Hari Raya 2006 celebration

Pre-Raya

Babah has always wanted to take our family portrait for our personal album and for special Hari Raya wish. Only a few days before raya he really forced everyone to get up extra early and dressed in hari raya outfit and decided to go to the Canal Basin. It was very cold with chilly wind gushing in my skirt of baju kurung. But can you imagine, Sarah refusing to wear her jacket?

Amar shivered a few times. So he was happy to hung on to me most of the time. (The above photo is a bit blurry because I enlarged it 20 times its original size)

We tried to capture a picture of Sarah and Amar together. But Amar was not quite happy with that idea. At the end of the photo session, Babah managed to snap a few good photos of our family together.

Mercun & Bunga Api

The night before Eid, Babah was very delighted to introduce fireworks to the little ones. It turned out that the kiddies were too scared of the mega sound of the explosions and probably it was really cold outside too.

Emyr came running inside and said "kooot, kooot..." (takut, i think) and Amar clutched my thighs ever so tightly. Sarah was frightened at first, but later on she quite enjoyed swirling the sparklers.

I hope Babah won't waste anymore of his money on fireworks next time. I don't think the children enjoyed that much anyway, even the colourful ones. And they only caused me anxiety with young children going near the fireworks.

Hari Raya

One of the sensible photos!
(thanks to Ummi and Ayah Ji for the lovely pink raya outfit for the kids)

We spent our last couple of days of Ramadhan in Nottingham with Auntie Wa's family. (Auntie Wa is Auntie De's mom) We also celebrated first and second day of Syawal in Nottingham with them.

We celebrated hari raya with them in 2004. Amar was not born yet at that time, and Emyr was only a month old. This year, the celebration was more joyous with the presence of Amar and Safiya. Everyone was kept busy with these four kids, Sarah kept on nicking Emyr's favourite blanket and made him cry each time she did that. The next minute you know, both of them were playing happily together (ie feeding the fishes with a tub of fish food!).

Amar loved to play in Auntie Wa's dining room. Although he was reasonably quiet, he was actually messing the serviettes on the floor.

And 10 months old Safiya... she is so petite and cute too. But never leave her alone, she has always aimed for the stairs. Once Auntie De caught her climbing up half the staircase alone.

Indeed, it was a joyous and eventful celebration!

Mandi sunat hari raya

Mandi was also a big and fun event for the little ones. Sometimes we bathe them together in the bath tub (minus Safiya normally)

and we always find ourselves difficult to take them out of the bath without seeing their anak tekak crying first!

Our kind hosts; Auntie and Uncle Wa
before sembahyang hari raya

As far as I can remember, solat hari raya normally performed at 9am. Some places held it twice; English khutbah for the first session and Arabic/Urdu for the second. And I also remember Regents Mosque in London had 4 sessions of Eid prayers to cater for millions of Muslims.

The tradition for the Malaysian in Nottingham is they hire a hall and performed solat hari raya among themselves with khutbah in Malay.

Belon hari raya

Auntie De managed to 'calm' the children by reading them story books and blowing them colourful balloons. They had so much fun playing with the balloons.

Minum susu session

After endless jumping up and down and running around, they settled down with a bottle of milk each. (Emyr with his precious blanket)

Amar dozed off for his morning nap before we managed to take our family photo.

He was quite grumpy when he woke up from his very short rest. Photo session has not been easy from then on.

Sarah too refused to pose for a photo.

Nevermind, there was always adorable little Safiya (and Auntie De) who was willing to be photographed.

The Heroes

Finally I managed to snap the above photo, despite Amar trying to let loose of himself. Photo of the Mamas and daughters were quite unsuccessful also due to Sarah being uncooperative. (Even if it turned out well, I'm not going to publish my face here)

Some of Aunty Wa's Hari Raya spread

Aunty Wa and her family are very popular among the Malaysian community in Nottingham. They are very kind and friendly. They always invite people for dinner at their house too and prepared a table full of food, desserts and drinks.

Similarly for this raya, there were loads of food; Special Johorean Chicken Beryani, ayam masak merah, nasi impit with kuah kacang, sate, lodeh and sambal tumis ikan bilis, and all sorts of desserts and kuih raya.

Thank you Auntie Wa and family for being such a great host. We have had a grand hari raya this year. May Allah bless your family always.