Happy Deepavali

In India, you can hear Deepavali (the most popular Hindu festival) coming a week before its arrival. It starts with nightly bursting of firecrackers making it nearly impossible to sleep. In all hours of darkness you will hear cracking and see the lights of people celebrating. The regularly crowded markets will be even more crowded with shoppers looking for the best deal on new clothes for each member of the family.

I had the privilege of experiencing Deepavali in India back in 2003. Celebrating it here doesn't even compare, but with Amma in town we give it our best shot. This is the second time she has been with us for Deepavali and this time was even more grand than the first. We spent most of the week making snacks and sweets. In India, these would be traditionally shared with neighbors and other guests that visit on the holiday. Here, we are just enjoying them all to ourselves... but we did send a small batch to Bartee's sister in Atlanta. Sorry Anna, if you had a postal address we would have sent some to you in Kuwait as well. :) Also, if we had been in India we would have enjoyed a large lunch with friends and family. Here we just cooked a grand lunch and enjoyed it ourselves. We enjoyed so much that it's very possible we will be skipping dinner! Amma brought new clothes for us from India and although the kid's outfits were a little big for them, Sanjay wore his anyway. He's practically swimming in it. In a few years, it'll fit him perfectly. Priya refused to wear the big one and instead chose something in her closet that we brought home the last time we visited India. If you drive by our house and know a little bit about the festival, you would recognize all the kolum drawings that Amma made in our driveway and on the walkway. In India, they would be full of color, very intricate and much larger. However, we are perfectly happy with how Amma's turned out. She drew them with rice flour soaked in water and as long as we can keep the rain away we will be enjoying these for days to come. Thanks Amma for reminding us again how much fun it is to celebrate Deepavali.

For all the pictures of our festivities, see the pictures on Flickr.

From 14,110 feet

Today I took Amma to the top of Pikes Peak via the Cog Railway. Pikes Peak is the eastern-most of the more than 50 14ers (mountain peaks higher than 14,000 ft) in Colorado. Although the weather was chilly but pleasant down in Colorado Springs, it was a different story at the top of the mountain. When we reached the summit, the temperature was 17 degrees and after factoring in the wind chill, it felt like -3 degrees. As this is not the first time I've taken visitors to that altitude, we were prepared with our winter jackets, hats, gloves and scarves. Amma has only a few times in her life worn socks and shoes, usually she's in sandals, so donning all this winter wear was sure to be an adventure.

While sitting in the "holding room" before boarding the train, I look over at Amma and she looks particularly uncomfortable with the fuzzy gloves on her hands. Upon closer inspection, I find that she has the right glove on the left hand and vice versa. Not only that, but in a couple of instances, she had more than one finger sharing a sleeve. It was really hilarious and we both had a good laugh. When using something for the first time in 64 years, there's bound to be a learning curve. :)

We did finally make it to the top and we have photos to prove it.



Here's a short video clip from the mountaintop. The sound in this clip is coming solely from the wind, and any noticeable camera shake was from the wind as well. I had a tough time holding the camera still.

Devi Navaratri

Last time Amma visited she introduced me to this 9 day Hindu festival which she translates to the "doll festival". We set up a display of toys that we snatched from the kids. Here is the display from 2005 (Amma's last visit):



This year the kids had a lot to do with the setup. Amma, Priya and Sanjay planned it out and had a fun evening putting it all together. Sanjay created what you see on the left side, complete with his toy airplane flying over the entire scene and Priya set up the "jungle" of animals on the right side. They did a great job and we have been enjoying turning the lights on and seeing it every evening. Click on the photos for a larger view.





As part of the celebration in India, women will invite their friends over for some singing and dancing as well as dinner. So, in keeping with tradition, Amma had me ask some friends to stop by in the evening for dinner. They all decided to raid my closet for a salwar kameez and they even obliged when Amma asked us to sing and dance. In keeping with the theme of 2005 we chose to sing another John Denver song. Once again, Tisha was struggling to follow along since she is lyrically challenged when it comes to John Denver favorites. We all had a blast and very much enjoyed the stories and great food from Amma. Thanks for sharing this tradition with us all.

