Happy Holidays!!!

ah, Christmas...what an adventure! the past week has probably been the busiest time i've spent in india so far, but also the best! i'll let the pictures give you somewhat of an idea about all our adventures this holiday season:


right after camp, we celebrated sophy's birthday, which was a lot of fun.


then the next day i had lunch with a friend, did some shopping, and that evening we had a big gift exchange/dessert party with the families we're friends with here. our awesome christmas volunteer, Jeff, also arrived that night just in time for the party. this is me and some of my favorite girls at the gift exchange.


one of my favorite presents this year was the abby actually let me hold her! she usually cries whenever she sees me!


some of the kids acted out the Christmas story--soooo cute, esp the little shepherd on the left!


we even had some carolers stop by, which was a special treat.


and of course, the sweets were one one of the highlights of the evening.

we spent the next few days helping Jeff get oriented to life in our city. i also got quite sick for about 2 days, which was not fun. then friday night we spent the evening caroling to some of our neighbors and friends houses. saturday we did last minute shopping (and let me tell you the malls here are as bad as the US this time of year!!!). then we met for our weekly discussion group that afternoon and went out for a friend's birthday that evening.


then came christmas eve--we had some of our close friends and team members over for dinner and another goofy gift exchange.


the food was AWESOME, as well as being a fun mix of indian (mutton biryani and rajma) and american (sweet potato casserole, rolls, green bean casserole, etc).


here's everybody just hanging out


Alisha was very excited about her gag gift, esp the colors! go gators! haha


sophy, me and ruth


then the next morning we all got up to open presents and stockings!


i was very excited about all my gifts, esp this horse statue from one of my friends!


preeti was also very excited about one of her gifts, a cool fish statue!


sophy was also quite excited about the tea strainer she got in her stocking


then that afternoon, we invited all of our friends over for a christmas party! we had lots of sweets, fun, games, and talked about the real story of Chrismtas.


jenga was quite a popular game at the party


as was uno, or oh-no as one of our friends calls it!

overall, the past week was busy, but a lot of fun. tonight i'm packing for a few weeks of travel--tomorrow i leave bright and early for my friends' wedding in south india, then i head to thailand for a conference, malaysia for vacation, and then to Delhi and finally back to Pune. whew! happy new year!