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We planned to give our Papa a little surprise party for his 65th birthday. Mama wanted to surprise him to celebrate a milestone in my Papa's life with close friends and relatives. The hardest part in preparing for this party was the surprising my father part. It's hard to keep my Papa out of the house without him knowing anything is going on. He will know that we're up to something the minute a change in routine happens. So we have to work around that routine of his.

Papa goes golfing every Sunday. He comes home around 2 in the afternoon and takes his afternoon nap immediately. Then wakes up after 2-3 hours of napping. That's the only window we could have in preparing the party for him in our house. Another part of the surprise is celebrating it a day before his b-day because we suspect he's already expecting us to throw him a party on the day itself.


February 04, 2007 arrived. Papa did his usual routine of golf. But on this day, we had a delay tactic on him wherein my brother and his wife would join him for golf. They've been planning to have lessons with Papa anyway, so we thought, why don't you start it now and just delay the game for him. True enough, it worked. They got home a little late in the afternoon and immediately, Papa had his late afternoon nap.


While he was napping, we worked on preparing the party stuff and food in the garden. We also need to be very, very quiet in case Papa suddenly wakes up. As quiet as can be, Mama cooked her delish dishes in the kitchen and hiding them once it was done. Food and party deliveries were hush hush and quick. Some friends and relatives came a wee bit early and preparations we're still not done, so we directed them to the house of my cousin(Ate Perlie), that's just a house away, to hide them.

Good thing it was getting dark already so Papa won't see the decorations in the garden. We thought that everything was going well until Papa woke up and we were still not done preparing!!! The funny thing was Papa saw Mama and me bring a tray of glasses and a dessert outside the house. To our surprise and my Papa's puzzled looked, he asked us "Anong meron sa labas?". Mama just said "Nanghihiram ng mga baso sila Perlie." and I said "Pinabili to nila Ate Perlie." We thought we got out of that little white lie, but Papa had to ask another question, "Bakit? Anong meron kela Perlie?" I just said, "Di ko alam." Then we rushed the things outside. Panic mode came... "Gising na si Papa!!!!!! Bilisan nyo na dyan!!!!!!"

Papa was about to go to the garden, curious on what's going on. Ging, my sister, diverted Papa's attention by going back to their room and asked about the laptop battery that I just bought for him and told him that something was wrong with it or something. That bought us a little more time in getting all the things done.

Finally, the candles in the cake were lit and all the guests were in the garden. Kuya called Papa and told him he has a visitor. In his "bagong gising" look, sando and shorts, Kuya brought him to the garden and everybody sang happy birthday to him. He really looked surprised at all the people that came to celebrate with him. After blowing out the candles, he excused himself for a minute to change his clothes. hehehe


We ended the party on the eve of his natal day. We greeted him again, he thanked everyone for the wonderful surprise and called it a Birthday.