Christmas came and went....

and here's New Year....
Well, Christmas was nice and peaceful how it should be. Eric and I went to a Malayalee Orthodox Chrurch down in Raleigh. An hour and 10 mins drive. It was a small group of people renting out a Greek Orthodox church to hold the Christmas service at 8:30am in the morning of Christmas. We reached there at 8:35am, one of the first few there. :)

Well, first of all, I always break my fast at midnight after a night service but Eric insisted that we go for this service since we found the faith type that I actually belong to. So, fast breaking happened way after noon on Christmas, after we came back from Raleigh.

And the really nice thing was that Eric was sooo sweet at the service. He stood there all alone (we have segregation in our churches), for over 3 and a half hours, and watched the service. After the service, many folks came up to him and said that he has a lot of patience. :)

And then we had a small social time in the gym of the church. Met a couple of folks and two really nice girls. Eric liked the whole experience and is kind of warming up to yhe idea of even getting a membership there :) They have services only once a month and they are trying to collect money to build their own church. So, it may be slightly expensive but, will be worth it.

Me on the other hand really liked it, reminded me of all the times we used to go to church when I was growing up in Bahrain. The singing is slightly weak, but nevertheless, still invokes the same passion in me.

After this we drove back, spoke to most of my friends and family on the drive back wishing them a Merry Xmas, and then it was pigging out time once we got back home. Eric spoke to his family while I got food ready and then... WE ATE!!! Yummy biriyani :))

Afterwards we went to Eric's bro's place and chilled out. So, all in all, a quiet nice content Xmas!! :)))

Eric and his "baby"....

Gobble Gobble Gobble!!

Food filled Thanksgiving... We had our Thanksgiving dinner pretty late though. Bad planning on our part on the cooking time... Ate a lot and slept like babies afterwards.... There's seriously something in Turkey that puts you to sleep.

Here are a couple of pics of us. Eric loved the turkey and called it a baby... He was mostly in charge of cooking the beast. And it turned out pretty good actually.

But seriously, we now have turkey turkey and some more turkey left over!! Its gonna be turkey stew, turkey curry, turkey tacos etc for us for atleast a week if not more!!!

Hope everybody else had a nice Thanksgiving :)
Wish we had family here for Thanksgiving. Oh well....

Welcome to North Carolina...

After our long long long drive here we are entering North Carolina, new home, and stopping at the welcome center there.

Though the drive was pretty uneventful, we had our happening moments.
Moment 1 - Our first stop was in Champaign, IL. The next morning, we left Champaign and drove about an hour and a half and Eric calls and says - "We have to turn back right now!" I say, "Why? What happened?" and he replies "I left my ring at the inn. We have to go get it..." It was pretty funny for me actually. Poor guy was so sorry.... Ha ha.....

Moment 2 - Our second night stop was at Dayton, OH. Surprisingly, there wasn't a single inn in the whole of Dayton that had a room available. So, we drove another 100 miles (seemed like it to me) when I was soooo tired to the next town to find an inn.

Moment 3 - The drives through Virginia into North Carolina was breath takingly BEAUTIFUL! The fall colors and mountains were amazing. The roads were all winding and full of ups and downs, very exciting.... BEAUTIFUL!!!! (Had to say that again....)

Update on my date of leaving Des Moines

Well, a slight change in plans, I'm probably going to be leaving Des Moines a little earlier. Want to spend more time with Eric than here by myself. So, its probably going to be as early as October 31st....

Eric - The model

Eric had a formal engagement at work and had to get all dressed up. He took some snaps and sent them to me. They're so cute, I have to post them here...

Pasty White Eric :-)

I like this pic from New Years 2008. Eric thinks he looks Pasty white. But I guess he's going to have that complaint for the rest of his life if he wants to keep me with him!! :-)))

Tentative dates

As many of you know, conversations are in progress with family right now. Its all going slow and steady. But here are some tentative dates -
Hoping to have Eric come over to Des Moines early October.
I plan to leave Des Moines on Friday November 21st. (in 10 weeks!!!)

Will keep you posted on confirmed dates and any changes...

Thank you

Thank you very much for the support. It's well appreciated. Up next, Soni and I need to decide on a good date for the weddings (one in India, and one in the USA). We're also trying to decide on a place in the States for a wedding. Right now, our choices are Las Vegas, NV, Washington, or Iraq (this countries 51st state). Hopefully we'll decide when I come to Iowa again.

Start of a wonderful, beautiful journey...

It started in February 2005 and here we are three and a half years later, after so many ups and downs, so many moves across states, so many weird awkward situations, so many extremely happy moments, so many firsts....

We finally have decided to go through with it.

Yes, we are ENGAGED!

He is the love of my life, my bunny hon, my Kutta. And I am his....