I had a nice evening today… My eldest sister drove in from Louisiana with both her children. While the kids played outside, my sister, Shonali and I had a nice dinner together. Then we fed the kids their dinner. Ananya’s always a better eater when her elder cousins are around. 
After we had all eaten dinner, I peeled and fed three oranges to Rahul (my nephew) and Ananya (my daughter). The habit and pleasure of peeling oranges after dinner is something I have to give my Dad credit for… it’s something I have definitely picked up from him. For me, it’s a menial task that’s a great counter-balance to work at the end of any busy day. After that, Shonali and my sister went out for a bit and left me with the kids. They entertained themselves while I caught up on some email. When I was done, I took them upstairs and inflated the home-sized moon walk (for those who don’t know what a moon walk is, a google image search) that I bought a couple of months ago and the children all bounced away. At $99, the moon walk was a worthwhile toy purchase. Shonali and Anu returned home with Baskin Robbins ice cream for the kids. The kids quickly ate their ice cream and we ended up in our bedroom, with Rahul drawing on himself (his Mom wasn’t happy) and an art easel while Anisha and Ananya took turns, under my supervision, drawing and painting on my Tablet PC. Some sample artwork below (some of which I helped them with):
Finally, before the evening ended and kids went off to drink their milk and go to bed, Shonali malish’ed all three kids and me (a malish is basically a head massage with some sort of oil, in this case it was coconut oil, that’s good for your scalp and hair). I don’t think I can beat an evening like this. There’s no doubt, I’m a fortunate guy to be surrounded by my family.
Now an hour or two of work before I have to make a run to the bus station at 1am (don’t ask)…