Elated Eleven in a Foreign Country!

 

                                                  

I don't even remember after how long I am writing here...

Have been sharing snippets of the big journey that we undertook but it was not the same. 

It's not that I hadn't started writing earlier.. but every time I started, my fingers used to start trembling and throat choking after few lines in on the notepad... Making this big a transition was not easy for me...I hope someday I can share about my journey some day... but today is not that. 

Today is an extended happiness post! 🥳                           

N's birthday is a festival for me as most of you know it.. And be it scorching heat or lockdown or a new country - festival pe decoration and few surprises to bante hain! 

Few months back when N was missing India home a lot, celebrating with a Harry Potter theme was like a flicker of hope in the dark cold tunnel. As May approached I made a list of things I will need to DIY for a HP theme as everything online was super expensive or weeks away! 1 evening when she was plopped on my messy countertop I described what all I had in mind from hanging envelopes, to handing out snitches as game prizes and coffee stained invites to friends.. She loved them all and added few more. Next day around bedtime my Potterhead changed her mind 360 degrees. To my absolute joy she wanted colours and more colours on her birthday and not get bound to a theme! 

                 

So with a new folder and new ideas the hunt began for ideas for a colourful theme décor. Mind you till now we were not sure if this is gonna be a party or just a playdate with couple of friends.. We both were excited anyhow. Now I had made a deal with her that if she fulfills so and so we will do the birthday celebration - if not then we will call it off. And the final date of decision was 15th. Now she is better at being patient than I am.. I couldn't hold on my excitement and I started gathering things. From confetti balloons to tissue papers and bubble maker. So much is available in stores online and offline that its difficult to pick. Want to splurge but need to apply brakes at the right time! It took me few days to roam around and pick the best! Photos hold a special place in our celebrations. Finally my family doesn't crib when I keep clicking photos and selfies cos they know something nice would come with those. This year's bday project involved a collage of Happy Moments of last year - just a sweet reminder that - All is Well... and we are grateful - no matter the place! 

This whole planning some as decided and some a surprise  - makes me so happy! Jubilant is perhaps the right word😍

Finally the last 2-3 days before the D-Day - its execution cum exhaustion time for me. Putting the printed photos on different frames, blowing balloons, making flowers out of tissue papers, hanging the décor to my satisfaction, dressing up the cake with Hogwarts colors, arranging the food just the way she likes it - it gives me a tiresome but wholesome satisfaction. My walls and my heart is filled with bright and happy colours for weeks to come! 💖

                                                     

After a decade of being home all day with the birthday girl, this year DH had to travel just a day before. She was downright upset but the big girl she is now - she waved daddy bye in the wee hours. Sleep was disturbed and so was mind. But the little surprise that came in the form of a zoom call with her India friends was such a wonderful way to kick start her birthday at 12 am! A small DIY cake was the start of sugar rush that can be accounted for the entire year! But chatting with old time buddies helped her sit on a fluffy cloud as she closed her eyes on her birthday eve! 

            

Decorating her own cake with her favorite candy was literally the icing on the store bought cake!!! Blowing balloons for her own day was also one of many firsts.. she was as thrilled with a simple activity as me.. Alas I have infected her with my celebration bug! :-DD Once she fell asleep was my turn to hang in the surprises so she wakes up to the photo collages of friends and family... Poor N -in the morning she was tired she couldn't recognize who all were smiling from the wall at her ! But another first for her was that she was going to school on her birthday. Birthdays in India never gave her that chance as they used to come during summer holidays. But sharing goodies with classmates was as exciting as calling few of her friends over. The last set of surprise balloons awaited her when she came back from school... and so did her favorite aamras poori. After that a thunder struck our home. I and J felt as if we were just audience in the big scheme of things! LOL Just few girls in the tiny room but their shrieks reached the neighbors too. Not only did DH fulfilled his promise (yet again) by reaching right on time - he also got some more loud hoorahs to the group.. I am just glad nobody called the police! 😜

                                                   

Once we bid adieu to her friends it was finally time for us to get on to some selfies, some more photographs and then a family video call. Technology not only helps us share our moments with each other but also be present with each other even if we are geographically apart! A few screenshots and lot of laughter later reality hit us and we realized that its still school day tomorrow. With barely few hours of sleep in the last 48 hours neither of us was ready to get up for school next day morning so we had few more cuddles as the balloons wrapped up in string lights and glow in the dark sticks n balloons shone their soothing light upon us! 

I was in shock to see my floor covered with confetti and the glitter and the strings ... but have no one to complain, as I, me and only myself put those tiny messy things in my cart just days ago..  It took me a good 2 hours to vacuum, swab and mop the surfaces with N's help of course but its finally just the cute décor on my walls that are smiling with me! 

                                                                                              

All in all - it was a wonderful day. I managed to successfully plan her birthday just like I used to do in India. J has given up on me long before. He doesn't even come around me when I am in this zone as he cannot absolutely understand any of this! But this is 1 day when I let my sweet and precious little-now-big one know that my world always revolve around her and will always do. Unlike last few years I have stopped promising myself that I will stop making a big deal out of her birthday because that's perhaps never gonna happen for a long time to come! 

Bringing & executing my annual tradition here finally makes me feel a little more at home in this foreign country! 👪🏡

 

- Mom.Reflections