New Year's Cheers

Helllooo Family! It was great seeing you all month at the beachhouse, and I cannot wait to see you again! Even though it hasn't been that long since our family reunion, it is time for us to write a January entry to recap our reunion, and to update all of you about what has been going on since we last saw each other. Also, this will serve to inform those of you who could not attend the vacation of the events that occurred. Let us start with the recap of the Christmas vacation.

The first thing that was evident was that many people came late, and we therefore had to cancel the Patel Olympics, a truly disappointing event. Because of the late arrival of Archanamasi (who was assigned to bring most of the food for the American meals), a lot of the food that was originally supposed to be bought ahead of time had to be bought during the week. A prominent example of this was the lettuce for the Mexican meal. You can imagine my surprise when, after the Mexican meal had occurred, I opened a fridge and found two huge bags of lettuce. Not to worry, though, the leftovers were all split up among the various families, and the experience gives us some interesting insight into how to plan the groceries differently next Christmas.

One of the greatest parts of this vacation was that there were so many faces that we hadn’t seen in such a long time and some new faces as well because of attendees like Vishakamasi and her family as well as Nundinimasi had not attended in so many years. Vishakamasi brought two new faces, Vishnu and Narsinh. It made for an excellent vacation. I also must comment on how well her two older boys, Jaa and Krishna were behaved. After years of being woken up by being jumped on by Anand and Devin, it was intriguing to know that Jaa and Krishna were much different, listening and obeying more than the other younger kids that usually attend. It made for a different kind of Christmas vacation.

Normally, during the Winter Vacation, the kids all retreat to the game room and play video games. Interestingly enough this year was a bit different. Don’t get me wrong, there was still the video game playing that normally goes on, but this year there was a lot more sports and poker going on. We played some very intense games of basketball and football, as well as trying to read each other and call each other's bluffs during a game of Texas Hold ‘Em.

Unfortunately, there was sickness brought in to the house, notably Meirra and Johnmasa both being sick for a few days in the middle of the week. Outside of those few days, however, the family was as vibrant as ever; everyone (except for Meirra and Johnmasa for part of the time) seemed to enjoy spending time with family.

Every year for as long as we can remember, our Christmas Day celebrations have always been noisy, chaotic, and a lot of fun.  This year was no exception, especially because we got to celebrate with Vishakamasi, Spiritmasa, Jah, Krishna, Vishnu, and Narsinh.  Everyone seemed very pleased with the gifts they received, which only added to the insane level of noise present in the house.

On Friday, the last full day that some families had at the beachhouse, Josh and I decided to take the Polar Bear Plunge. Despite it being the coldest day we had, with the coldest water temperatures, we thought that it was necessary to man up, and actually do what we had said we would all week. It was a great event, and I think that if you’d really like to get a recap on the event, watch the video that we will have for display at the end. Another video that we think you should watch is a video of all the kids dancing to “Gangnam Style”, a popular Korean Pop song.

To finish off the week, most families actually left early due to weather scares in their home town. It was very disappointing to see many leave and to be among those who left the day before we were planning to leave.  Let’s move on to our recently renewed Comrades in College Section.

As you all know we have two comrades in college on the staff, but only one of them will be the center point of this edition of Comrades in College. Josh has actually been doing well!!! Last quarter he got A’s in all of his classes, giving him a quarterly GPA of a 4.0, making up little by little of the mistakes he made last year. Good for him. He is also considering studying abroad during the summer, either in London or Peru. I wish him luck in his endeavors. On the application side of college, Shayla, who isn’t on the staff, was deferred to regular admission from Brown, and has decided to apply to Columbia, Amherst College, Duke, and UNC to add secondary options.  Well that is all we have for today folks! Have a great month and make sure to leave feedback on this post if you have any comments!