70th Birthday - Surprise visit and more ...

 The idea to visit my daddy for his 70th birthday germinated sometime during the Christmas break of 2016 ... during our Cancun visit. The thought of surprising him was very very enticing, but I had visited India in summer and had almost emptied my vacation hours at work. I also changed groups at work place, so the comfort level with the manager / Biz associates was low. There was also the possibility of kids CASSP exams, tournaments ...and of course money involved.
 The idea was discussed with sister .... she had similar considerations along with the fact that her kid was younger. She kept postponing the decision till late january. I had by then started enquiring different travel agents for a price quote. I was surprised that the ticket fare was not very high considering March is non seasonal / non peak time for travel from US to India.
 Around this time, there were some site problems that my parents were facing in India. Some illegal occupants claiming to have the right paper work over my parent's site. This caused a lot of grief to my parents, especially dad. He put off any discussions on this matter, saying he would leave the matter in the hands of capable officers, God willing, everything would be settled in his favor. But we all knew this was his way of avoiding any discussions,  he was deeply saddened by the events . My mama emailed me one fine day, saying he met daddy and he seem to have lost a lot of weight and he felt his health needed attention. He also warned saying that daddy had taken the site matter to heart which had affected his health.
 That was it ... I could not debate any further with my sister or circumstances here in the US. I had to make that trip to India in March. Husband was very supportive, infact, he had been the one encouraging me to make that trip terming all my considerations as unimportant. To him, parent is above all ... no money, no career, no kid exam should stop one from being there for the parent. Anyways, when I told the sister I was making that trip irrespective of her situation, she wanted 2 days to sort out her side. Things fell in place, and sister also decided to make that trip. So we booked our tickets. This was the first time in 16 years of marriage, I was going to India with my sister and no kids. The trip itself was very short. We left on a friday and were back the following monday...but boy what a trip it was.... so so satisfying.
 We left US on 10th march, 2017 and landed 12th early morning in Bengaluru. Sister's FIL was at the airport to receive us. We rested / ate breakfast with sister's ILs and went to my IL's house. We had booked the taxi in advance, thanks to my aunt. Quick hello to my niece, and wave to my aunt, we headed to Mysore around 11:00am on 12th. Although we had barely slept in the flight, both sister and me were highly energetic. We couldn't get enough of all the planning ...

Day 1 :(sunday)  We managed to pack few return gifts in the ride to Mysore :) We had carried the return gifts / gift bags / sweet boxes / chocolates from US.We reached Mysore around 1:30pm. Parents were taking their afternoon nap when we knocked on the door. Daddy opened the door was extremely surprised to see us ... he couldn't believe his eyes for few minutes. We settled down and got down to Biz the same evening. We had catering / venue booking / gift packing / purchases to tackle and couldn't really put it off ...
 We placed the order for a yummy pineapple pastry and headed for venue hunting along with my parents and V mama and aunty. After going through few places, we settled on Ruchi the Prince.  It had a great outdoor space, stereo system , lighting. We discussed the table arrangement and took our time to finalize the rich dinner menu. ... Watermelon juice, Aloo chat, vegetable pakoda, Tomato soup, papad, vegetable biryani, corn salad, rasam, rice, curd rice, naan, navratan korma, daal, bhindi masala, mango ice cream, gajar halwa , meeta paan and banana :)   I am boggled with how much food we eat ... We made personal phone calls to all invitees because not many had a clue about our visit. Only my aunt, V mama knew ....

 Day 2 (monday): We headed to the mall for shopping clothes. Since it was a short visit, ended buying clothes for kids back home as well. Parents bought us clothes too ... grabbed a quick lunch in the mall and went to the jewelry store and bought a pair of gold studs for mom. Also bought sweets for all our guests and started packing the return gifts. The gift set included a set of kitchen towels (in the form of cute baby frocks), kesar pedas, chocolates, and cash for 1st family circle members. We also prepared games to be played during the party. We had bought table mat sets from US as prizes for the games.

