back in Star City on New Year's Day

The first time I was in Star City was very memorable. Ate Gigi was babysitting six of us, her cousins. She didn't have enough money to treat us to sodas so all six cousins had to share one 16 oz cup of Coca-Cola! We we told that we could only have one sip each. Up til now, it's one of the things we happily talk about whenever the discussion veers towards theme parks.

More than twenty years later, I had the opportunity to return to Star City with my cousins, Ate Madie and Kuya Larry, and their kids, plus my mom's siblings and sister-in-law (Tita Mely, Tito Boy, and Tita Lucy). Naturally, the story of the earlier trip to the theme park brought in a lot of laughs while we were on the road.

Back during my first Star City misadventure, nobody had thought to take photos (after all, we were all kids then). This time, I wanted to capture the moment with Butotoy and Trisha, my nephew and my niece who are both old enough not to be stuck in strollers. Their youngest sibling, Carlo, is still too young to walk on his own for extended periods so he stayed with his parents and grannies.



There certainly were a lot of great memories for Trisha and Totoy. My personal favorite: their facial expressions when we first entered the giant freezer designated as the "winter wonderland". Their smiles were PRICELESS! I wish that their parents were there instead of me because they've missed the kids' first time in the cold, even if it was just a roomful of ice blocks. I also wish I could've taken a photo of that exact moment and when we all went "snow" tubing.

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