Huge Thanks to.........................

- those who welcomed us to stay - in their homes, whether they were home or not, or as guests in our home (which was not as weird as it sounds!!), - the hospitality was wonderful, to have an additional 4 bodies to share your homes and lives over Christmas is not easy I know, so thanks and more thanks.
- those who shared their Christmas Day with us - for us, whilst it was an unusual Christmas Day, you guys made it also a great one!
- everyone whom we visited, some planned, some drop in, some to eat, some to drink, some just to chat, we loved spending time with all of you,
-  Santa Claus who found my kids,
-  the first Almaden family we dropped in on and whose welcome set the stage for the rest of our trip,
- everyone who made us feel so welcome, we began to forget we had even been gone!
- for including us in our neighborhood party,
- those who cooked us our first red meat in quite some time, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding - we will be back!!
- those who had us co-star in their church's Christmas pagaent,
-  the "can I be in the photo too" surprise visitor who took a massive detour to see us in Auburn
-  those who shared their family Holiday traditions - the trip to the Nutcracker, to church, Christmas Eve baked ham....
-  the Brits who shared their long labored over real Christmas cakes and mince pies,
-  those who had Ads to stay on mainly unplanned sleepovers and cooked him sumptuous breakfasts the likes of which he hadn't seen for a year and is still talking about,
-  those (you know who you are) who once again managed to produce a noisy, obnoxious Christmas gifts for the kids - Wills and his buds are laughing hysterically as they sing falsetto into the elf voice changer
-  Brit friends, radio 1, champagne and the early New Year,
-  she who got me back on the tennis court, now itching to play more,
-  Starbucks - for still making tall skinny vanilla's!
- the immigration guy who enthusiastically welcomed me back onto US soil - this being the first time I had entered the US as an American citizen,
- the ride to the airport,
- letting me hold the new addition to the Almaden ladies gang,
- for bearing with us if we didn't get to see you or not for long enough (tho' that's true for everyone!!)

We are so blessed to have such friends, will miss you all until we meet again.

So was it hard to return to India - as Ads said "I have unfinished business there", and that is how it feels, as wonderful as it was to back home, I am not ready to say goodbye to my adopted home. There is more to see, experience, learn in this crazy, curious, chaotic, colorful country. NPR had a thing on Facebook where you could put your one word to sum up 2011, ours was indeed "colorful".