Celebrating with my family

To celebrate my birthday with my family, I used another discount voucher to book a two-bedroom suite at the Holiday Inn in Ortigas. We arrived at the hotel in the early evening, but for some reason, our room was still not ready. To compensate for this delay, the hotel gave us free wifi and a late check-out. Since we couldn't go into our room yet, we decided to go to Galleria. I promised my nephew Ciera I would take him to watch "Hotel Transylvania" so we quickly look at the movie schedules - there was a 9pm showing - so I got us a couple of tickets and we headed to TGI Friday's for dinner. Our room was ready by the time we were done with dinner so while my mom, my grandma 'Nanay', and my other nephew CJ (he wasn't interested in watching the movie) stayed in the room, Ciera and I went back to the mall. Hotel Transylvania was a fun movie, although I have to say it really caters more to kids than to adults.

Nanay's students back in the day had organized a reunion in Resorts World, and they invited Nanay to join them for lunch on Sunday. My mom was also attending a birthday party for the grandkid of one of her friends at 3pm that same day. The initial plan was that we would bring Nanay to Resorts World and then go back to the hotel since we were given a 4pm check-out but I felt it would be a better use of our time for us to just check out at noon. We leave the hotel at 12pm and I drop Nanay off at Resorts World. While waiting for Nanay, we go to Old Swiss Inn for a late lunch. Since CJ wasn't with us when we tried the Fondue Bourguignonne (prime beef tenderloin cubes dipped in hot oil, with a carousel of sauces and served french fries) during Ciera's birthday, we order it again using my second fondue voucher.

 

Fondue Bourguignonne

We dip these tenderloin cubes into the hot oil to cook them.

On top of that, I also order the Walliser Fondue (made with Swiss wine, Gruyere, Emmental, and Raclette cheeses, and fresh tomatoes and served with vegetables and crunchy bread). It's an acquired taste but I quite enjoyed it; it was especially good with the vegetables.

 Walliser Fondue

After our lunch (we ordered a couple of other items), we head back to Resorts World to pick Nanay up before dropping my mom off at her party. We knew she would be there for a couple of hours so I decide to go to Greenbelt and wait there. I thought this would be a good time for me to try J. Co Donuts. The line here is always tremendously long but we didn't really have anything to do. It took me almost an hour to be served but thankfully, we got a table where my family could sit and my nephews had their PSPs with them to keep them entertained the entire time. It didn't make sense to fall in line for an hour just for a couple of donuts so I got two dozen assorted donuts.

The long and winding queue at J. Co Donuts

Once I got the donuts, we head to Time Zone because I promised my nephews I'd take them there. We left Nanay at the Figaro right beside it - I ordered an iced tea for her and she got one of the donuts - and we headed straight to the arcade. We were all tremendously lucky in the ball drop game but when we discovered the pinball machine, we spent most of our time there. We wrapped up when my mom arrived and we then headed home.

As soon as we got home, everyone started trying the J. Co Donuts and well they were an instant hit. These donuts definitely lived up to the hype. They are light and not too sweet and it's so easy to eat a couple in just one go. Nanay mentioned that the donut with hazelnut cream she ate was really good so we gave her the other hazelnut donut as well as a couple other ones for her to try. By the end of the night, we had consumed a little more than a dozen donuts already!

The first box of 12 was wiped out by the end of the day!

It was a full birthday weekend with my family, so much so that even my nephew said by the end of Sunday that we did a lot that day. Hope that's a good sign for the coming year. :)