Happy 2019, my dear readers! If your December was anything like mine, then it is only a hazy blur in the memory. And the weirdest part is I can’t even think of what we did that kept us so busy. Such is the holiday season, I guess.
Speaking of the holiday season, would you believe that after 7 years overseas I STILL struggle with Christmas? You’d think I’d be used to tropical Christmas by now but for some reason I continue to pine for my snowy Christmases of the past. I was also surprised to find myself missing Michelle & Evelyn this year, who were a really big part of our last two Christmases. I kept expecting to turn around and see them their joy-filled faces. :(
I don’t cry anymore like I did the first few Christmases overseas, but I do tend to get very crabby and take it out on Mr. Nicholas. Not quite the Christmas gift he wants… but at least he knows it’s coming and has time to mentally prepare. :) I think what we need to do to remedy this problem is to bid on someplace with WINTER! I might as well let that go for now though since we won’t be bidding again for 2-3 years.
In happier news, I got the job I applied for at the Consulate. I will be a General Services Officer in the Management Section. It’s an awesome job with high-level responsibilities and will be very different than anything I’ve done before. I’ve been told that I’ll either be managing the Motor Pool section (the fleet of Consulate cars and drivers) or Customs & Shipping. Both sound very interesting to me although I think I might have a slight preference for Motor Pool. I’m scheduled to start on Monday, January 7th but that will be delayed if the government is still closed.
Switching back to Christmas . . . Nia would tell you that she had a really great Christmas. She got everything she wanted, saw all her aunties, cousins & grandparents on Skype and stayed in her pajamas for entire days at a time. It was very relaxing and we got in lots of play time as a family. I go a bit stir-crazy staying in for days at a time but my other two family members LOVE it.
My Christmas highlight was getting to celebrate Christmas Eve with the Sharanam Girls. Sharanam is a non-profit organization that provides a home for 40 girls whose families aren’t able to take care of them. They all live together in a high-rise apartment in the Dharavi slum, which is only a 15 minute drive from our apartment. My family has been volunteering there for the last 3 months. Nick or I go 1-2 times a week to help six – 11th grade girls with their reading comprehension. I often take Nia along too to play with the younger girls. She’s been great about sharing her toys. Here are a group of them playing My Little Ponies with Nia.
The organization that sponsors Sharanam is Methodist-affiliated so the girls celebrate Christian holidays in addition to common Hindu celebrations. They do a big party on Christmas Eve each year. We were so excited to be included and introduced them to the joys of frosting their own Gingerbread Cookies!
After cookie-making there was dancing (of course), as all celebrations in India include dancing of some sort. Nia fancies herself something of a Bollywood dance expert but I think even she was intimidated by the amazing moves these girls had. They were rockin’ it (and often to a choreographed routine too)!
I brought a playlist of Christmas tunes for them to enjoy but that made it all of 10 minutes before Bollywood tunes took over and the dancing got taken up a notch. It was good, hot, sweaty fun!
After dancing was present opening. The girls were absolutely thrilled with the things they got. They don’t have many personal possessions so each gift is all-the-more special.
It was an incredibly special night and we’re already looking forward to returning next year and making it an annual tradition!
I would be remiss not to mention Christmas morning. Nia was thrilled to discover that Santa came (she was a bit worried given her recent behavior). Guess all that great sharing made up for the increase in sassiness we saw this year. :)
Hot toys for Nia this year included all things robotics & coding, American Girl doll stuff, fairies & unicorn figurines and loads of books (she is becoming quite an avid reader – being big readers themselves, Mom & Dad are overjoyed at this recent development). She is growing and changing so much and we are enjoying seeing what new things capture her interest. We hope you & yours had an equally lovely holiday season.
Sending love from Mumbai – The Novaks
