The Live Christmas Blog

So, this is my first ever attempt at live-blogging. DW hates this idea, I'm super excited about it! As I understand, making mistakes while live-blogging is not frowned upon and I hope you will grant me that luxury here. The intent is to capture every moment as it happens and bring out candid emotions. Not adulterated with well thought out keying. The ones who follow this post over the next couple of days -- I know you care and I love you for it. Alrighty, here it goes --

Dec24, 11.03AM: I woke up late this morning after posting the Pre-Christmas blog. I hope you enjoyed the post. I am now gearing up for an unbelievable day of cooking. The menu is pretty ambitious --

1. Carrot Salad and/or Raita
2. Soups (Chicken noodle and Spring Veggie)
3. Pilsbury Savorings -- DW is very eager to try this out, I do not know what this is?
4. Veg. Biryani
5. Paneer Tikka -- or curry for a change.
6. Prawn Briyani
7. Chicken wings
8. Fish Cutlets
9. Cake -- DF Viju offered to bake this for us. Thank you!

I'll see you in a bit. Gotta get cooking!

Dec24, 11.55AM: I am done with marinating the prawns and set it aside in the refrigerator. Dear parents-in-law (DPIL) brought some tasty masalas  (spiced powders) from DW's home town (Mangalore), when they visited us over the summer. I religiously use them in addition to ginger-garlic paste (that I am an avid user of), some coriander chutney and a little salt to marinate. The potatoes are boiling at this time, who will later make their way into DW's fish cutlet recipe.

We are also exploring some recipes online. In the  past month, DW has been hooked onto this chef from VahReVah.com for cooking instructions. He makes cooking sound exciting. We will most likely use his recipe for Vegetable Biryani today. Anticipating a heavy cooking load, we bought the Oster food processor over the weekend to make things easy. It works like a charm and chops large onions in a few seconds.

I'll be baaak!

Dec24, 1.20PM: DW finished up with the Carrot salad (see picture). It tastes yummy! Also done with cutting onions. We had an SOS moment in between -- no Paneer in the refrigerator! DF Deep came to the rescue by graciously accepting my request to bring some Paneer along (from the Indian store) in the evening. I should be a matter of less than half-an-hour to make the Paneer Tikka. The chicken wings also should take no more than 15 - 20 minutes. I peeled off the  boiled potatoes and DW mashed them. We are now preparing the mix for the fish cutlets.

I will now step out for a little bit (Shoprite) to bring some vegetables for the biryani. Be right back!

Dec24, 3.45PM: Oh man, it took much longer than I had imagined. The holiday season traffic had completely clogged the roads in-and-out of the mall area. The weather isn't helping much either. It has been raining incessantly. The nice part about driving during the holiday season is that people tend to be more understanding than usual. But for the kind heartedness of two gentlemen (who let me into the mainline traffic), I would have been waiting at a stop sign for what seemed like eternity (happened in NJ, can you believe it?).

When I got back home, DW was done making the fish cutlets. I tasted one of them and absolutely loved it. I always knew that I made the right choice of a life partner. But, each time she  feeds me something like this, my belief becomes stronger. :) DW also set up "the crib" (see picture).

Alrighty, I gotta get cleaning and cooking now. DW is fuming!! Will key in more soon.

Dec25, 2.24AM: Merry Christmas!! DW says -- "May the good lord shower his choicest blessings on all of us". Keeping up with the live blogging is tough, especially when you have so many things happening around you. I cooked for 4.5 straight hours starting 5pm. We managed to complete all the dishes except Paneer Tikka (Sorry Viju!). No points for guessing the most popular dish of the evening -- DW's fish cutlets. Slurp!

DFs Deep, Viju and Swati came in at about 7pm. DFs Arvind and Akshay at about 8.30pm. And finally, DFs Ankit and Anand showed up at 10.30pm (they drove all the way from Boston). All of them brought along an ornament for the Christmas tree with them (see pictures).

          The Christmas Tree                         DF Swati's Ornament             DFs Viju and Deep's Ornament          DF Arvind's Ornament

    DF Akshay's Ornament                 DF Ankit's Ornament                                   Our Secret Santa gifts

We absolutely loved the ornaments that our DFs contributed to the Christmas tree this year. We plan to continually use these ornaments in the years to come. In a few years, will be able to associate each ornament on our tree with wonderful memories of Christmas with our DFs. This was actually suggested to me by an office colleague of mine, Arlene (Thank you!). What a wonderful way to make each Christmas, a special one? We clicked several pictures, which I will share with you soon. Tomorrow morning, we will open our "Secret Santa gifts" (see picture above). Cannot wait!!

