Following the tradition ( 2006, 2007 , 2008, 2009 , 2010 , 2011 , 2012 , 2013 & 2014), here are my 2015 highlights.
High point of the  Year: The birth of our son Tanay in July of this year. After another tough pregnancy –complete with bed-rest, frequent doctor visits, gestational diabetes , and borderline IUGR,  this pregnancy was filled with enough drama.   Annika was super excited to be a big sister —she was all set to teach him to walk, talk, eat and write! Annika is an incredibly protective elder sister and makes sure that we are taking care of her baby brother.
Lowest Point of the Year: My maternal grandmother died just about a week after Tanay was born. She was 92. My mother had to rush back to India soon after Tanay’s birth but she did get a chance to talk to her mother and spend one day with her. My grandmother who had been slipping into almost a coma like state awakened to talk to my mother before passing away. Continued…
Achievements this Year: When I was in school, we used to have regular inspection of our nails as part of our PT (Physical Training) class. While most of the other girls hated it as they had to cut their nails short, I hated it because I had to show my severely bitten nails. In fact the habit was so bad that I used to even chew off the skin around my nails rill they were scabby and disgusting. The habit of biting skin died a natural death soon after but I never ever stopped biting my finger nails. For a long time, “Stop biting nails†was an auto-entry on any new year resolution list! It all changed this year – when I now finally have normal looking nails. So that is this year’s big achievement : manicured nails! 
We were inundated with apples this fall. I was tempted with the wonderful varieties we had in my supermarket and bought home a huge bushel. However that turned out to be the height of apple picking season. Annika came home with a few after being on her farm visit from school and then my cousins dropped off a bagful from their visit.
Rhode Island has been on my bucket list for a long time. Seejo has been flying to RI a few times a year for the past few years for work. I have always thought of accompanying him but for some reason the plans have never materialized. So this summer, we decided to plan an extra long weekend to Rhode Island & Cape Cod.
Annika attends Childrens’ Manor Montessori School and has been doing so since she was 5 months old. She is now 3. I confess that I am totally ignorant about Montessori curriculum so I have no idea how well they follow it at her school.  However I am flabbergasted at the kind of things that forms Annika’s syllabus. Apart from the usual letters & numbers & colors & months of the year – here is a smattering of the things that Annika learnt in school this year: 
We visited Puerto Rico for a 4 day trip at the beginning of summer. PR is a tiny island in the Caribbean, much closer to West Indies than the United States, but is part of the US. All PR residents are officially US citizens.  It is a 4 hour flight from Washington DC but after surviving the brutal winter we had, we were looking forward to warmer climates, sandy beaches, rainforests, Caribbean cuisine and some much wanted downtime.  Although PR is officially a territory of the US, the fact that Spanish is the main language of communication, makes you feel instantly like you are in a foreign country. Unlike Spanish speaking pockets in main land US, everything here is in Spanish: restaurant menus, street signs and it is the language spoken by street vendors and tradesman. Although almost everybody in the touristy areas spoke English, there were enough folks we interacted with such as the nail technician at the spa, the street vendor selling mangoes, the mother of two adorable girls I bumped into near the pool and the kiosk vendor selling arepas who spoke only Spanish. Nothing makes you feel like you are in a foreign land till you have to resort to hand gestures and sound effects to make yourself understood! 
We were excited about stopping in Dubai ever since Emirates started flight service from Washington DC to Dubai. The long lay-overs to Kochi (13 hour layover while going to Kochi and a 19 hour layover while returning) might pose a problem for some passengers but this actually worked out very well for us. My sister lives in Dubai, so the 13 hour lay-over was perfect for a stop at her place, lunch, a brief nap, a stroll at a nearby mall and back to airport for flying to India. On the return flight, we opted for a 96 hour visa option offered by Emirates Air and spent the better part of three days in Dubai. Each way the transit visas were quite painless to obtain. Everything was taken care of online with minimum effort. 
Annika was 27 months when we visited India in February.  She was looking forward to meeting “Ammammaâ€(my mother) and Daada-Daadi (Seejo’s dad & mom) again – who she knew are in India. Here are some gems from Annika during the course of our visit
My first memory is visiting my maternal grandfather in a hospital. I only remember a single specific scene. My grandfather lying in a narrow hospital bed – somehow in my memory it is at a great height (which is possibly due to the fact that I was about 3 years and 3 months around that time).  I also remember that my grandfather had a tube inserted in his nose.  Later I found out that my mom and I had come to her house. She was pregnant with my little sister. She came to find out that her dad is slowly losing his memory – apparently the result of a stroke. 