Ladybug Fondant Birthday Cake

Here you have it, folks: the end result of all those Wilton Cake Decorating classes I took during Spring. The reason why I even took them in the first place--to create my baby niece's First Birthday Cake!

I went with a Pink Ladybug theme, because she is our little ladybug! The top tier of the cake is strawberry and the bottom layer is dark chocolate. We had her party by the lake on the last holiday of the summer: Labor Day Weekend.

I must say that the Wilton Color Mist food color spray was a real time-saver on the base fondant! I didn't have to knead the yellow color into the fondant! I just sprayed away!

I made the gumpaste flowers a few days before the cake itself, as they need time to harden. I discovered that I could use the clear lid on our egg trays from Costco to hold the flowers in!

Now what should I learn next? Should I learn guitar? Wait, maybe ballroom dance? Ballroom dance to pop songs like they do in "Dancing With The Stars!"

Sandcastle Cake!

My baby niece turned 11 months old recently and I decided to do something summery for her monthly cake photo shoot: a sandcastle cake with fondant starfish and flags! Can you tell that I wear my heart on my....windows?!

Later this month, she'll be turning a year old! How time really flies. And every month since her first month, I've managed to bake something for her! I hope I don't disappoint with the first birthday cake!

We have mailed out baby invitations for her first birthday party, and we are planning a ladybug-themed event (because she is our lovely little ladybug!).

Patriotic Pugs (Plus a Cake!)

Wishing my fellow Americans a Safe, Spectaculiar and Special Fourth of July! These patriotic pugs were a scene-stealer in our town's Memorial Day parade last May, so I photographed them! How can one ignore these cute costumed canines?

And this is why I'm sharing this favorite photo to celebrate Photo Cache's 5th Blogoversary as well!

And in my efforts to continue the self-invented tradition of baking a cake each time my baby niece turned a month older, I humbly present my star-shaped red, white, and blue cake for her tenth month! This was hurriedly iced and decorated in about 30 minutes, and I was grateful for the Hershey's Kisses wrapped in blue foil that we had a bag of! I sprinkled blue and red over the white icing and drew random "fireworks" with the red icing (which I wished was redder).

Yup, my niece is a 10-month old Baby Firework!

Splendidly Splenda-fied!

We celebrated my mom's birthday the other weekend and I made a sugar-free cake just for her. The only "sinful" sugar on this cake are the icing flowers and icing greeting--the rest are guilt-free ingredients that will satisfy your sweet tooth!

The flowers were made out of home-made royal icing about three days prior to the actual occasion because royal icing can take days to harden. The yellow hearts are actually fondant which I had cut out with a cookie cutter then carefully perforated the edges with a decorating tool.

 

My cake isn't perfect for many reasons, a major one of which is hidden underneath that green frosting. When I removed the cake from the pan, parts of it got stuck in the metal that it partially broke. I remedied this cake catastrophe by "gluing" the broken cake back into place with icing. That's the thing with icing: you decorate with it and you can "camouflage" mistakes with it!

I love how the "drop flowers" turned out...they look like purple swirly asterisks in royal icing.

Royal icing can be a royal pain to create, but is royally rewarding in the end! Speaking of rewarding ends, our Flowers and Cake Design course will end this Monday after Easter with us bringing our final cakes filled with our favorite royal icing flowers and a basket-weave icing technique we'll be learning that night!

Litratong Pinoy #100: Freestyle (Frosting-style!)

I took my budding cake obsession to the next level by enrolling in cake decorating  classes last month! I was so happy to have done it (this was what my final class cake looked like) that I'm taking the next course this month: flower-making out of royal icing and fondant!

I am crazy about my baby niece that I celebrate every month she becomes older by baking and decorating a cake! This is what I made recently for her 7th month. I used a heart-shaped cake pan and a strawberry-flavored cake batter. I just went wild with the icing decorations, applying the techniques I learned with borders and leaves.

 

You might notice the LifeSaver candies I used as the flower base. I had sprinkled the number 7 with butterfly candy confetti. 

I am anxious about her upcoming first birthday. I want it to be a gorgeous cake! How fast time really flies especially when babies are involved...pretty soon she'll be graduating from the play pen to actual playground equipment!

Maligayang Ikatlong Anibersaryo sa Litratong Pinoy! Siyempre, dapat may cake!

