Tatkala syawal menjelang...

A day before raya...

Kecut lak daun kelongsong ketupat ni..Tu la..beli kelongsong ketupat lambat sangat, tinggal le yang kecut kecut sikit. Kecut pon kecut le..lagi kan tak de ketupat, cam tak raya lak kang. The time showed 5.30am in the morning. I just finished my sahur. Everyone else climbed up on their beds...resumed their sleep. Sitting bersila on the kitchen floor, in the early break of the daylight, patiently i filled the kelongsong ketupat with prewashed beras...alone. At ths time, for many years,without fail, reminded me that the moment has come....in a few hours...for the next 3 days of syawal...i will be transformed...jadi la daku cinderella jadian...masak,masak, masakkkk...eeemmm....ain't different from anyone else i guess...

The last buka puasa, as always, we all will eat the ketupat, rendang, kuah kacang and kuah lodeh i prepared for 1 syawal and brought the remaining to my mom-in-law's house in KL the next day.

First hari raya day is always a gathering occasion at my in law's house from the first year i married my husband. If i am not mistaken, in the 15 years of my marriage, i only celebrated 1st syawal morning with my mom once. That also, we would rushed to KL as soon as we had breakfast after solat sunat hari raya. After that year, it was always at my in law's till this day. Of course, in the early days of my marriage, i remembered feeling sad everytime i woke up in the early dawn of syawal and heard the takbir from the nearby surau and wished i was with my family. But after awhile...i learned to accept and understood the fact that my husband would want to mohon ampun and maaf from his parents first before he does to anyone else and I thought, well..why not make it possible and easy for him. Even now when we have a bigger family and sleep over at his parents' place would be inconvenient, we would rushed to KL right after solat subuh and reached KL just in time for solat sunat raya with his brothers and in the past, with his arwah father. And this year, even when his father had passed away, was not an exception...

1st syawal...

This is my husband and his two younger brothers, Talha and Paie (alamak paie...kalau awak pegang snapang..dah cam taliban dah rupa awak dek....hahhaha) just balik from solat sunat hari raya. My husband is very close with his brothers. A bond that anyone can blindfoldedly see very strong and sturdy, a relationship i would like to inculcate in my children, an example of what family ties all about. Respect is the word. Yes...they respect each other irregardless of who is the eldest or who is the younger among them.

These are my kids! These people can never stay still even for a second...terbanyak makan vitamins i rasa..active betul. This year we decided to have the same color tone for our baju pagi raya...not identical though. Danial's baju melayu was ready made and i got it from PKNS complex but my girls' baju kurung moden as seen in these photo were my own design...

The baju kurung i wore was actually bought 2 days before raya and so did the accessories that came with it...a true definition of last minute raya shopping! Owh...with me in this photo was my darling daughter Najwa Asyikin. Ooo girl, u look so girlish this year. Najwa is very picky with her choice of baju raya or anything comes attached with it. That's why u will see no accessory of any sort on her body...hhahahaha. However, this year, she agreed to let her line of raya attires in the trust of non other than who else...me! (sebab i warned her..."Najwa, kalau awak cerewet sgt this year, smue baju awak tak berkenan...awak raya tahun ni pakai je baju skola ea??")

Nuwairah Aimi...our third girl...hmm..ni Aisyah in the making. Memang kuat bergamba and berposing. Sikit2 gamba die...tgk camera balik..eh, smue ade muka kak ira...hahhahaha.

Haaa...ni hero sape la ni...if not our only son..Danial, dengan jambul yang digelkan and di hairspraykan oleh non other than our in-house stylist~ Aisyah. Teruk la awak kakak, sian gambut adek awak keje kan...Hish...Danial, can u please stay still kejap..bia ibu amek gamba awak comel sikit..Danial looked so hensem in this baju melayu which happened to be secolor dengan abahnye. Aisyah was the one yang pilihkan color baju melayu tu and also chose the sampin for her brother. Pagi pagi raya, lepas mandi and bersiap, Aisyah was the one who siapkan her brother, siap dengan hair style skali and warned everyone not to put Danial on songkok or kupiah or ape2 yang akan rosakkan rambut adik die..hhahahahah! "Jangan pakaikan die songkokkkk...nnti jambul die rosakkkkk...".

Edit mengedit gamba macam ni rupa mmg la keje Aisyah. You guys will notice, unlike Najwa, Aisyah has all the accessories from the hair to the chain around the neck to the earings that could not be seen in the photo to macam macam la yang dia rasa boleh diletak kat her body. But i can't blame her though, look at the mom la...hahahahh. This is something me and Aisyah has in common. Now that we both can share shoes, Aisyah did not bother to shop for her raya shoes this year since she can just put on any of my pairs whichever she think that would suit her dress.

Hari Raya wishes from madam author of this blog...

This pic was taken on the third day of syawal at one of my husband's aunties house. This year, we both are 40 (baru empat puluh k..). We both are very happy to celebrate syawal this year with those we love and care unconditionally...our family members;our mothers,brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, cousins and not forgetting anak-anak angkat yang jauh di perantauan.. NorJannah Syaqireen, Rizwanie Irmaa and Mohd Zaim Zuhuri who are all now studying in the US. Tidak dilupakan juga, this year is going to be an exciting year for us because one of the dearest couples in our family; Haziqah Zuhuri and Haniff will tie the knot on the 18th October 2008! For Haziqah and Haniff...kami berdua mendoakan kebahagiaan ke akhir hayat and remember that marriage is not all about two people, its all about family...Love not only each other but also each other's family. We are very grateful that Allah s.w.t bless upon us with beautiful and wonderful children; Nabilah Aisyah, Najwa Asyikin, Nuwairah Aimi and Ahmad Danial, whom without them...diibaratkan tiadalah makna hidup kami. Kami berdoa agar Allah s.w.t sentiasa memberkati keluarga kami ini, dimurahkan rezeki dan dikukuhkan kasih & sayang di antara kami....kasih yang sejati..kasih yang abadi...

SELAMAT HARI RAYA TO ALL. MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATIN DARI KAMI BERDUA...