10 things im loving this moment…

1. candy canes – i LOVE candy canes. they announce Christmas like no other. couple of days back, one of my colleagues gave me a christmas card and a candy cane 🙂 i took my candy cane home last night and ate it after dinner. this morning, when i came to work – guess what! there was another candy cane waiting for me on my desk!!! 😀 one of me other colleagues has gone on leave, and she left hers behind for me cause she knows i love candy canes 🙂

2. christmas cards – they come in all sorts of adorable designs – i have received two this year and when i put them side-by-side, one of my colleagues commented that they look like a dad-and-kid pair cause one is taller and wider than the other 🙂

3. the weather – it has been cool and nice this whole day, and a bit windy as well – nice 🙂

4. i am meeting my friend to go wander around a mall later – and im sure that with the christmas spirit and all, its gonna be awesome 🙂

5. my home – its cosy, comfortable and in a place that has some of the best vegetarian eateries around. what more could i ask for? 🙂

6. my family – they are loving, sweet and caring. i love them 🙂

7. my friends – i have some awesome friends who cheer me up when i am down, support me when i am unsteady and are there through ups and downs. life wouldnt be the same without them 🙂

8. baking – i have discovered a new love for baking and making desserts: the upcoming long weekend will give me more time to make some nice goodies 🙂

9. gifts – some of my colleagues have gone around handing out gifts like santas in disguise; its a nice feeling to be given a gift with my name on it 🙂

10. recipes – i am hopelessly addicted to food-blogs with their delicious photographs and mouth-watering descriptions of food, not to mention recipes that i can actually make. i am storing all those i like in my google documents until i get to make them 🙂

christmas memories

christmas is almost upon me, and as i await it with increasing delight and happiness, a memory from my childhood stands out. when i was much younger, i used to stay with my grandparents during summer vacations or when my mum and dad would travel on the ship. my grandparents’ house was in a street with other, non-uniform houses on both sides. one of the houses belonged to a christian family. i cant remember exactly when or how i knew they were christians (maybe my grandma told me), but i remember how their house always had a red lighted star hanging outside from a couple of weeks before christmas. in a country where christmas trees were still not popular, the lighted star imparted more than just a festive look to the house’s porch. i always used to look at the star in the evenings and wonder just what went on within. unlike our deepavali celebrations, when everyone would be outside bursting crackers, there was no one outside the house. and a closed door can excite the imagination like nothing else can. did they stand around an altar and sing carols? did they have a huge table with loads of people sitting around and feasting away? and more than anything else, did they follow the tradition of setting their christmas pudding alight? you could say i was just transplanting my english stories-inspired ideas onto them. but i never did get to know the people who lived there, so the memory remains – with startling clarity – of a house with a red star hanging from the porch beam and a door that closed on christmas celebrations in full swing within.