Tonight is the 27th night of Ramadhan. My dad has turned on the raya lights outside. Hari Raya is just around the corner. I've yet to finish one more baju for a friend who's coming to collect this Saturday. Then there's my baju kurung to finish. Hmmm.. I think laziness has crept into my bones and I'll probably go bead-less this time!! I've made two types of cookies so far and there's still three more to go, and there is my traditional chocolate cakes for our hourse and mom-in-law's.
Pulled an all nighter last night to bake almond london and chocolate cookies. Sadly to say the almond london didn't come out as good as I anticipated. I made the mistake of not roasting the almonds till it's crunchy enough. So when you bite into the cookie, it'll be a bit tough and sticks to your teeth. Argh!!! What a waste of time... and precious sleep time!!! Can't be bothered to make them again. But the choccolate cookies came out delicious. They were more for Nadiah than for Raya. I cut them out into teddy bear shapes and there were also star, moon and heart shapes. Had Nadiah sprinkle hundreds and thousands on them today, but she ate them more than she did the sprinkling *sigh*
Raya this year will be the usual routine. Early in the morning the men will be going to the mosque for the Raya prayers. The woman folk will be at home laying out all the food stuff on the table for the guests. Once the men comes home, my mom and dad will be sitting in their special chairs while my dad would call out to the grandchildren to come and get the duit raya. That's the signal for all of us to queue up and take turns to salam and minta maaf with our parents and each other. Only the kids will get money though.
Usually my eldest brother and his wife and son comes back a day before hari Raya. The second one lives just a few minutes away so he will come back the morning itself with his wife and son in tow, after prayers. Brother no. 3 is in KL with his wife but will come back alternately every year depending whose side of the family they are celebrating raya first that year. But this year his wife is expecting a baby that's due on the 5th of November so they will be staying in KL. When the baby pops out, we'll be going to KL to see the new baby. Yeay!!
Luckily MIL's house is only 20 mins away from ours. So there's no fighting over whose house we should go back first every year. We'll probably go around noon and back again after a few hours.
Every year my mom will cook laksa for the main dish during raya. There are also the usual ketupat and rendang and also nasi himpit (that's ketupat nasi for you guys in the South) and kuah kacang. My favourite is the nasi himpit with kuah kacang. Every house we go to will see me eat only this. Most of the time I'll be too full to eat anything but out of politeness I will try to eat the nasi himpit. Mom's laksa is well known amongst our relatives and every year they'll come back to devour the dish. Funily enough all of mom's children don't particularly like laksa. We'll probably try once and that's about it. But all her son and daughters IL are really hantu laksa. They will eat laksa repeatedly the whole day and the day after. Me? I think I only really eat laksa when I was pregnant. Most times not at all.
Hari raya usually sees the kids having a blast. I remember getting up in the morning excited to don new clothes and getting all those duit raya. Not to mention the joys of bunga api (firecrackers). It saddens me to think that hari Raya is just like any other day for Nadiah. To her it makes no difference that everyone is dressed in baju melayu or baju kurung/kebaya. When people give her money she would slap their hands away. When all the kids would be running aound with bunga api in their hands, she would rather be inside painting or watching tv. When all the relatives meet up and cousins gang up together to play, she'll be on her own doing her own stuff, in her own world.
I would love for her to enjoy Raya like I did. To relish the times spend doing nothing but play with her cousins on a day that only comes once a year. To sit at one corner secretly counting all the money she's got so far.
Hmph! I don't know why all of a sudden I'm feeling a little meloncholic. Must be all the stress and the lack of sleep. I shouldn't be complaning really. Nadiah is a happy child, hari Raya or no hari Raya. Just be glad that she's happy, right???
Okay, I need to go. SELAMAT HARI RAYA and MAAF ZAHIR BATIN and HAPPY DEEPAVALI to all. And have a wonderful holiday y'all!!!
