Yesterday was my youngest's Confirmation Day. He received the Sacrament of Confirmation in St. Denis Church, and he is now a Soldier of Christ in the Church Militant, a Defender of the Faith, etc. It was a beautiful ceremony, with the Bishop, our Pastor, and our Vicar. At the end of the ceremony, a torrential downpour came. Had it been a wedding, we could all say suwerte, so we’ll take it as that, a rain of blessings!

While waiting in the rain for the school doors to open to get into the auditorium, my youngest and his sponsor were being cute and whiny with their sacramental teacher. She finally said, “All right! You can be the first to get your pictures taken (click here) with the Bishop.” We went straight in, and while everyone was settling in (and being shy?) we approached the Bishop. Our pastor teased my son in the choosing of his sponsor. He chose a friend of his as his sponsor. This friend happened to choose me last year as his sponsor (what does that make me to my son? Grandma sponsor?) I told our pastor, don’t worry while he’s guiding my son, I’ll be guiding him as well.

Since nobody was around the bishop yet, they had a bit of small talk. What school was he in? (St. Paul the Apostle) Where was my son going to HS? (Xavier HS!) The Bishop said he was just there last week, good school, etc.

Time to eat! Our family and the sponsor’s family went to Queens, in the Korean part of town. Minni’s Shabu Shabu restaurant is another soup place. This time you cook the soup. There’s a little pot in front everyone. It’s embedded in the table. You turn on the heat and when the water/stock starts to boil you drop in the veggies, meats, seafood, noodles and such. You order the type of meats you want: beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, fish, shellfish. The veggies and other ingredients included in all of the orders are a mix of leafy greens, vermicelli, fish balls, tofu, seaweed looking things, and some other stuff I’m not sure what they are. It’s a different experience, than let’s say going to a buffet or a regular sit down restaurant.

The sponsor’s parents’ were thinking about how a great business venture this would be in the Philippines. The only caveat I could think of was people would complain. First the drug addicts would be sorely disappointed not to find any shabu, and next, other people would probably say ‘I’m the one paying and then I’m the one who’s going to cook?’ LOL

My eldest was looking for dessert. Nick mentioned there was a bakery around the corner. “Would we be baking our own goods, too?” the sponsor’s father asked. ROTFL, not really…

But sorry to say, by the time we left the restaurant all the other stores were closed. Even the sidewalk/street food vendor selling BBQ was cleaning up. The boys (my sons, the sponsor and his cousin were eyeing the BBQ). The Bakery we were going to go to had closed around 8:30 PM.

Glad we went to this Korean restaurant. I had forgotten that today is the Philippine Day Parade here in NY. Maybe we’ll be going there later for some BBQ!