Putt-Putt

Another fun night. I've been writing about our nights...we kept some late nights. We said we were sticking to our Indian time (Thailand is 1.5 ahead). All of our meals were pretty late, and we stayed out pretty late almost every night.

The Rest of Christmas...and a Brief Mention of New Years!

We had some good ole southern style shrimp-n-grits for Christmas Eve dinner.

Quite possibly a new tradition in our house. We all love shrimp, and we all love grits!

Now that I've figured out how to make grits with daliya (some Indian stone ground corn meal), we make them the rich, creamy way my shrimp-n-grits recipe calls for.....every time! Goodness, and I LOVE when I figure out good recipes and substitutes so that we ask for less missed things from the US. And, it's SO cheap here!!! So, mark grits off the list, family and friends!

Our close friend Amy came, and I got this picture off her blog.

We were able to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Amy, and it was such a fun blessing. She is so, so, so like our family, and I loved that she was with us for so much of Christmas! Check out her blogpost on Christmas. I love you, sweet sister!!!

A few random cute pictures of this little boy...just because he's cute!

Before putting the kids to bed, we tried some candy cane punch from Pinterest,

and it was a fun treat...different, but fun.

with their punch

Don't you love that Parks backed into the picture saying, "eeeeeeeeezzzzzz" without us even asking!

He always want to be with us all!

Then, we woke up on Christmas morning to a house ready for celebrating our Savior's birth.

It was quiet for only a brief little while.


There were also some wonderful words printed in our city's paper!!!

It was actually a great article, and we were so happily surprised with it!

Then the fun times began!!!

Breakfast casserole followed by birthday cake!!!!!!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

We even let this little one have some in spite of his milk issues.

We prayed he'd be fine....and he was!

Then time for stockings and gifts...

Badminton was a hit with the kids. All of our neighborhood kids play, so this is a fun way to let our kids practice at home and play with their friends. It was played daily until we came to the capital!

We also did some skyping and chatting with our families and friends between both of the days. Some opening of gifts with family, but no pictures because we were too busy chatting with them!!!

Well, we did take this silly picture of the boys with weird teeth from Jacob and Christina!

And, their wild dinosaur and king cobra shirts from Gigi and Grandy.

We went to the Radisson for Christmas lunch. We love this hotel and just walking in is a blessing! The lunch buffet is incredible always, but it was even better on Christmas day! They even had turkey and gravy and dressing (from where, I don't know)...but I stuck with my regulars of salads, hummus and chips, sushi and a few entrees. A little bit of a lot of wonderful things!!!

That is a nativity right behind Amy--awesome!

Quite the gingerbread village display!

The dessert bar is always so enticing and yummy!

A highlight of mine was when two of our neighbor families that aren't Christians came to us bringing gifts and cards and wishing us a Merry Christmas (we had already shared a little about the holiday when we delivered cookies a few weeks prior). I love that our relationships with our neighbors are getting stronger and stronger! One of the families asked us all about the holiday and all of our decorations. The kids actually got to share the Christmas story with them--retelling them the story they had memorized from our advent calendar. We also shared through our Jesse Tree how all of the world was waiting on the Savior since creation. They seemed quite interested, so we sent Bibles home with them, telling them passages to read. That was definitely my highlight!

They boys trying on the gift Sarala received from our neighbor. One day they will be embarrassed, right?!!!

Many, many months ago, our friend, Wint, aka "Uncle Wint" to our kids, told Jackson he was getting him a sword for Christmas. His son, Elijah that is much older has some that Jackson admires when we've been at their house. We'll kids just don't forget! We actually had the knife at our house for over 3 months. Well, Christmas night, after putting the kids in bed, Jackson came back downstairs and asked us about the knife he was supposed to get from Uncle Wint on Christmas. We had forgotten...but of course, he hadn't. Gray pulled it out and made that little boy's night!

Just a couple of days after Christmas, we got together with our team and celebrated some more!