Pulled an all nighter last night to bake almond london and chocolate cookies. Sadly to say the almond london didn't come out as good as I anticipated. I made the mistake of not roasting the almonds till it's crunchy enough. So when you bite into the cookie, it'll be a bit tough and sticks to your teeth. Argh!!! What a waste of time... and precious sleep time!!! Can't be bothered to make them again. But the choccolate cookies came out delicious. They were more for Nadiah than for Raya. I cut them out into teddy bear shapes and there were also star, moon and heart shapes. Had Nadiah sprinkle hundreds and thousands on them today, but she ate them more than she did the sprinkling *sigh*
Raya this year will be the usual routine. Early in the morning the men will be going to the mosque for the Raya prayers. The woman folk will be at home laying out all the food stuff on the table for the guests. Once the men comes home, my mom and dad will be sitting in their special chairs while my dad would call out to the grandchildren to come and get the duit raya. That's the signal for all of us to queue up and take turns to salam and minta maaf with our parents and each other. Only the kids will get money though.
Usually my eldest brother and his wife and son comes back a day before hari Raya. The second one lives just a few minutes away so he will come back the morning itself with his wife and son in tow, after prayers. Brother no. 3 is in KL with his wife but will come back alternately every year depending whose side of the family they are celebrating raya first that year. But this year his wife is expecting a baby that's due on the 5th of November so they will be staying in KL. When the baby pops out, we'll be going to KL to see the new baby. Yeay!!
Luckily MIL's house is only 20 mins away from ours. So there's no fighting over whose house we should go back first every year. We'll probably go around noon and back again after a few hours.
Every year my mom will cook laksa for the main dish during raya. There are also the usual ketupat and rendang and also nasi himpit (that's ketupat nasi for you guys in the South) and kuah kacang. My favourite is the nasi himpit with kuah kacang. Every house we go to will see me eat only this. Most of the time I'll be too full to eat anything but out of politeness I will try to eat the nasi himpit. Mom's laksa is well known amongst our relatives and every year they'll come back to devour the dish. Funily enough all of mom's children don't particularly like laksa. We'll probably try once and that's about it. But all her son and daughters IL are really hantu laksa. They will eat laksa repeatedly the whole day and the day after. Me? I think I only really eat laksa when I was pregnant. Most times not at all.
Hari raya usually sees the kids having a blast. I remember getting up in the morning excited to don new clothes and getting all those duit raya. Not to mention the joys of bunga api (firecrackers). It saddens me to think that hari Raya is just like any other day for Nadiah. To her it makes no difference that everyone is dressed in baju melayu or baju kurung/kebaya. When people give her money she would slap their hands away. When all the kids would be running aound with bunga api in their hands, she would rather be inside painting or watching tv. When all the relatives meet up and cousins gang up together to play, she'll be on her own doing her own stuff, in her own world.
I would love for her to enjoy Raya like I did. To relish the times spend doing nothing but play with her cousins on a day that only comes once a year. To sit at one corner secretly counting all the money she's got so far.
Hmph! I don't know why all of a sudden I'm feeling a little meloncholic. Must be all the stress and the lack of sleep. I shouldn't be complaning really. Nadiah is a happy child, hari Raya or no hari Raya. Just be glad that she's happy, right???
Okay, I need to go. SELAMAT HARI RAYA and MAAF ZAHIR BATIN and HAPPY DEEPAVALI to all. And have a wonderful holiday y'all!!!
2 comments:
Hi Kak Yatie!
Thanks for dropping by, & for the compliments *blush*
Anyways, had a peek @ ur blog & catalogue & i must say tt ur work is impressive! Unfortunately u're in kedah :( nice beading!!
Well, u hv a good hari raya too & happy holidays!
i truly understand how you feel, last night we met up with a friend from Muar, his son is a month younger than Adriana but he can talk very well while Adriana can only make sounds that only we the family understand.....still, like you said as long as they are happy in their own way we shoudl be grateful.
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