Day 3 (tuesday): Daddy's 70th birthday... we were excited as family members from B'lore started coming home. The house atmosphere instantaneously turned festive :) We debated on our clothes to wear for the party, joked about each other, decided on mode of transport to the venue ... basically did stuff that families do when they gather together.
 Sister, me and my aunt went first to the venue to ensure the table arrangements were done exactly how we had instructed them. We were glad they were, we only had to make minor adjustments. We also neatly arranged the "Receiving table" with gifts, arishiNa pottaNa and prizes for the games. Set up a special cake table (we carried special table clothes, chair covers from US) Guests slowly started arriving and were extremely pleased with the arrangement. We ensured we welcomed each family personally so daddy / mom could just relax and enjoy the evening.
 We started off the evening inviting few family members on stage and recollect some memories they share with my dad. I was moved with all the heart felt messages / memories / words of appreciation / love family / friends had for my dad. A very humbling / touching experience it was ..
 We cut the cake, started with the Antakshari with a twist. The teams were divided into Kalpana, Aarthi, Ramesh and Ambarish :) Crowd was enthusiastic ... the food kept flowing fresh / hot off the stove. There was mass request for a game of Bingo and we played the same as dinner was served.
 Everyone seem to have a great time. We took pictures, ensured guests were attended / fed. The night ended around 10:30pm and we got back home to prepare for the Sathyanarayan pooja the next morning.

Day 4 (wednesday): The day started early ... once we were ready, we headed to V mama's house where breakfast was arranged. We wanted to help ... but apparently our aunts / uncles the experienced ones already had everything taken care. We spent sometime with them and came back home. The pooja started on time, family members arrived on time as well. It was a hot day, so we served juice to cool down the heat ... The pooja ended right around lunch time, and the caterers arrived just in time. Chairs were cleared, plantain leaves laid out and food was served. The food was not great, but the mood, atmosphere more than made up for it. Once lunch was taken care, we all stretched and laughed and joked some more, took pictures and soon it was time for Bangalore families to leave. We thanked them for their short visit ... and they assured us that they wouldn't miss it for anything. We finally relaxed that night, after all the travel from US for only for these 2 days and we had achieved what we came for. It was extremely well spent and daddy was extremely pleased with the way the days were spent.

Day 5 (thursday): It was a day we just lazed around ... morning breakfast from a restaurant, fab india shopping, some more shoe shopping, clothes shopping, sugar cane juice, bhel puri ...

Day 6 (friday): Lunch at V mama's house, day spent with chikkamma, of course shopping and eating ....Bought sweets, packed stuff, ate puff / sponge cake from Raghavendra bakery, parents bought some more gifts / clothes for us / kids.

Day 7 (saturday) : Started early to arrive in B'lore chatra at 8:00pm. It was cousin P's baby shower. Yummiest masala dose / dumroot breakfast ... mingled some more with extended family. Visited ILs place again ... said our good byes to everyone and came to the airport.

Day 8 (sunday) : Flight delay ... 1:30am slight postponed to 4:00am .... time spent in B'lore airport was very very tiring .... but then arrived on time in California to be greeted by husband and kids. Didn't sleep a wink in the flight ... I guess sister and I memorized the "Who wants to be millionaire" question / answers. The kids were delighted to see me back ... they loved their gifts and sweets ...

The next few days were spent in terrible jet lag ... although I had to work. But overall the short visit to India was memorable in all ways ... every penny spent on the trip was well spent.

Weekend that was ...

The last weekend was eventful. The girls and their dad were busy in Badminton tournament and I was busy with "Yellu" preparations for Sankranthi. I stopped making "Sakkare achhu" (sugar candies) last year and I continued with the same this year as well. It involves an elaborate procedure, and the kids at home do not favor it, so I find the effort not worth it. Anyways husband helped with "Kobbari" scrapping (dry coconut), cutting jaggery and coconut proved not a simple task. I used the special tool (adike kattari) for the first time to cut jaggery and the tool simplified the task considerably. Prepared yellu to distribute to atleast 20 folks.
 We had conveniently decided to use "Kitty party" for yellu distribution.

The girls performed better than other tournaments they have participated in. But sadly they had tough opponents and could not win medals. The achievement for both the girls was sweet revenge in the form of game wins against opponents they had lost to previously. Personally they were very satisfied. We watched "Moana" movie monday evening, before wrapping up the long weekend with a delicious stuffed capsicum / roti / jeera rice dinner.

Next long weekend is in May ... with the Martin Luther weekend, holiday season officially comes to an end ...  