It was quite fun that Christmas was a few days long!!!!

Singing and worshipping up on the roof

We just LOVE this family! Aren't their smiles amazing!!!!

Obviously, we all had a blast playing the white elephant gift exchange!

Just a few days after Christmas, we hiked up our favorite little mountain (totally only a hill). We pretended this was our annual Gainor New Year's hike Gray's family always takes.

Our New Year was soooooooooooo quiet this year. My hubby was feeling pretty sick and went to bed around 10pm, and I rang in the New Year giving him a kiss on the head while staying up myself. It's usually totally the other way around! Our kiddos were fast asleep.

We spent a couple of days packing and cleaning and organizing. Then, we flew to the capital to wait on our precious baby's arrival, and I'm just about caught up!!!!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Gray and I sleep under our tree every year we put it up! Our kids were so confused when they woke up--we weren't in our usual reading spots at the table and desk...and we weren't in our bed! They were confused! They finally found us...trying to sleep in, downstairs in the living room. One day we'll have to do it as a family.

I love having a Christmas tree up for Thanksgiving. Love it!

We got a big tree in the capital. This one shop that most ex-pats get them from had told us no a few times when we called before coming, but we called one last time the day we were in Delhi (just to be sure). They had just started pulling their holiday merchandise out from last year and sorting it. They had ONE tree left from last year! I was so excited--very thankful!

So, we decorated last weekend! It was SO fun.

The kids are fun helpers and get better and better each year!

Crazy isn't it that we're decorating in shorts and short-sleeves and such!

It's a little crazy--so excited and running around and hanging all the ornaments on the same branch--so FUN.

They had a blast and all said the next day they were thankful for our Christmas tree!!!

And, Parks started walking the very night we put the tree up!!!

It's about time--that gets it's own post!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving this week...

and a wonderful time decorating for such a very special holiday. Immanuel, God with us!!!

Pumpkin Party and Diwali

Diwali is a HUGE holiday here in India--with a night filled with fireworks and action. We decided to have a fall, pumpkin party on Diwali so we could also enjoy the fireworks on the roof and the culture outside. It was a fun evening!

Our pumpkin patch.

Gray found a veggie walla that would bring some pumpkins from the village. They were great!

Christy had the idea of a "pumpkin patch" picture.

So glad we did it!

Cutie-pa-tootie!

While we were picking pumpkins, our neighbor was decorating her house for the evening!

Sarala asked to help, so of course she did!

We had such yummy snack foods--veggie pizzas, caramel popcorn, corndogs, tomato pie, and caramel apples.

Jackson helping with the caramel

And his work brought great treats!

Everyone getting some carving going!

I love that Parks is "that guy" cheesing in the background of the photo!

Paul carving a pumpkin while Sam sits on his legs to get a good view.

Sarala and I made a little one. This was her second one!

The cute non-carvers.

Her first finished one

Teamwork and give a Ra, Ra, Ra for Rocket (Little Einsteins--you see it?)

A finished shot

We went to watch the fireworks, and we had some sparklers left over from July 4th.

They had a little trouble sparkling. ;) But brought smiles, nonetheless.

The loud popping made a little boy a little scared...and gave mama some sweet snuggles.

If I ever need some snuggles, I just need either firecrackers or our pressure cooker! Works every time!

After hanging out on the roof, we walked around the neighborhood and got in the midst of our neighbors hanging out, blowing up crackers and bombs--you can't imagine the craziness right on the street in front of powerlines and right at people. It's awesome! I met two other ladies that worked in SC of all places for a few months. They even have visited Charleston! Such a small world--right in my neighborhood in this city! We saw some rangolis--the designs in powder. I liked this peacock. It was a fun night for sure!

And, as always, here are some more links that you might enjoy.

More from the pumpkin party here and here.

A few fun posts about Diwali in our city here and here.

You need to especially see the decorated cows especially here.

Another friend does a great job of explaining it here.