September 20 was my younger sister’s 32nd birthday. There was an instant celebrated attended by people closest to her, as in closest by physical distance and geneological distance, which included her husband, my older sister and her husband, nieces and nephew, our helper, my daughter and me. As early as the first week of September, my younger sister had already informed everyone – her co-workers in the hospital, friends, relatives and us – that she will not spend a single peso for her birthday as she is saving much money for other more important expenses. Her past birthdays had bashful celebrations that any one close to her The Cake Bought From A Nearby Bakeshop! expected another invitation from her.
But to their dismay, a no-party for her
birthday was made as her final
decision.
Since her birthday fell on an off-duty Saturday, she decided to simply hear mass together with her husband, be together at home and watch movies. But when she arrived home after hearing the mass, she was surprised to see her nieces and nephew waiting for her. They greeted her with a birthday song and handed her birthday cards which they each made. My nephew even made a garland – the vanda orchids from her mother’s garden were picked - especially for her. The surprises of her nephew and nieces made her decide to make an instaneous birthday celebrated. She bought a very ordinary looking chocolate cake which was the only available cake in the bakeshop, lechon manok, cooked some spaghetti, marshmallows and some bread. It was actually more of a treat to the kids than a birthday celebration of my sister. To improve the taste of the cake and to give it some appealing look, I made some icing using whatever available ingredients I found inside the refrigerator - butter, evaporated milk and white sugar, and chocolate candies. It was a very funny and exciting thing to do espcially that I had did it all by hand, I had never used an electric beater to beat the butter! Hahaha . . .Look at the result . . . Wait, the "Happy Birthday" was used during my neice's birthday in April and look at the flowers, they're all are real orchids. . . . Anyway, it was fun putting that icing on the cake.
