the province. Those who came were Tita Layling, Tita Riza, Tito Em, Tita Bing and Butchik.

We met up Saturday afternoon at the mall and we had pizza for dinner. Afterwards, your Tita’s treated you and butchik to the funrides and then we went around the mall a bit.

When we got home, we decided to have a round of drinks but you did not allow Mama to join them so we just slept early while the titas stayed awake until 3am. We all slept in our room and woke up around 8am of Sunday to heavy rain. We decided to stay home and pig out.

At midday, Tito Em arrived and grilled some fish, pork and pork liver for our lunch. Tita Bing and Butchik followed later bringing a huge choco cake roll. After lunch, we had some siesta and woke up again to eat snacks.

Too bad we had to leave Sunday night because Mama was scheduled to attend the Monday 4am meeting at the office again.

It was another of those memorable and worthwhile times spent with family. It is even made more special because Tito Em is mama’s closest cousin. We practically grew up together and it is heartwarming to see that our kids, you and butchik are growing close, too.

December 1, 2007 Full Friday

We went down to the city yesterday to join my sisters for the holiday. The day started with a visit to the parlor to have our toe nails done, then we had a sumptuous lunch and proceeded to the mall.

Having known that my December weekends will be filled with holiday activities and parties, I took advantage of the Nov 30 holiday to do some early Christmas shopping. And what a relief it was that for the very first time, I have completed about 90% of my shopping list before December!

For this year, I will be giving out books to my inaanaks. The idea came about because we have made an agreement with Vince not to buy anymore toys while there is still more than enough that he can alternately play with. Instead, we will be buying more books for him. He was amazed at the number of toys on display at the malls yesterday but I very gently but firmly reminded him of our agreement. Good thing he did not insist and just kept quiet when I said we will buy toys when he has saved enough money for it. This rule also applied to his Tita who gave Vince his Bible Stories book yesterday instead of the usual toys and clothes.

When we arrived home from the mall, a cousin from the province called to inform us that our cousin-in-law passed away three days ago and they were at one of the city’s funeral parlors for the wake. We hurriedly joined them and met more relatives, some of whom we have met for the first time. It was sad that we met under such sad circumstances. Hopefully, they can join us in the family reunion during the holidays.