It Takes Tea To Tango

A cup of tea is literally my cup of tea! I prefer tea over coffee, actually. I consider it my beverage for rejuvination. My cousin who's a Business student at NYU recently came back from a university-sponsored educational week-long trip to Buenos Aires and brought me these: Argentine tea with a souvenir tea cup made out of hollowed gourd and a tea infuser spoon!

I love the tango couple engraved on the cup! Buenos Regalos de Buenos Aires!

These are Guaymallen chocolate cookie sandwiches that are individually wrapped but come in a big bag. You will have a sweet tooth explosion because the chocolate sandwiches do have fillings!

Delicioso!

Balloon Birthday Cake

My cousin turned 18 this month and I eagerly created this birthday cake for him, applying the latest decorating techniques I learned in class using "dimensional icing."

Yes, I did say it was for a "he." I wasn't able to achieve a deeper shade of the green and purple as I had hoped when mixing the icing colors, so it ended up in these pastel hues instead. My cousin didn't mind!

Those are balloons with smiley faces, by the way. You can tell how frantic I was to finish the cake in time to bring it to the Chinese restaurant where we would gather for his birthday dinner that night.

I used three different decorating tips to put the borders. An expert cake decorator would probably sneer at the cake crumbs that are visible on the icing. We were taught that it means the frosting I applied wasn't thin enough, thereby allowing the cake's surface to stick to the spatula as I spread the icing.

I'm a beginner, cut me some slack! Or better yet, cut me some cake! Save the Sensa for later!

The lettering was done with Wilton Sparkle Gel icing tube. It adds instant sparkle to any cake! Am proud of my cake decorating improvement!

Oh, and I just signed up for next month's Wilton course: "Flowers and Cake Design!" That's one course away from the "Gum Paste and Fondant" course!

Christening Couture

My baby niece was recently christened, and of course, our family was all hyper-busy with the party preparations and make-shift accommodation our home provided for our guests from Chicago and Canada. As is the norm in Filipino christenings, my niece had more than a pair of godparents. She had a total of six godparents!

One of her godmothers ("Madrina" in Spanish, as my niece is half-Puerto Rican) gave her this cherubic Christening gown. If you look closely, there is an embroidered detail of Our Lady of Guadalupe on it. Isn't it just immaculate on her? And also, aren't her eyelashes just stunningly long?

Her gifts yielded a huge lot of gorgeous baby clothes enough to keep her fashionably up-to-date all summer long. We can't wait to get her in those stylish summer dresses that would let her drink in the sunshine more, as she's been mostly indoors because of winter. And let's not forget the beach!

Christening Cupcakes

There's a story, a celebration, behind every cake. These are the cupcakes I made for my baby niece's christening last Saturday. I only had one muffn pan to bake these cupcakes on, so I stayed up late baking batch after batch and adding swirls and Spring-themed sprinkles on top of each cupcake.

I had originally planned on using the Peeps marshmallows as cupcake toppers, as if they're sitting on a nest of frosting. I ditched the idea last minute and used the Peeps as decor instead.

I was excited to use the cupcake tower I had bought on clearance from Walmart after Valentine's Day. For a mere $5, this tower came with a lid, 6 icing bags and 3 decorating tips.

Last night's dinner at a Chinese restaurant had me pulling two fortunes from just one fortune cookie. The first said "You are gifted in many ways." The other said "You will be unusually successful in business." Could the heavens be telling me to open up a cake business? Baking franchises, maybe?

I'm so glad I signed up for the Wilton Basic Cake Decorating course this month. Best $17.50 I've ever spent for myself so far. Only two more Mondays until the course ends. But we're already given another discount coupon for the next courses if we're interested.

I see fondant in my future!

Ziggy-Zig Cake!

Remember that wildly catchy song by the Spice Girls "Wannabe?" Part of that song's lyrics inspired this blog title, "I really, really, really, really wanna Zigazig Ah! (Whatever that means!)" Ziggy-Zig Cake, voila!

This is my latest baking experiment with a Wilton Ziggy cake pan I acquired from Ebay. It's so vintage, it's literally as old as I am! I love this comic strip character. He has changed over the years, but I prefer the way he originally looked.

I made this Ziggy cake especially for my baby niece's 6th month. I'm proud of myself because it's the first time I used different colors of icing on the same cake. It's best to have white frosting on hand and a set of food colors. I scooped a certain portion of white frosting and mixed it in separate bowls with different food colorings to come up with orange and pink. Here is my niece admiring my oven-baked obra maestra:

Since Spring is just around the corner, we dressed her up in a flowery garb. Someday she might wear hip hop clothing if her dance-crazy uncle and aunt decide to teach her how to bust a move or two.

