Update and New Year Wishes!

My apologies for not having posted much for the past few months. I took a much needed break of handling extended family affairs, meeting new and old relatives, traveling and nurturing my dad back to health from his two subsequent attacks of pneumonia. Thanksgiving and Christmas went by so quickly for us and we spent our time meeting loved ones. We had our house-warming ceremony and DS' poonal function in the beginning of this month, which brought in a lot of relatives under one roof. It was a memorable occasion by all. 


Kids finished their university exams a couple of weeks ago and are on a much needed break from routine. But they have been busy with their violin, piano and vocal classes and concert preparation. Their recent Christmas concert at the Church received a wonderful welcome by the Germans. It was surprising to see so many German families under one roof, with some dressed in pretty sarees and salwars communicating in good Hindi :-).


DD is preparing for a very important event in Violin, which will take our family to Goa in Jan. I am excited about making it as a family vacation :-). She has more violin workshops coming her way which will continue to keep her extremely busy next semester. DS'  orchestra begins this week and he is very much looking forward to the new experience. He was excited about the lovely response he received for part of his music composition that he had composed for a Ballet performance of Nutcracker last month. He has penned down more poems and compositions since then. Both kids are still busy with their online courses in Latin, German and Lit. 



We have some 7-8 months of time left in India before we head back to the US and we are very much looking forward to new and wonderful enriching experiences of life here. Both my kids have decided to take up full time CC courses after they return to the US and I am not sure if we can be called 'homeschoolers' after that. I hope to share our plans for university admissions and such as we progress through each of those steps to help benefit others who are in similar paths. For now, all I can say is that both kids are branching out in different directions experimenting with new areas of interests and experiences and also trying to individualize on their passionate areas of what they want to see themselves doing in the future. But it is an evolving process of finding happiness, peace and balance.


Our recent Chennai visit was a wonderful one as we got to do a couple of unplanned  trips to Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary and Mahabalipuram, enroute stopped by a couple of villages. We also enjoyed our recent visit to Devanarayanadurga near Tumkur this past weekend. 


And oh we loved watching MI 4 movie in the theater recently with all our cousins and their families :-)

We wish you all a very Happy 2012 !!!

Few pictures (by DS) of our recent weeks below.

Poonal Pics


Gifts to DS from my bro and sis-in-law in Toronto!

Lunch after the function

DS with the priests

Mahabalipuram Pics

Five Rathas

Arjuna's Penance

Krishna's Butterball:-)

Devanarayadurga Pics

700yrs old Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple

Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary Pics

Drongo