Most wondeful time of the year!!

For people eagerly awaiting Christmas to indulge in its festive spirit and for people waiting for all this holiday mania to be over so that life goes back to being normal….. as the song goes “ Most wonderful time of the year” is finally here!!! Being a universal festival for people here, Christmas also means a complete shutdown…..everything from grocery stores to restaurants are closed for the day. So it means you have a holiday on hand with nowhere to go!! This sort of complete closure is unusual in India as we are a country of multiple festivals…….if one is closed for Diwali, the next door shop has its turn during Id!!

Today I read the book “ Jingle Bells” by Iza Trapani which is more akin to ‘Around the world Christmas’ book letting us into the Christmas traditions in different countries. Abhay liked seeing the Mexican Pinata, Swedish Gnomes and Filipino star-shaped lanterns that represent Christmas festivities in different parts of the globe.

I was curious to find out how this day is observed here in the US and wanted a book that covers it all and I found a vintage one… "The Sweet Smell of Christmas” by Patricia Scarry. This book that I read to Abhay was a scratch and sniff version with six different smells of Christmas……and believe me…...kids love to sniff the essence of apple pie, pine tree, candy cane, gingerbread cookie and the best of all hot chocolate, all of these being the time tested Christmas traditions followed in the US. We attempted at some of these …of course using the ‘ready to use’ packages ( something we’ve mastered in the US, I guess). I bought some pre-baked ginger bread cookies with a fully equipped icing tube and embellishments that Abhay and I worked on. I tried my hand at Apple crumb pie which I thought turned out fine but Abhay’s final verdict was otherwise. We also had an improvised in-house Santa come in with gifts for Abhay…..Ho Ho Ho!!!!

Merry Christmas to one and all!!!