Stop! Hamper Time!

I must say that the number of hampers this year for the Rays was more than I expected. Last Chinese New Year was quite minimal, I remembered only getting a couple of boxes of mandarin. It was plenty more the year before.

But this Raya was nice. And as usual, Anita and the boys were the ones pleased.

Holiday was Sorted

For the after EId break this year, we would be going back to Penang. But this time, rather than staying with the relatives, we decided to lay low and stay at a hotel in town. We decided to spend most of the time indoors - if there such a thing.

The initial plan was to get a room at Batu Feringghi, at one of the beach resorts. But while browsing, Anita discovered a converted old Colonial mansion which was now a hotel. No arguments. We did the booking this afternoon ....

If would be smack in the middle of Georgetown. I have never been to this hotel before, so hopefully the hype were true .... Fingers crossed!

Qurban

Salleh with his QurbanSelamat Hari Raya Qurban. This year, Salleh, my brother-in-law bought a couple of portions of Qurban and was involved in the slaughter yesterday. It was held at my Mum's local surau at Bukit Antarabangsa. There were a total of 5 cows put down. The event started just after 9.30 in the morning after the Raya prayers. Salleh's cow was the first to be slaughter.

The crowd looking on

Qurban described the event when Allah decreed for Abraham (Ibrahim a.s.) to slaughter his favourite son Ishmael (Ismail a.s.) to test his and his wife, Hagar's (Siti Hajar) faith. During the slaughter (Qurban), Ishmael was replaced with a qibas (desert goat) and to commemorate the event, Qurban was performed yearly during the end of pilgrimage (Eidul Adha).

Volunteers being roped in.... and helping each other outThe morning was blessed with beautiful weather. Around 120 people turned up and the Qurban went on without a hitch. Everyone chipped in, the younger once watching in awe of the whole process, maybe for the first time. After the Qurban was done, everyone started cutting up the slaughters and preparing them into small portions for cooking. Some of the meat were given away as sedekah, while others were cooked in a broth to be distributed.

Each sacrifice are divided into 7 portions. As you can see, some of them were for Aqiqah.The young and the old joining forcesSpare ribs anyone?

My local masjid in Taman Melati will only be performing the Qurban today - it does not have to be done on the first day of Eidul Adha. They are offering courses for the younger generations to learn about the process and hopefully lead it in the future. I learned about it late. Maybe I will enroll in it next year.

I spent the rest of the Hari Raya at home with the kids. Not many of our relatives came this time around. Anita went shopping in the afternoon to prepare for our upcoming trip to Fraser's Hill. We then went back to Bukit Antarabangsa in the evening with the kids to have dinner with my Mum. The rest of the slideshow can be found here.

More makan!

Just had lunch with the nurses as par of the Raya and Deepavali celebrations. The main event for me was the noodles that my colleague Habibah prepared. Well, I didn't know that she can cook. Might as well I suppose as she is getting married next year. LOL!

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Open house at Anita's cousin

Another open house today and it is at Anita’s cousin in Cheras. What is unique is the catering. She actually does some catering herself and decided to host something different. The food were all Kampong themed with real tempoyak and ulam. Petai was everywhere and the rendang tok was heavenly.

We stayed from 2 until almost six, waiting for cousins after cousins to arrive. Most of them were from other Open Houses and by the time they arrive, most are already full. Once they started chatting, nothing can sop them. It's a good time to catch on old gossip I suppose. Will be out later to take my auntie from Sg Petani out for dinner. Not sure yet where we will be headed.

See the full gallery on posterous

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