Contemplations and Ruminations

The Altar... well, we managed to make it look Christmasy The Crib in church... I was wonderstruck when they switched on the lights, it was beautiful. Cousins & friends.... everybody happy that things turned out well. The children wishing you all a Blessed Christmas and great year ahead.

That's the card all the catechism children made for Father, and he really liked it. You can see they have scribbled their names all over it.... with different versions of christmas greetings, like Marry Christmas, Merry Crismas, Father you rock... As Andrew one of the shepherd boys put it, "Father, all the Kaieluthu". (Meaning all the signatures) The caroling gang, it was fun hanging out with them. Jehu's missing in the picture... Another fun gang, its been a year now since I joined this school..... and its like a second home. It's gonna be hard when the time comes to leave this place.... Vivek and Nagarajan are missing in this picture. That's Mazhalai , the person who got me into the whole blogging sphere. I got anju into it and... that's another story, a never ending story.

Went Caroling to many houses and took pictures of the cribs... here are a few.

Yeah been caroling and practising for the Nativity plays... (one for the school and the other in church). Both came out pretty good.The play in school was funny cause the Down's were dressed as shepherds and Jenson (the smallest shepherd) kept turning behind and asking the teacher "adatha enna... adatha enna..." after each step. Mid way through the dance, Little Rose's head gear fell down and Hansel looked at it for a minute then picked it up and placed it on her head. The autistic kids were angels and as soon as the music started Nadeem covered his ears and ran off stage, Brindha started crying and Venkata kept running into the shepherds... Santa Claus was fun, Raja slowly led him off stage and up to the chief guests. Everybody loved the play in church, the Father was impressed. The little shepherds who ate my head during practice were wonderful today. I'm gonna miss those shepherd boys... practicing with these boys was an event, they used to torture Mary, thr...

Constructing the crib... was a lot of fun. The final product looks great. More pictures later, after the entire thing is set up. Carol Practice at home... those body guards near Santa Claus, wouldn't leave his side. I mean they saw Varun (Santa Claus) entering my home in his usual normal attire.... and he changed into the santa outfit and came out a few minutes later and they were wonderstruck!!! They wanted to shake his hand and when he obliged, they couldn't get over it.... The title here, is the song we are singing in church tomorrow... Dear Savior haste: Come, come to earth Dispel the night and show Thy face, And bid us hail the dawn of grace. O come, divine Messiah! The world in silence waits the day When hope shall sing its triumph, And sadness flee away.

That's the new kid in school, Monica. She's smart for her age... Baked this last night and when I returned from school today, half of it was missing...

Today we went to these hills nearby, to pick that particular type of grass used to build a crib. Here are a few pictures... The boys did most of the work.... While we just played around in the water (in the picture we are looking at fishes and trying to catch a few) and took a lot of pictures.... Yeah, this is how we start the most wonderful time of the year... immersed in nature and surrounded by friends. 

Mom made the wreaths... I made the candles, the cards and the stars.... Nameeta ate that.... That's Caramel Pudding (it came out surprisingly well), christmas nut cake and Mother Mary cake. My School: Went to St. Joseph's Convent today... things haven't changed much there. Same old teachers who somehow seem to remember you after all these years... spent a lot of time taking pictures. This picture of the grotto up here was where the 12th standard girls had to light a candle on the last day before venturing into the world.... outside. I remember we were told to hold on to our courage, chastity, faith and to spread the light (of peace and love) wherever we go.... I remember how beautiful all the candles looked, burning together... Back then I didn't really make much of the whole 'going out into the world' talk... I was just excited to leave and do somethin new... Seeing this place again brought back flashes of memory, memory that gets etched into y...

I really have no time to jot down things here... Too busy with all the christmas-y stuff.... the christmas play, the decorations, the caroling, the baking, the school christmas program... December is just... beautiful. Anyway here are a few pictures that bring about that warm and fuzzy feeling....