Well… I know it’s a bit late for the Christmas wishes but it’s Happy New Year and my best wishes to all you people reading my blog! May this new year bring lots of happiness and laughter….. 🥂

This picture is of a Secret Santa card P made for school. In school they play secret Santa for a few days where everyday they have to make something and take. It can be a greeting card, a poem, a handmade gift like a piece of jewellery or anything else….. but handmade. Only on the last day they have to give a gift under ₹200.

I think it’s really sweet that they encourage children to take something handmade. Otherwise it’s just so easy to buy something off the shelf. When they make it they actually think of the other person. Analyse what’s good for her/him and put in the love and effort to make it. Someone said they like to send a little gift everyday instead. It’s nice to receive a surprise. While I appreciate their sentiment I feel we must encourage children to move away from the material and get closer to the emotional connect. The emotion behind a handmade gift is so different from a store bought gift. Although the person who buys a gift also puts in some thought on what to buy and all. But still…. maybe because I’m a crafty person and I value the effort and feel more emotionally connected when I actually create something with my own hands.

Well… this Christmas and new year the kids spent with their Nani and Abhi bhaiya (my brother’s son. He’s 13). They were down from Mumbai for a little over a week. We went to every possible mall for gaming. Ate so much out side junk. Everyday it was something new. Mtr, pizza, Chinese, and so much more. Heavy heavy food and lots of desserts. We also went Wonderla, our local amusement park. We dint do the water rides but did quite a few of the others. Mostly P and A had the max fun. Coz Abhi was a bit mid age. He cudnt sit in the kids rides and dint want to sit in the super adventurous adult rides (well… I wudnt sit in them either 😛). And the last day we went to the factory where we have our embroidery room. There are over 7000 bottles of embroidery material there. Beads, sequins, hangings in all sizes, colours and shapes. Abhi and P went crazy pulling out the stuff they want and filling packets of material.

P and A had such a good time these past few days. We just dropped to the airport this morning. They are going to miss them. Especially A. She gets very connected to people. She had been calling Nani every few days and asking her when she is going to come. Even when she went to sleep last night (they had to leave early today for their flight back home) she kept asking why Nani and Abhi bhaiya won’t be there when she wakes up in the morning.

New year is all about new aspirations, new resolutions, new hopes. As we enter the new year we like to reflect back on the last year and think about all that happened. Good things and bad things. Things we could have done better and things which were not in our control. Only hoping the next year will be better than the last. And of course…. the universal resolution which everyone makes…. we will exercise more this year. 😁 Every time I think of that it’s like…. I still have those last few kilos left to shake off till I get to my pre babies weight. So let’s get to work. I did decent last year and hope to continue.

New year also means party time! As youngsters we always thought about which party to go for? Let’s buy the passes before they sell out. But as we grow older and have kids and all we get mellowed down and prefer to have a house party so the kids are also comfortable and can enjoy. Although I still wouldn’t mind dancing all night 😜. But in the best interest of my almost 9 and 4 year olds and the 38 year old (my husband) it’s best to stick to a house party. But it’s fun this way also. Usually all cousins get together and play poker and have a really good time. This time we only played board games with Abhi bhaiya and Nani. But that was a different fun too.

When we got back from the factory yesterday… P had the sweetest idea. She wanted to make bracelets as new year gifts for her grandmoms. That too from the beads and sequins she collected from factory. And as soon as she sat down to make them Abhi also contributed from his collection. And the results were wonderful. She needed a little help with tying the links and stringing them. But in general she designed them.

So as the holidays end we await the schools to start again…. this time for a good 3 months WITHOUT a break 😃😃. Hopefully there won’t be any unnecessary bandhs!

And I forgot this sweet message my darling gave me