Christmas in Canada

It's 12:30am and jetlag leads me to think about updating the blog.

The little video above is of Kirin and his three-year-old cousin Suran (the daughter of my brother Sunil and his wife Rehana, who live just outside of Calgary). Johanna (and Sunil?) was decorating the tree and these guys were endeavouring to untangle one of the rows of beads. It was a long process. And yes, Kirin is saying "Mama" on seeing Johanna. Incidentally, he also says mama when looking at the cats, our friend's dog Louie and, occasionally, me.

I have to admit, I was a little worried that Suran wouldn't take to Kirin; she is used to being the only grandchild (although she has a new, four-month-old brother called Yash) and I wasn't sure she would be too keen on sharing the limelight. Well, fortunately, I was wrong - Suran is a precocious, cute and curious little girl, and these two were inseparable for the entire two weeks. It was beautiful to watch them playing together and she was wonderfully sweet with him. One day, we went to see some family friends and she introduced him to Sonal by putting her hand on his shoulder and saying in her small, lispy voice: "This is my friend, Baby Kirin."

Sufice to say, we had a great time with the family. I really missed not having my sister around but we still managed to enjoy lots of good food, much wine (mostly Sunil's impressive homemade vintage), many early nights and a fair bit of playing in the snow. Will post more pics when I get a chance, including some shots of the kids on their sleds.

One final note, our good friends Auntie Sarah and Uncle Scott became proud parents in October to little Max and have created their own blog to show him off. Click here to check him out.

Happy new year!