Under the Christmas tree

Over the years, packing Christmas presents became a bit of a ritual. First of all, I honestly think, I like buying/ making gifts more than getting them. Only a little more, but still… And second, I absolutely love beautiful wrapping papers.
I remember, we used to have a whole stash of ribbons, cards, stickers and papers with every print imaginable, that we would rummage through every December. Of course packing process was a very secret affair. I would lock myself in my room, gather all the gifts, put on some Christmas music and get to work.

I always concentrated on wrapping every present the best I could, and, though, separately they looked pretty, together they created lovely, festive mess. 

This year I decided to entrust my holiday finds to Indian post (sill crossing my fingers for the delivery). The perspective of stacking them all in one package gave me the push I needed, to finally coordinate the wrappings. Of course, I couldn’t simply use one kind of paper and be done with it. What fun would that be?  No fun at all...!

I created few different sets, to make it more interesting. What I’ve learned for the experience is:

•    If you keep the uniform color, try to mix the textures
•   If you are using one wrapping paper, try to mix decorative elements
•   If you are using different prints, keep one color scheme or one style (or both)

Other than that, having piles of nicely coordinated gifts is extremely satisfying! 

Christmas cards

I always loved the idea of Christmas card display. It gives such a festive and warm feeling…  Plus making cards is so much fun! I remember, back in high school, we had a Christmas fair every year. Some two weeks before holiday break, the whole school transformed into Santa workshop, with us elves running between sculpture and calligraphy classrooms with freshly decorated baubles, bags of glitter and piles and piles of hand-made cards. 

The problem is, nobody sends cards any more, and displaying facebook or sms wishes is rather difficult, not to mention, way less decorative.

This year, I decided to revive the tradition, and got to work in the very beginning of December. It started with only a few, for immediate family, but things kind of spiraled from there, and I ended up with the whole collection, which we only just managed to send.

Quite frankly, I have my doubts about reliability of Indian post (the very reason, which had me emailing Christmas wishes for past few years) so I keep my fingers crossed for all of my beauties to arrive safely and on time. 

There and back again - Hampi

Just before the wedding, we sent friends and family to Hampi, while we stayed in Goa overseeing last minute preparations. Of course we were going to visit it soon too as it isn’t too far away. A year has passed and we reached the point, where staying in Goa and not visiting Hampi is just embarrassing.

And so we decided to take a road trip with couple of friends, just last weekend.

It is truly a stunning place, but getting there was quite a nightmare! We trusted Google maps to choose the best route for us, and ended up doing a lot of cross country/ off-road driving, on the road itself. To be fair, part of it is the best quality highway I’ve seen in India. The rest…well, the closest comparison would be the moon craters. 

Hampi is a small town in Karnataka, about 300 km from Goa. It is believed that the region was first mentioned in 3^rd century BC, but majority of monuments belong to Vijayanagara period (XIV-XVI CE). Though never completely forgotten, Hampi became a point of interest in 1970’s and is now a Unesco heritage site.

 

Apart from the fantastic architecture, the scenery is quite unique. The rock formations shaping the landscape are quite bizarre. Temples are precariously squatting among enormous boulders, stacked in delicate balance. It is one of those places where you can easily believe in some “higher power”. Why, it must have been a giant emptying bags of stones, not a volcanic rocks and centuries of harsh winds…

After the nigh drive, we decided to rest in one of the guesthouses situated across the river form all the temples. I would definitely recommend staying there, rather than in Hampi or near the monuments. The views are breathtaking and the atmosphere is much more relaxed.

In the evening, we went to Hanuman's temple situated on top of one of the boulder stacks. After climbing some 500 stairs, we witnessed beautiful spectacle of sun setting over the eerie landscape. 

Next day, we ventured to “the other side”, crossing the river in a tiny boat. I know that people often complain, that after day of visiting, it all turns into a blur of carved columns and statues, and you are unable to tell one temple from the other, but I found our trip very engaging and interesting till the end. 

I was especially happy to see the famous water tank, though it’s definitely not the biggest attraction around Hampi. Ever since I’ve seen Paheli – beautiful Bollywood fairytale, I’ve been dying to see it. Probably it’s the influence of the movie, but there is something magical about this place. 

The whole trip was fantastic, but if I could plan it all over again, I would definitely give us one or two more days. I feel, we didn’t have enough time to explore all the monuments, and just driving around, breathing in the scenery would be a treat!