<h3>Hari Raya Open House</h3>

During the last week of raya, The Don and I held our Hari Raya open house especially for our elder relatives. We didn't initially plan to have it but at almost every house we went during raya visiting, especially The Don's side, our uncles and aunts said they have plans to come to our house during the Raya season. Perhaps its due to our "ringan mulut" attitude at always inviting people to our house (as opposed to "berat mulut" and feigning ignorance and keeping their mouths shut when somebody so much as give any indication or hint at coming to their house) However, everytime any of uncles / aunts / cousins called to say they were in the vicinity, we were either at the other side of the island visiting or indisposed (and by that I mean our little weekend at Royal Plaza Hotel)

So we discussed and decided to have an "Open House' on the last weekend. We didn't send out any invitations, merely a personal call to relatives and friends. We honestly were unsure if people would turn up, since

we heard every other cousin/family/friend was also having an "open house"

we are quite far down the line in the family hierachy of both sides and thought the aunts/uncles/granduncles/grandaunts might not exactly prioritise our invitation especially in the time-constraint month of Syawal.

This was the third time this year we are holding a function at our place (after the wedding & the housewarming) and seriously even I wouldn't have attended a 3rd invitation in one year hehehe.

So I guess we were either lucky or perhaps The Don and I are really, really in their good books. Relatives started flowing in trickle by trickle from 11am. By 2pm it was full force. As far as we can recall, 90% of the people we invited turned up and that includes The Don's bro and wife, all his paternal uncles and aunts, most of his maternal uncles and aunts, both his grandmothers, all of my siblings, my aunts, his reservist friends and our close neighbours and my colleagues. At one point, all 13 of his paternal aunts and uncles were present at the same time and there was absolutely no space to sit. Such that some of The Don's cousins had to eat in the study.


By 3pm, the food levels were dangerously low. The briyani rice was fast depleting, the choice chicken parts were gone and only traces of the cucumber acar was left I began to panic. We inited about 100+ people but as I said earlier we hardly expected a good turnout. Lucky my mother-in-law came to the rescue with her claypot rice. Alhamdulillah.

But the biggest surprise of all was when some people brought gifts along with them. Its been almost a year since we got married and moved into our matrimonial home but The Don and I have simply not stopped getting presents for the house. The presents came from people whom did not make it for our house warming. But that was a long-long time ago. Among the gifts we received were 2 warmer sets, a corningware set and a wine bottle holder (???) (the last one from our chinese neighbour)


I guess what they say is true. Setiap tetamu yang datang itu membawa rezeki.