Diwali Fever

Well season change time and the entire household is under the weather. One can hear a chorus of sniffles and coughs and sneezes.The children are have fever. I am the fittest of the lot and apart from a few sniffs and snorts and the midnight chain of sneezes I am able to go about my daily business. The others are a bit slow and decidedly not themselves. I knew of a lady who used to give her children haldi (not the powder but the solid raw haldi) and honey all through the year and they never had a cold in their lives! Now I am happy if I can get two square meals and the morning and evening milk past the children's lips for they are very picky and choosey about their food. The elder one takes out any morsel that I might have quickly inserted in her mouth without prior notice and inspects it closely before reinserting or rejecting it according to her taste. The younger one also immediately ejects stuff that he does not like the taste of leaving me to clear up the mess so I know it is futile to try and get them to have haldi and honey and if I tried I would be letting myself in for some unpleasant clearing ups!
The elder one also refuses to switch to winter wear even if the nip in the air becomes very evident. She does not like to wear socks or sandles at home either, so she is running amok bare feet and clad in her summer skimpies well into November and the result is obvious!The little one catches it promptly from whoever has it first.My Father in law is roaming about miserably in a shawl and Mom in law is also complaining of headache. Ah well, winter will be here soon and put an end to our misery I suppose. However the in-laws barely survive winter as I do summer so it is still more misery in store for the poor things!