I used a butter-flavored cake batter but used vegetable margarine in the mix. This was how the cake looked like straight out of the oven:

Now smothered with colored frosting (pink and orange):

I drew in the outlines and facial features with Wilton sparkle gel icing, then sprinkled his shirt with round candy confetti, then outlined his thought cloud with Wilton two-colored tube of decorating icing.

So would you really, really, really wanna Ziggy-Zig bite?

Litratong Pinoy #95: Kaarawan (Birthday)

What's a birthday without a cake, right? This was my sister's birthday cake: Ube (Purple Yam) Macapuno from Red Ribbon Bakeshop in Jersey City. It's kind of a big deal to have ube-flavored cake around these parts, because that means having to drive 30 minutes just to order it. A milestone birthday definitely calls for this cake.

My sister turned 30 on Christmas Day. Yes, she has a Christmas Birthday. She doesn't like the fact that she gets one gift for both Christmas and her birthday.

The candle on this cake plays the birthday tune when you light it up. But with all the loud singing surrounding her prior to blowing her cake, the candle was virtually inaudible.

Remember that Jennifer Garner movie "13 Going On 30?" Her mantra there was "Thirty, Flirty and Thriving."

What's your favorite kind of cake?

Speaking of trenta, alam niyo bang may bagong size na ang Starbucks na kape dito? "Trenta." Yes, folks, pati Starbucks supersized na.

Ornament To Cherish That Moment

Aside from sending Christmas cards, I can go crazy with collecting Christmas tree ornaments, especially the ones that either bear the year or preserve a special memory.

To celebrate my baby niece's First Christmas, I bought this Rudolph-red giraffe ornament from a Carlton Store. Their holiday stuff were 50% off, so this cute ornament ended up being just $5.

And by some magical coincidence, I stumbled upon American Greetings' (which owns Carlton Cards) "Remember That Time Sweepstakes," in which you can upload a favorite personal story from 2010 in 1000 characters or less and have your friends vote for you. The three stories with the most number of votes each win a $100 Amazon gift card! (Contest open only to legal residents of the USA.)

I've never won a popularity-based online contest before. Had no luck with the Fossil Vintage Photo Contest and that New Jersey Photo Contest sponsored by a NJ insurance firm. It's hard to beg people to click on your link repeatedly (once daily until December 31st, 2010). It's even harder when the current top story is a 44-year-old who shares the late blossoming of a romance in her life. She now has almost 200 votes.

But then, who knows? I have to roll the dice, right? With your help, I might get lucky! Please click the VOTE button on the left of my entry called "Hello, Aunthood!" It's my personal highlight this year. I had to trim down the details to a mere 1000 characters. The long version was orinally blogged here.

Thank you so much for taking the time to vote for little old me!

Greatly Grateful

Twas the night before Thanksgiving, when all through the house,

Lots of ladles were stirring, to cook perfect chows!

How do you like my rephrased holiday poem? It popped in my head while shopping for stuffing ingredients.

My sister's carrot cake is better than mine because she bakes it from scratch, meaning, it's not from instant cake mix. There are real carrot bits, walnuts, crushed pineapple, cream cheese and carefully measured sugar and flour involved. However, my contribution to this confection is the gel icing lettering. It shimmers slightly in the light!

Yesterday, we celebrated our family's Thanksgiving a day early with dinner at our aunt's house because most will be working on Turkey Day itself. I made the stuffing which complemented the 18-lb. turkey, pineapple-glazed ham, cranberry, pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes. We were so stuffed that I secretly wished for

phentermine diet pills for dessert. But this carrot cake was the more delicious choice!

A surprise Thanksgiving treat we got from my nine-year-old cousin was getting Jello-based facials after the feast. Nearly everyone tried her treatment for free last night! She claims to have learned the method from Youtube.  It looks like we have a budding beautician in the family!

Despite the turkey's sleep-inducing effect, this Thanksgiving got me to reflect on the things I'm thankful for. Last year, I spent Thanksgiving Eve & Thanksgiving Day at the hospital watching over my then very sick grandfather (God bless his soul). I was in the ICU by his bedside while we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV, then later that night saw Efren Penaflorida win CNN Hero of the Year. I told him that the winner is Filipino. He just stared at the screen mutely, because he could no longer speak. When one of his doctors came to visit him that Thanksgiving morning, she was surprised that someone was by his side on that holiday. She told me how lucky he was to have me for family.

