Archive for December, 2008

  • 29 Dec

    Posted by
    Marise


    Category

    The 12 Days of Christmas – A Gift Idea in Itself

    2

    The 12 days of Christmas, folklore claims, is a story (now a carol) that the Christians put together to instruct the children in the Catholic Faith when the faith was being persecuted.

    Here is how the Carol goes -

    On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree
    Symbolizing Jesus Christ
    On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 2 turtle doves
    To signify that the Bible is divided into 2 parts – The Old Testament and the New Testament
    On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 3 French Hens
    Symbolizing Love, Hope and Faith
    On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 4 Colly birds
    The 4 Gospels – Mathew, Mark, Luke and John
    On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 5 Gold rings
    Representing the first 5 books of the Bible called the Torah Law
    On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 6 Geese a laying
    Symbolizing the 6 Days of Creation
    On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 7 Swans a swimming
    Symbolizing the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit – Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exortation, Mercy, Contribution and Leadership
    On the eight day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 8 Maids a milking
    The 8 Beatitudes
    On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 9 Drummers drumming
    Representing the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit – love, joy, peace, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, self control and patience
    On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 10 Pipers piping
    The 10 Commandments
    On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 11 Ladies dancing
    To tell us about the 11 faithful disciples
    On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 12 Lords a leaping
    Symbolizing the 12 points of belief in the Apostles Creed

    This prompted me to think along the 12 Days of Christmas lines while I was thinking of what to get Pri and Ryan for Christmas. So this is what I did.

    For every day of Christmas (12 days) I left a gift under their tree corresponding to the day. These are what I thought of, you could think of other items to use as gifts.

    First Day of Christmas – One potted plant
    Second Day of Christmas – 2 handkerchiefs (one each)
    Third Day of Christmas – 3 Magnets
    Fourth Day of Christmas – 4 Candy Canes
    Fifth Day of Christmas – A set of 5 boxes containing 5 exotic spices
    Sixth Day of Christmas – 6 Chocolates
    Seventh Day of Christmas – A comic strip wall hanging with 7 “Love Is” comics
    Eight Day of Christmas – 8 marshmellows
    Nineth Day of Christmas – 9 pieces of Christmas decoration for their tree
    Tenth Day of Christmas – A set of 10 tea lights
    Eleventh Day of Christmas – 11 handmade gift tags
    Twelfth Day of Christmas – A CD with 12 love songs

  • 28 Dec

    Posted by
    Marise


    Category

    Christmas Cards

    1

    While the tradition of sending Christmas cards is slowly dying with the advent of SMSes and Ecards, the ones that I do receive are treasured. More so when they have been hand made and one can see the effort and the love that has gone into making them.

    I began hand making our family’s Christmas cards 6 years ago after years of being inspired by a friend of my Grandma – Aunty Gilda. The friendship which has survived and been strengthened since World War 2 has seen our home graced every year with a different Christmas card and not a single design repeated!

    This year I decide to go with a Christmas Wreath for the motif.

    Christmas Card 08

    I settled on cream paper which had flecks of gold in it, green buttons for the wreath and finished with a red bow and writing.

    Here’s how it is done.

    While I got the text printed from my usual printer, you could also hand write the same.

    Text

    Draw a circle in the center of the card to guide you with placing the buttons for the wreath. Go over the circle with glue and place the buttons along the circle (This will allow you to make adjustments while arranging the buttons). Press each button down so that they stick firmly.

    Wreath

    Make a small bow and place it at the bottom of the wreath between the bottom 2 buttons. Hold in place till the glue dries.

    With Bow

    Now sit back and enjoy your creation.

  • 28 Dec

    Posted by
    Marise


    Category

    Lizalyn and Abhra

    5

    My cuzzie got married last evening and I got to be one of the bride’s maids at the wedding (my first) :) Had a lovely day and enjoyed myself a great deal. Congratulations once again you guys.

    Here are some pics from the evening.

    The entourage - Liz, Nicole, Marise, Audrey The pretty flowers girls with JC Lizalyn and Abhra

  • 25 Dec

    Posted by
    Marise


    Category

    Merry Christmas Everyone

    4

    I’ve always been interested in nativity scenes that are different, so I really like this one that Malcolm made. :) (you can read about his efforts on his blog)

    Inter Racial Brotherhood The Nativity Scene

    Here’s wishing you all a Very Special Christmas

  • 01 Dec

    Posted by
    Marise


    Category

    All Star Trek

    0

    After plenty of scrapped plans, the bunch of us finally kept our date with each other and Mamabhanja on Sunday. It was a fitting end to a hyperactive month for me :)

    Mamabhanja is a lofty hill, part of which falls in Thane and the other in Sanjay Gandhi National Park. We agreed to meet at Teen Haat Naka at Thane. Sajan and I waited for Ravi (who is invariably late) at the station and ended up delaying everyone.

    So just who were these stars?

    All star trek

    To begin there was Abhishek – The man who was leading the trek
    Sajan – the quite man who surprised us with his experiences of the outdoors
    Ravi – the man who tried too hard
    Anuradha – the naughty mommy
    Mukesh – the strong man
    Maanya - the youngest member of the team and at 1 and a half year old amazingly made it to the top
    et Moi

    I’ve been hiking with all kinds of people – inexperienced people, the kind who think they know what they are doing but don’t, the outdoorsy type who don’t care a damn about the rest of the group, the kinds that come on a hike dressed like they are going to a disco and the works, but I have never been up on a trek with a one and a half year old! That was a whole new experience – one that I enjoyed to the core.

    We took a rick to the place from where we were going to climb and started our ascent. We stopped for breakfast- yummy aloo parathas with achaar (courtesy Anuradha) – about 20 minutes later. Poor Mukesh and Anu had a tough  time carrying Maanya and making the climb. But there was nothing any of us could do because the little girl refused to come to any of us.

    We reached half way up where we took a well needed rest. Surprisingly, there was a little tea stall and we sipped strong black tea and watched our monkeys climb a tree :P

    Then up came the sun and our little hiker began to cry and get very restless. I think she was feeling really hot and stuffy in what she was wearing, so we changed her into a cotton tshirt – my extra one which I had taken along to change later!

    We finally reached the plateau of Mamabhanja and took some time to enjoy the view. For those who are familiar with the central and stallite suburbs of Mumbai, we could see the area stretching from Powai lake to Vashi to Airoli and Thane. While the boys visited the Dargh at the top, we girls played a while and caught 40 winks :)

    While it took us nearly 2 hours to get up, we made it down in 20 mins, Maanya had long fallen asleep by this time and Ravi actually got his chance to carry her without making her cry!

    Abhishek dropped me off to Thane station from where I got to Vikhroli and Ajay. Spent a quite evening with him and then headed to Gajalee for a fishy dinner.