{Rewind} September 2015

Another month down! I can feel Fall just waiting to make it's big debut as it has been cooling down a tiny bit in Dallas this week. I always tell my family and friends that October is the best time to visit us here. The temperatures drop just enough to enjoy a light breeze and still look up at sunny skies.
But before I get too excited about October and say so long to September, I wanted to take some time to reflect on what a great month it's been.

September is marked by both my grand father's birthdays. Although my Bapuji (Dad's father) is no longer with us, I think it brought my grand mother lots of joy to get phone calls from all her grandkids to remember him on his birthday. We all miss him dearly. My Nana (Mom's father) celebrated his birthday the following week. Although he is millions of miles away, I'm so grateful for the technology we have these days that allowed us to video chat with him and feel like we were a part of his birthday celebration in India. 

We also started the month of with an amazing sushi party hosted by our friends Munira and Ali. Munira, who is a self taught sushi chef, made over 28 rolls for everyone all by herself! They not only looked, but tasted absolutely delicious. She even went on to make her own veggie version of the volcano roll. I could have seriously eaten them all myself!

Speaking of delicious food, thanks to my mother-in-law, I was able to check off having a Pani-Puri Party off my Summer Bucket List! I love having pani puri parties pretty much any time of the year, but especially in the summer. The water is always so refreshing in the heat and you don't realize how stuffed you are until you're about 20-30 puris down... or is that just me? The yogurt version, called Dhai Puri, is equally delicious. Trying to choose between the two is almost impossible!

This year Ganesh Chaturthi fell on the same day as our little nephew, Ananda's 1 month birthday. So we headed to a local temple where they had a huge statue of Ganesh with tons of people singing loudly - "Ganpati Bapa Morya!" Growing up in a very small town, where the Indian community was pretty much non-existent, I rarely got a chance to celebrate religious holidays like these. I'm really grateful to now be living in a city that gives me such privileges. However, I don't take nearly as much advantage of opportunities like this as I should. Point noted.

Going back to all the yummy food we ate in September, we also tried out a brand new restaurant here in Addison, called Ida Claire, with our friends K&V. It's new concept restaurant and the menu is quiet unique. Although I was a bit disappointed in the lack of veggie options, I have to say, their side dishes were quiet de-lish!  They also have this hippy bus on their back porch that you can reserve for an intimate private party. The cheerful bus was just screaming for Kruti and I to get our picture taken in it. 

We ended the month celebrating #NationalPancakeDay on Saturday and doing a bit of home updates. I finally decided on these white curtains from JCPenny for our living room and found the grey rug we were hunting for over a year at Home Goods. Although I'm a little worried about all the grey on grey in the living room now, I think I have a plan to break it up and make it work. I hope. Chirag took some precious time away from watching the Tennessee game to set everything up this weekend. I think bribing him with the pancakes might have helped. ;)

October is going to be filled with visitors - friends and family. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, but I'm most excited to have my grandmother visit our home for the very first time! I'm decided that October is going to be less about working and more about spending time with the people who matter the most to me. 

What were some of the highlights for you this month?