OK, I'm officially looking forward to and excited to celebrate Janmashtami. I'm planning on the fast to the best I can. My goal is only liquids, preferably just water.
I'm going to prepare some sweets... homemade rice pudding, probably with flaked coconut (of course, no eggs); I'll have some sweet cookies like coconut macaroons; yogurt with honey; and a very sweet killer Cream of Wheat I make with milk, (and Half & Half and/or heavy cream), cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. I'm not going to prepare for a cast of thousands, since it will just be me. I'll have this ready for midnight, but will probably prepare it on Saturday so as not to have to keep tasting during the fast.
I've got a few pages worth of shlokas to Sri Krishna to read, plus I'll do japa and read from Canto X of the Srimad Bhagavatam, and from the Bhagavad Gita during the nightly vigil. I don't have a murthi of Krishna as an infant, nor cradle but I do have a framed 8x10 of this picture, entitled "Vishnu Takes Birth As Krishna". I'll bring it out at midnight and do my pitiful excuse for puja (prayers, shlokas, incense, lots of lights).
Not a conventional or traditional Janmashtami celebration, but it's what I can muster. I'd like to go to temple, but the drive is too long so late at night. And I'm kind of ashamed to admit I have a pretty bad case of social phobia.
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