Since Jatins actual graduation ceremony fell on a Monday we decided to host a family graduation dinner celebration at our home the Saturday evening before. There were about 40 of us in attendance. We had stone fire cater the evening, said a few words and debuted Jatins 4 part band movement he conducted at the spring convert this year. A lovely, low key evening to celebrate the graduate. I got to make memory tables showing off all his accolades, and some cute posters to commemorate the day. 🎓
Jatin was amongst those in his senior class who were invited to a special Senior Awards Night the Friday before graduation. Parent’s don’t know what the kids are being honored for. It was a garden evening event at Chatsworth High in the quad. Jatin and his friends were honored several times for everything from academics, clubs, AP scores, perfect GPAs and Valedictorians. Jatin finished 5th in his overall ranking and was surrounded before and after by all his best friends which made it extra special. He was also given the highest honors by Mr. Choi the Band Director. The kids took all kinds of photos during and after the ceremony and took an adorable photo with them all sitting at their lunch hangout spot. Jatin’s best friends gifted him an Anteater to congratulate him on his next move to UC Irvine. Hard to imagine they are graduating in a few days.
Jatin attended 2 senior proms. The first one was Taft’s prom. He created a lovely promposal experience for Natalia and they attended her prom together at the Santa Anita Race Track. 2 weeks later we hosted Jatin’s closest friends and parents for a Prom Send Off Party at our place. Jatin’s prom was at The Skirball Center. The kids were beautifully dressed. We had setup a few different photo ops for them with the classic gold and black prom backdrop and then some beautiful photos outside in our yard. I also purchased these huge silver orbs which ended up being a really cute prop for selfies for the kids. We served cider and a bunch of fancy small bites. The era of tuxes and short dresses have passed…these kids were all dressed sharply in suits and gowns.
The first quarter of 2025 has flown by. It’s been eventful, a mixed bag of good and bad but I’ll focus on all the positive stuff that happened here. Nick and I took Jatin to his first official concert at the Crypto Area *formally staples center. We attended Tyler the Creator’s Chromokopia Tour. It was AWESOME! We had front row Mezzanine seats. Couldn’t have had a better vantage point. LOVED IT!
Aanika and I attended her school field trip to the Manhattan Beach Aquarium. I was the lucky parent who got invited to chaperone. She did great. At first she was a bit scared of all the fish tanks but eventually warmed up to the place. It was a cold and rainy day, but a lot of fun!
Nick and I enjoyed a quick getaway to Rancho Mirage at the Westin Golf Resort. Celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary with a lot of rest and relaxation, sunshine, and watching the beautiful view from our room, the ducks, water, golfers and more. We attended the Glowfest Evening at the Palm Desert Zoo the evening of our anniversary followed by In-N-Out and milkshakes in the car while charging *just like old times 🙂 The zoo had the most beautiful Giraffes I’ve ever seen and so close up! They also had a beautiful light display of the Chinese Zodiac Signs. The descriptions are pretty spot on. Happy Anniversary to Us! Cheer’s to many many more!
So typically I host a yearly gingerbread decorating party just before Christmas. But this year I discovered the fun in decorating my own custom nutcrackers so I thought it might be fund to extend that into our party this year. Something where everyone could decorate, party but also have a keepsake that doesn’t have to be thrown away in a few days 🙂 Well, everyone brought their A game and they were so creative with how they adorned their mini nutcrackers! The usual decorating crew gathered: Kohli’s, Gundara’s and Nani joined us this year!
Aanika received 2 awards today at school! 1 was for excellent attendance *thanks to her mama 😉 and the other was for maintaining a certain gpa. The true win was her attending, walking up with a smile, no anxiety, exciting to get her prize and pose for a few pictures. Proud mama moment. She did great and she won the “best dressed” award hands down!
Jatin has had a fun but extremely busy fall semester. Between college applications, school work and marching band his schedule has been nuts but it was all worth it! Mommy *Nani joined me to watch and cheer him on for his final High School Marching Band Competition hosted by LAUSD Beyond the Bell at Pierce College. He did such a fantastic job conducting and his team took home 1st place in their division!
Jatin also participated in his holiday winter concert and the Chatsworth Holiday Parade! We are so proud of this 17 year old baby of ours. Now we just want him to rest up over Christmas break and get ready for an amazing second semester and some positive acceptances from all the universities he’s applying to!
We had a lovely, calm Thanksgiving this year. We started by going to Mommy & Daddy’s house for brunch. Mark our neighbor was home for the holiday from college so he joined us for the weekend. Genesis was also with us in the morning to accompany and help with Aanika 🙂 Jatin played some piano for us and we got to FaceTime with Neera and fam. In the evening I cooked up steak and some sides followed by pies and we watched Sylvester Stallone’s “Over the Top” arm wrestling movie! The following day we saw some of the family at Puneet and Dominic’s baby shower and then had Mom Gundara, Tamana, Gee, Neha, Brody, Gia, Aakash and Amrita all visited. Aanika also had a play date with Aman & Kenny’s son Aikam. We have so much to be grateful for. Thank you God for all your blessings and may you continue to look over our beautiful family with good health, peace, love and safety, always.