Dinner Conversation

Last night dinner conversation:

Kid 1 : Amma, can you ask some logical problem for me to solve ...
Kid 2 : (Noding enthusiastically).
Dad : OK ... Before I ask, tell me if you know the meaning of these kannada words. What does "Aadu" mean?
Kid 2 : Playing ... play ... alva?
Dad : That is one meaning, it also means "Goat"
Dad : What does "Nari" mean?
Kid 1 : It means "Walk"
Mom : Walk is "NaDi" ... not "Nari"
Kid 1 : Oh .. right. "Nari" means "River" ... right?
Mom : River ??? Nadi is river ... what is Nari?
Dad : Nari means fox ... got it? What is KoLi?
Kid 2 : quack quack ...
Dad : That is duck ... KoLi is hen.

After sorting out the meaning, now, how many legs does "ordinarykoLi" have????

Cancun - 2016 Winter Vacation

We have established sort of tradition over the past few years where a friend's family / sister's family and our family head out for vacation during Christmas break. We are a group of like minded people with similar priorities and kids in almost similar age groups, so it has worked out well thus far. (tough wood).
 After some discussions, we narrowed Cancun has our vacation destination. (we are running out of warmer destinations to visit during Christmas ... unless we agree to increase our budget:) ) Resorts / flight tickets were booked in early October and we thought we were all set. So the day of travel dawned bright and we were welcomed with a text from United airlines that our flight itinerary was "Rescheduled". Per our original plan we were to reach Cancun by 7:00am via a red eye flight ... but per the rescheduled itinerary, we were going to reach by evening 4:00pm. We were essentially going to miss out almost a day of vacation. That wasn't the worst part ... our new schedule routed us to Denver where we were going to spend 10 hours in airport (without lounge facility) before we could catch the flight to Cancun. It irked us to no end. Sister's husband in whose name the booking was spent a good 4-5 hours trying to negotiate with the United flight customer service, but their tone / understanding of the passenger plight was pathetic, to a point of being rude. It was almost as if without explicitly stating it the message was "This is the best schedule we can offer... take it or leave it. And if you leave it, no refund". We could perhaps have negotiated on the "Refund" part ... but we truly had our heart on the vacation and did not want it cancelled under any circumstance. So after much grumbling we took the offer.
 Once the travel part was done ... the vacation was as good as it could get. We departed cold SF to be greeted in Warm Cancun. The humid weather reminded us so much of India and our spirits were up the moment we landed..the lost night sleep soon forgotten. Our resort was lovely and rooms tastefully designed. The next 4 nights we thoroughly enjoyed the warm weather and delicious desserts / ice creams.

Day 1 : Visited Xcaret : A surprise package : Previous night lack of sleep, led to delayed start on Christmas morning. Having not much choice since most tourist places were closed, we went Xcaret. Thankfully, the place did not disappoint us a bit. We enjoyed clay moulding, butterfly garden, lagoon swimming and the beach side lunch location. Special mention to the scuba diving experience that my older kid thoroughly enjoyed.

Day 2 : My favorite visit : Chichin Itza : The Mayan temple - Reminder of the mayan culture. It was such a lovely experience to learn about the Mayan "Warrier" culture ... we bought some artifacts after much bargain and I was pleasantly surprised with my skills ;)

Day 3 : Rio Secreto : Group favorite : Never in my life so far have I walked in river water flowing inside underground caverns. Such a unique experience ... the caverns are maintained spotlessly clean and the water temperature is pleasant at 25°C. Our group was split into 2, with the dads taking charge of younger kids and mom with the slightly older kids. The irony being older kids in mom's group who could swim were going to help out the non swimming moms :( Anyways, our guide turned out to be a superwoman, she managed to drag all 3 floating moms at one go when required. We felt accomplished, when we learnt we had managed to cross almost 13ft deep water at times. This place is a must go for adventure seekers ... walking in the river water is such a refreshing experience.

Our vacation ended with us waking up at 4:00am to catch 8:00am flight. There was a minor flight delay again, but thankfully not as bad. Our travel adventure did not end with just landing in SF. We managed to keep up the adventure going by exploring bart / caltrain / uber to reach home 3 hours past our flight landing. A scrumptious South Indian Thali from Saravana Bhavan was such a delight after eating continental food for past 4 days ... a great way to end our 2016 vacation. 

2010 -Winter break

The Winter break was eventful. Mom and dad left on 21st Dec ... so I had took off from office on 21st and 20th. Working on 22nd / 23rd was not easy ... the house felt strangely quiet. Hubby had taken off for 2 weeks to spend time with family. The kids were home and noisy as usual ... but still missed daddy / amma.

