It was a germ of a seed. Cedrick was going to India Saturday morning 30th, so we decided to invite his family and Sasi ( since he's bachelor and alone ) home for dinner Thursday evening.
After Shubham invited, as I sat it occurred to me that this is my chance to surprise him. Cedrick and his family are the only people we know really well here so it wouldn't make sense to have a party without them and with them coming for dinner it was the perfect cover. I spoke to Trace and Ma and then spoke to Emy to get the contact info of Arthur and Deepali. The same day Comcast decided to cut the internet and tv and I was left calling Emy and co ordinating via the phone with everyone. Finished vaccuming and re arranging things in the rooms.
By wednesday morning, the house was clean and after an afternoon break, I started cooking for the day after. Evening, we went to get grocery ( Shubham was surprised about how stumped I was on how much food to get ). By night 11, I had finished the main course and aata for next day. It was bad, as thanks to my haste in finishing eveything, we didn't have proper dinner, specially I was horrified to find that I'd forgotten to get the paneer(it was in the grocery cart itself ) for the makani. Nervousness about the next day ate at me, as I made Bhature for the first time and that everything should go perfect. You never know what goes wrong when you plan such thigns and with such short notice it's even more volatile. I so wondered how the surprise would actually work since they all had pretty much said they'll come at different times ( 2 more people had been added to the invitees ) so when I'd spoken to Emy about the cake and balloons, I casually mentioned how great it would be if everyone could co ordinate and come at the same time. Now, I prayed.
The D day, I got to making desert, the appetizers and the Bhature ( which took me an hour since it's so HARD to belofy them. Ma, I have no idea how to manage to do it !! ) . The funniest was when the Green Olives jar wasn't opening, I freaked out, and went to the Complex Office and asked them if they could please help me as I had a surprise party for my hubby in the evening. They were sweet about it. Afternoon Shub came home for lunch, as he got the paneer on the way.
By 6, I was done putting all finishing touches, and dressed up. Deepali had called in the morning that they'd all come by 6.30 pm and I was now only worried about how to avoid Shubham going down and NOT see the cars as they came in the gate.
When he entered the home, he was shocked to see me all dressed up. I tried convincing him to dress up too, but didn't press too much as I knew later I was going to have to work on the going down and balcony part. Played it very cool , even I say so myself !! :)
They called that they were down . I'd told Him before hand that theis time I'd open from the balcony for a change, and ran to do it, but he came none the less. As he saw ( luckily there were Many cars coming home from work ) , I was Deepali in her car. Hoping an idea would work, I commented , " My god !! So much traffic . " and got him talking about how bad the traffice was these days . As he talked, I drew him into the house by goign from balcony into the hall. Phew !!! Crisis averted !!!
Now he wanted to go down. Ab kya karein ?? I said, " Arre, why you want to go down ?? Now u're old. U can't go down everytime ?? If people come from out of town or someone elder coming toh theek hai but not every Every person na ?? " and he bought it !! Though I could see from his face he thought I was being silly. Then I distracted him by making him take my pics and videos ...
As everyone came to the door, he went and opened it and his face's expression can be seen in the video . The pictures taken during and after were truly great.
Party Highlights -
Everyone admired the bar, as they entered.
Vijay and his wife commented that the house was so nice that they were sorry they hadn't taken it as well.
Deepali, Cedrick, Kay ( arthur's wife ) commented how nice everything was kept and Kay even said that it was sooo very clean and how I managed it. That was truly wonderful to hear.
Arthur kept telling Vijay's wife and me about the many advantages / good parts of being parents. :)) His wife kept contradicting him ( saying she had a good 9 years and that shub and I were living the American Dream and we should enjoy it as much as we can ) but it was all in good fun. Their son is very cute.
Arthu's wife talked about what a bad time they had when their son Oliver was born. His heart beat stopped and he lost weight to 4 pounds which scares her even now which is why she's So protective.
Kay was very curious about Indian Culture. She and Arthur were shocked when Deepali jokingly said PDA was a big no no in our culture. We had to explain later that it's all much better now and our families are very open comparitively.
Everyone loved the food. I was worried when they didn't eat much ( Next time I'm serving dinner immediately, so that no one stuffs themselves on chips and appetizers ) but Everyone took most of it home with them leaving very little for me to take care of. What a relief ??!!! a
They all kept telling me to eat, but it's so hard to after doing all that work !! I just wait for everyone to leave and then relaxing and eating araam se, even if just a little. I so hate getting up while eating !! ouff !!
Everyone was joking about how the bar was so much bigger than the temple, which showed where our priorities lied :)) to which Shub and I said, God is everywhere !! I also said, Glasses need more actual space... hehehehe ... While everyoen was admiring the bar, I commented, I love glasses, he loves drinking - Match made in Heaven :)) lolzzz
I was really worried about stuff breaking thanks to the boys. and the parents were worried about the kids getting hurt but what to do, have to get used to it !!! I cannot imagine living in an empty apartment .... They kept saying i'll need to baby proof the place ... People with stuff, don't have kids kya ??? Sure it must be hard, but nothing is easy is it ??
It was a great evening .... Truly miss our families on such occasions. Wish you all come next year and can stay with us here ...
Was great telling both mommies and daddies about the party and all !!! :D It always increases the experieance when you talk about it.
The next day, ie Friday I was exhausted but Very happy that all went well. Spent the whole day putting togetehr the pics and videos !! Forgot to have lunch as I waited for Shub. By the time he came home, it was 3 and already late. And it was so hot , the poor thing fell asleep immediately. Had to wake him up thanks to a wasp ( wrong about it on my other blog ) and then we drove to Richmond to have dinner at Cha Cha's . Both of us were tired so bahut chid chid ho rahi thi but in the end we had a nice loooong walk and decent meal !!
Today, I finished reading Silent Witness and Shubham has been playing with the balloons, trying different experiments on it. I hated to, but had to throw half of the cake. I mean, who can have that much choclate cake ??? I put away the left over things and now we have to go buy glasses for him. I've been telling him since 3 weeks now to get new glasses but it's SOOOO hard to get him shopping. He's sleeping now since 3 hours, and I just hate to wake him. He rarely sleeps so much , poor thing !!! His brain works over time just like mine... Yesterday he took a LOT of mast videos late in to the night , using different settings giving different effects using only one color or giving ghost effects etc etc etc ... Just love his experiments !!!
Bas, all for now !! More later ...
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