Merry Christmas

He's making a list .. he is checking is twice ..gonna find out who is naughty and nice .. Santa Clause is coming to Town.....

Merry Christmas everyone ... I hope you enjoy this holiday with family and friends and make lots of good memories. Make special things and enjoy some laughs, exchange gifts and remember them all ... I hope you guys already have dinner plans and have wrapped up all the presents. For me I am still behind wrapping presents .. but I did watch "The Polar Express" on Christmas Eve and plan on making my first ever Christmas dinner :) .. done all grocery shopping since stores will be closed and yes not to forget the decoration around the house looks so cute .. here are some snaps

A cute Tea shop that my in-laws bought for me

Yup .. Let it snow

I ......B.E.L.I.E.V.E

My mom made this special ornament just for me :)

Santa Salt and Pepper shaker that my parents bought me

Snow man cookie jar .. I adore this guy

Happy Snowman Kettle that my mom bought .. he is just so happy

Yup I collect Kettle ... this is my 4th one :)

Sood Family Stockings :)

Xmas all around ...

I have been to lots of places recently and tried to capture the Xmas spirit and decor ... here are some of the pictures I look in last few weeks ...

Chicago

Orlando


Wisconsin ...coming soon !!!!

Xmas on its way ...

It's the magical time of the year that I always look forward to ... the color red and green have a different meaning .. the Xmas songs on holiday are so much fun to listen to ..decorating house and setting up Xmas tree is what I had been waiting to do for such a while .. this will be our first mas together as married couple and so excited to buy gifts and celebrate this occasion with my family. The best part both my parents and in laws are here with us .. so this is going to be a special Xmas .. and also I get to visit Wisconsin this time of the year so i will actually see snow this time of the year ... can't wait to make snow angels :) ...

We have the Xmas tree up and lights outside the house bring the festive spirit ... I will have to take pictures and upload them for you all to see .. as of now enjoy the cute Xmas ornament ( My brother and sister in law gave us on last Xmas :)) ...

Coutdown begins ..

10 days from now I will be somewhere special ...its spelled as H.O.M.E .. yes I am going to India for my sister-in-laws wedding .. woho... I am so excited .. wedding in the house is a very amazing feeling ... can't wait to take pictures.. eat all my fav food .. spend time with family and go shopping ................. but I need some suggestions .. can u suggest me somethings that I should buy while returning for decorating the house ? I already have lots of brass stuff in my mind ( Thanks Rajee for getting the brass fever ....its bee non my mind ever since I have been on your blog :)) what else? fabric ? silverware ? waiting for your comments girls !!!

Devil's Milhopper

Last weekend we decided to explore a sink hole in our small little town .. its called Devil's Milhopper ...it was an interesting place with around 250 stair steps. Weather was perfect and it was the best day to explore it since no bugs were out to bite us ...checkout the b/w view of the sinkhole ...

wanna know how old it is ?



looking at nature this close if very interesting .. if we would have gone on a rainy day we would have seen small water falls ... I think it was a good idea to get out of the house and enjoy some hours out in nature ...


we walked the steps and then did the trail and then headed home ...my niece found some leaves on her trail walk and we came home with these pictures and some leaves in our hand .. and not to forget the good time we had there :)

Doggy Heaven...

Today was a sad day for our family .. I woke up at 6:30 when I heard my cell phone ringing. It was my brother who informed me that we lost our beloved dog "Dorgee"... tears started rolling through my eyes and a flashback started in front of my eyes.. about the first day we got him ...he was the baby of our family and 11 years went by and all he brought to our lives was immense pleasure and love. I know my family won't be able to forget him and he will be in our heart forever. I know that God has a very speciall dog now and he will take good care of him. My Dorgee is in Doggy heaven playing with other dogs and watching us from there ...

Lots of Love, Hugs and Blessings for our baby
Vij Family

Diwali on YouTube

While I amstill uploading my Diwali pics I did aquick serach on You Tube to see how did other people celebrated Diwali .. found some interesting videos which I had to share:

President Obama's Diwali Message by whitehouse


Happy Diwali 2009 by datlaadityavarma


Origin of Diwali - UMR India Association - Diwali 2006 by abhinayrathore
If you have kids make sure you show them this video .. its very nice way of making them understand the reason we celebrate Diwali :) My 3 yearold niece loves it ...



Diwali - Hindi Kids by oobleckboy
another one that is my niece love to watch

Happy Diwali

Some lit candle ...

Some bright light....

Spirit in the air....

Sound of firework....

Some sweets to dig in ...

Some gifts to exchange .....

lots of prayers and blessings around us ....

that's Diwali.... the time of year when everyone is happy ... houses are lit up...everything is positive and everyone is surrounded by lots of prayers and blessings. I hope you are feeling the spirit in air and enjoying every lit candle and diya ... you dig into sweets and not think of gaining single pound ... you get excited when your buy fireworks with kids ...you take blessing of all elderly people around you .. you Thank the almighty above for all you have been blessed with .. you open your heart for not only friends and family but poor on the road ... you give more and expect less ... you enjoy what you have and at the end of day say "It couldn't have been better"... My house is all set .. I still have more to show but just coz I know everyone will get busy I wanted to say " Happy Diwali" to all .. may you have the best of time with all you love and you make good memories for years to come.. don't forget to click some snaps and make some video.

Diwali wishes from our house to yours :)

Diwali Curtain

I kept thinking how to dress up the computer room .. how to bring some color in that room ..

... we have a dark drown curtain hanging in the computer room so I decide to decorate that with stuff around the house ...looked in the closet and pulled out this orange silk fabric ... orange .. silk.. Diwali perfect combination ... folded the fabric and hung it over the brown curtain ... orange and brown combination can't go wrong ... what next I kept thinking and then came up with awesome idea... why not hang my dangling earning on top ... ta da ...

we have a master piece in front of us ...no stitch ...easy curtain redo especially for Diwali :)

One corner of my house ...

Diwali preparations have started at Sood Niwas :) .. I was able to complete one corner of living room. Please ignore the time stamps ... I was using a new camer and didn't realize the stamps where there. I bought this frame for garage sale and it was too big for all the pictures I have so I came up with the plan of displaying our wedding cards. As you all know for Indian weddings there are two cards ( one groom side/one bride side) ... this frame was perfect to display both cards at the same time :) ...I like the orange and red combination and it definitely personalizes the room.

Orange mat was another garage sale find ... I actually have these mats in lots of color....it helps in bring color to the room and I like the way it ties the frame with the table ...

pink tassel wrapped around the glass candle holder to bring more color and the candle sitting on upside candle holder finishes the look. I love how this turned out ... I hope you like it too ..

First Karva Chauth

I can't believe I did it :) I am such a foody and drink lot of water so Karva Chauth day was a big thing for me. I did so good man that I have to brag about it ...I didn't even think of food and water :).While sitting at the pooja and listening to the story you realize that you are a married women who is so lucky to have a husband who loves her alot .. I think its the feel of I am happily married ...I don't know it was my first one so that's what I felt :) ... I did miss both my Mom's as they would have made this day even more special day. The sad part was ... my husband is away for training :( not fair for any Karva Chauth and especially not the first one ... I am now waiting for lovely moon to show up so that I dig into my food :) Hope all you lovely ladies had an amazing KarvaChauth and dazzled away with your outfits.... let me know how it went

Diwali Gifts

So if you are away from home and relatives and would like to send some sweets on the Diwali Day or Bhaiya Dooj I have a very good website for you ... its our very own Nirula's :) ... I have been using this website for a while now and they do online orders for almost everything... cookies/Cake/Sundae and even Thali :) I often send my family something from their website on birthday/anniversary and Diwali:) ...I know there are ton of websites but I really like Nirula's since its cheap/tastes yummy/on time delivery/variety of food.... I recommend Nirula's coz I know they are good at this .. Hope your Diwali preparation is going well ...

White and Gold

...some white candles .. some gold sequence ..... a frame spray painted to white ....white flower .... what comes out is beautiful table decor :) ... oh I also wrapped gotta around the white candles ... Do you like it ?

I miss ...

* Diwali shopping with mom

* Diwali cleaning ( for some reason especially cleaning the fan ..)

* Getting scared by sudden burst of firework by neighbor's kids :)

* Going mithai shopping with dad

* Hugging my dog "Dorgy" as he used to get so scared with fireworks sound

* Firework shopping with my brother

* Getting excited about Diwali gifts

* Deciding what to wear

* Lajpat Nagar market chaos

* Decorating house with lights

* Small kids selling diya and cotton buds

* Diwali pooja

* My brother keep a bucket of water outside the house ... just in case if someone catches fire

* Diwali sms :)

* Waiting to see what will be Diwali gift from the company I used to work for ..

* Dad decorating the temple with candles and diya

* My brothers and I giggling when mom used to do the prayers ...

* Someone knocking on the door in middle of prayers

* Getting Henna done

List is long and eyes are wet ...but I am glad I have good memories and more of make ... This is my first Diwali after my marriage and I am sure I will enjoy and make lots of more good memories... I know its still few weeks away but I wish everyone a very "Happy Diwali" ....enjoy this festive time and spend time with family ... take pictures and go out shopping ..clean house ... buy gifts ...send Diwali cards to distance relative .. call them and see what they are doing this Diwali ...and most important .. don't forget to Thank God for giving so much that we can make good memories ...

Navratri....

I wish you all a very Happy Navratri... hope you take out some time from your busy schedule and visit the temple. May god bless us all with lots of strength and smiles for the years to come. For those who are fasting ..I have some yummo recipes ( not my created but searched online ;)) ........Enjoy

Saboodana Vada

SABUDANA KHICHDI

Tasty and Spicy Shakarkandi (Sweet Potato) Recipe : Indian Fasting (Vrat) Recipes from Indian Recipes

Mango Rabdi Recipe : Indian Fasting (Vrat) Recipes from Indian Recipes

Kuttu (Buckwheat Flour) Ki Puri Recipe : Indian Fasting (Vrat) Recipes : Indian Recipes


If you wanna read about Navratri click on the following link
Navratri

Coutdown begins....

Coutndown begins for Diwali .. 1 month left and so much to do ... and in between we have Navratri and Dushera coming up .. I love this time of the year where weather is changing and you can feel the spirit of festival's in the air. Early morning get a little chilly and water starts feeling cold :) ..I am still collecting stuff for Diwali decor and have some great ideas that I can't wait to show .. at least I know what sweets I am making...here is US you can buy sweets from India Grocery store but they don't taste same as home :( ..so I try and make and bring the taste of home at this festive time ...

So plan so far is

* Coconut Burfi (our fav)

* Ras Malai

* Rasgulla

* Jalebi

* Cashew Burfi

For now lets enjoy some of the images of these yummy sweets :)

Ritesh Kapur's photostream

noreylee's photostream

shane5ab's photostream

comidademama's photostream

DeliciousDelights' photostream

Weekend fun !!!

Did something this weekend by enjoying ....

Some Theme Park


Some Nature


Some rides :)

Some color at Lego Land





Some florida sun


Some night walk at City walk



Hope you did something too :)