Raya cum birthday cum telematch
This is another tale of Raya. Oh yes... still in Raya mooddancing.

It happened to be my birthday on the 2nd day of Raya. Yes... the infamous 9/11 disaster coincides with my birthday. Besides me, there are few others September babies in my family.
My father: 7/9/1928
My brother: 19/9/1977
My nieces: 2/9/1980 and 17/9/1991

In conjunction with that, we had a special raya-telematch among family members. We had a similar event last 2 years. We celebrated the October babies back then since Raya was in October that year. This year, we did something similar. And as usual, the organizers were my hubby and sister.


It was the 2nd day of Raya and relatives were still coming over to my parents' house for beraya. We couldn't stop people from coming, could we? So, because of that, the telematch started quite late that afternoon. Dah 6.30 pm. We managed to form 4 groups between us (minus my parents, the 2 organizers and 1 cameraman). And together with 3 import players (the sons of my late cousin who came beraya), each group consisted of 8 people.




We played games such as blowing up baloons. Tapi nak sebesar 2 jengkal je... So we chose the smallest member of the group and used her fingers as the measurement hee hee.



Carry balloons using rackets. Not as easy as it looks whew!.



 Filling up bottle with water by using sponges. My group should take our own sweet time because the objective was not to finish the fastest but how much water is collected.




Bowling with coconut. The aim is to knock down the brick. I failed to hit the brick. If only I had the chance to practice, sure kena punya... Alasann...tongue




Ni salah satu contoh balingan yang mengenathumbs up .



Those in the back were not cheering for the bowler but actually were trying to disrupt the blower's concentration and the coconut goes haywire devil.


And finally, guessing how many coins were there in the plate filled with flour. I cheated and managed to maintained my face flour-free winking.



 No way I'm going to let my face to be like thisshame on you.


And final results... Proud to announce that my group was group no. 3 laughing.




That night, we had a small birthday celebration. 

We had a cake written with the names of the September babies. But accidents do happen. Somehow my niece's name was smudged thus we improvised and wrote her name using muruku and cornflakes.



We had a giant birthday card presented to my father.


And cut the cake secara berjemaah.



It was so good to be able to gather with family members like this.

Cake: RM25.
KFC: RM170+.
The smile on my parents' faces especially my father's: Priceless big grin.

Next Raya, celebrating August babies maybe? Ramai jugak August babies in the family.

Special thanks to hubby dearest for making this birthday a memorable one love struck .
Eid in Raub
Finally the day has arrived. The day that simbolizes victory for the Muslims who have succeeded in completing the ibadah during Ramadhan. After breaking fast on the last day of Ramadhan, my daughter whispered to me what she wanted for sahur the next morning. I said, 'Dah tak de sahur dah, esok dah raya'. She gave me a BIG smile of glee big grin.

The morning of 1st Syawal, the table was set up with all the cookies and raya dishes. Memang kuih penuh meja. Mana tak nya, each one of us brought a few types of cookies back home and adding it all up, we got a big spread of raya cookies.


 
We had our ritual of 'bersalam-salaman' with family members and asking for forgiveness and giving out duit raya to the kids. Well, as long as they are not working yet, they are considered as kids and eligible for the raya ang pau.


 
And of course photo shoot. The grandchildren of Hj Mohamed and Hjh Siti Asiah. A few were not in the picture.


 
And then with the rest of the family. Ramai sikit lagi, tak muat nak masuk frame winking.


Since it was a Friday, and Friday prayer was due soon, things were a bit slow. Except for a Chinese family, we had no guests. So some of the kids treated themselves as guests and beriya-iya makan kuih raya kat meja tetamu d'oh.


After Friday prayer, we got ready to visit our aunts and uncles. Sekali keluar, 2,3 kereta. Penuh satu rumah. 


Jenuh tuan rumah nak prepare air whew!.

At one of my aunt's house, we saw this beautiful orchid with its gorgeous flowers.



We also helped ourselves to the rambutans.



