Winter 2008

So our office is closed down for the Holidays (politically correct way of saying Christmas break). I had been waiting for this opportunity to relax and be home with the kids and not worry about some proposal / deliverables at work.
Turns out, I am not all that lucky ... I need to clear some certification exams to continue to get my pay check. Our company came up with this idea of having all its employees clear atleast 2 certification exams in a year ... failure of which will lead in serious actions. Failure to do so 3 consecutive years may lead to job termination. While I understand the need to be update with the industry standards and technology, I think they need to relax this policy to some extend. I can rant about this for days together, but the bottom line is I have not completed all 6 certificates in 3 years and now I am pressurised to do so before end of 2008. Lazy cow that I am about these things, I have scheduled to give one exam, which means, most of my Christmas break will be spent on preparing for the exams.
Well ... thats my story.
Moving on Cantaloupe ... she gave a spirited Winter program at school ... I loved the way little kids could match tunes and sang wonderfully those lovely Christmas songs. (Rudolf the reindeer, Frosty the snowman, You better watch out and of course Jingle bells and many others) They collect an insane amount of money as fees but ended up giving the kids just ONE CANDY STICK. Cantaloupe remembered our house rule of "No Candy" during weekdays and promptly gave the Candy to me. Of course, she got her candy during the weekend.
We also set up some lighting and Christmas decorations neat the fireplace. We went out shopping for a Christmas tree ... but it was not in our price range and we ended up decorating one of our potted plants. Cantaloupe was thrilled decorating the plant all by herself. We also bought small gifts for our daughters and another one for my nephew.
Cantaloupe got her first assessment card from school and I was thrilled to see all "A"s. She can now read uncomplicated words by herself ... is pretty good at addition and subtraction. Can tell the time pretty well ... and sings to her heart content, enjoys painting and playing pretend games with her toys.
Junior is already 7 months and is the darling of the house. She is at peace with family members which includes dad, mom, sister, grandma, uncle and aunt. Anybody else is a stranger and is not welcome. So it came a surprise when she was calm and happy when UTBT cuddled her. She can sit comfortably and is showing little interest in crawling. BP thinks she may skip that and walk someday. She has mastered the art of drawing attention when her loud "Hey" and loves the lullaby and "Ganesha Stutis". She loves watching her sister and dad play badminton and her favourite toy happens to be "Badminton Birdie". We have been putting off piecering her ears in our laziness ... hopefully she'll have those lovely studs in her ears soon.
Its been rather cold in the bay area. The snow tip mountains we can see from our patio look just lovely.
So thats the news from our household ... HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE !!