Polvoron Activity

A couple of months ago, I bought a polvoron mold.  We all love polvoron and I decided to give it a try since I know it’s fairly easy to make and cheap to boot. I looked for a recipe online and there were a lot to choose from. They’re all very similar but I chose this since I like Goldilocks polvoron, too.

But of course, life happens and I never did get to make polvoron. Until a couple of weeks ago when the kids kept on asking me to buy polovoron. I finally said we’ll make polovoron and they can help.  They ended up doing the bulk of the work.  I only toasted the flour and they did everything else.

Please forgive the messy table.  Cousin Aliana was there to help. We doubled the recipe and in a couple of days, they were all gone.

This is definitely a successful activity and it may be something that we’ll do again real soon.  Give it a try!

Family Matters

We had a grand reunion last Sunday to celebrate a couple of milestones.  It was my Aunt’s 90th birthday and my mom’s 78th (celebrated in advance).  It was great catching up with cousins overseas and other relatives.  Most of my aunt’s children are based in other countries and it was a major feat in logistics to have them all here to celebrate her birthday.  I haven’s seen some of my cousins in more than 10 years and it was really interesting seeing them again, with their children who are now grown up too.

Situations like this make me realize how important family really is.  As kids, of course our families are everything to us but as we grow up, we somehow lose sight of that fact and we decide that friends are more important.  I know when I was in a teenager and a young adult, I didn’t really look forward to reunions.  It was an event I had to endure and I couldn’t wait until I’m with talking with friends again.

Now that I have my own family, I’m starting to understand that family does matter.  I would like my children to get to know their distant relatives.  I now actually enjoy having conversations with family members and listening to their stories.

As they say, you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family.  In the same vein, they can’t choose us too and yet they still love us unconditionally.  They may disapprove of our choices but they will accept us.  No matter what happens, our families will always be there for us.  I guess this is why most people take their families for granted.  But they won’t always be there.  I was never close to my family, preferring to spend time with friends.  But I now find that I look forward to my sisters’ visits since my kids like playing with their cousins.  I also like hearing from them and catching up.

I guess I’m getting old.  Life is too short and we really should spend time building relationships instead of walls.  We may have differences with each other but we are family.