We have been getting together with our cousins here in the Bay Area for Christmas Holiday dinner for more than ten years.  It’s not always right before Christmas as synching our schedules is tough so we work with what works for all –  but it’s always in December. Sometimes early December, sometimes mid-December, sometimes on a Friday night, sometimes on a Saturday night, but always over the holidays and to celebrate Christmas. We never miss this dinner – we always make it happen. Last year we met in early December on Dec. 4th.

We even exchange presents – we do it more for the kids.

But we thought “Hey, adults like a little something too including grandma 🛍 😊”

Every Christmas dinner we have a global vegetarian menu. Last year we had Mexican vegetarian cuisine, the year before it was Thai vegetarian, one year it was North-African vegetarian, one year we even had vegetarian French cuisine with ratatouille!

This year we decided to go for what we are comfortable cooking – South Indian Tamil Vegetarian. My cousin Meera suggested maybe doing Western Indian Gujarati cuisine – but I pointed out to her “How authentic can a bunch of South Indian Tamilians make Gujarati food?”  I think Hitesh would have had a good laugh at our attempt 😬! So we stuck with what we know best – our Tamil vegetarian cuisine.  Here is a look at what was on our menu.

Christmas Vegetarian Menu at Meera and Mahesh’s

Dahi Vada – lentil fritters in yogurt sauce
Potato Curry
Green Beans Usli – Green beans and lentil curry
Eggplant curry
More Quaimbu – yogurt and squash soup
Sambhar – Lentil and vegetable stew
Rasam – lentil water and tomato soup
Corn and Carrot Salad
Yogurt rice
Plain rice
Pappadum
Carrot Cake
Christmas Fruit Cake
Payasam – vermicelli and milk pudding

This year our schedules were aligned so we could meet for dinner closer to Christmas on Saturday, Dec. 23rd. My cousin had a surprise for us this year- he texted a couple of days before the party saying he had rented a karaoke machine. We were to come prepared to sing! Oh the pressure!!  Hitesh and I can’t sing a tune for the life of us 😀!

Here are a few pics from our annual holiday dinner with the cousins

Fun times 😀😄

Can’t wait to dig into our food 😋

Karaoke time!

This is everyone’s reaction to the singing 😂😃😀

Our cousins had a bet that Hitesh wouldn’t sing. He proved them wrong! Meera had to give him a high-five.

Kids Karaoke

Dessert time!

Little ones couldn’t wait to hand out presents

A few presents for the adults too

Selfie time!

Cherished moments with the family

Meera and Mahesh, thank you for hosting an outstanding holiday dinner. We had the most fun night!!  It couldn’t have been any better. Food was delicious, karaoke a blast, company amazing. Absolutely loved everything about last night. Have a wonderful Christmas. Thank you for hosting yet another fabulous family holiday gathering! Love you all ❤️!

Happy Holidays!