Festival, Fil-Am Style (Part 1)

This past weekend, our parish held its 4th annual church festival. The local community came out en masse to partake in the festivities. There was a variety of ethnic fare, game booths for those who dare, vendors hawking their wares, and music and entertainment to take away your cares. In keeping with past tradition, the Filipino-American (Fil-Am) youth group, including Danielle and Joseph, performed folk dances as part of the entertainment program. This year, our choreographer chose to showcase a suite of dances from Mindanao, the second largest island group in the southern-most tip of the Philippine archipelago. Although eighty-five percent of the people in the Philippines are Catholic Christians, Muslims in the Mindanao region make up the largest cultural minority group. Their music and dances are renowned for their mysticism, beauty, and royalty. Filipino Muslim dances are characterized by intricate hand and arm movements, and colorful, shimmering costumes.

The Fil-Am dance program was a runaway success! Much of the credit goes to our choreographer, whose patience, perseverance (and sense of humor) set the standard of excellence. Equally deserving are the Fil-Am dancers who worked tirelessly and selflessly, and devoted every weekend over a three-month period to learning and mastering the Mindanao suite. Amateurs though they were, the Fil-Am youth group performed with undeniable skill, talent, discipline, grace, and professionalism. We are extremely proud of our young dancers.

Among Filipino-Americans, there is an adage: "You can take the Filipino out of the Philippines, but you can’t take the Philippines out of the Filipino." In some ways, the church festival has become, for us, a reaffirmation of our Filipino identity and pride.

Stay tuned for video footage of the Fil-Am dance performances on Part 2 of Festival, Fil-Am Style. For now, enjoy these photos courtesy of Dan Howell Photography.

Back to School

It's time once again to sharpen those pencils, shine those lunch pails, and set those alarm clocks!

Gone are the carefree days of summer for it is now back to school!

I miss them already............

S is for SUMMER..STRAWBERRIES..SUNSHINE

Autumn Announces its Arrival with the changing of the seasons in shades of yellow, orange, red, purple, and brown. Winter Wallops us with Wind gusts and freezing cold temperatures. Spring Slowly Softens and Surrounds us with beauty and grace. But, ah, SUMMER. Its long, SUNSHINY days have a SALUBRIOUS effect on our SPIRITS.

This SUMMER, we:

SOAKED up lots of SUNSHINE
SIPPED lemonade on SIZZLING hot days
SPRAYED each other with SQUIRT guns
SIFTED SAND at the playground
SWUNG on SWINGS

SPLASHED around at Folsom Water Park
SAUNTERED to the ice cream shop
SELECTED the SWEETEST STRAWBERRIES at Gizdich Farms
SMOTHERED them in chocolate
SOCIALIZED with neighbors at our 9th annual block party
SWIRLED, SWAYED, STEPPED at dance practice for our church festival
SPED around the neighborhood on our bikes
SKATED around the block
SANG praises at VBS
SAW beautiful SUNSETS
SLEPT in on most days
SPENT time with family and friends
STOPPED to SMELL the roses

SEIZED the day!

SO long SUMMER! Please come again SOON!

Made with Love

If it takes a village to raise a child, then it takes a family to bake a pie. At least in our family, the latter holds true.

The idea of baking a pie came about last Saturday as Dan was finishing up yard work. He brought in a bag of apples from our tree and merrily said, "Here's a bag of apples from our tree. We should bake an apple pie or something." An innocuous suggestion, no doubt, but we already had a very busy weekend planned. With tempered enthusiasm I replied, "Yeah...that's a good idea," trying to conceal my reticence. I assured myself that, somewhere between cleaning bathrooms and taking the children to their various activities, I would find time to bake a pie. To my dismay, however, time quickly slipped by and the bag of apples was left untouched on the counter overnight.

