A Christmas Story

Once upon a time, there was a young woman called Smitha. She was of a faith that celebrated tons of festivals, and she was from a country that honored many more.

Her recollections of Christmas while growing up was her mom treating her to one special cake of her choice from 'Adayar Bakery'. It was a Christmas tradition, and she loved her mom for it. As she grew up, Christmas was soon blended with the party atmosphere of the New Year celebrations that soon followed it.

When she arrived in the US of A, she was enthralled by the scale of celebrations in the mall and lights everywhere. But a year into everything, she was taken aback by the craziness of gift buying, the "Santa" who she seemed to remember as coming from Lapland, Finland; but who suddenly seemed to have moved houses to North Pole. (Hmm... maybe her geography and history weren't as strong as she thought? Addendum: Boo. Smitha WAS right)

And then, Smitha had a baby. A beautiful, sweet, little baby girl - Sudha Parimala. Smitha put in more effort to observe some of her numerous festivals in order to keep the tradition alive for her new family. Busy with work, overwhelmed by the new mother feeling, and with lack of support from her general surroundings, she felt she failed. She was happy if managed to observe at least the ones that happened to fall on a weekend.

And then came the Holiday Season that everyone took part in - the mad shopping rush, the decked out trees, the myth and legend of Santa, etc. Smitha was conflicted and concerned that she might be abandoning her own tradition by giving in to all this. She resolved to give gifts to others, but not have a tree, etc in her own home.

And so it was, for 8 years of married life, for 3 years of life with a baby.

But then, the little Sudha was no longer little. She learnt of different celebrations in school. She heard all her friends talk excitedly about their trees/Hannukah celebrations. Sudha came back and told her mummy that everyone had trees, but she did not. She would tell everyone she met sadly that she did not have a tree.

Sudha's excitement at listening to other kids talk about Christmas trees finally got to Smitha. One day, Smitha went to Target and bought a tree; and got lots of ornaments from IKEA. The family decorated the tree together with the cheap but glittery ornaments. And the delight on Sudha's face was worth all the confusion Smitha went through.

The not-yet decorated newly assembled tree

Christmas Eve

Excited to open her first gift - a little reindeer from Brinda :)

Princess Dress - 'Princess and the Frog'

(It's supposed to be sleepwear, but so fancy that she can wear it outside anytime)

Disney Princess collection storybook (gag)

Candyland game for the entire family

Teacup set with tea cart

Rolling luggage/backpack (I'm not very happy with this, both the quality and the princesses; but she likes it)

The gifts exchanged:

Little Piggybank - To Brinda from Sudha, I was so pleasantly surprised. Sudha said she had 2 piggy banks and gave the little one to Brinda.

Sippy Cups - To Brinda from Us

A Peter Pan book - From Sudha to Mommy. Which was again nice of her, since its her favorite book.

A toothpaste - From Sudha to Daddy. She said daddy needs a toothpaste. :)

A little reindeer toy - To Sudha from Brinda. (Brinda had picked up a couple at YMCA)

Princess dress - To Sudha from Us

Princess book - To Sudha from Us

Rolling Luggage/backpack - To Sudha from Us

Teacart with teacups - To Sudha AND Brinda from Us (although Brinda is using that as a walker :) )

Candyland game - To all of us

Running gloves and swimcap - From Daddy to Mommy (Although mommy asked for it ;) )

A digital Photo frame - From Daddy to all of Us