Reunited With My Childhood Friends!

Hello everyone! Cheers to the new year!

Although it's a little late, I wanted to share this post since my friends and I discussed how far we've come as individuals, as friends, and in life.

My childhood friends and I enjoy this gathering every year. It's a send-off party, welcome-home celebration, and reunion. Since we are all in the adult stage and are all occupied with our families because of the holiday, it's hilarious that we all celebrated everything at the same time because of our schedules. Even so, we are lacking because some of our friends are working over the holidays, and others are occupied with caring for their ailing children.

_{Michii-sensei}

For our friend Michelle, who works as a teacher in Japan, we are throwing a send-off and welcome-home celebration. Her vacation in the Philippines is limited to two weeks. Her journey back to Japan is scheduled for early in the morning on January 4, 2024, after she arrived in Manila late on December 21, 2024.

December 28, 2024, as we packed our things and our food going to the resort located in Upper Jampason, Initao, Misamis Oriental. While we were on our way to the place, we stopped over at the nearest pharmacy and convenience store to get some medicine and snacks because my friend Nissan told us that she was having motion sickness.

_{I forgot to take another photo of the other foods.}

We were having chit-chats, and we could not stop ourselves from talking about our progress in life, especially our trips before that. Even though we lacked a budget, we still found ways to have that trip, food, or travel. Looking back at our progress, we were grateful to our Almighty God for what He has done for us and the blessings He showered on us.

These photos are all in the year of 2022, and I can't find our old photos from 2015 up to 2019 anymore.

We reached our destination, the J Estrella Overview Events Venue, at about four in the afternoon. The panoramic view of our accommodation and the infinity pool made the area pleasing to the eyes. The boys were given the task of cooking while we girls waited for the remaining uncooked meals, which included grilled fish, grilled pork, and Kinilaw, or Ceviche in English, as we loaded our belongings and food.

Later on, we girls decided to eat first because we were already hungry, one of our friends was pregnant, and the other one was breastfeeding. When the boys were done with preparing, cooking, or grilling, we were done eating so, it was their turn to eat yet, they were also eating some foods while they were preparing it.

The sun was setting, and my friends and I decided to have a photoshoot of the sunset. After that, we decided to swim in the infinity pool since it was also getting dark. We started by exchanging gifts, and our theme would always be something funny.

We decided that next time we have a year-end party this December 2025, we will change it to something serious to make it more memorable.

Later that night, we ate our dinner again and decided to have a game first called a telepathy game for numbers. For example, if I said the number 1 there shouldn't be another person who would say number 1, and it would continue until number 10, and the consequences if you have the same number as the other person and if you are not able to say or give a number you will drink alcohol or pay 5 pesos if you do not drink.

The next game is called Uncover where there will be civilians who uncover their identity and oust the Undercover & Mr. White. Undercover goals are uncovering their identity and surviving till the end, while Mr. White will survive till the end or crack the civilians’ secret word. It was like playing the "Among Us" game but with a twist of giving us a word where we would describe it, and each one of us would give points to guess who is Mr. White or the undercover.

If we guess right, who is the undercover and Mr. White, we will be safe from the consequences of drinking, and only the undercover and Mr. White will face the consequences but here’s a twist if Mr. White guesses the answer and it's the correct word, Mr. White will be safe, and it would be the civilians and the undercover will be going to drink. It was like a mind-twisting game, and we all loved playing it haha.

_{Meadow Rain, before she fell asleep.}

Despite a child falling asleep among us, we had a great time playing our final game, Pinoy Henyo, and we made a lot of noise.
We had a great time, but we were exhausted after playing, so we decided to go to bed because we need to leave by 11 AM.

The next day, it was December 29. 2024, since we had a lot of overfood from our last night’s food, we decided to recook it so, it would give us more time to have our morning dip in the infinity pool before we left. We were having fun first before we prepared our food and had our breakfast around 8 in the morning. And after that, we went home with a heart that was contented, happy, and full of memorable memories.