The Birthday Dinner

Ray of light? Hehe. En route to SM Mega


Bianca fashionista. Hehehe

The day started with a long distance call from my sister in Ohio and my lovely niece, Sophie. Birthdays don't really excite me anymore (who in her twenties gets thrilled with the thought of growing old?), but I'm happy that the people I care about remember me on this day. :D After some taunting from my niece (who rubbed in the fact that I'm 29 and don't have a boyfriend haha), I talked to my brother from Maryland, who called immediately after my sister.

I spent most of my birthday leave at home. In the evening, I had dinner with my family at H.K. Choi at SM Mega. We were supposed to eat at the Annapolis branch, but I wanted to check some items in Forever 21 before the madness of a sale starts on Friday.




cute baby at the other table :D



robot :P

lights at HK Choi

After a dinner of xiao long bao and prawn salad (among other dishes), we had dessert at Secret Recipe, also at SM Mega, in Atrium.





double vision @ Secret Recipe





More pictures here.

I might have missed the Imbayah Festival in Banaue, but I had a great time spending my birthday with the family.

Also, 'just want to share the devo I read for my birthday (which was very timely), from Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost for His Highest":

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

"Do you seek great things for yourself?" - Jeremiah 45:5

Are you seeking great things for yourself, instead of seeking to be a great person? God wants you to be in a much closer relationship with Himself than simply receiving His gifts - He wants you to get to know Him. Even some large thing we want is only incidental; it comes and it goes. But God never gives us anything incidental. There is nothing easier than getting into the right relationship with God, unless it is not God you week, but only what He can give you.

If you have only come as far as asking God for things, you have never come to the point of understanding the least bit of what surrender really means. You have become a Christian based on your own terms. You protest, saying, "I asked God for the Holy Spirit, but He didn't give me the rest and the peace I expected." And instantly God puts His finger on the reason - you are not seeking the Lord at all; you are seeking something for yourself. Jesus said, "Ask, and it will be given to you..." (Matthew 7:7). Ask God for what you want and do not be concerned about asking for the wrong things, because as you draw ever closer to Him, you will cease asking things altogether. "Your father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him" (Matthew 6:8). Then why should you ask? So that you may get to know Him.

Are you seeking great things for yourself? Have you said, "Oh, Lord, completely fill me with your Holy Spirit"?? If God does not, it is because you are not totally surrendered to Him; there is something you still refuse to do. Are you prepared to ask yourself what it is you want from God and why you want it? God always ignores your present level of completeness in favor of your ultimate future completeness. He is not concerned about making you blessed and happy right now, but He's continually working out His ultimate perfection for you - "...that they may be one just as We are one..." (John 17:22).