new year or not, whenever i think about the things i am most grateful for, my family immediately comes to mind. last year, i was lucky to have them all here under one roof. a wish come true.

no longer did i have to look up at the stars and then let my thoughts fall softly down into my parents’ house in cebu. or wonder how my older sister and her family are doing in the united states.

those three stars in orion’s belt, also known as the three sisters have always been my point of reference in connecting me to my family, wherever they may be. as the second of two siblings, i see myself as the middle star. alnilam. that’s what it is called. estimated to be 275,000 to 537,000 times as luminous as the sun, and around 34 times as massive. or so wikipedia says.

and because we’re all back in our own respective constellations, i’m posting these photos as a throwback to that period of time when we drove to cranbourne botanical gardens to have our family photo shoot. (the perks of having a photographer in the family.) that day might seem like a hundred light years away but in my heart, it feels just like yesterday.

yep, just like yesterday that we could barely get a decent group picture where we are all looking into the camera and nobody’s looking or doing something off. i browsed through the files and i seriously could not find that picture-perfect shot.

but these ones come pretty close.

the look on raven’s face says it all.

*raven at 8 months old