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Christmas Trees & Other Traditions

There are a lot of traditions here in this country... Yesterday our friend Germeet came over to see Aashini. When he got there, we showed him right in to see her. He said, "no, I can't see her yet, you must sit me down and offer me water first"... we offered him water but he didn't want any... he said that he had to sit down first before seeing the baby and that we needed to do that with anyone that came into our house... we always offer people water when they come into our house, but this time he was acting a little strange about it... He goes on to explain that while walking on the road that people come in contact with ghosts, so when they come into our house we must let them sit down first... it was a little confusing trying to understand what he was saying, but something to do with sitting down so that the ghosts can come off the person or something and stay away from the baby... Traditions can be interesting... :)
So then Germeet came in to see Aashini (after sitting for a minute... we tried to tell him that we believed in J and we didn't fear the "ghosts" but he wanted to sit anyway)... So he came in to see Aashini and did something else that is a part of the traditions here. He pulled out 200 rps (about $5) and waves it in circles around her and tucks the money in her blanket (seen below in the pic)... by doing that he was giving her a blessing... We put the money in her cute elephant "piggy bank"... she might end up with quite a bit of savings before she even knows what money is :) haha!
And on to American Traditions... The Day After Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday!!! It's not quite the same here... the biggest shopping day of the year fell on Aashini's birthday this year... but another reason I like that day is that is the day we always put up our Christmas tree :) Here's Adam putting it together :)
And.... the finished product! WHoo hoo!
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Comments

Deanna said…
You live in a country where people hand out money? How cool is that?
2:23 AM
Bronie said…
I sure wish someone would wave money over me while I sleep and then leave it...what a way to wake up! hahaha

You guys rock! You've got your tree decorated already...with a preemie to take care of...you really are making us look bad. Stop it!
3:31 AM
Emily said…
Yeah, Germeet is like the tooth fairy in a turban! :) Your tree is HUGE!! I love it!
9:08 AM
Aarmel said…
First of all, you're tree is beautiful and it makes me jealous! :)

I've never heard that one about the ghosts before...very interesting. And I thought we invited them to sit and have water because it's always hot here! : )
10:01 AM
The Agarwals said…
What an interesting tradition! Way to stock up on that savings account at such a young age! And... your tree is inspiring me! :-) We have always had a real one, but tonight we brought back my old college tree (that's fake)to put up and decorate.We are terrified that Eden (who loves to eat everything) would find the real tree to appetizing and of course with all those shedding green needles on the floor would find it hard to resist taking a munch! We thought fake would be sooo much better this year! I'll post some pics when we finally get around to it! :-)
10:43 AM
Jill said…
huh, interesting "traditions"...i guess leaving money tucked in the baby's blanket isn't so bad. how fun you put up your tree! it looks great!
7:43 AM
Anthony and Sharon said…
Your tree is awesome! I can see through mine (it's a little less 'full' than yours:) How fun to get to take a picture of your little Jellybean under the tree for Christmas!

And yes, I was thinking tooth fairy as well... it's a very generous tooth fairy that gives out money before you even grow the teeth! HAHA!
9:23 AM
Anonymous said…
Did you actually buy that tree there?? It's impressively big and full. Ours is rather scrawny that we bought locally--at least we can get one in a country that doesn't celebrate Christmas!! We put garland all in the middle to try to fill it out a bit!
2:08 PM
Anonymous said…
Did you actually buy that tree there?? It's impressively big and full. Ours is rather scrawny that we bought locally--at least we can get one in a country that doesn't celebrate Christmas!! We put garland all in the middle to try to fill it out a bit!
2:09 PM
SouthAsiaRocks said…
Yup, we bought it here :) Our first year we had a tiny tree but the next year we decided to get a nice one... this one is HUGE, but we like it :) There's one market here that sells them :)
11:15 PM
Jeremy's fam said…
I love the money traditions. Jeremy would just want a Transformer if someone waved money at him. The tree is beautiful. We are putting ours up tonight (which is way late for us).
2:10 AM
Heather Henderson said…
I love how Adam is PUTTING YOUR TREE TOGETHER!!!!!! How funny is that? I guess there are not any places to cut them down???

Germeet sounds like a sweet man. He reminds me of my uncle Satwinder.
3:40 AM
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