The 2025 Goodbye

December 2025 holiday season was great! We spent it chilling at our around the house. 

For the end of the year, Bobby had a Christmas musical at school. All the kindergarteners were reindeers!!

Bobby went on mid morning or late afternoon walks with Dulce prancing in tall grass with his antler headband, looking like a legit reindeer! 

Before Christmas little miss Haana had planned a secret santa with her friends. So we planned a holiday party with most of her friends and their parents. Menu was created, and this time, little miss Haana set up a restaurant store front online, so people could scam qr code on their phone and also place their food order. The order would arrive at the tablet set up in the kitchen, with the item reqested, special instructions and who it was for! Staff (me) could then hand deliver the food once prepared! It was super fun!! With endless chai and mimosas!! Thoroughly enjoyed it!!

Little miss Haana and Bobby boy put together the ginger bread truck with santa in it! It was so reminiscent of the little blue truck series they both love!

All of us played varying degrees of part in building a batch of lego Christmas ornaments for the christmas tree. 

Like every year, Elfie continued to hide in pain sight around the house, but he was discovered way too easily most days!!

Little miss Haana and I started a new tradition of mother daughter (or is it sisters?!) coffee-and-a-book date with each other. We go to a coffee place!

For Christmas, little miss Haana and Raj had a bake off where they each made a puff pastry and I was the judge to decide which one is the best! I was so enjoying my drink!

Little miss Haana and I cooked together from scratch (with no scrimages or full blown fights) for Raj's birthday dinner. It was an east Asian cuisine - Japanese miso soup, vietnamese fresh spring rolls and Cantonese crispy fried rice. 

We had our annual goat biryani and curry also all from scratch courtesy Raj for the new years' lunch! This was a long lunch because everyone wanted to take just one more tiny serving. 

But somewhere during the holidays I decided to renew my friendship with art. I've been wanting to make a new piece for awhile. We visited a nearby park one afternoon and the slanted rays of the sun against the majestic trees is just what i needed! Asked little miss Haana to take some pictures. This is what I'm going to make, i decided. With heavy artistic liberties, of course! When I finally got around to it, Bobby boy decided he wants to paint too. 5 year old Bobbys are not easily dealt with when they want to do something. So i had to relent and hand him the loaded brush. And again and again! Bobby did quite a bit and little miss Haana came and added some of her magic on the top right portion. 

In the end, it was a fun fun thing to do, and it turned out beautiful courtesy of both little miss Haana and Bobby boy, it was a joint effort!

The holidays were a fun fun affair!!

I Made It

Upon finding her new lunch box and sidekick soup container don't quite fit her lunch tote bags, little miss Haana found an idea of making a lunch tote. And so she immediately embarked upon making a lunch tote for herself. Bobby boy hung around with her, helping her in any way he could. There was an issue or two that cropped up but were addressed. And a few hours later, voila!! She had her very own lunch tote!! And she posted on the family group, three of my favorite words from her "I made it"! :-D

Santa Ples Don't Eat This Truck

Bobby boy had seen this package of gingerbread truck a while back, and we had bought it. Just before Christmas Bobby and little miss Haana worked on it together to build the gingerbread truck. It reminded me of little blue truck story series we read often!

Having seen how we are supposed to leave cookies and milk for Santa, Bobby left a note on front of the truck for Santa. 

It read "Santa pleas don't eat this truck"!!

Googoo

Bobby's picture for Gugu

Bobby boy made this picture of Gugu when she was away at a friend's place. This was his first proper drawing/painting, and he chose to draw little miss Haana.

:-)

Halloween in the Neighborhood

Halloween is around the corner and I was remembering a halloween a few years back. Bobby boy was 2 or 3 yrs old and little miss Haana was 10 or 11. Me and little miss Haana were dressed up as witches and Bobby toddler boy was a cow. He was super cute. We three were trick or treating in our neighborhood. We went to a house that had a large ghost outside, it was across from a little park. While little miss Haana and I went past to ring the bell, at some point Bobby decided he didn't want to go near the ghost. So he took off running into a park. Miss Haana pointed it out to me. "Mumma, a cow is running away in the grass". I turned to look, a cow was running lose in the grass. It was so comical, I called out "Bobby! Come back", but I was doubled up laughing. Soon enough both Haana and I were running behind the cow and coralling him back to us! 

"Till the cows come home" - got a new meaning that halloween for me!!

Boss Baby and Dulce

Long time back gugu and I used to watch Boss baby. Once, Boss Baby was running away from an evil kitten. The kitten was catching up. In a pinch Boss Baby closed his eyes, expecting to instantly become invisible. But the kitten caught him easily. It was quite comic. But in this exchange Boss Baby realized that when he closes his eyes others can still see him and in fact, he doesn't turn invisible. "Mommy is a dirty liar", he said with vengeance when he realized. 

Dulce doggy has been told the same lie. He thinks if he looks the other way and closes his eyes, others cannot see his giant body on top of the bed! Poor dulce - someone has been a dirty liar to him!!

Paws

2 years ago giant paws came into our life. And stayed. And grew.

Here's the latest view at those paws from today...

The paws think they are still baby.