Last two weeks have been a series of celebrations. We try to celebrate Diwali every year, even if no one else does in this place. And Halloween is very big in the girls school. For Diwali, we had the (not so early morning) oil bath and small puja. Luckily it fell on a Sunday so we didn’t have to rush. We put up some Diyas in the balcony and also did hand sparklers, which the girls loved. In the evening we went to the nearby temple, and then met up with some Indian family friends for dinner. I was thinking of hosting a pot luck Diwali lunch at home, but the hubby’s lack of enthusiasm combined with my reluctance to spend the whole weekend cleaning and preparing and then clearing up, with no time to prepare for the week ahead, led us to suggest a dinner out instead. It was great fun, all the kids were from S’s grade in school and they had a ball running all over the place, playing, eating papads and nans, colouring and finally settling down to Dora when things got too out of control. I was surprised they lasted that long- dinner ended at 11 pm!
I went into the girls school and spoke about Diwali in both their classes. I read a book about Diwali (sourced from the school library!), showed them a Diwali story on Youtube, and then we lit a diya and they got a goody bag with chocolates and a Diya. The hubby had picked up some awesome diyas from India during a recent business trip and the children (and I were thrilled). In A’s class the teacher allowed me to do hand sparklers with the children and they loved it. I held their hand while they did it, some of them were quite brave and some were quite scared! Imagine if I had burst the one lakh ladhi! I miss those... And now we have a Diwali invite (2 weeks after the day) at a friends place. It might be snowing that night so will be interesting to have a snowy Diwali!
Halloween again had a series of celebrations. The first being the carving of the pumpkin by the hubby with the girls. They made a nice smiley face and lit a candle inside and that was in our balcony for about a week. I managed to wash the pumpkin seeds and roast them in the oven and offer a healthy snack to everyone, but no one took me up on the offer so only I was eating those for the next few days!
The day before Halloween the girls were invited to a Halloween party at one of their classmates homes. S’s friend, but A tagged along as usual :). S wore her pirate costume and A was a fairy. Themom had done up their entire home in a Halloween theme with cobwebs, spooky stuff all over, and even a spooky goody bag. I want to be a kid again. Hum bhi agar bacche hothe....
The next day was Halloween celebration at school and the girls went in the same costumes. There was a party in A’s class in the morning and S’s class in the afternoon. Both parties were very nice. One of the moms did pumpkin carving in A’s class, they had many crafts (ghost lollipops, spiders made from black wires and a lollipop), book reading and snacks. S class was a much bigger event coordinated across the entire grade. Each of the grade classrooms had different crafts and activities (one of them was pitch black and the kids had to draw by candlelight) and in the kitchen the kids could decorate cupcakes with green gooey icing and spooky jelly babies. Tons of fun. S did quite a few crafts (favourite being the ghoul cup with 8 legs!) and ate quite a few snacks. The kids then had a session with the librarian reading them a spooky story (she’s really good) and then it was time to go home.
And finally on the following Saturday was the Halloween celebration at school with the whole trunk and treat and haunted house etc. A still wanted to be a fairy but S was tired of being a pirate and wanted to be Belle. After much negotiation that Belle could wear a white shirt inside her dress and still be a princess, we set out for school. The girls enjoyed the trunk and treat. A was not happy in the haunted house and I had to carry her some of the way. S was scared too. They enjoyed making the crafts again- I’m telling you we have so much junk related to Halloween in the house now. I managed to give away most of the candy and have been surreptitiously disposing off the spooky crafts. Here’s
wishing everyone a Happy Diwali and a spooky Halloween.
