Diwali Pictures

Here are some pictures from our Diwali Celebration. It was so nice to be home and celebrate with our family!

Happy Diwali

Tomorrow is Diwali, our main Indian Holiday. Every year my parents host a party and pooja (prayer) at our house. Unfortuantely this year, due to some health issues my dad has been having, we had to cancel the party, but we will will be having the prayer potion. I am lucky I get to be home with my parents to celebrate this occasion. I wish my siblings could be home, but it is hard since it is in the middle of the week. I miss them very much during these times when we can't be together. Hopefully next year, all of us can be together!

Happy Diwali to everybody!

Here is some information on what Diwali is:


Diwali, also called Deepavali or Divali, is a major Hindu festival that is very significant in Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism. Known as the "Festival of Lights," it symbolizes the victory of good over evil, and lamps are lit as a sign of celebration and hope for mankind. Celebrations focus on lights and lamps, particularly traditional dīpa (earthen lamp, as illustrated). Fireworks are associated with the festival.

Diwali is a colloquial name used in North India, while the festival is formally called Deepavali(= theepam + oli ), and is called in South India as such.

Diwali is celebrated for five consecutive days at the end of Hindu month of Ashwayuja. It usually occurs in October/November, and is one of the most popular and eagerly awaited festivals in India. Diwali comes exactly twenty days after Dussehra. Hindus and Sikhs alike regard it as a celebration of life and use the occasion to strengthen family and social relationships. For Hindus it is one of the most important festivals, and beginning of the year in some Hindu calendars. There are several beliefs regarding the origin of the holiday. The most repeated version is that Hindus celebrate Diwali to mark the time when Lord Rama achieved victory over Ravana. Some also view it as the day Krishna defeated the demon Narakasura or in honor of the day Bali went to rule the nether-world, obeying the order of Vishnu. It is also a significant festival for the Sikh faith. In India, Diwali is now considered to be more of a national festival, and the aesthetic aspect of the festival is enjoyed by most Indians regardless of faith.

Pictures!

Here are some pics from our Vegas trip. Here are the rest of them!

Stache Bash 2008

Saturday night a group of us headed out to the Stache Bash at Lumiere Casino. What a display of mustaches. I can't even verbalize the evening...in order to convey the actual events...please take a look at the pictures below...that is all I have to say...enjoy

One Year Anniversary!

I have fallen behind on blogging, it's been a very busy couple of weeks. Here is a recap of our Vegas trip. We left for Vegas on Oct. 17 and were there until Oct. 21. We had a wonderful time. Here is a run down of what we did:

• We stayed at the Bellagio - wonderful - I loved everything about this place
• Weather was 85 the whole time - beautiful!
  
• Dinner at Spago - Wolfgang Puck restaurant in Caesar's Palace - the best salmon I have ever had!
  
• Lots of shopping at The Forum Shops, the Venetian, and the Fashion Mall
• Madame Tussuad's at the Venetian
• Bouchon at the Venetian
  
• Drinks at the Ghostbar in the Palms
• Lots of pool time
• Mystere - amazing
• LOVE - another amazing show
  
• Circo
  
• Yellowtail
• The Bellagio Fountains - we had a view of them from our room - they were fabulous!
• Exploring all the fun hotels!
  

It was a fabulous trip and we did a lot! Our actual anniversary date was wonderful, we ate at Circo for dinner and headed to see LOVE, which was a beautiful show. We took tons of photos which I will post soon!

Las Vegas!

It is hard to believe a year ago we were getting ready for our wedding. It's even harder to believe it's been a year! It has been a wonderful year, a lot of excitement, changes, and adventures. To celebrate our one year, we are heading to Vegas for a few days. We will be enjoying our anniversary while staying at the Bellagio Friday - Tuesday! We just finished booking shows, dinners and activities! It is going to be a fun and relaxing celebration!

Date Day!

On Saturday H planned a date day for us. The day started with breakfast at a coffee shop downtown, then off to the spa, which is always a good start to a day. What could help you relax even more? A trip to the winery. We drove out to Defiance to Sugar Creek Winery. It was a beautiful day! We found a perfect spot in the shade, out of the crowd but still able to hear the band. After our fun day date, we headed over to Mike and Erica's for some evening fun! We headed to Vin de Set for dinner and then to Beal on Broadway for some cocktails. Here are some more pictures from the weekend.

Fashion Week 2008

This past week was St. Louis Fashion Week at Lumiere. Wednesday night, Prity, Erica, Missy and myself headed out to join the festivities. Doug was able to get us VIP tickets for the cocktail party and the show (Thanks Doug!). It was fabulous! The fall line was amazing, they did a great job with the show. We had seats on the floor and ALIVE gift bags, which were very fun and festive! After the show we headed to the Four Seasons for a cocktail, the perfect end to a fun ladies night! Here are a few more pictures from the evening.

Trying to Understand

I try to keep things fairly light hearted on the blog, but something has come to my attention which I felt I had to post on here. Last night in the mail I received a very upsetting and disturbing item. Somebody had sent to my home, a pamphlet which was very racist and harassing. I don't want to get into the details of it, due to many reasons, but, I am having a very hard time understand the train of though of this person. The pamphlet was hand addressed to myself, with my address on there, which is not fully listed. I have lived in America a very long time and am a proud citizen of the USA, along with the rest of my family. The ignorance amazes me and the thoughtlessness hurts me. I have unfortunately been at the end of many racist comments/situations and it is very sad.

I have always accepted and respected all other religions and races. Some think that if you are not the same you shouldn't be included in their religious/cultural celebrations, you don't belong or care. The sad part is, I feel that it is honor when somebody invites me to a celebration of their religion/culture. I feel that involving others in those occasions means more than anything else. It shows a level of respect and closeness. I have always been more than happy to share my religious and cultural beliefs with others. It makes you more attuned to your surroundings and is a learning experience when you learn about others. I never push my beliefs on anybody, but feel that is important, in order to co-exist in this world, to understand others and not to judge their beliefs, but accept and respect them.

I hope that in the future when we have children, they will not have to face these obstacles. I know most of my family has been at the end of racism and hate and it is an unfortunate part of our society. I never have or never will judge or exclude people for their beliefs, and hope that by doing that I will be able to overcome the actions of those who do.

A Beautiful Fall Weekend

Another gorgeous weekend! We actually did not have any big plans, and just hung around the area. Friday night, we headed to dinner with Mike and Erica at Juniper Grill and then enjoyed Soulard Oktoberfest! It was great fun. Saturday we had a full day of fun activities! We started out our day with the St. Louis Closet Co. coming to the condo to re-design our closets. I am so excited for this project! Hopefully in one month we will have 3 amazingly designed closets! After we finished up with that project, we headed out to lunch and then Eckert's for apple and pumpkin picking. It's so cute out there! We got a little apple happy and ended up with 32 pounds of apples! We decided to stay in Saturday night. We grilled out and enjoyed some wine. Justin then did not enjoy the Cubs game, such a sad series.

Sunday is going to be a day of rest, well kind of. We spent the morning baking an apple pie and preparing food for the week. We now plan on just hanging out and enjoying the rest of the weekend! Here are the rest of the pictures from the weekend.