Giving

Hi there....how have all of you been?

Sorry for the disappearance from the blog. Many posts were drafted but not posted. So many pictures have been clicked and are waiting to be shown off :).

And SO much has been going through my mind these last few weeks. Mostly good stuff, which is nice.

To summarize - we traveled, we fell sick, we traveled some more, we fell sick some more, and when we were not traveling or sick, we enjoyed the local holiday outings. I finally have a winter where I'm BAKING quite a bit. We setup our Christmas tree, and are full-on into the Holiday spirit.

Being non-Christians, we don't really have any traditions. And we may form a handful of them, centered around giving, but nothing more. The daughter goes to school and has learnt many Carols. It's fun to listen to her chanting "Jingle Bells" "Rudolph the Reindeer" all day long. She CANNOT wait for Christmas, as she is eager to open her presents. We have wrapped some and put them under our tree.

So, coming back to the title of this post, "Giving" - a lot of what I've been doing this holiday season is centered around it.

Today morning, I brought homemade breakfast for two of my colleagues at work. Leftover "upma" for one, who is north-Indian, and claims "upma" for be his favorite food. He totally enjoyed his surprise breakfast at his desk. The second colleague, who is a Palestinian, got to try my "banana nut bread" which I baked with almond+coconut flour, without using any sugar or butter or white flour. It was healthy, moist, and had a wonderful flavor from the cinnamon and vanilla extract that I added to it. He LOVED his surprise too.

On Wednesday morning, I'm baking cookies to take to the Retirement Home near the city library. We are going as a group from work, and one of our colleagues has a relative who stays there, and told us that they were a very lonely bunch, with no one to talk with and rare visitors. I can't wait to meet them and make them happy, even if it is just for a couple of hours.

As I do every year, I adopted a family this year for Christmas gifts. This time, it was a single mom close to my age, with a 11 year old girl and a 3 year old boy. The girl wanted "Hello Kitty" stuff, whereas the boy wanted "Mickey stuff". The mama, who was practical, wanted a nice jacket for herself, and some home items. I had a great time shopping for all the gifts. The mama got a really nice Columbia jacket (pink, which was her requested color), and an oversized blanket to share. The kids got most of their requested items. I went above my budget to fulfill most of their needs. It is done anonymously, however, they will send me a letter and hopefully a picture (sometimes,  I don't get pictures) of the family opening their presents on Christmas Day. I'm anxiously waiting :)!

We also have a trip lined up to visit the local church who feeds the homeless once a month. We will go in the first week of January, as December did not work out with our schedules. The daughter will join me this time, and I'm curious to see what she thinks of the experience.

For the daughter's preschool holiday party on Friday this week, we have to pick a gift (voluntary) for her teacher. I will go shopping this week....hopefully I can find something that she really wants but won't buy for herself :). A turtle-neck sweater, with a balaclava (I know she wants one) is on my mind.

I also sent a pair of "golite" gloves to my friend A's mom, who is 74 yrs old, and lives in Wales. They are so lightweight and warm, that she will use them all winter long.

And I just sent out an email to my local friends list for Christmas day brunch at our house, where all the families who join will play the "white elephant gift exchange" game. The gift will be $$ limited and it will be interesting to see what each family picks with the given constraints :).

I have never enjoyed the holiday season so much. And there's still 10 more days to go. I've not been a consumerist (we have hardly "bought" stuff for ourselves) but I've still been able to participate in my own ways in the "season of giving".

What have you been upto :)?