We had plans of skiing on Christmas day at Lake Tahoe... but the weather played spoilsport. We decided to go to Monterey instead and enjoy the Aquarium. Before we drove to Monterey, enjoyed breakfast at Komala Vilas. Aquarium was good and the kids co-operated, but I felt it was slightly over priced for what it had to offer. As we walked towards our car, we noticed folks biking by the bay ... my sister insisted we check out bike rentals and we did. And boy, what a lovely experience it turned out to be !! My little one and nephew (chunnu and munnu as they are affectionately called) were seated in the front row and took up the responsibility of ringing the bell when instructed. It was very cute to see them ring the bell everytime someone requested "Bell please" ... my little girl would ring immediately ... and nephew followed suit.

The bike had 3 rows and was perfect for 2 families. We biked for an hour and headed home.

On 26th, we hosted dinner for one of our friends' family who are moving back to India. The menu was Methi paratha, Chole, Bende Kayi gojju, Kayi sasive anna, mosaranna and Badaam Halwa... and oh, the cucumber - tomato - carrot puri chat was delicious.

Cousins and their families visited us on 28th for dinner. We went out to "The Jungle" before having garam garam Masala Dose, Avare KaLu saaru, mosaranna, Basundi (prepared by sister) and fruit salad for dinner.

I was just browsing the weather site when I noticed that Jan 1st and 2nd had snow storm predictions in Tahoe which meant, our Ski trip would further get pushed. So hubby made instant decision to go skiing on 31st. The only problem was we had already committed to a New year get together for the evening. After some browsing / consulting, we booked a room for 30th and headed to Tahoe. We spent the night at the hotel (played Sequence after a long time) and headed to Tahoe on 31st. It was a bright sunny day ... perfect for skiing... if only the kids co-operated and rentals did not have long queue. We braved all odds and still managed so go tubing and kids enjoyed snow rides after much persuasion.

We came back home around 6:30pm and went for the party at 8:00pm. We played Dumb cherads / 20 questions ... and had yummy food and welcomed new year by cutting a nice cake. We were home around 12:30, wished family members and hit the sack.

Apart from all the activities above, managed to watch some movies (all movies were watched late night starting at 10:30pm)

Overall a great break ... and the grind begins now :)

Happy 2011 !

Cousin bonding

My 21 months old nephew is coming to our house since yesterday ... and its interesting to see how toddlers bond. My 2 year old who once could care less about her cousin's presence has suddenly started to bond with him. Their games / conversations are interesting.

She calls out "Hi S" the moment he steps into our house .... and the little fella responds with "P .. P.." calling out her name. My 6 year old then gives him a tight hug and he is only too pleased to be cuddled. Then starts their "Game" of running around the house scream some war zone cries at the top of their lungs.

The way this game is initiated is simple ... one of the toddlers screams out the high pitch cry and starts running ... turns back after 8-10 steps and looks at the other. Signal enough for the other to join the fun.

I as much as I see the little ones bond, I so wish my 6 year old had a similar play date as well :)

Bicycle

I learnt to bicycle when I was 10 ... the same year I started cycling to school. The school route went through some busy streets ... but I managed just fine. I rode my bike to every single class I attended be it music or dance. I event went to different corners of the city to participate in various competitions on my bike and thoroughly enjoyed the independence.

My daughter has been biking since she turned 3 (with training wheels) and 4, with out training wheels. That was quite an early start, we thought. (parents's pride)

But I don't see many kids biking to school or other classes here in the US. I understand there is a lot of traffic here and the speed of the automobiles is quite high ...

But is that the reasons for fewer kids biking to school or it is more parent's not approving biking for other reasons ???

My daughter is going to be 6 in 2 days, and I do not plan to send her biking to school atleast the next 2 years.

Card games

Ispit - as it is called in our household, is one family entertainer for the adults.

Kids under the age of 20 are not allowed to participate .... and most kids in the family seem to have mastered the skill even before they start playing, just by observing. (me included)

Cards is not played in our house for money ... its for fun .... "Nirmal Anand ke liye Khelte hain".

We play lots of games

* 250 points Rummy

* Best of 7 (limited to 7 games)

* 28

* Hearts

* Oh hell (*not sure about the origin of the name*) ... sometimes called Justice

* 26

* Donkey

* Set

Of these the last 3 days has seen us playing Oh hell, 26 , Best of 7 and Rummy .... It had been almost 2 years since I played cards ... I was pleasantly surprised to find out no degradation in my expertise :)

Parents are here ....

