India pictures and experiences

Here are a few of our trip favorites, from Christmas to touring!  There were so many pictures to pick from, but I think these are an overall good representation of our time here.

First, here are Aberly and her nanny Eunice having "Christmas morning" before we left for India.  Eunice headed to Tanzania to visit her family for the holidays.

Once in India, we headed out to tour the streets around Nancy's place to see the local sites.  The streets are busy and crowded, but full of amazing things and people to see.

 

Christmas morning came a few days later and we had lots of fun seeing what Santa brought for Aberly and all of us.  By far, Aberly had the most gifts!  She was thrilled by all of her toys, including a special Word Girl homemade costume from Nana Elaine.  We were grateful to Kevin, Connor, and Chrystal for bringing over gifts that we had shipped to them for us (it was hard to find things in Oman that Colin wanted!) and foods for a traditional Christmas dinner.

After Christmas, we spent the remaining days touring the area. 

 

Ideal Beach resort visit

 A local woman working

 St. Thomas Cathedral (Doubting Thomas of the 12 disciples).  It was a beautiful church, and he is buried here.  One of three churches in the world built where a disciple is buried.  Thomas brought Christianity to India and spent his life there before being martyred.

 Indian people were always wanting to have their picture (or their children's picture) taken with Aberly.  She was a good sport!

 Local village with a museum and artisans who sell their crafts.  The village is dedicated to teaching and preserving traditional Indian arts/crafts.

 There happened to be a wedding there that day.  Here is the beautiful bride.

 Aberly getting mehendi (commonly known as henna)

 

We also stopped at a crocodile preserve.  It was amazing!  There were so many different types of crocodiles and alligators.

 

One of the most amazing places we went was Mamallapuram.  It's an ancient site by the ocean were there are many stone carvings and stone temples.

 

The Indian paparazzi attacks again!  

 

Final lunch at Kiplings, a local restaurant owned by one of Nancy's coworkers and her husband.