Day 2 - Portraits

These were clicked on Christmas Day, in our backyard.

I loved them all for their simplicity - natural hair, no makeup, no Photoshop, no fancy outfit - simplicity at its best! {and a good camera ;)}

And one more, from the same day -while soaking in the Christmas Day sunset at the hilltop, just outside our community. I LOVED this one, my favorite!

Like :)?

Visiting the oldies

Wednesday morning was very stressful for me. I woke up 15 mins later than usual, and the kids decided to be at their crankiest best all morning. Even though our cook aunty came to help me, I was late in getting everything ready for the day. The son was hitting the daughter with a big glass bowl on her head, the daughter was throwing tantrums as I refused tablet time for her, and packing lunches took way longer than usual.

We DID finally get out of the door, even if we were very late. Throughout the chaos, I kept my cool. Not once did I raise my voice, or threaten the kids, or give them timeout, or spank them. I felt quite proud of that. 

After dropping the kids off, I headed to the low-income retirement home in town. I reached "on time" at the venue for a planned visit with a few of my colleagues, which itself was an accomplishment, considering the chaos I went through in the morning. I had the goodies prepped and ready the previous night (again a pat on the back for that :)) so I went in, not knowing what to expect.

The oldies were all waiting for us. They did not know who was coming, and what they were bringing. We planned this visit as a last minute thing for this holiday season, based on an email thread from an employee whose mom lives at this facility. We decided to take "treats" - homemade or store-bought, and a "rose" for each person. 

Once the room was full and we had the table all set up, we greeted everyone. We gave a "rose" along with holiday wishes to each person, followed by cookies, and chocolates, and gingerbread, and other goodies. They were all SO happy and pleased. Some took seconds, some saved chocolates like "ferrero rocher" for eating later in their rooms, some had tears in their eyes on seeing the generosity. 

And, I got to chat with a few people as well - the part I was most looking forward to. 

The first was this beautiful 90-year old lady, who was so worried about her hairdo being PERFECT for pictures. She made us delete so many pictures before approving the one below :). She worked her entire life for the federal government, as a database administrator (so amazing), and is still pretty active for her age. She described herself as an avid reader, and I got a feeling I would get along with her really well. 

The next was this World War II Veteran, who spent most of her army life serving in FIJI. A classic Alzheimer's patient, she kept asking me "where are you from" every couple of minutes. Not once was I bothered by it. She was born in 1923 (according to her) so that makes her 90 years old as well. After retiring from the army, she was a high school teacher in the highly ranked Fullerton School District in LA. She had lots of stories to share from her World War Experience.

We also found time to visit a couple of folks who could not come to the main greeting room. The lady in maroon pajamas next to me - she turns "100" next month, on January 23rd. She was so humbled and overwhelmed to see us with a "rose" and "treats" when she opened the door for us. She loved our hugs, and was really appreciative of us visiting her. 

The lady in blue, to my left, was the star of the show. Her name is "Carmel" and it felt as if she ruled the place. A leader. She is 82 years old, but honestly, felt quite younger during our conversation with her.  

I only spent an hour here, and it was just TOO short. I'm definitely going back to spend some more time with these folks. There will be so much to listen, and learn from them. 

I have no grandparents alive as of today. Each of these women reminded me of my grandma, who lived with us since I was born, and passed away a month after I came to the US to pursue my higher education. I was fortunate enough to spend 21 years living with her under one roof. I was very close to her. She was a GEM of a person, who really treated my mom as her "daughter" and not a "daughter-in-law". Very forward thinking for her age, and very talented too. She would have been in her late 90's if she was alive, and I really missed her after meeting these wonderful folks. 

What a great visit, that I will cherish for many years to come!

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 :)?

Holidays 2012 - a photo post

I've been meaning to post a few pictures from the last couple weeks of fun times we've had, but everyone in the house is sick, especially the baby who is just miserable.....so I could not find the time, until now that is :).

We had a full house over the Christmas break - mum n dad are here, and sister was visiting with her hubby. The daughter loved all the Christmas lights in the neighborhood as well as a couple other places that we took her to. She got wonderful gifts - a train table that we set up for her on Christmas Eve and a personalized big sister book with lots of fun stuff inside.

We also got a family photoshoot done - didn't spend much time at the studio coz the baby was cranky, but it's going to be a while before we are all under one roof again, so I wanted a memory of that.

The daughter fell sick on Christmas eve, and she was very miserable and cranky. But the baby was okay, so we got him dressed up in his Christmas outfit. I clicked some pictures and did a comparison of both their first Christmas outfit pictures :)....ain't they both so cute and precious :)? and don't they look so alike?

At the studio, they were both very un-cooperative....so we only managed a few shots of both of them...none smiling, but memorable nevertheless....

We had lots of fun moments at home. We did shopping, packing, repacking, cooking/baking, a nice dinner outside, and loads of playtime with both the kids. Maasa-Maasi took the daughter out one morning to a new pretend-play place in town...she had so much fun, didn't want to come back.....I think that's where she brought the virus from and got the whole house sick, including herself!

This is the baby doing tummy time on the bed with me....

He then did potty so I had to change him....but before I put his clothes on, I clicked a picture of his chubbiness.....

 The baby is blessed - grandparents entertain him every minute he is awake.....

This is the daughter on her recliner chair.....taking part in the conversations happening at home....she looks so grown up!

And this is her doing the "Sai Baba" pose upon request....

She dressed up to visit the pretend play center with her maasa-maasi, and wanted to wear naani's bindi....

 And this is both of them...listening to Mozart tunes in the crib.....they both find it very calming.....

We clicked a few pictures of the Christmas lights....

The daughter is very much into gymnastics - I can't believe how tall she is....

I caught the son smiling away in his rocker chair a few times....

And I'll end the post here.....there's tons of pictures but I'm totally under the weather today - fever, headache, earache, runny nose, and cough.....and it's so cold outside.....I have not felt this way in quite some time so I will get some much needed rest!

Happy Holidays!