Goodbye Ramadhan, Hello Syawal

Today mark the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Syawal. It was announced on the national TVs that Hari Raya would be on Tuesday, 30th August. Huh! There's a lot of celebration around my area. Loud booms of fireworks can be heard until midnight.

To celebrate the end of Ramadan, we invited my sister in law and her kids to our house for iftar. Except for the oldest, who is in confinement,  the rest of her kids came for iftar. They brought rendang, peanut sauce, ketupat, while we bought lemang. As usual, teh tarik is a must have drink for iftar.

Before the break fast, we had tahlil, and this time, my husband’s nephew who is still in his early twenties led the tahlil. Eventhough he is young, but he has the characteristics of a leader and ustaz. Insya Allah, one day he will be.

Since this is our first raya at our new home, Villa Seroja, my father in-law decided to have Takbir Raya. After the maghrib prayer and a short rest, we continued with Takbir.  There was no one else except family, but it was good enough to usher the month of Syawal.

My father in law started the takbir and then followed by my husband’s two nephews.  I had never had any Takbir Raya at my previous home in Kajang. I hope this is a blessing to the new home.

After the takbir, Zaki and Zara can’t wait to play bunga api (sparkles). Well not only they played, but the big guys played too. But it will be more fun if we can other type of fireworks and firecrackers such the dragon eggs.

Hehe.... it is a rare occasion to have most of my husband side to be with us on Raya’s eve, so we had a photo session. But it was so difficult to get one person to sit in the photo session. Wanna guess who is that person? Who else? It's Mr. Misai…..

Selamat Hari Raya…

Salam.

Goodbye Ramadhan, Hello Syawal

After a month of fasting, we said goodbye to Ramadhan on 9th August and say hello to Syawal which started on Friday,10th September. As per our tradition, we seek forgiveness in the morning where I led my kids to ask forgiveness from hubby and then the kids asked forgiveness from us. The kids also asked forgiveness among themselves where the younger asked forgiveness from the elders. It also a practice in my family to give them "Duit Raya", money which we put in a special envelope instead of presents.

Raya also mean visiting parents and relatives and you can bet, my parents house was packed with all of us. My older brothers decided not to stay overnight at my parents' house but not for me or my sisters. No matter how packed the house, we will always sleep at my parents' house because there's a lot of stories and gossip to share.

My sisters went back one day before Raya but for me, I only went back on the first day itself. We didn't leave early as usual because my husband and sons decided to have their Friday prayer in Kajang first. So we left 10 minutes before 3pm.

We thought by that time, the traffics will be good but we were wrong. The moment we reached Seremban R&R, the queue started. The 45min drives took us 1 hour plus to reach my parents home. By the time we reached there, we were already hungry because we only had lemang and rendang for lunch.

Well I was not disappointed when I reached my parents home because my favorite "sup tulang" is waiting for me. This raya also saw all my relatives came to our house on the first day of raya. Normally they will come on the second or third day of raya. So we have to reschedule our plan to go to my eldest sister house. By the time we reached her house, there is no more "soto ayam". She has to fried noodles for us.

On second day, we decided to travel back to Kuala Pilah to visit my aunties. We left Seremban at 11am in the morning and I couldn't belief the traffic. The jam was from Bukit Putus all the way to Kuala Pilah and we were stuck in the jam for 1 hour plus. Luckily for me, my hubby was driving so I got the chance to sleep. At my aunt house, we had spaghetti but what I like most was the "ketupat and the kuah kacang". After spending two hours at my aunties houses, we then went to my hubby kampung which is only 20 min but due to the traffic it took us almost double than the time.

At my hubby's kampung, they served us laksa but I can't take it anymore. I have been eating non-stop from morning. I also met my hubby grandma who is about 90 years old and deaf but her eyesight is still good. The last time I saw her was last raya. However her condition is not good and she only sleep the whole time we were there.

We left for Seremban at 5pm and the traffic going back to Seremban was good. At 8pm, we went to my cousin house and this time we had mee curry. On the third day before we left for Kajang, we went to my other cousin house in Senawang. We thought we know Seremban very well but I was wrong. Instead of heading to Senawang, we headed to Bukit Chedang but it was worth it. My cousin served rice, fried chicken, sup tulang mamak style and air bandung. After few days of not having rice, that was the best lunch I had.

So my raya at my parents' house ended when we went back to Kajang that evening. Knowing Seremban -KL Highway was jammed, we decided to use LEKAS highway and it took us just 30 minutes to reach home.

Instead of eating non-stop for three days, I still missed the following foods:

1. Chicken Kurma and Nasi minyak. I think I will cook it this weekend.
2. My mom's and aunties' lemang and rendang.
3. My sister's soto ayam.

And I also forgot to:

1. Pack my little girl's jeans
2. My sons pajamas
3. Buy new songkok for my sons.
4. My cleanser and moisturizer (my little girl took it out from my bag)

So how's your raya? Were you caught in the jam on the first day of raya? Do you miss or forgot anything?