Winter solstice is only a couple hours away..

I Love winter solstice, mostly because after winter Solstice which is the shortest day and the longest night of the year, the days get longer and that means summer is just around the corner! ( Right now the temperature is -10 and you can imagine how much I look forward to summer)

Then I imagine Halcyon’s eggs hatching! How it would be to calm the ocean for 14 days!

Winter Solstice is also the time for me to look back and see how I lived another year on planet earth.

Pretty good, I must say.
I lived the dream I dreamed.
Peaceful and happy.

I don’t know what future holds for me.. But I hope to live the dream I dreamed.

In 2009

I look forward to losing my temper less often! ( mammoth task)
I hope to see the Cherry trees that are on either side of the street near my children’s school bloom.
I would love to take my kids to Disneyland.
I plan to trek to Namchi Bazar.
I hope to cherish every moments of my children’s life.
I want to be a good mother.

Here is wishing you all a merry Christmas and may your New Year bring you Peace happiness, good health and tons of love.
Sarah

What does being a Malayalee mean to you?
Is it speaking the language?
Is it liking the spicy food?
or is it something else?

There is a reason for the above question.
Last Onam, as usual I was telling my kids the story of Onam and I asked them where do they think Malayalees are from.
Baby said Singapore
Toothless said United States of America
and Yaya said Malaysia, Perhaps India!
To make matters worst, I asked them what Language do they think Malayalees speak and they voted unanimously for Malay!

I hate myself for not teaching them about their ethnic background.
Somehow I assumed cooking meen curry and mooru and the buying Tinkle and Magic pot would somehow teach them about their cultural background.
I was clearly wrong.
I would like to undo the damage.
What should I do?

Can someone tell me if it is a good time to buy gold? I usually buy a mint coin for my children on their b’day ( So I can give 21 gold coins on their 21st b’day!) and baby will be 7 in a few weeks time..
should I wait couple of weeks? or should I buy now?

Today I remember spending my Christmas in Bangalore.
The year was 1992.
Someone I knew, knew someone who brewed wine at home.
We all pooled in money and bought 12 bottles of wine.
I baked cakes, cookies and my sister made Achappam.
We even had a Christmas tree!
My baby sister was too young the last time we had a Christmas tree at home and didn’t remember it at all. So it was all the more special to feel that I gave my sister something good to remember.
Liza and I along with our friends decorated the house with crepe paper and balloons. We didn’t have a ladder and every time someone had to lift us on their shoulder so we could stick the paper to the ceiling.
Bruce Springsteen was singing and I remember dancing as though there was no tomorrow.
We were singing Born in the USA at the top of our voice, till someone who surely had less wine than us reminded us that we were not in Born in USA, so We sang Born in India. ( technically it wasn’t true in my case, but I really didn’t mind)
Since we were having a grand Christmas dinner, we decided to save our appetite and everyone voted for Rice and Rasam. That certainly was the best Rasam I ever made and to this day I can’t replicate the recipe.
It was the best Christmas of my life
Carefree days…
uncomplicated life..
Future was a distant dream…
But that moment I had my friends, my sisters, my mother and my home…
And now……

Questions..

I once had a wonderful Anatomy lecturer who taught my batch for about 3 months before he got admission to do PG. I don’t really remember what he taught, except one thing. He told me that Knowledge directly depends on you asking Why at every turn and understanding that there has to be a reason/ explanation for everything.
It was a simple logic and I taught my kids to ask Why for everything.
But unfortunately I don’t know the answer to all the Why’s they ask. Though I try very very hard to answer their queries.
This morning Yaya wanted to know which is the most used human body part?
Of course I knew the answer “Heart” I answered.

She shook her head and said, mama you don’t use your heart. It is part of the Autonomic Nervous system. So you don’t use it. It just work whether you want it or not.

I honestly said ‘ bloody @ #$% ‘ in my head.
I promised her I will find the answer by the time she comes back from school.

I really don’t know which is the most used human body part. Eyes? Ears? Fingers?
What do you guys think? What is the answer?

It is raining
It is cold
My best friend has gone home to Hong Kong
to celebrate Christmas.
I am lonely.
I miss home,
sunny days,
pasar malam,
Indian restaurants in Brickfields..

And today I feel like eating egg bhaji.
I never learned how to make the coating that covers the egg crispy and thick.( making a thick batter of chikpea flour hasn’t made any difference. )
if ya know, please tell me how to do it
Sarah

One gift a day

This year, I plan to give my kids 25 gifts to Christmas, starting December 1st. Nothing big or fancy.. just the little things they wanted all through the year, like kooky click it pens( Why they love it, I have no idea) and I had responded saying “not now!”
The idea is that they get to open 25 gifts on Christmas day.
I keep the ‘gifts of the day’ on the dining table just before the kids return from school and it is so cute to see them looking at it and trying to figure out what it is.

Each day, I wake up thinking what am I going to get them today? Not an easy task.
Today I remembered Yaya telling me that she wants to do something for the children in India. I am sure she would love to share her ‘gift of the day’ with someone else who normally wouldn’t get a gift.

Now the problem is, I do not support an organization that is run by any religious order. Neither will I support an organization that is run by individuals like the Anchorage.
I am looking for a registered NGO that works with the street Children and providing them with education. Do you know of any?

I usually don’t like to give excuses..
But the thing is , Beginning of this year, I had a list of books I wanted to read and I still have 38 more books in my list to read.( including Indochine by Christie Dickason and The Sinbad voyage by Tim Severin, 2 books I have been wanting to read for almost 2 decades!.)

Then there are cookies to be baked to be given as gifts for friends.

Then there is the Christmas tree that needs to be decorated.
After reading Anderson’s story about Christmas tree, I never wanted to buy a real tree. But kids wanted a real tree. We reserved our tree at the tree farm, but will only cut it and bring it home next week, so I won’t have to deal with pine needles till after Christmas.
We still haven’t made any of the decorations for the tree yet. We usually make all the decorations ourselves..
Windows have yet to be painted
wreath yet to be made
And of all the silly things I do, I promised the kids I will stitch their Christmas stocking this year! Three giant stockings! I should have kept my mouth shut and bought the stockings from the loonie store.

I know procrastination is my middle name.. but right now all I want to do is hide under my blanket( with my book of course) and pretend that life will be NORMAL as it should be when I lift the blanket off my face.

But then again there is still another 17 more days to Christmas, 3 weeks!

( ok la, 4 days short of three weeks)..
Enough time for me to read Indochine..
Don’t really know when I can update my blog..
Hopefully soon..