Hello everybody,
How was your Christmas Celebration this year …. MEMORABLE … that was the right word in our case. This Christmas was planned and executed by my little one.
As you all know, I have two adorable and loving kids Abhishek (22) and Arathi (13). Abhishek is in his 1st year Med School and Arathi is in 8th grade. She is a real baby of the family. She acts like one and we treat her like one… Perfecto combination isn’t. J
Well on Thanksgiving Day when Abhishek was visiting us, Arathi came up with a rule and said, ‘Ok, all three of you listen to me. This year we are celebrating Christmas in a typical American way.’
All three of us were like, ‘What did you say Arathi, can you elaborate it ?’
Madame said, ‘We are going to have a Xmas tree and Xmas village like every other year. A new change will be where gift exchanges are concerned. Everybody should pamper the other person lavishly with gifts. And we are going to have a real nice and small Christmas party.’
All three of us are basically puppets in her hands and like a parrot we nodded our heads.
Come Dec 1st, Arathi unpacked all Xmas decorations from the garage, and decorated the Xmas tree and the small Xmas village with miniature homes, skating rink, train station etc.
Madame started shopping for all three of us from Thanksgiving. She would look out for ads, collect coupons and ask us what we liked in a very sweet and unknowing manner to all of us. Every weekend she would ask either of us and get a ride to the shopping place she wanted to go. She would pay from her own pocket money. That was the most touching part. Which teenager would like to part with a hundred $ bill… tell me?
Arvind was the second person; he was invariably blackmailed every weekend by his daughter to go out for shopping. Abhishek and I were the laziest people, I would give the reason saying, I am way too tired or I need to save money for my India trip. No reasoning worked with Arathi. Last two weeks I ran around like a mad woman and finished my shopping.
Come Christmas Eve, Arathi reminded all of us to wrap the gifts and label it accordingly. She was brimming with enthusiasm and made sure we were the same as well. All of us were locked in four separate rooms with gift wraps, scotch tape and labels. I had a great time wrapping gifts and especially the stockings for Abhishek and Arathi. I was imagining my kid’s reaction when they opened the gifts in the stockings. My major weakness is these cuties who mean the world to me. I try and make it a lot of fun for my munchkins. Bringing joy in their lives is one of my major goals in my life, to tell you the truth.
As a mother, it is my duty to make my kids feel special every single day and pamper them in my own means and budget. My kids love that and always appreciate even if it is a small gift. I am indeed blessed with beautiful kids who are extremely gracious and thankful to every small thing they receive.
Come Xmas, all of us assemble around the tree to unwrap the presents. Let me cite couple of incidents as to what happened…
Abhishek opens a gift given by Arathi. It is written on top, ‘Abhishek, hope you manage this very well and prosper.’ All of us were curious as to what it is … Guess what it was… ‘ONE CENT’ was glued to the envelope….. LOL…. A 13 year old making fun of her older brother’s spending habits. It was fun to watch Abhishek’s reaction.
Whenever Arathi opened one, her reaction was, ‘It is soooooo PREEEEETTTTTY’…. Once before she could open, she said, ‘It is sooooooo PRRREEEEEETTTTTY’…. All of us teased her to no end.
Wrapping gifts done, one wish of Arathi Xmas fulfilled. Next was to have a nice Xmas party. I had invited Haritha my good friend and Vaishnavi aka V. V is a very good friend of Arathi, I should say she is more of an older sister. She is 8 months older than Arathi. She first met Arathi when the later was a few minutes old. V is a great role model for Arathi and I am extremely blessed to have V in our lives. Both of them exchanged gifts.
Arvind had cooked couple of Chinese dishes and I had cooked few American items. Arathi had baked eggless cookies. All of us are now Sugar conscious and have stopped eating dessert. We had a great Xmas lunch, yapped for the longest time. Had a long heart to heart conversation with Haritha about the growing pains of teenagers.
We take our kids and go to the Church, one in Mesa with million lights. This year thanks to my allergies and severe ankle sprain, we had to forego.
Sad to say, Christmas Day in USA is more of shopping and exchanging of gifts. Santa is given more importance than Jesus Christ. No school ever talks of Jesus or his teachings. Religion is taboo…
When I was growing up, I was taught about Jesus Christ and his teachings in our moral science classes. My parents in spite of their orthodox beliefs would teach me about Jesus Christ in their own small way. And how can I forget, my best and closest friend Anne was a Christian. I learnt a lot about the religion, beliefs and way of living from her, Shanti (her sister) and Solomon (her brother) . I would spend the entire Christmas day in their house, have loads of fun, listening to music, eating all the savories, cakes Aunty made, and watch movies. How I miss the ‘Alexander family’ ….. God bless all of you sweethearts. Love you all dearly and you are always there in my heart.
Those were the days …. All of a sudden I sound old LOL...
Hear this beautiful song by BoneyM all about Jesus and his birth … my favorite group.
Cheers
Padma
Padma
