It's been a while since we talked, hasn't it? Too long. And with just a day to go before 2012, we have barely enough time to tell you what we did this marvellous year. Our lives seem to have got jammed in fast forward mode since summer and busy toddler twosome that we are, we haven't had the time to sit back and reflect on the fun we've had, never mind write about it! We've had such a fabulous time and it's gone by so quickly, we really have struggled to keep you updated or even keep track for ourselves!
But now, we plan to do just that in the same joyous, breathless, full-on fashion in which we've lived the last few months.
The summer was devoted to great day trips with parents and grandparents. Grandad and Grandma took us to some amazing places like The Deep in Hull and the seaside at Bridlington. And then, Didou arrived and we were out and about having fun every weekend. Riding toy trains, fire engines and donkeys in Derbyshire, picnicking in Sherwood Forest, exploring Hampton Court, feeding the swans at Windsor and best of all, visiting Whipsnade Zoo!
But then it was time for Didou to leave and with cold,grey days just 'round the corner,we thought we'd had all the fun we could possibly have this year.
When suddenly, in mid-September, something happened that totally changed the way we lived from day to day- hanging out with Mommy, reading, playing, drawing, play-acting and nattering about everything under the sun- Syon started school! So while Syon was off having fun at school, packed full of woodland trips (which even Mommy and I got to join a couple of times), Halloween and Christmas parties, and a Christmas play in which he did a star turn as a Peekaboo Penguin (but that's another story we hope to get 'round to telling you some day)!
I made the most of the downtime by catching up on the sleep I'd lost all these months rushing around with Bro! While I slept, Mommy did some very important research on pre-WW I England by getting up to speed with Downton Abbey in the single kid-free hour she got in the afternoon.
When October came round, unbeknownst to us, there was more fun to be had! First, we got introduced to 'Dora Puja'. We went to Leicester one Sunday to see the 'Puja Fairy' and we saw not one but many beautiful sari-clad Puja fairies in the community halls and temples we visited. We also had some top-notch nosh at our last halt in a Leicester temple where the temple food was (as always) yummy, plentiful and absolutely free for everybody! We also danced to the Dhaki's beat (the Puja drummers) for the first time that day and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
And then it was Halloween, with all the dressing up fun it brings (I was a trendy toddler witch this year and Syon, a very dapper skeleton). And the swags of sweets, Daddy carving the scariest pumpkin, and Grandad and Grandma joining us for dinner and chocolate muffins (which the two of us had baked) made Halloween a real treat!
Then, my big day dawned and my parents threw me a wonderful Diwali-birthday combo party for my second birthday. The first one (on my first birthday) had been so well-received that Mommy & Daddy sent out invites asking people to come dressed in their best Indian gear again. Everyone looked really nice. I wore a very pretty orange and cream ghagra outfit that Didou had brought from India for me and Syon wore a bright, stripey kurta. Amongst our guests, our friends Freya and Evan's mom looked marvellous in her mauve sari and gold accessories and received the best-dressed prize for her terrific effort.
Daddy, as always, cooked up a scrumptious storm, and to top it all, we had a cake with my (literally) good-enough-to-eat photo on it!:-)The evening ended on a high when we followed up two rounds of sparklers for the kids in our diya-lit garden with a twinkling sky lantern that we sent floating off into the Milky Way (or maybe the motorway) to mark my very special day. And what a day it was- full of fun and food and fireworks, gifts and good wishes. Most of all, all my friends and family were there to celebrate my milestone with me, either in person or in spirit (if they lived in India)!
And then it was Christmas, with the festivities, as usual, starting a month early! We shopped, tucked into yuletide treats and attended the Christmas lighting-up at Grandma and Grandad's village. We spent a day at the Lincoln Christmas market and met Santa in Nottingham. We drew, posed for (though Daddy will spin you a yarn about how we barely sat still!) and posted Christmas cards, and received them by the sackful. We decorated our tree with colourful baubles, some of which we'd made ourselves.
Before you knew it, Christmas Eve was upon us. We had a wonderful day, just the four of us, playing, eating (delicious prawn cocktail and lovely spiced roast pork courtesy of Daddy), singing and doing Christmassy (and non-Christmassy) things that both toddlers and grown-ups with well-developed inner-children enjoy!
We left treats out for Santa and his reindeers that night in the hope that a suitably appeased Saint Nick would leave us a gift or two (we hadn't been as angelic as we'd meant to, this year)! To our delight and amazement, we woke up to stockings stuffed with presents and a veritable mountain of gifts underneath our tree. The list of things we got from everyone is so long and wonderful that we won't go into it here (hopefully, our TY cards will find their way to you soon enough).
Christmas and Boxing Day with Mommy, Daddy, Grandma and Grandad and the rest of our English clan were splendid. We played with the new toys we'd received (and with some old favourites), chatted, sang, and sampled Grandma's brilliant baking. Then on 27th evening, we travelled to Uncle George's for the last of the family Christmas parties and ended the night having so much fun with our cousins that we didn't want to come away (the cocktail of olives and pickled onions we quaffed kept us going long after our bedtime)!
And now, it's bedtime again (a boring, recurring theme in our lives, unfortunately), and as we mean to squeeze as many fun things into the last day of the year as we possibly can, we must get some shut-eye. So, thank you for being our friend through 2011 and though it's goodbye for this year, we know we have so much to look forward to, with you, in 2012!
G'night folks and farewell 2011!
P.S. Do check out the new slideshow of all the fun we've had this winter, its summer counterpart should be up and running soon too!
