Some of my fondest memories of the kids at YMCA will have to be the day we celbrated Onam…

The kids had fun, we had fun, and everybody started the holidays by taking back pleasent memories of the day…

I didn’t want Christmas to be any different… But unlike Onam, I didn’t have to take initiative this time around.. Mr. Prez already had it all figured out.. He’d already taken care of the cake, and all that was left for us lesser mortals ( ) to do was come up with a fun day…

So Friday it was, when we showed up at YMCA… All my volunteers who were still in the city, and an assortment of invited VPs… And, along with the kids, looking forward to a great day…

Now I’ve to thank Rose here… We decided to borrow her Santa Hats idea…

So when we entered the compound, we were armed with chart paper, colour paper and a seemingly  very little quantity of glue…

Now, when you see the pics, you’ll ask yourself, why are the santa hats white? Aren’t they supposed to be red??

I read somewhere that some drink company had made Christmas red.. Before, Santa was just another ordinary guy..

So we decided we’d celebrate a non-commercial Christmas, and stick with white…

(Now, that’s the official story.. Actually, like me, my boys were just too impatient to stick red colour paper on the charts… )

Meanwhile, Mr. Ramu Sajan, esteemed VP PR, was struggling into a Santa costume upstairs, that Paul had managed to find from somewhere…

He became the worlds first official one eyed Santa, owing to the fact that the mask was so imperfectly made, that one eyehole was actually somewhere around the ear… (exaggeration )

Although, I was scared that he might scare the kids, we went ahead with it anyway…

And, man did he do a good job…  Ramu is by default any sort of mascot for any kind of celebration..

In fact, the kids warmed upto Santa so much that a few of them even ended up tearing off a bit of white beard as souvenirs.. (not kidding)

And then it was time for the cake cutting ceremony…

And, whoa that was a huge cake.. I mean, me and Ramu knew more than anybody else coz we were the ones who transported it to the venue.. It’s not an easy job people, clinging on to a cake while travelling as fast as a Splendour will take you…

The cake disappeared in record time, though, the now-ungarbed Santa is suspected most.. Sorry bro, couldn’t resist taking a dig at you..

And it was totally great, watching the kids enjoy themselves.. They’d already had cake from school apparently, but I’d like to think ours tasted better.. ( I’d no idea the schools would end up being our competition !! )

And then it was time for everybody to go outside and lay ourselves at the mercy of MAD’s official photographer ( who still doesn’t have a cam of his own!! ), Mr. Pios… And here’s what resulted. :

Anyhow, let me thank my volunteers : Sibi, Paul, Eobin, Rubiya, Liz, Arun for puting this together…

And also, Prez (for planning ahead) , Riz, Ramu (for the best Santa performance I’d ever seen), Sanju ( for, inadverently, doing some disciplining in the middle of all the fun.. And disciplining not just kids mind you) and ofcourse, Avenue Regent for that magnificently yummy cake..

That’s it till next holiday…

- (mostly ONLY known as just Jr. these days. )