Surrounding ourselves with people who care is a wonderful experience. Everyday we learn something new about the people in our lives and they never cease to amaze us. Where do we meet these people? Are they just our family? If yes, how did they become one? Is it because we are related? The answer is “No”.
One can become our family by being related, by being our friend and by being our colleague. We don’t get to meet our friends everyday, but we do meet our colleagues. And each day, we get closer to them and without even realizing, we all become one big happy family.
Today, we are sharing a happy moment with one of our own family members, Prithi Ekammai. She is an amazing person, who is kind and loving, passionate about work, but above all, a soon-to-be-mom. So we decided that before she takes her medical leave, that we’d surprise her, by throwing a baby shower.
Challenges
Everyone was so excited about welcoming the little one into the family, and more importantly, into the yCrash family. But there were many challenges to plan this welcoming ceremony, challenges that we overcame together as a family. The first and foremost challenge was, of course, keeping it a secret. Everyone had their we-don’t-know-what’s-going-on-face everyday on, and it was not so easy. We had to get information from the mother about her likes and dislikes, even without her realizing that something was going on.
The next challenge I would say was the venue, especially given that everyone is working remotely (pandemic effect). Did you know that we had to change dates just because we were not sure where we were going to make it happen or pull it off? We finally decided, Prithi’s hometown was the place where she would be surprised. From one family to another, doesn’t it sound so poetic?
Once we agreed on the venue, almost everything started to come together. We placed an order for a very special and customized cake – the chocolate truffle – favorite of the mom. Then we ordered gifts through amazon.
Customized gifts
We decided to get more personalized gifts for her, and all agreed when the idea of a greeting card with personalized messages from every member of the family was proposed. Everyone started sending in their wishes, for both the baby and the mother and we started designing the special card for them. We also made a handbook which had some of the old grandma remedies for the kid for the traditional touch.
For modern touch, we made a QR coded lullaby card for the baby, with songs both in Tamil (Prithi’s native language) and English. We made sure that the cake and her gifts would reach her at the same time and for that to happen, we seeked help from the cake factory. Thanks to them, they graciously agreed to help us out and we sent the gift package to them so that they could deliver the same on the day of surprise. As the day got closer, everything fell in place.
September 13th, 2022 was the day we decided to surprise and that day was here! But then came the most tricky part too: we had to surprise her virtually. It was decided that in the morning, everyone would attend a zoom meeting. It was a normal stand-up zoom call . Everyone, except Prithi, knew what awaited outside her door and we made sure that she never suspected. When the time came, she answered the door and we finally did it!!! And it paid off!!! She was surprised and her expression spoke millions!!! That was exactly what we had hoped to see in her.
That happiness and emotional moment can never be forgotten. We hope to make more and more everlasting memories in our family!
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