'tis the season of giving... and going...

Everyone, especially the people that really celebrate christmas, are excited for this time of the year. It's time to give and receive presents and eat large amounts of foods. For me, it's a commercialized holiday that I am part of, sort of. Everyone around me has the holiday excitement so rather than be a party pooper, I go along for the ride. The shopping spree has begun, malls are busy, and people's blood pressures are running high. It's ho ho ho season.... I find such pleasure in knowing I will be one of the few that won't shop for christmas gifts. I will purposely use a day after Christmas to buy presents for my loved ones. Why, you may ask, because that's me. I can't handle large spaces, let alone large crowded spaces. That with the kids running wild and the grandparents taking up all the couch seating from the rest of us is a bad combination for me.

Fortunately I'll have a chance to avoid the rush and shop in India for my loved ones. Not that Christmas or ANY kind of shopping in India is any better. If anything it's worse- all year around; there are people, lots of them, crammed in the small spaces, busy shopping for this and that holiday and the traffic ringing their horns always on the go.

Regardless of the crowds and the traffic, I am excited for the trip; to spend time with family, eat homemade meals, see the changes India has made to enhance cultural, social and economic development, experience life in a changed society and most importantly appreciate its true beauty. I am proud of my country for rising from the upheavel (though it's not over) and enduring the turbulences. It has achieved a lot and is on it's way to more improvements. And we're not the only ones going... Majority of the Indian foreginers travel to India around this time to elude the cold weather and to enjoy the holiday season which starts around October.