A Wedding in the Family

Our favorite Tita

The gorgeous cousins. Point out any one girl in the group who's not a looker and I'll give you a million......roubles, not pesos, and most definitely not dollars!

The superstar of every pinoy gathering: the mighty lechon

The lovely couple: Don and Kitten






We have a wedding in the family and I am extremely excited about this. My father comes from a family of boys--six brothers to be exact, of which he is the oldest. Their one and only sister died at childhood so they grew up in a fraternity, literally.

Among the six brothers, only my Dad took his family out of Manila to settle in the South where we had no relatives at all. So we were, early on, deprived of the company of family and cousins to whom we were very close in childhood. My siblings and I had to settle for the brief Christmas and summers holidays to visit with them. Slowly, as life happened, distance and time eroded what was left of those ties.

My most treasured memories of time spent with them were of the traveling we did together all across North America, from the East to the West coast, starting from Hawaii all the way to New York as teenagers without parents (Yipee) and with only our favorite Tita as chaperon. We also spent a week in Hongkong in the winter, also without parents, and only with the same awesome Tita.

Those were the best times of my youth and they are priceless.

Now that our cousin Kitten's destination wedding is in the offing, we have a reason to travel together to Boracay. I cannot wait; yes, for the wedding itself and also to just bond with family. Kitten is this beautiful, brainy, talented lady who has a double degree: one in fashion design and the other in textile science. I can't wait to see her wedding dress. Don is the gracious groom, whose personality enabled him to simply ease into the family many years ago. They make such a handsome couple and I can't wait to see them get married.

There is something about weddings that charges the atmosphere in every family with hope, affection, and general well-being. There is much anticipation and excitement, while we set aside our mundane concerns and emotional baggage for the moment. The order of the day is to wish the couple well, celebrate their union, and fill their first few days as man and wife with the support; the loving, positive energy; and the prayers that will definitely need in their journey.

Also, two of the cousins, Maiia and Karen, are expecting (Maiia is due any day now) so there's this heart warming vibe of regeneration, renewal, and brand new life that is simply intoxicating. These are happy times.