Alrighty, I'm going to crash now. DW and I plan to attend the Christmas mass at the St. Joseph's Church tomorrow morning, at 9am. Merry Christmas again. I hope you have a wonderful time in the company of your family and friends. See you again tomorrow!

Dec25, 10.11AM: We woke up at 8am this morning and went to the Christmas mass. As always, DW dressed cool. We had DF Deep take a picture of us after we got back home. Check it out. We will be opening our Secret Santa gifts soon!!

Dec25, 10.40AM: We opened our Secret Santa gifts at last! DF Ankit bought me (Thank you!) "MLB 2008 - the show" and a memory card for our Play Station 2. DW received "Buzz - The Mega Quiz" for PS2 (thanks for recommending this game, DF Reggie) from DF Anand. We absolutely loved the gifts, thank you!

The other usual suspects loved their gifts too. If you still do not know who these "usual suspects" are (the ones I talk about often), here is a chance to put faces onto names. All of them with their respective gifts.

 

Opening my gift                     DF Viju and DW are thrilled!        DW's puppy-like excitement            DF Arvind a.k.a. Dada

 

DF Akshay a.k.a. Bhand                                         DF Swati a.k.a. Swats                                     DF Anand a.k.a. Pillari

          DF Deep a.k.a. Buzurg                                      DF Viju a.k.a. Ramky                                DF Ankit a.k.a. Boogdee

Christmas turned out to be a wonderful day, indeed. We played Buzz (DW's gift) all day long. We also decided to compete in a knock-out league amongst ourselves, which DF Ankit won (as usual). But mind you, DW and DF Swats were plenty smart. The beat us all in most of the match ups that followed.

Dec25, 7.30PM: In the evening, we assembled beside the Christmas tree and put together our latest home video. It is called -- "Dance Pe Chance Maarle", which literally translates to -- "Dance on Chance Hit-take", but supposed to mean -- "Take a chance on (try out) Dance". Check it out (click on image below). I hope you enjoy it! Let us know what you think?!

And finally, the week ended (yesterday) with an absolute miracle. Dear team (DT) E.A.G.L.E.S (you probably saw me wearing our team jersey in the Dance pe Chance video, above) made it through to the playoffs against all odds. They beat the Dallas Cowboys convincingly, 44 - 6. For the ones in India, who may not be able to comprehend the significance of this win; this is equivalent to India beating Pakistan (in Cricket) for Philadelphia American Football fans. Not only did we beat them, we deservedly secured a berth in the playoffs and ousted them from it. DF Arvind (my sporting BFF) and I were ecstatic! I am eagerly looking forward to their first playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings on Jan 4.

Alrighty all, I have to crash now. For a change, it is not 4AM in the morning, but 4PM in the afternoon. You may have already guessed (from above) that I haven't slept much in the past days. So, I am really looking forward to catching up on it. The usual suspects are now planning a road trip to Boston for the New Year celebrations, hosted by DF Ankit. Be assured that I will have a lot to key about soon.

See you all again, in 2009. I wish you a wonderful holiday season and a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious New Year ahead!

 

Pre-Christmas

Lethargy at its best; would be the most accurate description of my blogging mind set at this time. Honestly though, I have been busy. With what? Don't ask, because I don't know.  It is one of those times when nothing much gets done, but you feel busy as a bee. I cannot decide if it is bad time management or just too many appetizers on my plate.

Several significant events occurred since I last keyed in. A complete roller-coaster ride of emotions. We know that these are times of great uncertainty, yet there is hope.

First up. GOBAMA!!! Change has come to America! The Obama story is exactly, what the American dream is all about. Awe-inspiring! So much so, that it inspired a new blog out of DF Viju -- check it out. A few days  before the President-elect's victory, home team -- Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series (Baseball) for the first time since 1980. The team (of course) was felicitated amidst much fanfare, which I managed to partially follow over the Internet at work. DT Eagles (American Football) have had a checkered season and it seems unlikely that they will make it to the playoffs this year. Well, there is always a next time (hope -- remember?).

I turned 28 on Nov 10. The usual suspects were gracious enough yet again, to visit and celebrate with us. Unfortunately, no pictures. I do not know why, but I have not been "my-click-happy-self" in the past month. I did  however, manage to get a picture with the awesome birthday gift that sweetheart DW presented to me -- Rockband (see adjacent picture)! There is a guitar, a drum-set and a mike (vocals) in the package. We absolutely love it! I am now busy buttering her up for the iPhone. Unfortunately (here), DW has a sensible head over her shoulders. This implies that I can forget about getting one until after the economy recovers. Respect.

