Happy New Year

First things first... a very very happy new year.

2012 kind of crept up on me while I was busy having a good time with the visiting in-laws and celebrating birthdays and anniversaries... we have a total of four in December, mine included. With Christmas plus the holidays ... the month is a total riot.

Christmas Eve which began as a perfect day, ended at Chokhi Dhani. That's highly highly recommended for kids and a warning for the adults - be careful with the food -- it's delicious but steeped in ghee/oil and had us all rushing around for digenes and enos. The kids were/are happy with Santa's gifts, Hrit included, and for the moment the skateboard threat is off.
Santa Rangoli at Chokhi Dhani

And the crown Santa got. For some reason it has to be worn with a dupatta even if you're in your nightie.

The in-laws left on the 30th after wrapping up the celebrations. Next morning we drove off to Panchagani. That's becoming our regular year end destination. I rung in the new year sitting under clear open skies at a strawberry farm, a blazing bonfire, hot biryani, kids curled up fast asleep under thick blankets, friends around me and music from our cars parked by. The only catch.. I was nursing the worst cold of my life. Which meant a zillion sneezes, a red nose, hurting ears and throat, watering eyes and a trail of tissues wherever I went.

Pretty much like the year gone by -- the good and the bad together in a bunch but the good far overshadowing the bad.
We did a quick detour to Mahabaleshwar next morning. Said our 'hello's' to Mapro farms in our own special ways -- the children by jumping for ages on the trampoline and the adults by tucking into bowls of fresh strawberrys and cream... completely forgetting the fact that some of them hadn't met their weightloss targets for the year :-(.. but really, those berrys are worth it.

I had a great birthday even though I'm not really good at celebrating my own. Most birthdays I end up overworked and depressed... not so this time. The in-laws were there to cushion kidstress (that's the stress that kids cause merely by being 'kids'). And the icing on the cake.. I got some very thoughtful presents... my favourite - a new pair of sneakers from my SIL. My niece picked them so they had to be pink and white and I love them. The Husband, that great forgetter of birthdays, also remembered. (To be fair.. he forgot just once but I'm not about to let him forget that he did forget. Nor is the entire family .. everyone remembers to remind him each year).

School has reopened and I am revelling in the routine.. yes I do love the comfort of routine. Managed my morning walk after the kids left for school and then jazzed off to the gym singing 'I am H.A.P.P.Y'.

Hope that's how the New Year will be for all of us... H.A.P.P.Y.

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