Wow - I'm glad the birthday party is over for my 2-year-old son. The biting dog incident has been resolved, and a new dilemma in the form of a bandit arose sometime during the party. It seems nothing ever goes off without a hitch.
I was unable to write yesterday because I spent most of the day cleaning up after the party and doing laundry and other chores. My fiancee was busy writing a rush paper for one of our clients and he was unable to help me clean up until after lunch. Whew - what a mess they left!
Party
The birthday part began at 3 p.m. in the #Philippines and many arrived before 4 p.m. with gifts. There was a lot of food I catered or prepared and there was a concern I had not bought/made enough.
My fiancee and I spent almost 3 hours fixing the porch up. The tarp had been damaged in the previous typhoon so we were forced to do a little more rigging than necessary We are waiting for the next typhoon to pass before replacing the tarp.
It turns out that the food was far more than enough with one cake completely untouched. There was leftover pancit, spaghetti, puto, hot dogs, chicken cordon blue, and several other dishes. Eight liters of Coca-Cola were consumed and 4 were left for us to drink or sell in the sari sari store.
There were seven people who consumed alcohol, though not in drunken quantities. There was free beer and two bottles Emperor Double Light. Not all of either was fully consumed.
The gifts were fantastic. There were 14 sets of clothes given, numerous toys, and cash gifts. My son was totally thrilled and we were thankful to the Lord for the generosity of our foreign and Filipino guests.
Penitence
As previously mentioned, my son had been bitten by a neighbor's dog the day before his birthday. The heretofore arrogant nurse remained unapologetic, but it turns out the wife had the dog's rabies vaccination. Apologies were made and accepted. My son is doing fine.
Better yet, the other neighbors, having heard about the incident, took their pets to be vaccinated. So it all turned out well, thank God. His mercy endures forever.
Pilferer
There was an unfortunate incident that did occur. Some money from my sari sari store was left on a crowded countertop. Only two individuals entered the house to get beer or whatever.
My fiancee noticed that he had neglected to stash the money away just to keep honest people honest, but when we counted it after the party, we were 1,000 pesos or a little more short. There was only 6k pesos and 400 in change in the little box.
Since we were gracious enough to allow carry out, several people took advantage of it for their family members. One of the two people that entered the house took 4 containers. It was a bit over the top. I suspect she (my friend for 3 years) was the culprit, but since I had no definitive proof, we just took the loss and said nothing about the incident. We do know she is poor and has a penchant for greediness. We'll let the Lord be the final Judge.
Clean up process
We were finally able to clean up and were tired so we turned in to sleep around 9 p.m. My son was a little hesitant because he wanted to play with his battery operated fire engine we bought.
Now one of the ladies and I are planning a larger Christmas party. One thing I am sure of is this: more time has to be given to get everything right.
God bless each and all of you for reading.
Happy birthday ahhhh so cute 😊