We headed out for dinner on the occasion of our wedding anniversary. Here are the pictures of our family today. Food is tasty as usual at NanKing, the Chinese food place. Kids liked Schezwan Fish better than the other items ordered.

 

Anniversary-2011

 

This year, the festival of Rakhi fell on a Saturday and most of our relatives have a holiday today. So we planned for a breakfast get-together.

The day started at about 5.00am for us and we are almost done with the arrangements by 7.00am. First guests arrived by 7.00am and the event lasted till about 2.30pm covering breakfast, brunch and lunch.

The gathering turned out to be of 50+ people and three generations of people celebrated Rakhi. Here are some pics from the day.

 

Rakhi-2011

 

Kids enjoyed the day a lot and had a blast. Some of them stayed back beyond lunch and played various games. As you can see in the pics, smiley face badges, Tri-Color wristbands (yes, our Independence Day is just a couple of days away) and whistles are hit among the kids.

Breakfast menu included primarily South Indian breakfast items – Idly, Vada, Pesarattu-Upma, Puri, Paakam Gaare (Sweet Vada), Chicken Curry, Kheema curry, various sweets and fruit juices. I should have gained a couple of pounds of weight just by the sweets my sisters fed me today!

For all the folks who joined us today – Thank you very much for a memorable morning!

Kids are on the verge of completing their summer holidays and the weekend of June 04th is the last weekend before their schools/colleges reopen. We wanted to go to Srisailam, but backed out in the last minute due to heavy rush there and accommodation issues for a large group of 18. So we did a weekend outing at a cousin’s place, out of town, that is a combination of sleepover and potluck. About 20 of us gathered at their place and we had a really nice time. Two days with lots of games, food and social interactions. Back in town by Sunday night.

After a long time, we had a family social event yesterday. It is a good gathering of relatives and friends at Aahlad’s birthday party. Being held in the middle of the week, most guys didn’t stay back extended hours, yet it is a long and well attended one. Aahlad is busy with all the guests and his Cowboy attire. Nice food, topped with large range of icecreams and very sweet Banganapalli Mango fruit.

Made a weekend trip to West Godavari district. The purpose is to attend a couple of weddings and the purpose is well served during the weekend. The train to Palakol is late, but that helped me grab those small samosas as morning snack (I won’t dare calling it a breakfast.) Had an opportunity to meet a lot of relatives over lunch on Saturday. The social meets continued over the afternoon’s card games and evening’s dinner. The first wedding is at 9.40pm and I took a short nap break from 11.30pm to 2.00am before attending thee second wedding. After I am back from second wedding at 4.30am, it is an extended sleep time and a lazy Sunday morning till I got ready for a few social visits. After lunch, helped myself with a three scoop icecream topped up liberally with fruits and nuts. That really helped in fighting with potential acidity. Had a small serving of lamb biriyani at another gathering in the afternoon. After a few more social events and after watching a few overs of cricket on TV, I boarded my overnight train to Hyderabad.

Two full days of hectic social activity. Nice weekend!

 

We celebrated Rakhi in a big way this year. Instead of each one of us roaming around for Raksha Bandhan, we did a breakfast get-together at our place. With about 35 visitors on the day, it is a good gathering after a long time. We all felt it is very convenient to celebrate the festival this way, so that we can meet everyone at the same place. Here are some pictures:

Rakhi2010

Breakfast menu is simple (Idly, Upma, Vada, Puri with Chicken Curry) but has a decent range. With quite a few varieties of sweets, the breakfast session is heavy. But it is worth it…
Thanks everyone who visited! It is a great day.