I’m not finding time to write this post. There’s just so much to write and say. There’s so much to share. I keep getting busy with work. My workload between January and March has been significantly high. January was my busiest month after the Christmas holidays.

Let’s start. This post is about December 2023, it’s Christmas – my favorite time of the year. I’ll divide this post into three separate parts.

Part I: Christmas

I worked hard the past couple of months and saved up money for Christmas. I wanted to have all the fun I could.

It started with me gifting myself a PlayStation 5 with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III for Christmas. It was unplanned. I just walked into Starmark and wanted to get it when I saw it bundled with Call of Duty. I had been wanting to get a PS5 since COVID-19 and lockdown began in 2020, but it’s always been out of stock or super expensive (not like it wasn’t when I bought it for 60k lol!).

I started my vacation from December 15th, 2023. I wrapped up all my company-related work. Kept my laptop aside. Got ready for the holidays.

Christmas starts with me building a huge star out of kite paper and bamboo. Decorating the house, getting lights from Chadni Market, getting new Christmas trees, and setting up the crib for baby Jesus.

We also start preparing items for baking Christmas cakes. Andrea makes rum cakes at home, and my parents bake a lot of cakes from the bakery for ourselves and distribution.

Christmas is incomplete without visiting Park Street. Exploring the carnivals in the city such as the ones at Birkmyre, Rangers Club, Allen Park, Bow Barracks.

Park Street is always lit up during Christmas; it’s a crazy scene!

There are tons of people who come there on 25th and 31st. This time we sat down at Allen Park and listened to the bands perform for a few hours. Had ice cream from Baskin Robbins and then tried Burger Singh for the first time and It was fun!

At Calcutta Rangers Club, my aunty Jill had put up a stall for confectionery items through her company Big Treats for which I’ve developed a website bigtreats.in

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On the 16th we had gone to a small mini carnival at Forum Courtyard with Andre. It was an overpriced carnival haha! So we ended up at Belgian Waffles after that.

The second carnival happened at Birkmyre alongside the Allen Park Carnival.

I couldn’t make it to Bow Barracks this time as it coincided with my school alumni association’s (ALSOC) reunion party at St. Xavier’s, Park Street. I love the food and ambience here. Classic all-you-can-eat buffet. Live music, meeting up with teachers and old friends, it’s a lovely experience. This time i ran into my Prep/Nursery teacher Mrs. Bhojwani. She was the best teacher.

Christmas Eve began with carols and a good lunch and dinner. Andrea had to go to Raghabpur to stay there and I went shopping with mom after which we ended up at Domino’s.

On Christmas Day, we went to church. Sadly, since Christmas Eve this year, I fell slightly sick. I had a terrible cough and cold, and the medicines made me drowsy the whole day. I was a bit upset; I really wanted to enjoy Christmas to the fullest, but it was holding me back. I did my best to make the best of it anyway.

The next day, on the 26th, I felt better. We met my friend Melissa at the race course for the Winter Derby. It was good as usual.

On the 27th, we experienced something really cool. It wasn’t going to stay for a long time, so we made it just in time before it was wrapped up. It was a tunnel aquarium with fish all around at Park Circus Maidan. We also saw the International Mega Trade Fair on this day.

On the 28th, I met Andre for some chill time at KFC. This was probably the last time at KFC hanging out before Quest Mall started shutting down all its food stalls due to renovation.

Part II: My Parents’ 29th Wedding Anniversary

The next big day was my parents’ anniversary. I really wanted to enjoy it and have fun with my friends. Luckily the antibiotics worked, and my cough and cold went away. It did make me low on energy. But after so much planning, my parents’ anniversary was a success! They booked a banquet at Hotel Radiant for the 29th. It was hectic and tense. We were worried about how it would go.

All my close friends came: Andre, Kervin, Damian, Anirban. I was very happy. Andre was very helpful and also became the photographer of the wedding. I cannot thank him enough.

Andrea helped a lot and, along with Mom, came up with an idea for table centerpieces. It was this lovely bowl with fishes inside and a small card prints and hung on it; this was for anyone to come and take home.

Andrea’s fishes still live on; mine are all dead. There was Saldanha’s famous almond icing cake without which any celebration is incomplete. The three tier cake from Big Treats by Aunt Jill.

Lovely kebabs, biryani, luchi for dinner. Booze as well, which I only posed with and did not have. It’s weird. I don’t like the taste of it; why would someone choose something bitter over something sweet like soda?

The night got even more interesting; Andre was late to go back home. It was around 12 am midnight – we had our first sleepover at my nana’s place! I’ve never had a friend sleepover with me at my home. It was fun!

Part III: BBQ at Raghabpur

30th December, the BBQ party at Andrea’s house. We wait every year for this. Not really every year; we had our first one in 2022 only haha! This time it was with Andre, Kervin, and Andrea, of course, because it’s at her home in Raghabpur. I got a great deal on a new BBQ grill on Amazon; I had ordered it two weeks in advance thanks to a lead from Andre.

So we geared up, picked up each other via Uber, and reached Raghabpur. Andrea made some good lunch – fried rice and chili chicken. It was a fun afternoon to start with; I made a chain of light bulbs to decorate the terrace.

In the evening, we fired up the grill. It was successfully lit up this time. Everything was cooked on time. The food was delicious. We got some amazing photographs together.

One accident did happen; I accidentally burnt my thumb with the hot butter dish. I left and got some ointment immediately; it wasn’t serious and came under control in a few hours. Even small burns hurt a lot. We sat for dinner after that, listened to music, danced around the bonfire, and finally fell asleep around 3 am.

We planned to wake up at 5 am to see the sunrise, but I slept like a pig and woke up at 7:30 am. After a good breakfast, we were off.

We returned to Kolkata. Mostly sad because the best part of the year was over. Everything we planned for so hard was over. I was happy we could enjoy it; I really thought I wouldn’t be able to because of my cold and cough. But it was good; it was successful. I was grateful and couldn’t ask for anything more. We were going to go into the next year, going back to square one, back to work. Waiting for the next best time of the year. Christmas 2024, and what it has in store for all of us.

Bonus: New Year 2024

Let’s not forget, it’s the new year! We really didn’t want the celebrations to end.

Not to forget. 1st January is Nana and Taco Mia’s birthday! Nana turned 96 years old and Taco turned 3 years old! In dog years that is probably 30 years old lol!

We had two more traditions left which weren’t done for a long time.

On the 2nd of January we had our biryani party at Andrea’s flat. This is always Andre and Kervin at Andrea’s home – celebrating nothing, just some chill time with Zam Zam biryani.

We took it to another level by going to Maidan and then stopped by at That Donut Shop (that’s the name lol!) for some Donuts. I love their Strawberry sprinkled donut. Then finally for coffee at Dariole.

The last but not the least was Winter Special Beef Haleem with Dalpuri from Saiqa. You can’t end winter without having this. It’s amazing.

That’s all folks!

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