I hope everyone had a lovely holiday, full of loved ones and yummy food. The Santos clan gathered at the home of my Auntie Gloria and Uncle Andy in Hercules, CA. It was a good crowd of about 30-some folks, each of them bringing boatloads of food and drink to the affair. That's lasagna, beef…
Category: Family
My Vegas Trip: A Casino Wedding, Jabbawockeez and All Manner of Excess
I just got back last night from a fantastic little trip to Las Vegas with the family. Definitely my best trip there ever. The excuse occasion was the wedding of my cousin Emily to her long-time boyfriend Sean, which was being held at the Luxor Casino Hotel on the strip. As soon as mom and…
My Sis and I as Disco Robots (video)
Here's a fun little video of my sister Cori and I playing around in this Svedka Vodka photo booth thingee they set up at Club Mezzanine last Friday. You can see the original video on the Svedka site (for as long as they keep it up.) We happened to be there with our cousin Reena…
Watch my little cousin Jazzy destroy this karate kata! (UPDATED)
Check out this awesome video of my cousin Jazzy competing in the SharkCity martial arts tournament in San Jose last week. This really took me back to my martial arts days as an adolescent and in college. I don't think I was this good though. She got Grand Champion in her division! Here's…
Easter with the Santos Clan (pics, video)
Easter with the Santos clan was a very festive affair this year, hosted by the Martin family in their lovely house in Hercules, CA. I had a great time hanging out with the fam, eating a ridiculous amount of amazing food, playing with my littlest cousins, and just relaxing on a gorgeous Easter sunday. Check…
Hiking with the Familia in the Oakland Hills
Yesterday I had a fantastic time stomping around the Redwood Regional Park in the Oakland Hills with a bunch of my cousins. I had no idea that such a dense, beautiful redwood forest was so close to downtown Oakland! The occasion was the birthday of my cousin Mel. So a bunch of the cousins (and…
Looking Fly for My Uncle Oscar
Yesterday, a couple hundred of us gathered at Saint Patrick's Church in Rodeo, California to bid farewell to our beloved Uncle Oscar Santos. It was a beautiful funeral, with a tender eulogy from his pastor Father Larry and sweet remembrances from my cousins Reena and Vicky. Uncle Oscar was a powerful bass singer, and a…
RIP Uncle Oscar
Here's my Uncle Oscar with his daughter Emily and my mom. Detail from a Santos clan portrait taken in 1993. Yesterday at 2:35PM, surrounded by his wife Perla, his daughter Emily, and lots of other family members including myself, my uncle Oscar Santos passed away. Oscar had been battling diabetes, heart problems and respiratory failure…
An Epic “Homecoming” Party with Family and Friends
This weekend, my awesome sis Cori threw an incredible “homecoming” party for me and her with a bunch of our friends and family in the San Francisco. The celebration had it all: a hilariously cheesy San Francisco photo backdrop, a huge Filipino feast from Goldilocks bakery, Karaoke on a big flatscreen, and hits of the…
Going Back to Cali: Moving back to the Bay in 2011!
So I've been alluding to some major life changes on the horizon. It's time to come clean: Sometime in early 2011 I'm moving back to the San Francisco Bay Area. It's something I have been pondering for the past year or so. Over there I've got a wonderful (an enormous) extended family that I feel…