Satu Syawal @ Kg Lalang

i’m back from a long RAYA hiatus, people! miss me? hihi. man, i think this is the longest i’ve been away from my blog. i guess spending syawal in malaysia this year had gotten me too excited!

we spent first syawal at khairul’s kampung in padang rengas, perak. it’s set to be a great syawal because of the kampung setting, the constant booms of mercun heard in the distance,the loud takbir from the nearby surau, and the unmistakable smell of my mom-in-law’s chicken rendang bubbling in the kitchen.

standing from left : me, mr. khairul, teh (diyana), tina, sofia, asrar, kay & wife with their daughter wafa sitting from left : mr. khairul’s mom holding kazim, khaleef and mr. khairul’s bapak holding kahfi

and for mr. khairul – a personal joy of not only having ALL his siblings under one roof to celebrate syawal together – but for himself – to finally celebrate hari raya together with his family for the first time after 2 years!

(2008, he went ahead to dubai before me and celebrated raya there. 2009, we both celebrated raya in dubai).

i really miss my mak’s rendang, but my mom-in-law’s rendang was just as yummy. classic, traditional chicken rendang that goes perfect with the must-have lemang. this was a typical breakfast on a hari raya morning.

my boys were ALL BLACKS on hari raya. even kazim wore black-gray. no new, matching sampins though – i just used the ones i already have.

this was kahfi’s first raya in malaysia, and kazim’s first raya ever. it was quite chaotic even after the first few minutes – khaleef refused to wear sampin, and kahfi kept throwing down his songkok.

taking a decent picture of them was unthinkable! they were too excited running around! especially since their aunty sofia let them join her in her quest for duit raya from neighbouring houses!

mr. khairul’s youngest sister sofia holding her nephew kazim, with the cheeky khaleef

naughty, naughty boys! kahfi & khaleef

my adorable kazim!

my mr. khairul yang gagah dengan sampin malay college. sigh. someone donate some OTHER sampin please?

after breakfast of lemang and rendang,

after going around collecting duit raya,

after few families came and went beraya at the house,

began our ‘adventure’ of getting a decent family photo of our first syawal as a family of 5.

first challenge : getting them out. getting them in proper sampin and songkok. getting them to stand still. we failed miserably on the last part.

yes, there were few moments of chasing around. thank goodness for flat hush puppies!

…and finally after lots of chasing, shouting out the boys’ names and making them stand still AND look at the camere – this was our best photo shoot of the lot. looked like i was the only one ready for the camera!

enjoy the rest of syawal!