While the kids were either chasing the hens or the cats. Isyh...isyh...isyh... Duduk kat KL, nak jumpa ayam hidup yang berkeliaran memang susah.



Dah makan, jangan lupa cuci pinggan sendiri. This is a picture of me and my 2 sisters. We were at my aunt's place. She lives alone after the death of her husband and it's quite unfair to leave her with the dirty dishes. 


And the activity continued after Isyak prayer that night.

I went to sleep with tummy full of lemang, ketupat, rendang, raya cookies and varieties of drinks. Hmm...thinking fasting month down the drain in just one day? How la... raya sebulan ni...sigh

p/s I would like to acknowledge the FB of my nephews (Muhd Firza Mohd Hanim and Aj Ajay) for some of the photos above.
It was the day before Raya
This year, we celebrated 1st Syawal at my hometown i.e. Raub, Pahang. Kampung Gali Tengah to be exact. (For the hypothesis of how this Kampung got its name, read here). My parents' house is located by the main road. And this road is the road many will use to get to Kuala Lipis, Jerantut and Kelantan too. And the road can be congested with traffic during holiday time like the Aidil Fitri holidays. The pic below was taken from the upper storey of my parents' house. 



I took a few days leave before Raya so that I can help out my mum to prepare for the celebration. Coming from a big family with most of the siblings have kids of their own, my parents' house will be full to the max if everyone is back home for Eid. Thus, the food to be prepared must be doubled or tripled to feed all of us whew!.

Let's do some calculations shall we?

I have 3 older brothers (of which 2 have passed away), 2 older sisters and 3 younger brothers. That makes 9 of us.
The eldest (my late brother) had 3 kids. One is already married with a son. (That makes me a proud granny).
The second (my late brother) had 3 kids too.
The third, my sister, has 4 kids.
The fourth, a brother, has 5 kids.
The fifth, another sister, has 4 kids.
And then me. With 4 kids of my own.
Next my brother, with 1 kid.
And the 2 younger brothers are still single.

The kids alone count up to 25. So imagine the chaos. Every rooms will be in a mess with bags, hanged clothes, piles of dirty laundry, mattresses and pillows. Having to wait for the turn to use the bathroom is a common scenariowaiting. At night,  tidur je kat mana-mana asal boleh. In front of the TV or on the sofa. Breaking fast dah macam kenduri.

We started early the day before raya. Cutting meat and cleaning the chicken.


It was fun to work in the open air but we had to be on the lookout for creatures such as this one monkey. There's a troop of them and they were always aiming for my father's rambutan trees.



We peeled onions, garlic and ginger. And cut the dried chilies into small pieces.


 
Coconuts were grated. This 'mean' machine boleh makan tuan. So has to grip the coconut firmly with both hands if you don't want to injure your fingers. My dentist sister will not dare to try out this grater. Tangan cari makan tu, susah kalau luka. I remembered years ago, when we didn't have the luxury of this machine, I used to grate the coconut using the conventional grater. Lenguh beb. Kalau takat sebiji tak pe jugak, kalau berbiji-biji, surrendertime out.


Then cooking time. Beef rendang in the making.


 
Frying chicken for ayam masak merah dish.


 
And peanut sauce to be eaten with ketupat.


 
That night, we had a blasting time with fire crackers dan lain-lain yang sewaktu dengannya.



 
We also had 'fireworks show', courtesy of my youngest brother. The kids huddled together getting ready for the show, with hands covering their earsnot listening.


The kids exhausted themselves. One could not tahan anymore, that she fell asleep on this mini couch sleepy. Syafiqah, my youngest, looks so angelic, curled up like that.


 
My other kids preferred to sleep elsewhere with their cousins than sleeping with me. Their eyes were still wide open even though it was close to midnight. I was already in la-la land and I have no idea what time they finally decided to hit the pillows. Kids... seronok betul jadi diorang. With nothing to worry about. Play when they like, sleep whenever and wherever they like. Not wondering of who the hell murdered and burnt Datuk Sosilawati and friends. How I wish I can be like them. Hmm...thinking wishful thinking.