Parties in review

Trying to take a breather from all the partying going on. I'm a bit surprised that people still find it in themselves to party despite of complaints of having too little cash this Chrsitmas. I have about 60 people on my Christmas list. I haven't bought one gift. With all the partying, I don't really have enough time to go shopping. And I really hate shopping when I know how little I can afford. So postponing Chrsitmas shopping till the last minute. I just had my braces adjusted with new wires yesterday so I'm in no mood for jolly Christmas. It's ... reeeeeeaaaaaallllly painful right now. Sigh. Anyway, here are some parties I've been to these last few days:

The Slaying of Sponge Bob My nephew turned ten and we organized a Sponge Bob Square Pants pool party for his 18 friends. Prepared games for the kids but couldn't get them out of the pool to play even just one game. So I ended up tossing wrapped pineapple candies on the pool for them to dive for. They were a noisy bunch but I think they had a good time. We gave away bubbles and lollipops that when pinched, flashlights the inside of your mouth. LOL. Anyway, this pic of the before and after of the cake. Poor Sponge Bob. He lost his pants ... and legs too.
House lights This pic gives new meaning to house lights. My cousins celebrated four occasions in one go: The birthdays of husband and wife, a successful career move of daughter, and the engagement of a couple. All that in one family. So I guess that explains the lights. :) They had an acoustic band playing on the side and the cool air made everything romantic. Somebody made them banner-like caricatures. Really funny but wasn't able to get a picture because a niece was playing with my camera. Maybe next time. We were missing a close relative. She didn't attend because of a huge spat between her husband and her borther. Felt really sad about it because she was always the life of the party. Holidays are no place for bad feelings.
Opening Salvo To mark the opening of the coming Dinagyang Festival, warriors paraded around town to the beat of drums and synchronized dancing. The Dinagyang Festival will be on the third weekend of January. Today, they just sort of felt the streets. It was raining but still they danced in unison. Looking forward to Dinagyang for all photos I'm going to take. And so nice to feel drumbeats this close ... even if they are actually from drums and not from beating hearts. :P
Wedding Remember the Miagao Church entry I posted a few months ago? About the guy who proposed to a friend of mine, publicly, in church, after mass? This is their wedding. And this is a shot of one of the flower girls. They celebrated it in the same church of course. When they kissed, we all released butterflies. :D Very lovely. Anyway, we spent the night out of town and danced the night away. I took both cameras with me. Missed the sunrise though. I just couldn't wake up earlty anymore.
Community Christmas Party Last year we had kids for the community Christmas party. This year we decided to adopt 33 people who we think really deserves a Christmas Party. Here they are dancing to the tune of Pinoy big brother. Inset photo show Manang Maxima, 52 years old, earns a living by making nipa sheets people use to make nipa houses. It's the only way she could feed her family. She enjoyed the party though and rewarded everyone with a toothless smile. Sent everyone home with bags of groceries and rice. This party has been the best one so far.