“Fame! I’m gonna live forever!” As the song goes, it was a fun, fabulous, famous and fantastic year! Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be either traveling all over the world or performing on national television or walking a Red Carpet in Hollywood! My not-so-simple life has been elevated to official celebrity status. With multiple colorful parties, glitzy affairs and spectacular launches, I had to check my iPhoto library in my Apple Mac to remember and list the highlights since there have just been so many! My photos begin after the first quarter though since my laptop was stolen in Barcelona during my Flamenco trip to Spain with teacher Ginajane Grey. Good ol’ reliable Dennis had backed up most [but not all] of my files and gifted me with a fully loaded unit when I got home.
Having learned more intensive Flamenco, drank sherry and gotten to know my classmates more closely, the Spanish trip together with a side visit to Lourdes, Portugal was wonderful. I think I prayed so hard to Our Lady of Lourdes that my 2007 was truly blessed and magical. Of course, the trip was even more complete with endless Mango and Zara shopping in every town.
Our annual trip to the States was more outstanding because Bryan graduated college!!! As parents, we feel so overwhelmingly proud and fulfilled. It’s almost as gratifying as childbirth minus all that pain! I was even doubly proud when he handed me his first paycheck as a gift when I visited him later that year on my way to Hollywood.
As a Little Gym (Athena’s play school) mom, I was invited to the world premiere of Enchanted, a Disney movie, at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. I was able to arrange a visit to pick up Bryan in SFO and we flew together to L.A. for the weekend.
Being a Princess of Make- Believe and Costumes, I was in my element and got to meet Hollywood’s A-listers and all the Disney Princesses! Thanks to Ruben Nepales, Inquirer’s Man in Hollywood, I was captured with Patrick Dempsey, Dr. McDreamy himself, and we even had a nice chat! He really is oozing with appeal.
I really enjoyed parading my awesome, voluminous gown by Rajo Laurel complete with wings and crown. Even the costume designer of the movie approached me and complimented my outfit.
After last year’s Velada, my Batch 81 classmates have remained close, so close that a group of us headed to Italy for the canonization of the Assumption founder St. Marie Eugenie. From dollar to euro to dollar, it was quite a year for traveling and shopping and eating!
On the local front, it has been an incredible year, especially when I won Celebrity Duets on GMA. Not for my singing prowess, mind you, but for everything else entertainment can buy! It’s amazing that “Tessa” has become a household name and somehow I have reached all corners of the country and the world thanks to YouTube!
This year is all about living and giving! I feel I have done both as much as is humanly possible. I have added so much colorful excitement and infectious laughter and heartfelt love in the process. As we end the year and celebrate a new one in Discovery Shores in Bora (my third trip to the beautiful island this year), we wish all that we have touched and continue to love more bountiful blessings for an awesome 2008!
1 comment:
Your family is truly blessed! With so many great milestones this year.
What a cute Santa letter by Annika. She is precocious (evident in her good spelling and grammar). She is gadget crazy--like her dad(?) What great parents she has to ask her to list her good deeds too to earn her wishes. We want to know which wish was granted.
Tessa is really a winner in my books because she is so generous--materially and otherwise! She is easy-going yet high-achieving President of Batch81 that does not complain! She made Batch81 the envy of the other batches and schools!
And she is deserving of her good fortune. To forgo keeping half a million of her prize money to benefit charities speaks volumes about her generosity. I can go on and on but we don't have the space.
Tessa, I feel blessed to know you and have you lead our batch! Love your family!
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