Well.....we actually pulled it off! It was a semi-reception/family reunion of all the relatives from my dad's side in Chicago. We welcomed my brother's wife, Minda. She just flew straight from the Philippines last week even though they have been married since August 2007. But immigration laws required that wait....I am sure it seemed like an eternity for the two newly weds. We never got to go the reception in the Philippines. One main reason is I guess I never really thought my younger brother, Vergil, would ever get married. He is not the marrying type, but I was proven wrong, and trust me, that was a good thing. 
We had planned the dinner party almost a month ago, and we wanted to make it a nice one. Meals were meticulously planned, and I gathered all the supplies for the table setting. We went as far as putting place cards to make sure we had ever one seated where they'd be comfortable. I wanted to have easy access to the food!
The day started good.....we were busy.....to get everything in place. I did one quick stop at the grocery and Walmart to pick up a few things and then the cooking spree commenced! 
The menu consisted of the following.Japanese gyoza - ground beef with finely chopped vegetables and wrapped in gyoza wrappers then deep fried.
Crab Rangoon - crab meat and cream cheese deep fried
Morcon - London Broil slowly roasted and stuffed with hard broiled eggs, pickles, carrots - cooked in tomatoe sauce
Turon - Plantains rolled in brown sugar then wrapped in egg roll wrapper then deep fried
Pansit Malabon
Lechon - roasted pig
Oven roasted Broccoli cooked with garlic and herb spices
Brazo de Mercedes - an authentic Filipino dessert! Yum'o!!!
My brother provided the roasted pig....it was 15 lb pig......more than enough to feed all of us. We barely ate half of it.....but the rest was prepared by myself and my kitchen partner, Michelle. We work really well together in the kitchen....which is fun! I wrapped all the egg rolls and crab rangoon. All the pain gaijed from standing for hours was well worth it after seeing all the finished meals.Not to say that we didn't hit a few bumps throughout the day. Everyone was pretty much on time, except for my cousin's family who had what we called: "Precious Cargo". They were nice enough to pick up the roasted pig in Chicago, but they found themselves driving the opposite direction when they called us around 6:00 p.m. It was then we realized that they were completely lost. Thank goodness for Mapquest and I tried to find them. They were over 20 miles the opposite direction! Once we got them re-routed, we eagerly waited for their arrival. I frequently called them to make sure they were not detouring. They arrived around 7:00 p.m. and as soon as they walked in, the eating frenzy began! Food was devoured.....as expected.....and we had a great time!
It has been a long time since we had gotten together like this. I grew up with these guys. They were constant fixtures in my childhood, and it's fun for their kids to know my son. the difference between our generation is that there isn't as much drama as there were with our parents. Maybe we do learn from our parent's mistakes. We just enjoy each other's company.....reminiscing on stories....some of which I have conveniently tried to delete from my memory bank! But my brother tries to remind me every now and then! Why would I want to remember that when I was kid, I grabbed a power line and almost electrocuted myself to death! And after I was saved by a random person, I ran straight to the house and tried to see if I had gained some super powers! I failed! LOL!Anyway, I sure did enjoy Saturday night and want to do it again SOON! If you're in town, come on over!
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