Thanksgiving is love

How often do you celebrate and attend to different kinds of parties- wedding, birthdays, Christmas, and different kinds of events. Do you spend it often with your family and friends? Or parties for you are a no big deal? Whatever your answer is, going to a party is a good experience. No two or more parties are the same. Each is made unique. Of course, people want to have amazing, stunning, wonderful parties for it to be memorable.

In our family, we have our Thanksgiving party once a year. Do you wonder why we are having thanksgiving when is it not known and famous to Philippines? We call it Thanksgiving because we give thanks to the blessings that God has given us. But ours, we spend it differently. Thanksgiving to us is spent during the birthdays, christening, graduation party of the members of my family and relatives. Other than that, we spend Thanksgiving every Afternoon Sunday of March, right after Worship Service. By that time, the pastor in charge of the worship service will go to our house together with the members of our church, then we will pray together, sing together, have fun, and talk about religious views.

Attending to party and events is tiring but fun. We need to prepare different kinds of food because it is mostly what the party is all about, the decorations (as much as possible people want to make it unique colorful and different). Food and beverages are what people usually expect in a party (unless it is a children’s party, then children expects gifts, party poppers, prizes, and loot bags) we want our guests to be satisfied of what we serve and prepare for them. Back in Iloilo (my hometown), we usually make 15 kinds of different dishes because our house is always welcome to everyone. Most foods that we serve are Patotin, Valenciana, Dinuguan, Puto, Leche Flan, and many more. But we always make Patotin or in English Stewed Whole Duck. Patotin is always present in whatever occasion we have. The ingredients of Patotin are ginger, lemon grass, duck, pineapple chunks or slices of tuba. Patotin is the specialty of our family, and it is unique and very different from the other Patotins because we have a secret to it that will make it delicious and one of a kind. We only serve Patotin to our relatives after the guests are gone.

I love how we celebrate different kinds of occasions. We make it memorable and fun. Each of the occasions we have is spent uniquely. After all, a good food is a start to a great occasion. It also ties strong bond to families and relatives.