On Nov 23, we fulfilled a long-time wish -- to see the Lion King (Broadway) at the Minskoff  theater in NYC. It delivered beyond our expectations and totally blew us away. If you happen to visit NYC anytime, I would any day choose Lion King over going atop the Empire State Building. On the same day, in India, DF Sando got married to his sweetheart, DF Riddhi. As expected, the squadians attended it and DF Pallavi shared some pictures. Congratulations Sandrid a.k.a. Kamadhani a.k.a. Madhamath! I wish you both a wonderful married life.

We took a break during the week of Thanksgiving (Nov 24 - 27) and had several exciting things planned. But then, it happened -- the shocking Mumbai terror attacks. We sat glued to the computer and CNN for two straight days, trying to follow latest updates from the horrific event. Two of our family members had close calls. Dear brother (DB) Gautam was at the Oberoi hotel for a meeting that afternoon. Thankfully, he left the premises a few hours before the terrorists attacked. DW's maternal uncle, Roney was an employee at the Hotel Taj. By God's grace, he narrowly escaped a certain massacre. A few of his close colleagues passed away (RIP). People say that the attackers were were Islamic terrorists. I personally do not believe that they belong to any religion. I would not insult Islam by associating these severely brainwashed complete idiots with it. This is another example of how humans take good intended teachings of a religion and misuse it (discussed in my last post, O).

In the past days, few DFs pointed out to me that the "modern-day pictorial Ramayana" links in my last post did not work. Apologies. I have updated the links and they should work this time around -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. The other day, I was digging through some old picture folders and found something amazing. Thought I'd to share it with you -- DW enacts Michael Jackson (see adjacent). This picture was taken during a "Mock-Rock" performance at a MIT (Manipal) college festival (undergraduate days). DW grew up loving and dancing to MJ songs, but has mixed feelings about them now (for obvious reasons). I have been reminiscing in my blogs lately. So, this may be a good time to initiate a new section -- "blast-from-the-past" (BFTP). Not a novel name (reminds me of Channel [V] days in India), but it sure does clarify the intent; I suppose.

We watched a couple of good movies in the past month. We started with -- "Slumdog Millionaire", which I thought was a pretty good movie. I need not say much, because its wonderful reviews, several international film festival awards and four Golden Globe nominations should speak for itself. I did have one issue with the movie though. It was an excellent factual presentation of all the unattractive aspects of growing up in India. But then again, it is the story of a "slumdog". I highly recommend that you watch it. More recently, we watched "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi" (RNBDJ). I thoroughly enjoyed it. I consider Aamir Khan to be the best actor in Bollywood, but Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) is clearly the best entertainer. I have gotten obsessed with this song from the film -- "Dance pe chance" and now trying to get the "usual suspects" to put together a home video over the Christmas weekend. Watch out for it after the holiday season (early January) in one of my future posts.

DW at last has an OM = DWOM. She is very selective. If a song does not enthuse her into busting a few moves, it will most likely not make the cut. Though I can tell you that she is big on hip-hop. Anyway, the latest DWOM is this song by Kanye West called -- "Love Lock Down". I hope you enjoy it too!

A massive snow storm blasted across the USA last week. Consequently, our area (New Jersey) also got a decent bashing and experienced temperatures as low as -18C. My supervisor was kind enough to allow me to work from home (WFH) during this time and I managed to take a picture of the scene outside our home. Thought I'd share it with you (see below). I heard today that another one is heading our way in the coming days. The only positive that I can see from this whole experience is that we are now assured a "White Christmas" (back in India, I always wondered what it meant, LOL!).

It is Christmas -- the most wonderful time of the  year!! We set up our Christmas tree over the weekend and are hosting a dinner get-together with the usual suspects on Christmas Eve (tomorrow). I plan to be on a vacation starting tomorrow until Sunday, Jan 4. I promise to be "click-happy" again and give you all a detailed update of our celebrations (may be a Live-Christmas blog).

A few weeks ago, DF Hemang (Thank you for the feedback!) pointed out to me that I use a large amount of abbreviations in my blog. He suggested that I introduce a "glossary of terms" in order to accommodate newer readers. I agree. I am currently working on it and it should be up in a few days.

Alrighty all, it is now time to sign out. I wish you all Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hope you all spend a wonderful time in the warmth and love of your family and friends!