The Christmas holidays (2010)

The Christmas holidays of 2010 was little different. One of my husband’s friends Sourav came to visit us with his wife Shwali and their daughter Toree. The plan was made few months back for this time. Both the families were anticipating for this time. They came to our place on 24th of December.

24th December was a hectic day for us. We needed to wrap many our pending jobs, mainly changing the tires of our car. We had to spend a lot of time to get the tire change done at Wal-Mart. Then we rushed to the grocery shop to buy something. As soon as I entered home I went to kitchen. In the meantime Sourav called and told they were going to reach within one and a half hours. It was 1:30 in the afternoon then. Like a machine I finished all my work and my husband went to cook the chicken. Around 3 o’clock in the afternoon when they reached our home my husband was still cooking then. Initially my son didn’t want to play with his daughter. After sometime he became used to with her and they started enjoying. The screaming, crying, shouting and laughter of them were a great entertainment to the grown-ups like us. After reaching  Sourav was eager to go out. After much discussion we decided to go and see Christmas in the park in San Jose. When we started from home it was already late and it was dark outside. Still we went there. It was a great shock when we reached there. I had never seen such a crowd in  USA since I started living here. It seemed that people were flowing through the street. We started searching in vain a space to park our car. Shwali and I gave up after a while but my husband and his friend was not willing to do that. Sourav was driving through all the nearby streets for 2-3 times without success. At last Shwali and I suggested going back home after 8 o’clock. After a while Sourav half-heartedly agreed to return home. That was the end of our Christmas Eve outing.  After returning home we had a great dinner with Bengali food. Sourav, Shwali and their little one were too tired of 5 hours driving from LA to our place so we went to bed instead of chatting late night.

We had a great plan on 25th December. But we were not sure whether we could be able to go according to our plans because of the weather. From 24th night it had been raining heavily. On 25th afternoon we had lunch in a Bengali restaurant. The foods were delicious. That was a great time though it was raining outside. Sourav was adamant to go to Half moon Bay after lunch. All of us told him that it would not be possible to go there in heavy rain. Still Sourav started driving towards Half Moon Bay. However at last he abandoned the plan halfway as it became hard to drive in the heavy rain. Without any other options we came back home. After coming home we watched a comedy movie for a while. Then all of us went to another friend’s place for dinner. We had a great dinner with biryani, mutton and sweets. We chatted about our college life. It was great fun to chat. We came back home around 12:00.

Tower bridge over Sacramento River

The weather was much better on 26th December. We started next morning for Sacramento. I had never been to Sacramento before. The main attractions of Sacramento are the museums. I love to visit museums as I always have interest to know the history. However this time I was not interested to go there. The main reason behind that I always need much time to visit each and everything very thoroughly. But I knew, no one; especially my son was not going to give me time to do that. For Sourav and my husband the main attraction was to have lunch in a Punjabi restaurant in Dixon. From the beginning of the journey Sourav was anticipating to have lunch there. After having lunch in that restaurant all of us became very satisfied and we started our journey again towards Sacramento. In the afternoon we reached the Tower Bridge over Sacramento River. Crossing the bridge, first we went to Crocker Art Museum. When we reached there an African Festival was going on. The museum which was founded by Judge E.B. Crocker had a great collection of many old master pieces as well as contemporary arts. I started watching every painting very carefully but we hadn’t much time in our hand and we left the museum and went to our hotel, Holiday Inn. One painting put a deep impression in my mind. I forgot the name of the artist due to my blunt memory. Still I can see the painting when I close my eyes. It was a huge painting of an old man who was eventually that artist’s father. In the painting each and every minute things including the wrinkles in the face, each and every hair were depicted. Seven long years were taken to finish the painting. That was the end of my Crocker Museum visit. Then in the night we went to Old Sacramento to see ‘Holiday Theater of Lights Performance’. That was a grand show. The history of Sacramento was told through light and sound effects. As if Mark Twain was describing the history. It was too cold and we were shivering. Just after finishing we immediately came back to the hotel. After coming back my husband and Sourav became mad for wine. They went to buy that. Then we had our dinner with pizza and wine, though I didn’t had wine. Again we started chatting about our college life. Going down the memory lane is always fun and very refreshing.

Holiday Theater of Lights at Old Sacramento

Next Morning we had our breakfast in the hotel and went to Sacramento Railroad museum. After reaching there when my husband and Sourav were busy to park the car in the right position, Shawli and I started walking towards the museum. Shwali wanted to call Sourav and that time in her horror she realized that the mobile phone was not in her bag. Then Sourav immediately called the hotel and requested them to keep the phone. Then we went to the museum. With 21 meticulously restored locomotives and cars the museum illustrated how railroads have shaped people's lives, the economy, and the unique culture of California and the Western America. We saw a Pullman-style sleeping car, a dining car filled with extremely fine eye catching railroad china, and a Railway Post Office that we actually stepped aboard. When I was watching the dining car I was longing to have  some old exotic china like those. I wanted to enjoy that great museum with my husband. As usual my little devil became very cranky and he was not willing to stay there.

Sacramento Railroad museum

Exotic Railroad China

Suddenly I became very angry and I wanted to see the museum alone. I was so angry I didn’t speak to anybody for a long time. I didn’t even eat anything. From there we went to Twin peaks of SFO directly. Still I was angry and I didn’t get out from the car. Then we went to Ghirardelli square as Sourav wanted to buy Ghirardelli chocolates. We faced problem parking  the car there, the usual problem in SFO. Sourav faced difficulty to park his car in a small space. A gentle man was passing through there and he helped a lot to park the car. With his fine instructions Sourav could easily park the car in a small space. After spending sometime there we came back home. After coming back I cooked the dinner. Around 10 o’ clock at night our friend Dipu and Juni came to our place to visit us because on the next day Sourav and his family was going to go back. That was the end of our fun filled Christmas holidays.