Homeward Bound

Hi y'all. I noticed I used to say that all the time but Britney Spears gave "y'all" a bad name. Anyway I've been a bit busy with the holidays and all (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Arbor Day, etc). OK, maybe not Arbor Day but still. I can't tell you how much I've travelled in the past few months. Everywhere from Canada to India. I've collected 30K miles in the last few month but luckily most has been with the family. A quick recap since my last post. Halloween was nice. Boy was Harry Potter and Girl was Dora and then a dinosaur (Don't ask. She's only 3 and a half and she's already demanding not to be photographed in the same outfit twice). Thanksgiving nice. Turkey and then ham with some pie in between. Christmas was quiet. Almost my entire family was already in India at that point. X-mas day was spent with D's family which i love despite his step-dad's ignorance. ("I saw in National Geographics that you can't walk around in India because monkeys will steal your purse"). My eyeballs hurt from rolling so hard. Finally we left for India which was so awesome. The kids had a super-fantastic time and are already asking when they can go back. Kerala has changed so much in the last 2 years since our last trip and I can't wait to go back. My only wish is that drivers would follow traffic regulations as a law versus just some guideline or tip to be ignored. I rarely got into a car without thinking at least 3 times that i was going to die. Dude. Buses? have no sense of their size and pure girth on the road. It was crazy. Anyway. Had a awesome time but now I'm back in Chicago where the weather sucks harder than a leech at a blood bank. I leave for California on Wednesday for one night and all I keep thinking is that I'll have 12 solid hours of above-freezing temperatures. Speaking of weather I realized that I'm one ignorant Indian and I should have my desi-card revoked. I've really spent all my previous trips to India in Kerala. This time we flew through Deli and damn. It was cold. Not a bad-cold but like a beautiful I-need-a-sweater-let's-stay snuggled-in-bed-all-morning cold. We're definitely spending more time in Delhi next trip. And in my "It's a Small World" file I saw Em on t.v. while I was in Delhi. I was all into the discussion about blogging and the Girl liked Em's hair however the boy pitched a fit because he wanted to get back to Pokemon in Hindi. I needed to remind him that he didn't know a lick of Hindi but I guess Pokemon crosses all language barriers. (I noticed it was on in Portuguese when I was in Brazil last year). Also, Girl now wants to be a Bollywood actress. We saw Om Shanti Om while in Kerala and now the Girl needs to watch the videos repeatedly on YouTube. Even D watches the video but I think it's because it's a ton of SUPERhot Indian women dancing. Is there something they feed these women to be that hot?? The hair. The skin. The ability to shake their money maker in a sari.

Here's a few pics I uploaded:

The Boy trying to look disinterested.


Better







We took 1, 213 pictures and even created a movie that we burned on DVD before we left. I'll upload to my YouTube account when I get a chance.

Bottom line: had a great time in India and now am very depressed. And cold. AND I lost my links to other blogs in my sidebar and can't get them back up so I guess that makes me whiny too. Anybody know how to fix that?