Amma's Birthday

For Amma's birthday, I made an egg-free cake so that she could enjoy it. Until you make a cake without eggs, it's hard to realize the necessity for this ingredient. The cake was really a bunch of crumbs. The flavor was the same, but this birthday cake was best eaten with a spoon. In the evening we ventured out to one of the 3 Indian restaurants in town and enjoyed the dinner. Even though the birthday girl didn't crack a smile, I think she still had a good time. Bartee was trying to get her to show some teeth, but with the waiter looking on, this was the best we could get. Happy Birthday Amma!!





And this family frame is her birthday gift. It is a family tree of photos containing the wedding day pictures of her and Appa as well as those of each of her children. Also, the four grandchildren each have a place in the frame.

First Day of Preschool

Today was Sanjay's first day of the last year of preschool. He'll be going Mon/Wed/Fri mornings and this year he'll have the opportunity to eat lunch at school with his friends. He is really looking forward to it. He met some new friends with some of his old friend's names, like Matthew and Alex. And, he told me about the 2 kids that are "a little bit chubby". He came home singing the school welcome song and informed us of all the day's activities. It seems the school playground even has bikes, which he was particularly excited about. It should be a fun school year.

First Day of School - 2nd Grade

Today was Priya's first day of school. With the new puppy at home and her usual case of the this-is-something-new-jitters, when I was tucking her in last night she admitted that she didn't want to go to school. However, this morning she awoke on her own and got ready quickly and with a great attitude. She was happy about it after all. While driving to school, she started to get nervous about not remembering all the rules from last year. She said there were too many and she was afraid she would mess up and disobey a rule without knowing it, landing her in trouble. Caboose went with us to school and I think that helped ease the transition this morning as her mind was focused elsewhere.

When I picked her up from school she told me that she missed me a lot today and wanted to come home during lunch. Tonight when I tucked her in she told me she was worried about tomorrow and if the same thing would happen to her. She asked me what she should do. These are the tough times as a Mom, because what I wanted to say was... "Well, honey, how about tomorrow you just stay home with us?", but that's not possible. So I encouraged her to be strong and promised that I wouldn't pack her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The rules don't seem clear on the peanuts in school. It seems as though some teachers allow it and others don't... I need to do some research. Anyway, she wasn't permitted to eat her peanut butter sandwich today so she was hungry which contributed to her stomach ache; the one that started because she missed me. So, those things, plus the reminder that this was only a 3 day week of school alleviated her concerns, at least for tonight. I suspect that within days, she'll be excited about waking up and going to spend more time with her new friends.

As usual, I snapped lots of photos this morning however in many of the pictures Priya's smile was forced and uneasy. This one was by far the best and from what she's holding in her arms, you can probably see why her smile is so natural.

Our New Baby

We went yesterday morning to pick out Caboose, a fitting name for his position in the family as the "last one". I think we probably over-analyzed this picking-a-puppy thing and we were possibly too prepared for the decision we were about to make. We had a list of tests to perform, characteristics to look for, things to avoid and yet it still took us more than an hour to decide which puppy to make part of our family. By the end, we had narrowed it down to 2 and from there it was really like flipping a coin. We ended up leaving this guy behind which oddly enough is making me more sad now that I've downloaded the pictures from my camera than it did that morning. If only we had the room and the patience for two puppies... we would have surely ended up with him as well.



But, alas, our Caboose is the one with the not-so-perfect markings, the curly hair, and the "gay" tail. All of which make this little puppy less of a Berner according to the breed standards. But, for us, he was a perfect match for a family pet. Here he is on the car ride home, taking very well all the oohing and aahing from the kids in the back seat. They can't get enough of him.



This is one of the first pictures of him at home. He got a little homesick by the time the sun went down last night. We could tell by his occasional whining and his inability to get relaxed. It was as if he was conveying these thoughts: "Ok, this has been fun but can you take me home now?".



However, today... relaxation was not a problem at all. Here he is enjoying the cool tile on the kitchen floor; his favorite spot for an afternoon nap.