Ben P
and I decided that we would make a surprise Hanukkah celebration for the group
on the first night of Hanukkah which included latkes, applesauce, dreidle, and
chocolate gelt. One day after school, we bought potatoes, onion, and apples and
then went to the program house to start on the batter for the latkes and cut up
the apples for the sauce. I had never made latkes before and we didn’t have
exact measurements to use for a recipe, so I just went with my instincts with
some commentary from Ben, the relative latke expert
(turns out my instincts wanted to make the batter thicker than it’s
supposed to be). After Hindi class we invited everyone to come to the program
house and I cooked the applesauce and lakes while Ben explained how to play dreidle. Then, we lit the
menorah while Ben said a prayer in Hebrew and afterwards feasted on all the
food we had made (plus the chocolate coins). Although we were never at the
program house in the evening to light the menorah after that, every morning we
would ceremoniously put another candle in and on the last night of Hanukkah we
made jelly doughnuts!
As for Christmas celebrations, they
were fairly low key. On Christmas Eve we made fudge, rice crispy treats, key
lime pie, and no-bake peanut butter chocolate cookies for desserts and had
pizza for lunch and Japanese food for dinner (both were take-out – cooking in
India is a struggle for people used to all the cooking amenities in the US). We
went out caroling to our host families’ houses, the dhobi, the pakorawala, our
Hindi teacher’s house, and to Dolly-ji’s house. We got back close to 11 pm from
that and then all got snuggled up in our sleeping bags to watch A Christmas
Story.
The following morning, Christmas
Day, we made gingerbread pancakes and an egg scramble for breakfast, after
which we exchanged our secret Santa gifts. All of the gifts were well-thought
out and wonderful, but Stephen definitely takes the cake for most involved
secret Santa because he made Jenny a huge scavenger hunt in which everyone in
the group participated in some form or another. I won’t describe the whole
extent of it here, but basically it included riddles, anagrams, and puzzles
that were actually pretty difficult to figure out. The rest of the day we
mostly lounged about, made more fudge, watched It’s a Wonderful Life,
and talked with friends and family in the US thanks to skype. We ended the day,
however, with a Christmas party for our Banarasi friends and family with
paneer, chola, and puri and then assorted sweets that were leftover from the
day before. Overall, it was a very enjoyable time even if very different from
how our families at home celebrate Christmas.
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