The newest addition to our growing family tree

Warmest wishes to my sister Reich, who is now a new mom to a healthy and cute baby boy - Santino Lorenzo Calpo.

Btw, my nephew's first name was actually my idea.. Fresh from watching "Goal 1" and "Goal 2" in dvd, I went to my parents' place and blurted out to my sister that "Santi" is a good name to consider in their list (Santi, short for Santiago was the name of the lead character in the movie). Who would have thought that both parents of Santino have the same grandfather's name, Santiago? So there it goes...

To our little Santi, welcome to the family! ..can't wait for your toddler years!

Lola Pura's 86th Birthday Celebration

Further to PJ's post on the above subject, like to acknowledge all people who came to celebrate our lola's birthday last Saturday. Relatives - close and distant, old and new friends, past and present neighbors, waiters, caterers etc... LOL! The night before her party she was worried that no one will come aside from us! So cute!

It was a last minute preparation from all her children and grandchildren, but it didn't stop us on making that day a huge success for our beloved granny! Too bad that my "Ta Tess" wasn't able to take a leave from her work in the the US. She was the missing link for that birthday and family reunion.

Anyway, we all made our contributions one way or another to make it a memorable birthday celebration for her. I especially like what we, the grandchildren (special thanks to Jannie, Johnby and Ivan) did on the movie presentation as one of the highlights of that party. Ahhhh....just watching this makes me reminisce the old days when we were all here in the Philippines, in one community, living in the same area, having lunch and dinner together on weekends, playing games with all our cousins, the "harutans" and the "kulitans," the never-ending picture takings, the out-of-town trips...Not that we don't do those things anymore, but it's not the same when the others are already a million miles away.

This is the second and last part of the presentation we showed last Saturday... (special thanks to PJ for the technical assistance) Sorry I had to cut the last few slides...



The Roman clan has certainly grown so big! And I just realized how lucky I am to be part of this family. We may have a lot of differences and we may have petty quarrels within the family, but who doesn't have anyway? The more important thing is that, we love and we care for one another and we all love the same Mother, Grandmother, great grandmother and friend, our "Lola Pura."

To my dearest lola, hope you enjoyed your party. Happy 86th birthday! We love you...