Long time... Long Long time..

Whew!! It took me soo long to get to this, unbelievably long time. I had so much fun in the holidays that work got piled up! ouch..

So, what have I been doing lately? Not much.. the last I played Scrabble was in October. The last I played golf was probably a couple of months back. Asha involvement was not a whole lot. I enrolled in a course at Stanford and dropped it. Purchased a digital SLR, haven't yet really used it! Yeah yeah.. things got a little hectic and went out of control and things at work were getting really busy. One of those times!

And all this while, I was putting off writing down what I had done before I got so busy. :) Better late than never, here it goes.

Christmas time is lot of fun. I like being here (rather than in India) and enjoying the festive atmosphere, looking at the christmas lights and decorations, and so forth. This time (well, I had done it last year too, but without much company) I decided to celebrate Christmas just like Americans do. Boy, it was fun!

The decorating season actually started with Diwali lights. And bay area is a good place to be to experience both. (Even though the Diwali is nothing compared how it is back in India, you still get to see some diyas here and there.) And so it continued till Christmas. (Actually, I need to get rid of the Christmas tree, it's high time.)

The Christmas shopping, gift shopping, decorating the tree, oh, it was all so much fun. In the spirit of Christmas, the time was well spent. And I had one of my best times at my birthday bash + Christmas potluck. And it was lot of fun distributing gifts as Santa Claus. Sorry all folks who couldn't make it (or were not invited :P).

mm.. and the food.. Lovely (my cousin) is just fabulous when it comes to cooking, and especially for potlucks. She made yummy veg puffs. The food was great, ranging from a nice Middle Eastern salad to manchurian to baigan bharta and yummy mango lassi!! Of course, there was so much food, that I had eat the main items for a few days.. and the chips are still going on. :) (down to the last packet)

What was even better was the surprise I got.. Shraddha came up with this idea (only she can!!) of collecting video birthday greetings from my friends. That was touching, to say the least. She is always up to something or the other on my birthdays. :) In addition to the surprise, I got some bday gifts myself too.. a Scrabble clock (to time my games) - this will be inaugrated in a couple of weeks, remote helicopter - this is fun and it is actually my first remote toy! :) and a sweater for the season. Damn it was very cold here at that time.

The pictures are here; the video here (concept - Shraddha - it is missing in the credits section of the vid):


For the rest of the hols, Arun & Neeraja were in town and they bought a new family car. So, we had a good ride and a good trip to Big Sur / Monterey. That place rocks. We had a good time - some nice historic commentary from KP, ocean side restaurants, and the water was stunningly gorgeous!!

And spent the New Year's Eve quietly at home.. like back in India! watch TV, play cards.