7 days till Christmas!! Metro Manila streets are clogged up with bumper to bumper traffic. Malls are packed with last minute panicky shoppers (truly not a delight to be in). At night the city sparkles with countless colors and lights As a child, till today...I love the season, I love the spirit of celebration and thanksgiiving, this season of gifts.
Gratitude overflows this season. We have so much to be thankful for!!!
Ernie emceed for 3 Christmas Parties - (co-mc) for our Thinkwell business team in Manila, then the Philam community Christmas party, and a Fund-raising Dinner for a Cause by our Sta Rita de Cascia Parish! (We should be charging speaking fees for his services). What amazes me is that he actually has a thick collection of jokes accumlated over the years (and continues to collect) and narrates them with all the ease of a professional entertainer!! Timing, facial expression, manner of joke delivery...he is a true PRO!! He relishes making people laugh. The audience always love him! Those of you who know him personally know what I am talking about...it is his absolute passion to be a joke story-teller...(in the process increasing so much more of the "happy hormones" in his bloodstream fighting off this cancer!). We have all heard the cliche that laughter is the best medicine. It is absolutely true!
Ernie completed a 5K Christnas Fun Run last Sunday (together with Ryan and I)!! That was his 2nd completed 5K since he first experienced the excruciating pain in his pubic bone 2 years ago. What a contrasting picture in my mind...January 2011 we are pushing Ernie on a wheelchair to the ortho md - he is writhing in pain and can hardly walk....December 2012 we are walking together crossing the 5 K finish line!! He performed better than the other men his age who could only go 3K.
Ernie's latest complete blood count, platelet, liver function test, etc came in all NORMAL!!
Ernie celebrated with his beloved UST Hi-school friends last night at a classmates restaurant! A reunion he so very much looked forward to. These guys never stop laughing with each other, joking and recounting endless stories of their youth!
More parties and celebrations to come....we are not exhausted and weary. We are thrilled and thankful! Are we grateful???? NEVER ENOUGH!
TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!
Olive
