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…
Category: Family
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…
Ain’t No Party Like A Filipino House Party: Cori’s and My Birthday BBQ
Here's my sister and I blowing out the candles on our respective birthday cakes, with a bunch of our cousins surrounding us. This weekend, the birthday celebrating continued, this time in California with a big family BBQ at my mom's house. It was a fantastic party, which like all parties from the Santos clan was…
Clearing my head in Clearlake State Park
Today I returned from a wonderful weekend camping trip with my family in Clearlake State Park in Northern California. For three days, I've been completely offline — with no internet, no Twitter, and no cell phone service. It has been a nice break honestly. I was invited by my cousin Ryan to join a group…
Malagayang Pasko! / Merry Christmas!
I'm in Cali with the family preparing to celebrate Christmas in the usual ways: making lumpia shanghai eggrolls with my sister, taking mom to Christmas Mass at our family church, and wrapping presents for our family's raucous gift exchange tomorrow. Cori dug up some old Christmas photos, including this one from 1980 of my cousins…
Giving Thanks in Cali
I'm in California with my parents and my sister Cori for Thanksgiving. Most of my time has been in Pleasanton in the San Francisco Bay Area at my mom's house. As usual, it's been all about cooking and eating over here, barely one meal finished while we are planning the next one. Then on Wednesday,…
Hanging with the familia in Cali for July 4th weekend
This is me in my barong tagalog Filipino dress shirt with my Uncle Oscar in Cali this weekend. I had a lovely time with the family over July 4th weekend, starting with a relaxing barbecue at my Mom’s house and ending with a blowout wedding for my Uncle Nesting and Auntie Angie. I am the…