I miss him dearly, but this year we're thankful for my baby niece who celebrated her first Thanksgiving, delighting our family with the more distinct baby sounds she now makes. I am thankful for the wonderful experience of witnessing her birth. A baby is a symbol of hope and pure innocence. Her arrival has certainly inspired me to bake and take better pictures.

I am thankful for family and friends who make life interesting and worth living. I am thankful for the trip we had to the Philippines last summer which was a memorable reunion of sorts enhanced by our hometown fiesta and a bit of Boracay.

Most of all, I'm thankful just to be alive.

All Souls' Day

Yesterday, my mom and I attended a special prayer service by our local parish at the cemetery where my grandfather was buried. I had made this bouquet of mum flowers the day prior. I picked the orange ones from our garden and placed them in this cornucopia-shaped basket which I got from the recent Fall Festival.

His first death anniversary will be this December. He had died from stroke, not Mesothelioma cancer. But it would be a year this November that he had that stroke that sent him to the hospital for three weeks until his death.

At this other cemetery where a family friend was buried, I noticed some unusual grave markers. Instead of tombstones, there were these marble benches with the name of their dearly departed engraved on the front, then a meaningful saying on the back, like this one. The message hit home for me, so I took a picture.

Mary Engelbreit Baby Outfits!

Mary Engelbreit (M.E.) is one of my favorite American artists who makes colorful stationery items tied with inspirational quotes. Imagine my gleeful surprise when I spotted these baby outfits designed by her at a Marshalls store...and they were even on clearance!

This design is of three glamorous pigs. I was looking for a dressy outfit for my baby niece to wear on her first month (which will be on the 29th). This outfit comes with a corduroy dress (perfect for fall!) with embroidered pigs, a long-sleeved pink onesie dotted with M.E.'s trademark rose blossoms, matching head garter (not in photo) and pink pants.

In case, you were wondering, Pig #3 is on the back side of the dress.

And there was another M.E. baby outfit! It's Little Bo Peep and her flock of sheep!

Blue birds will chirp around baby's leg! The pink gingham ribbons and lacy edges are just adorable! So girly!

Fortuitously fabulous finds on the baby aisle. It definitely made this aunt smile!

Paparazzi Aunt

That's what I've become eversince the day my niece was born. That was the day I believed in "love at first sight." I started making baby announcements the very next day, right in my sister's hospital room. I love mailing stuff, so this task was hardly a chore for me. I had to share this wonderful news to family here and abroad. Hey, not everyone's on Facebook!

My mom is loving grandmotherhood. I gave her this picture frame last Sunday, as it was her first ever Grandparent's Day celebration (an American holiday). She is an avid fan of the Filipino telenovela "Agua Bendita." Apparently, one of the lead characters there called her grandmother "Wowa," an affectionate variation of "Lola." Therefore, that's what she wants her granddaughter to call her.

My niece's name is Adrianna, by the way. Her parents named her after that Victoria's Secret model, Adrianna Lima. Babies are so blessed to not have to worry about body acne for a long time yet. Little Adrianna has plump lips which she got from her mother and long eyelashes which she got from her father.

You can bet that the baby aisle is now regularly part of my shopping itinerary.

Hello, Aunthood

My sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl at dawn on August 29th, Sunday. I was at the hospital since Saturday evening with my camera and baby memory book in tow ready to record that momentous event. Only two people were allowed inside the delivery room to witness the childbirth...I was one of them. Each person was given an exclusive wristband that said "COACH." It felt like having a VIP pass to a major concert. Indeed, it was major. Nay--"Major, major!"--to quote Miss Universe finalist Venus Raj.

My sister has always been the brave one. She also has a remarkably high tolerance for pain. She's okay with having her cavities filled without anesthesia. I'm super-sensitive that I actually beg for anesthesia even when the dentist cleans out the cavity prior to applying the filling.

She was dilating at 3 centimeters down there and she was still refusing the epidural anesthesia. "Epidural" is a horrific-sounding word that means being injected on your spine. Others would have already requested it at that point, but she was contemplating a normal delivery sans anesthesia.

