Thanksgiving holiday

We had a lovely thanksgiving weekend. Here is what we did for the last 3 days:
On the D-day (Nov 22nd) I woke up at 6 am and made aloo and carrot paranthas and spicy coriander chutney, packed some pickle, water, fruits and cereal bars. Woke hubby and my daughter with great difficulty, when one of them was getting ready to wake up the other would go back to sleep and vice versa.

We left Virginia at 10-55 am (scheduled departure was 8 o clock, but 11 is GST (DH standard time). I decided to get behind the wheel for the first 3 hours and then hand the car over to DH. We drove for 2 hours and decided to break for lunch at one of the rest areas at Maryland. The surroundings around the rest area looked so beautiful; there was this constant drizzle of yellow, orange and maroon leaves from the trees which gave a very ethereal effect to that place. We had our lunch and drove some more. We passed Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio. When we reached Ohio, it started to snow badly, that is when DH got behind the wheel as he has lived in Buffalo for 2 years and has driven in really bad weather conditions. We made sure to pack a lot of toys for my daughter and believe me that really helped.

We reached Detroit at 10 p.m, daughter was very excited as she was visiting her friend R’s house. R is a 3 and a half year old boy and he usually goes to bed at 9, he managed to stay awake all along to welcome his pal A (my daughter). The moment we reached our friend’s place, my daughter started running near the door and her friend R was there ready to hug her, I was amazed at this, my daughter and R have never seen each other, they may have chatted over the phone 4-5 times in the last 3 months or so and they were behaving like long lost friends. They also excitedly exchanged their gifts. A got a cute Dora story book, this has voice over capabilities and it comes with 3 cartridges and 4 story books, A was super thrilled. A gifted R a Spider man laptop and he fell in love with that. What is with boys and super heroes??

Our friends V and S welcomed us into their beautiful home. S had made lovely spinach rasam, veggie curry, chapattis, and onion sambhar. We polished our plates in no time as the food was absolutely delicious. Then, we started chatting while the kids got busy playing. By the time we decided to call it a day, it was 12-30 am. The next morning S made lip smacking masala dosas and a special chutney which is famous in Chitradurga. I made sure to get the recipe from her. After hogging to our heart’s content, the boys (hubby and his pal V) went out for a drive to have some guy talk and S and myself had a nice time gossiping about our lives and families and of course the In-laws/Out-laws.

By 2-30 pm, we packed our stuff and were getting ready to leave, when little R started crying; he put on his jacket and shoes and held on to my daughter. He kept saying that he wanted to come with us. It broke my heart to see him cry, my daughter kept asking me “mommy can we take R with us please” with those big pleading saucer like eyes. I had to take her aside and explain to her that we can come some other time and visit R or he could come visit us in summer. She agreed reluctantly. We reached the Canada-US border in 20 mins and immigration formalities were a breeze. By the time we reached Canada it was 3 pm. DH’s uncle and aunt (aunty) welcomed us into their home. Aunty and A instantly took to one another. They were inseparable for the next 3 days or so. Aunty became A’s Santa Claus, she took her to Toys r us and bought her a huge load of toys. She also insisted on feeding my daughter and also told her lots of stories and sang many songs. Uncle is a little more introvert, but A made sure that he also played with her. He sat still while A combed his hair with a teeny weenie Barbie comb. Aunty made so many lovely dishes for us; she didn’t let me enter the kitchen even once. Every time I insisted, she said “I want to give you a break, will your mom let you work when you visit her? Consider this also as your mom’s place (thavaru mane) and just sit by my side and talk to me. They stay in a huge 9 bedroom single family home; it has been beautifully decorated by aunty. Uncle and I watched Chak de India and thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Uncle and I are very much alike, we loved to dissect and critic the movie’s every single scene. We also savored mouth watering samosas, bhel puri and Pani Puri which were delivered by a gujarathi lady who lives very close to their home. Aunty and I had a long chat about our lives, about being away from the family and living abroad, about raising kids here (US and Canada). It felt very good to talk to her. She is a very nice lady who has always been affectionate towards me. Every time we visit them, she begs and pleads me to move to Canada, I know that it is impossible as we are planning on moving back to Bangalore for good in the next 3 years.

We also went to this place called Colasanti’s, this is a nursery farm, plus a mini-zoo all rolled into one. Aunty packed upma, chapattis (50), Obbattus, Chaklis for us to take back home. I even joked with her saying that in olden days, when a girl visited her mom’s place they would send back all these goodies back with her, it felt the same in my case, to which she replied that this was my mom’s place. Aunty also said that she lost her mom at a very young age and she never did experience all this, but she wanted me to enjoy this experience. I was really moved by this. She gifted me a beautiful teal colored saree with zardosi work; DH got an ipod, daughter A got 5 sets of toys. On the day of our departure, my daughter just wouldn’t let go of my aunty’s hand, she kept asking aunty and uncle to put on their jackets and shoes. We had a tough time convincing her that aunty and uncle will come and visit us later, my daughter asked if they will come “tomorrow”, we said yes, after which she calmed down. We bid a tearful goodbye, with promises to visit each other at least once in 4-5 months. We stopped at Pittsburgh temple on our way back and had our dinner of tamarind and yogurt rice with yummy pickle. We reached home at 12 am; I worked from home the next day and went back to work today. All in all this was a very satisfying trip; it was a bit taxing physically, but well worth it.