Tu mari jan chay: A Very Merry Vacation

It is hard to believe Christmas has come and gone and it is 2012! This year we didn’t have to make the long trek to Indiana and for the first time since Dhrumil and I have been married we celebrated Christmas in Connecticut. We both had almost two weeks off and had a wonderful time being with Mikayla all day long!

We started our vacation off by attending my brother in law’s brother’s wedding. This Summer we got to know Ted and his new wife Heather on a family vacation our family took with Clinton’s and Heather’s families. Attending the wedding was particularly special to me since Heather borrowed my veil. She looked beautiful in it and I was happy to have the veil used once again (my sister also used it).

The Happy Couple!

This was also Mikayla’s first wedding and she did great. During the ceremony she spent most of the time in the back of the sanctuary and one memorable moment was when she yelled “YEA!” after a song was done.


Mikayla has strawberries all over her face :)

It was nice to all be together!

We got home Christmas Eve afternoon and I was starting to develop a cough and wasn’t feeling so hot. Mikayla had just gotten over an ear infection and was almost over a bad cough. Mommy always gets the wonderful presents of sickness from little girl. I was determined though that sickness and exhaustion would NOT keep us from attending our churches Christmas Eve service and we enjoyed singing Christmas Carols with a squirmy girl and coughing mommy. On the way home Mikayla entertained us with her “TREE TREE” obsession with any Christmas lights she saw. That evening Dhrumil and I began to create Brunch that we were going to serve the next day. We also moved the play kitchen into position and covered with a blanket , excited to see Mikayla’s face the next morning.

The Kitchen

Christmas morning came and we read the Christmas story from Mikayla’s Bible and she added baby Jesus to the manager scene. It was a precious moment. Then the kitchen was revealed and to our delight Mikayla seemed very excited by it.

Too excited to look at the camera

Ready to celebrate!

We finished up Brunch prep and headed over to our friend’s house to set up brunch and await the arrival of my parents, sister and brother in law. They were all in the city for my dad’s Christmas morning service. Our friends Nancy and Justin graciously let us use their house since Clinton is allergic to our dog and we had a wonderful time there.

Brunch came out perfectly with rave reviews and Dhrumil and I were proud of it especially since we had been planning the menu for weeks. The menu was:

Honey Glazed Ham

Oven roasted potatoes

Vegetable egg casserole

Blueberry almond French toast casserole

Fruit Salad

Gingerbread muffins

Banana chocolate chip bread

Yummy food!

The family voted that we would be doing this every year…

Highlights from the day included Mikayla playing piano with my dad, the company of Christina and Clinton, my mom’s “bag” of gifts and Mikayla’s gift opening skills (very slow and precise!)

The whole week after Christmas was a blur since I ended up getting a terrible cough and had to go on antibiotics. We were supposed to go into the city a bunch of times that week to be with my family and also to go see the Nutcracker, but I was stuck on the couch hacking up a lung while Dhrumil entertained Mikayla.. I was really bummed, but I think Mikayla enjoyed 100% focus on her from mommy and daddy and much playing with her new kitchen. Mikayla did get hives at the end of the week, but thankfully they didn’t seem to bother her.

Na and Uncle visited on one of our "sick" days

Her heart belongs to Uncle Clinton!

On New Year Eve we headed into the city and Mikayla got to take her second ever train ride. She did amazing and loved every minute! We headed over to my parent’s home of the week on Roosevelt Island and enjoyed the beautiful view of the East River from the apartment’s many large windows. My dad graciously watching Mikayla while the rest of us when to our Christmas present to see Godspell. And while I wasn’t concentrating on not coughing, I enjoyed the show immensely! I highly recommend! After the show we were caught in midtown with some of the New Years crowd which was INSANE! Sadly my New Year’s Eve story ends with us going to bed at 10:30pm… oh well it is what it is.