When my mom spoke to her on the phone, she convinced her to take it. "It will help with the pain!" My sister considered it, and finally gave her consent to the nurse.

I stayed by the door to watch the anesthesiologist prick her from behind a few times. I feared my sister would scream in pain, but she remained calm and endured it all in silence, her face contorted by the foreign objects invading her back. But it was for her own good. When asked again afterwards how her pain was, she said she felt so much better. We knew it was going to be a long night.

The pushing commenced close to 2AM that Sunday. It was just the nurse assisting with the contractions. My sister's belly was strapped with monitors that detected each ebb of the contractions as they came, so that the nurse would know when to instruct the mother to breathe and push strategically.

The nurse's voice was soothing as she told my sister to "Pushpushpushpushpush! Push like you have to go to the bathroom!"

Now, my sister is an early sleeper, so all this pushing was way beyond her bedtime. She would later tell me that she was tired and sleepy at the time that when her contractions went away for a bit, she wanted to just doze off completely.

Around 3AM, she was making a huge progress. She was close to what they call "crowning," or when you can almost see the baby's head. When she reached that point, the nurse phoned the doctor to enter the room so she can formally deliver the baby.

What was funny during this time frame was that after all that laborious pushing, they told my sister to stop pushing so the baby won't come out before the doctor could properly set herself up with her tools and all. At this point, I could definitely see the crown of hair waiting to come out. The doctor quickly clothed herself in blue scrubs and settled in front of my sister.

When the baby's head came out, it was just a precious, life-changing sight to behold. I cried. I think I uttered, "OMG She's so pretty!"

And then her whole body came out. The doctor asked me where my camera was. I instantly remembered what I was there for. The doctor was so kind to direct me how to take the photos. "Take my picture holding the baby!" *Click*

"Uuuhaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

"Now here's baby meeting mommy for the first time!"  *Click, click*

It was my Nikita's shining moment.

Then I just started snapping away some more like the papparazzi aunt I've suddenly become.

Everything seemed to be a blur after that but I was mostly focused on the baby. The doctor saw my baby book and wrote a sweet message for the baby as well as the concluding notes on how successful the delivery went. She complimented my sister for being the "perfect patient": she stuck to her pregnancy diet so that the baby came out just the right size which didn't require any stitches. It was a normal delivery with no complications for both mother and child. "Minimal blood loss," she added. She had elegant cursive handwriting for a doctor!

You know what else was cool? The doctor took my DSLR and took our group photo. Not just one! First, she had us looking at her, then all of us towards the baby. That was just super-nice of her. Maybe she's a photography nut, too.


It's a new chapter for all of us. My sister is now a mother. I'm now an aunt. An aunt! My sister would no doubt take on more mature challenges such as breastfeeding and how to compare life insurance policies for her new family.Yes, their sleeping patterns will be screwed because baby's time zone is anything but Eastern Standard Time, but parenthood will be so rewarding for them, as will aunthood be for me!

Chicken, Not Bread

One of my little cousins did her own version of amateur stand-up comedy at her mom's 50th birthday party recently. Her inspiration was this Fil-Am Youtube ("You Choob!") comedienne over at HappySlip.com. The jokes revolve around the peculiar things that make Filipinos Filipinos in America, as well as the thick Filipino accent that makes words sound funny to the American ear. Happyslip is actually from the term "half slip," or that piece of protective fabric worn underneath sheer skirts. The Happyslip actress portrays members of her own family, and the butt of the jokes is always her mother.

So the joke goes something like this: Use "chicken not bread" in a sentence.

(In a thick Filipino accent): A girl went to the pool. She finds out she could not swim. She starts to drown. CHICKEN NOT BREAD! (She cannot breathe)

My aunt was proud of her little girl's performance. Her happiness wasn't defined by whether she owned wholesale lots or all the riches that money can buy (she had enough designer bags as gifts to enjoy for the next three years anyway)...just the fact that she was with her family and friends on her special day.

Perhaps my little cousin just become the next "You Choob" sensation.

This hen and her coven of chicks were photographed in my hometown in Capiz, Philippines last May.

Kung Pao-Loving Fat Boy

I met him on this chopsticks wrapper when we had a Valentine/Lunar New Year lunch at a Chinese restaurant today. I made up his name out of the "Kung Hei Fat Choi" greeting. Isn't he just the cutest emperor?

