Merry Christmas
It is Christmas Day, but doesn’t feel a whole lot like it. There are some Christians in India, but they are in the minority and since Hindu’s don‘t celebrate this holiday there are few signs that today is a special day. However, Christmas Day is given to most employees as a holiday anyway.
The kids knew it was Christmas and knew Santa should be bringing them something and I didn’t want to disappoint them, but at the same time we were already loaded with luggage and I didn’t want a bunch of extra things to drag home with us. What I ended up doing was getting each child only one small gift. I had no wrapping paper so I wrapped the best I could in plastic shopping bags. Each child also got a couple pieces of fruit and a small assortment of candy.
The kids were excited to open gifts and were grateful for what they received, but they were also . . . confused. I guess that is a good word for it. Haha! The look on their little faces was very funny. They knew this was not typical Santa style. Finally my oldest asks me “Mommy, did you leave these gifts?” I admitted that I had and told him that I was worried Santa wouldn’t deliver to India, and that I didn’t want them to wake to nothing. He said he knew I had done it because Santa always does a much better job of wrapping. Later in the day we called my husband, still back at home, and he confirmed that Santa had left a load of gifts there. Santa was being very thoughtful, not wanting to load us down with too much luggage.
Today is also our last day in Delhi. We decided to spend it at the Railway Museum. We visited once earlier and the kids enjoyed so much they made me promise to take them back. They spent Christmas Day climbing all over trains.
Later this evening we leave Delhi on a train headed for Anantapur. This will be our longest train ride yet - 36 hours.