Celebrating A Quarantined Birthday

Family and Friends 29 comments

I just celebrated my nth birthday recently. No, you’re not allowed to ask how old I am. And no, don’t insist, please. I refuse to answer on the ground that I might incriminate myself! Gets? You’re allowed to ask anything – anything at all – except that, ok? Ok. And yes, I celebrated my bday in the middle of this quarantine enforced by the COVID crisis. So let me fill you in on how birthdays can still be celebrated despite the restrictions brought about by this thing they call the ‘new normal’.

I honestly thought I’d be spending a quiet, simple bday this year. With this pandemic causing so much paranoia, I though it would be a blue bday. But no, the wife would have none of that. She refused to make our lives hostaged by this pandemic. She donned her idea hat, and voila, twas gonna be another one for the books. Since we’re not allowed to gather in big crowds during this lockdown, we just had to come up with a small family group-type event. And by gum, the folks were quite innovative with it too.

Thanks to my tireless wife, she had our front lawn readied for our small celebration. She had the huge mango tree trimmed, and magically turned our lawn into a small veggie garden. And she had the garage wall painted. My son, Josh, did some artwork and things looked amazingly different in time for my bday party.

A helmeted Josh gives the old mango tree a long-deserved trim.

Wifey Wit baked a cake, the office sent another, and some friends gifted me with another. (So we ended up having cake for breakfast for the next week or so!) Wifey prepared some cocktails and wine. She cooked some and arranged a family e-party, with participants coming from Bohol, South Korea and the US. Everyone prepared their own food and drinks. (In Manila, one of the things trending now is the e-numan. Instead of hitting the bars to drink with your friends, everyone stays home with his choice drink, and just have a conference call of sorts. Just make sure you don’t mistake your wife for the waitress, ok?)

And then, the kids even prepared some presentations! Josh regaled us with his fiery poi exhibition, Aly sent a beautiful poem from Korea, while the Bohol contingent presented a dance number, with the darling baby Buchi providing us some of his roll-on-the-ground stunts, with some help from the proud dad, Carlo. Such a trouper, this Buchi. Too bad I didn’t get to record his death-defying rolling acts. Really hilarious! And then we danced some too!

Josh jamming with his fire poi.
The Boholgys had a very hilarious dance number with Buchi at center stage.

Daughter-in-law Freedom and daughter Bianca prepared a Trivia game, dealing with my experiences from childhood to cadet days to my stint in the army and even my most embarrassing moments and my private life! There were other games lined up, too, but I had to feign drunkenness lest they pry loose more of my darkest, most private of secrets!

So who says you can’t have fun with lockdown birthdays? You can still drink and be merry with friends, you can have a virtual dance class, you can play virtual games – even golf, you can do almost everything using your computer now. New normal being too restrictive? Innovative minds can certainly find new ideas for the new normal. Right, guys?

Who’s up for a bday bash soon?

29 comments

  3. Happy Blessed Birthday. May God shower you more blessings in life. Keep on blogging…

    Always remember that God loves you so much! He will guide you, He will protect you and He will healed you…. Happy Birthday. Rejoice always!

    Liked by 4 people

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    2. Dear cbholganza,

      I am very late in wishing you a Happy Birthday!

      In any case, I would like to echo the words of Deeksha Pathak in the spirit of giving you a belated birthday greetings. Many Happy Returns!

      You are obviously loved by many relatives and friends, judging by the photos.

      The food there is very enticing, and I would like to reciprocate with some tempting and mind-bogglingly presented food in one of my posts entitled “🦅 SoundEagle in Edible Art, Glorious Food and Festive Season 🍣🥗🍜🍲🍱” published at https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2012/12/08/soundeagle-in-edible-art-glorious-food-and-festive-season/

      Please enjoy!

      Liked by 4 people

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      1. Wow! I just visited your site and I was truly impressed! My wife will learn a lot from you. I will pass that on to her for sure. Thank you so much for showing me your people’s great creativity! Truly amazing!

        Liked by 2 people

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    2. It really was, po. The family made it a fun party despite the fact we were miles apart. I think that will be part of the new normal now, with people partying together over the net while being physically far away from one another.

      Liked by 3 people

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  8. Wie schön!
    Ja, so herrlich, lustig und stimmungsvoll kann ein Geburtstag sein, auch wenn er vielleicht diesmal auf eine andere Art stattfinden musste.
    Ich wünsche dir alles Gute für das neue Lebensjahr!
    Viel Glück! 🌺🌺🌺🌺

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. Thanks, She! Parties nowadays are getting more private. The new trend here is to have e-numan, which means you drink with your buddies in a zoom environment. Maybe while watching the nba playoffs?

      Liked by 1 person

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