The next day, Sunday, I affirmed my determination to bake the pie. Danielle immediately scoured the internet for the most scrumptious recipe for that most-American-of-pies. She presented her top 5 findings and we reviewed them together. Martha Stewart's recipe for "Old-Fashioned Apple Pie" won by a landslide. Dan proceeded to peel the apples and douse them in lemon juice (fresh-squeezed from our homegrown lemons). I made pâte brisée [paht bree-ZAY], a French term for "flaky pastry," with Joseph and Mary eagerly awaiting turns to help me cut butter into flour. Unfortunately, my goal to bake the pie on Sunday proved to be as allusive as it was on Saturday.

On Monday, our schedule continued its unrelenting pace. That evening, we made plans for my sister, Tita Cleo, to stay with the kids for a few hours while Dan and I attended a parent dinner orientation at Danielle's high school. While we were away, Danielle and Tita Cleo made Martha's apple concoction and filled the pie. When Dan and I reached home, our eyes were greeted by an impressive dome-shaped epicurean delight. We baked it for an hour, and -- voilà! -- a golden, old-fashioned apple pie.

Unbelievably, this apple pie was 3 days in the making: apples picked on Saturday, dough formed on Sunday, pie filled and baked on Monday.

Devoured on Tuesday.

All told, a total of 6 people -- 12 hands, 60 fingers -- lovingly baked this delicious pie. Whoever said "Too many cooks spoil the broth?"

Discovery Canyon

Every summer for the past six years, my children have attended Vacation Bible Camp (VBC). It is one of the highlights of our summer vacation. This year, VBC took place August 3-7 in our church social hall. And, boy, what a week it was! VBC was even more special this year because Mary was old enough to join her brother & sister -- and she couldn't be happier. In fact, Danielle volunteered to be the youth leader for Mary's group. Together, the two girls delighted in some extra bonding time. The theme for this year’s VBC was “Discovery Canyon,” which was made possible by a core group of uber-dedicated people who spent countless hours preparing for this event. Over a two-month period, this group of people worked tirelessly behind the scenes. They hammered, sawed, pounded, trimmed, painted, lifted, visualized, deliberated, designed, and decorated. Until finally, they succeeded in transforming our non-descript, box-shaped, church social hall into a colorful and intricate desert canyon. There were mountains and gullies, sand valleys and boulders, local flora and fauna, roads and blue skies that met at the horizon. Each day of the week, the campers were introduced to unforgettable and extraordinary characters right out of Discovery Canyon. These harbingers of truth came with important lessons to share. On Day 1, Liz the Lizard summoned the children to REJOICE as Miriam did in Exodus 15:19-21 after she and Israelites crossed the Red Sea. On Day 2, Max the Mantis reminded the children that when we PRAY as Hannah did in 1Samuel 1:9-27, God promises to hear our prayers and answer them. With a flutter of wings, Olivia Owl swooped in on Day 3 and heartened the children to ASK Jesus for help just as the disciples did, in Matthew 8:23-27, when they sailed through the stormy sea. Day 4 brought about Felix the Fox who incited the children to TELL about Jesus’ miracles by singing the praises of Psalm 105:2. Finally, on Day 5, Blossom the Burro strode in and spurred the children to SEEK God like the crippled man in Luke 5:17-26 who had to be lowered through a hole in the roof in order to seek Jesus.

For five days, the children became denizens of Discovery Canyon. They sang, danced, rejoiced, played exciting games, and made beautiful crafts together. And I had the pleasure of serving snacks to all 60 of our campers. The songs we learned have such catchy tunes and are fun to dance to. It gladdens my heart to see that, weeks later, my children still enjoy Discovery Canyon songs. The moment we hear the songs being played, we just start singing and dancing. We can't help but be moved by the spirit!

VBC culminated in a final performance by the children during Sunday mass. Here is a video of the VBC campers (yellow shirts) and youth leaders (green shirts) singing their praises. The children were a bit nervous, but I think they did rather well. Which is more than I can say for this videographer (Yours truly)!