Daddy and amma came to our house June 23rd ... wednesday. It has been such a relief for the past few days. My daughter's school closed for summer break on June 10th. Since then hubby and I took turns to stay home with the kids.

My parents landed around 1:00pm on 23rd and my girls instantly bonded with them. Even my otherwise shy younger one gelled quite well with them.

Its been two weeks since their arrival and we have already made a trip to LA ... looking forward to spending an exciting summer with them.

One year since that day ....

 Already a year has passed since the day my grandpa passed away ... 365 days just went by and still I can recount the turn of events on that day.

 I still miss ajja ... I may have moved continents far away from home ... but the time spent in ajja's house is fresh. Those were some awesome days I will never be able to forget. Thank you ajja and ajja for all the love and warmth you showered on us ... I may not have expressed my love for you in words ... but I hope you know I truly love you guys !

Vocabulary improvement

 My younger daughter is on a roll these days ... she barely talked except for unintelligible words like dadada, tama, kabakaba, bubbaayeeee etc along with some sensible words like amma, abba (for appa), nana etc. For the past month and a half, she has added several words to her talking list including togoli (take it), All done, (soon after her bath is done) Chikki, Chitatata (chikkappa), kakka, poo poo, illa, beda, yethkoli, alli etc. Sometimes she surprises us with words like Barolla, Kodalla ...

 She is one smart girl who understands almost everything we tell her and communicates in her own way. Observing her interaction with her sister is the most interesting passtime for me and hubby.

 She usually sleeps by herself after dinner when she is in her bed and is given her white blanket. But yesterday, she saw me with her sister and insisted on joining us in the fun. It felt lovely to have both my girls on either side of me. They crawled all over me and I felt like a lioness with her cubs .... but that didn't last too long since both wanted my exclusive attention. Nonetheless the experience was just lovely ! 

Death

It happened again ... the phone rang in the middle of the night ... the news was the same ... a family member's death ... the person this time my cousin ... my doddappa's son.

 I cannot begin to say how much shocked I am. I interacted with him just a few days back during my India visit ... he had no health problems. He had just gone to cheer his daughter participating in a Table Tennis match ... had just written down 12 participants' names .. was writing the 13th one's name when he just collapsed ... and he was gone .. just like that. No words .. no good byes ... gone !

 The family is shattered to say the least ... and is in deep shock.

I feel helpless ... frustrated and pained.

24th May - First birthday party

We had our younger ones' first birthday party over the weekend. I was truly amazed and touched by the willingness demonstrated by some of our friends and family to help out . Within minutes after lunch, family and friends helped us clean up the hall and pack up everything (left over food and presents, decorations etc).

 

 It felt really good to be surrounded by such supportive and generous people.

THANK YOU ALL !!! 

Milestone ....

 My older daughter has crossed another milestone ... she can ride a bicycle.

 The look on my husband's face on the day she achieved this milestone was priceless. And she achieved this feat on May 5th 2009 ... much before her 5th year birthday ... due in July.

 We bought this bicycle as a present for her second year birthday. At that time, it was too big for her to even sit on it ... her feet were left dangling in the air if we did manage to put her on the seat. For the first few months after the purchase, she avoided going anywhere close to it. Hubby kept encouraging her to get familiar with its parts atleast ... but she would have none of it.

 After pleading and persuading, hubby managed to teach her to ride the bicycle a week before her 3rd year birthday. This was with training wheels though. 

 Ever since, she loved riding her bike and was quite comfortable riding it to grocery stores, library, parks etc. So it was only a matter of time that her training wheels were to come out. 

 This time though it did not take a lot of effort on hubby's part ... she was quite familiar with the parts and could reach the ground with her feet. But she did whine when the training wheels came out ... eventually she learnt to balance and now can't stop gushing about her feat. 

 Congratulations my dear daughter ! You have reached another milestone !

The same milestone your mother reached when she was 10 years old on her BSA SLR. If you are someone like your mother, you'll continue to love riding your bike for many many more years to come !

Swine Flu

 The news of swine flu is all across the country currently. I got a scare of my life when the teacher from my daughter's school called up to tell me that the school was going to be closed for the next 10 days.