Six of us feasted on Beijing-style pork chops, spicy calamari, stir-fried seafood noodles, shrimp dumplings and steamed flounder, washed down with warm tea. No take-out box this time! I guess you can say we all had a tiger's appetite!

Pass the phentermine, please!

P.S. Note the heart-shaped hole on the chair!

But The Flesh Is Weak

My grandfather passed away in the afternoon of Dec. 6th at the hospital where he was bedridden for three weeks due to his stroke. We, along with some family friends, surrounded him until he breathed his very last. He was 81. He was laid to rest on Dec. 12th at the cemetery across the lake where he used to walk with my grandmother.

Here is the eulogy I wrote for his funeral service. It's my third one in only two years...I hope I don't have to write another one anytime soon.

Good morning, dear friends. Today we gather to celebrate the life of Alfredo Morales Arboleda-- a loving husband, father, uncle, grandfather, and friend. To his peers, his nickname was "Pedong." To those near and dear to him, he was "Tatay" (Tagalog for father).

He was born on May 28, 1928 in the province of Capiz in the Philippines. He was enchanted by my grandmother Elvira's choir-singing voice. They got married and were blessed with seven children, one of whom unfortunately passed away at a young age.

My grandfather will humbly tell you that he only finished elementary, and if he had a resume, you won't see a BA or a BSN or a PhD or a JD. Instead, you'll read a "J.O.A.T."--Jack of All Trades. Add a very positive attitude and a pair of hardworking hands, he's done almost everything just to support his family, to make ends meet. He's been a farmer, fisherman, driver, mechanic, just to name a few.

In 1997, he migrated to the US with my grandmother to join his two daughters in New Jersey. His being a senior citizen even then didn't stop him from working. He worked for a short time at Wendy's with my father. He became our resident handyman for all things that needed fixing. His magic touch made broken things work again. His latest freelancing job was as a tailor : from pants to the most challenging alteration job from one of his avid customers--that of slimming down t-shirts. Imagine that! It seemed like he was doing it more to help you look good with your clothes rather than for the meager fee he charges you for it. And it made sense, because he knew how to look good in any given occasion.

But I think his most favorite occupation was being a grandfather. He loved taking care of his grandkids no matter what. And whatever he had, he was very generous with us.

He embraced life, his smile was radiant, he had a good-natured humor, oh how he loved to eat, he was everyone's Tatay. In 2004, he pledged allegiance to the US flag.

He was a fighter. He's the most compliant patient you'll ever know. However, his final three weeks on this planet must have seemed more like three decades for him. During that time, my sister & I played the role of "para-nurse"--if there is such a term--as we took turns watching him along with our mom and Aunt Dannette.

You've probably heard of this phrase: "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." The Bible says that. And we saw it with our very own eyes. But even as the nurses wrote on their charts that he was no longer following commands, we reached out to him in our native dialect, Ilonggo, and he responded with all the body language he could muster from his fragile strength....he was still there for us.

And how thankful we are as his family for the people who kept us & Tatay company during that difficult time, for the family and friends here and abroad who offered their prayers for Tatay and for the nurses who went above and beyond in making sure Tatay was as comfortable as possible. Thank you to the health care professionals who took care of Tatay and saw him not just as a bed number in CCU or PCU or a specimen on one of their exam tables, but as a human being, perhaps even as their own father or grandfather.

That experience taught us that Love is a powerful potion that needs no prescription. This was a test of faith--the kind that taught us to accept God's will with all our hearts.

It was my grandfather who encouraged my mom to become a nurse. He told my mom, "I want you to be a nurse, so that when I grow old, you'll take care of me." And my mom fulfilled that promise, until his very last breath.

Tatay, now that you're on that special bus bound for heaven, we hope you stop by your most favorite destination on Earth--Atlantic City. And don't forget to drop by the Philippines to visit your family and friends who couldn't be here with us today, especially your other children, namely: Auntie Dilyn, Uncle Dougie, Uncle Danny, Uncle Donald and Auntie Zenaida. Please take with you all the happy memories of your life and the love and respect of all those you've ever known. You are the "jackpot" of our existence.

Finally, I would like to send him off in our native tongue: Salamat gid Tatay sa tanan-tanan. Mamingaw kami sa imo kag palangga ka gid namon. Indi ka namon malipatan. Malipayon nga Paskwa sa imo dira sa langit.

(Thank you very much, Tatay for everything. We'll miss you and we love you very much. We'll never forget you. Merry Christmas to you there in Heaven.)