The Christmas Special: And That's Why Indians Think Americans Are Crazy About Their Pets...

"We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup." ~Buddy the Elf, Elf

This is not a super amazing blog post I have to say, but since I showed what Diwali was like while I was in India, I decided to post a tiny bit about Christmas, America's version of Diwali for people in India to see a few traditions in case anyone is curious. Although it was a "Brown Christmas," if there's one time of year we hope for snow it's always on Christmas so we can have a "White Christmas," it was still a nice one.

I did a little Christmas baking with my mom a couple days ago. I made a very common version of what we call "Christmas Cookies" which are sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles. Using cookie cutters, I cut the dough into different holiday shapes such as Christmas trees, stars, and bells.

The finished product after my expert decorating!

In case anyone from India wants to see a real American Christmas tree, decorated with the ornaments, lights, the angel on top, and the presents underneath which people will open on Christmas Eve or Christmas day. My family usually gets together Christmas Eve and Christmas day, and opens most gifts on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day morning is reserved for "Santa's" gifts... My family always has a fake tree, but many families will also get real pine trees for their home.

As my family was opening up our Christmas gifts, each gift labelled with a "to" and "from," I couldn't help but remark on a recurring label. My mom, bless her, labels gifts to and from Sammy, our family dog. Sammy Fox apparently has done quite a bit of Christmas shopping this year, as many gifts were labelled as being given by him. Miraculous, no? And that, yaars, is why Indians think Americans are crazy about their pets... I remember people from India also thought it was hilarious that I gave my dog a surname, and Americans will often give their dog their last name like I did. This reminds me I also forgot to mention a little thing that was pretty great. Some friends of mine gave me a Christmas gift and on the "from" label put "MN yaars" (aka Minnesota friends), which I thought was hilarious and nicely sentimental. Thanks guys :)

Christmas for me is mostly about spending time with family and extended family, eating a couple elaborate meals and sweets, listening to Christmas music, opening gifts, maybe watching a Christmas film, and going to Church. Then today I also relaxed, played games with the family, played guitar and piano, and then when my family started watching a football game (as in American football, not soccer) I blogged!

I've had several people request me to continue my blog, so I am deciding exactly where to go with it. I may continue blogging on a different site. Unfortunately, the type of blog posts that are the most rewarding to write and share also take up the most time and energy. But it means so much to me to have so many people write comments on my blog or facebook, or tell me personally how much they have enjoyed reading what I have to say. And I have found over the past three and a half months how much I really do enjoy writing and want to continue writing in some way, shape, or form. I promise I will do my best and see what I can do in the future. Regardless, I will keep my readers posted on blogging plans...

That's it for now. Happy Holidays everyone and all the best for the New Year!