 I rushed to pick her up from school. There were TV crew members in the school campus and the Principal was seen assuring worried parents. I ran to my daughter's class. The teacher wouldn't give much details about the suspected student. But she assured that the student was a suspected candidate and not a confirmed one. She also mentioned that the student did not belong to the class my daughter studied. In fact that student was not in the same wing. (wonder what that means)

 But I drove back home with my girl ... all tensed up.

Baby Talk

Its official and crystal clear ... my second daughter's first "Clear / Meaningful" word happens to be "Amma". And she uses it ever so frequently. *
No prizes for guessing whose grinning ear to ear :))


* she jabbers lots of other sounds too like attaiiiii, akkkkkkkaoooo, dadadad, appppppppppp, aaa, yeeee etc

Namma Maneyalondu Gubbi

Have you ever heard this kids peom / song?

Such a powerful impact it had on me today.

Its a very simple song where a child narrates a story about a gubbi (sparrow). The gubbi lays eggs which hatch in time ... gubbi feeds the little ones and nourishes and takes care of them ... when one day the little ones grow old enough to fly away from the nest.

Isn't this the story of most of us? Our parents take care of us, raise us ... and then one day we just move to set up our own identity / family etc. Upon hearing this song, my 4 year old daughter felt sorry for the parent gubbi. But was quick to point out, "Amma, the kid gubbi will come and visit the parent gubbi ... right? The kids have not forgotten their parent. When I grow up, I will move out too. But I will be visiting you." she said. What a profound thought!
Easier for her to say this at this time ... but so hard for me to digest it. I am not ready for that as yet ... hopefully I will be ready when time comes.

Oh another interesting thing she pointed out, "Amma I will be in Chikki's house when I am grown up and working and will visit you every weekend". Now why Chikki's house I asked. "Remember you stayed in your mother's brother's house while you worked and visited your parents over the weekend".
I could now see the connection ... Indeed I stayed with my Mama and aunty during my initial days of career in a different town than mine. I visited my parents over the weekend. So my little one decided it was customary to stay in parent's sibling's house while working ... never mind, the sibling stayed 10mins drive from eachother.

Its a boy !!!

Its a boy ... its a boy ... jump with joy jump with joy !!!

Yes my kid sister delivered little baby boy this afternoon at 12:21 pm. (8lb 1.9 oz, 20.5in) Mommy and baby are doing just fine. The labor lasted about 20 hrs from start to finish ... all is well that ends well ... and we have a lovely little fella in our family now :))

Congratulations sister ... I'm proud of the determination and strength you showed during labor. May God give the little one the best of health, wealth and happiness !!

Yippeeeeeee .... I am a DODDAMMA !!!!!

A milestone reached ....

Oct 15th will be an important day for me and my second daughter .... apart from being my aunt's wedding anniversary falling on the same day ... my daughter rolled over successfully on this day. By rolling over I mean, turning to her rides, lying on her tummy, successfully lifting her head and freeing her hands completely and stretching them forward.
She had been trying the same for couple of days ... but once she figured out the process ... she took a day or two to master it and now every time we put her on the mat, she rolls over :))
Its harder for her on the carpet .... but she is pro on the mat :))

Its official ... 5 days short of 5 months she rolls over !!

Ganesha Chaturthi

This year Ganesha Chaturthi was celebrated with so much enthusiam. This inspite of us coming back from our vacation to Los Angeles and San Diego just the previous day. Thanks to my mother, everything was so well done ... it didn't seem like we had just arrived from our summer vacation.

 The reason for this post, to detail out the menu

Gowri Habba:

* Saaru

* Anna

* Bisi Bele Bhath

* Raitha

* Carrot Palya

* Mosaranna

* Bele Obbattu

Ganesha Habba

* Gasa Gase Payasa

* Saaru

* Beans Palya

* Karida Kadubu

* Kola Katte

* Chatni

* Hagala Kayi Gojju

* Mosaranna

Our house Charpu : Ganesha Mangalarthi was on 5th 2008

* Chikki

* Cocoa Benne Biscuit

* Huliyavalakki

* Fruit Salad served at home for guests

* Mixture (Karida Avalakki)

* Banana

* Orange

Sister's house Charpu:

* Chakkali

* Huliyavalakki

* Shalya Anna

* Ribbon Pakoda

* Gasa Gase payasa (served at home for the guests)

* Rave Laddu

* Banana

* Orange

Thank you Amma ... I knew you were totally exhausted at the end of the week ... but your efforts are truly appreciated.