CG Eid Open House

Today is the start of the long weekend, and a long day at that. Before we go into the main event of the day, the Eid Open House hosted by the Malaysian Consulate General at Vancouver, we have a little party of our own to prepare for tomorrow. And so we took the zipcar out today to get some supplies, starting with fresh vegetables and a turkey from Fraser. Fraser St isn’t too far from the Open House, which is being held at Oakridge Mall. But we were late nonetheless, an hour late. The turkey we got was kind of small (12 lbs), and so we were in a frenzy to secure another bird for tomorrow. We were not successful, and made our way to the open house.

The open house was great, lots of food and lots of friends. The kids had a blast playing with all the other kids who were there. If you don’t believe me, take a look for yourself:

We met a lot of new people. Daddy got sucked into performing for the MABC Deeparaya. Daddy will be organizing something with the Malaysian students. Hopefully it’ll turn out well.

We didn’t stay too long - we were an hour late after all. After the open house, we decided to give it another try, and drive around for halal turkey. Thank God, we found a place near the Joyce Sky Train station. Woo hoo! Another 12 lbs bird for tomorrow’s turkey feast. We’re hoping to carry on our tradition from last year - Malaysian Turkey Eid on Melfa Lane. Stay tuned…

Piano and Music

Melur and Arman have been taking piano lessons for a few months now. And since they started playing, I’ve started playing more as well. The keyboard you see used to be an ornament in our living room, collecting dust. Mike comes in on Tuesdays, and gives them a formal 30-minute lesson each. And I hold up the rear, and make sure they practice every day until their next practice. This lazy Sunday morning, we decide to relax with some music and piano. You see Arman playing with Melur. And then Arman takes a video of Melur dancing to Daddy playing the piano. I’m reading music from a book, which I rarely do. So forgive my clumsiness.

The last clip in the video, we see Arman playing Ode to Joy. Arman seems to enjoy playing the piano more than Melur. He regularly practices on his own, while Melur needs some pushing. But both kids are progressing well with their piano. Anyway… I hope music will continue to be a strong part of their lives. I’m a strong believer that music can hard-wire your brain to do math better, and there’s research that supports that. Let’s play more music.

Arman, Arman

It’s Saturday, and Daddy got up early today to join a conference call with the extended family. Nenek is in Malaysia, Uncle Danny in Japan, Uncle Lyle in Indiana, plus Auntie Yaya in Bath, UK. It was a Skype / YM fest. Unfortunately, Nenek’s YM web cam wasn’t working, so we couldn’t see her at the same time as everybody else. So we took turns talking to her on Skype (her web cam was working on Skype). The wonders of technology…

Anyway, today’s little entry is about Arman. Arman is quite the character. Some time last year, we got Arman a suit from Zellers. He looked so adorable in it. It came with a clip on tie. And for some reason, he likes to wear it to bed… clipped onto his pajamas. And here he is the morning after in his pajamas and tie, dancing in the living room.

Arman is always curious to try new things, especially things that I use around the house, like the laptop, phone and camera. Here he is taking video with the camera. As you recall, he took some videos on Raya day, just 3 days ago. Today, he’s narrating what we’re doing this fine Saturday morning.

Well Arman, I hope you can keep your curiosity going. I think it’s one of your endearing traits. Keep asking, and you’ll never grow bored of life. And as he always says…

“But why?”

Eid Fitr 2008

It’s Raya time again. Raya this year falls on a Wednesday. Daddy took the day off, and so did the kids. We wrote a letter to their school, informing them of this special occasion.

Daddy left the house early for morning Eid prayers. There’s a mosque off Broadway near Ash. When I got back, the kids were all ready for our morning breakfast, our first breakfast as a family in a month. Mommy did a good job getting them ready and preparing a delicious meal. Check it out:

How do you like their new clothes? It came in the mail from Malaysia just a couple of weeks ago. They look so adorable in them. Thank you Nenek, Mak Long, Oteh, Andak and Pak Usu for the gifts. We hope to see you guys soon.

We have a lot to be grateful for. I look back at last year’s Eid, and I see how much the kids how grown. I hope we get to spend many more Eids together.

As usual, after our morning breakfast, we have our session of forgiving each other. This year was a little different though. I got on Imeem.com, and played some Eid music from Malaysia. It was awesome, nostalgic, and definitely set the mood. The video’s a little shaky cause the kids wound up taking the video footage. They’re kids, and they just can’t resist.

This year was also different for another reason. A new couple from Malaysia arrived this past fall, with a new baby boy. We decided to have them over for some rendang, and other Malaysian goodies. This is our special day after all. Check out baby Adam:

And after our little get together, there is yet ANOTHER open house, hosted by some other Malaysian students at UBC. Their house also in Acadia Park, and the 7 of us made our way there. The kids were very excited to go.

There were lots of people there, not just Malaysians. It was a good opportunity for us, and the new Malaysian couple, to get acquainted with other students at UBC. UBC enrolled quite a few Malaysians this year. Maybe we’ll be able to have larger parties. Who knows…?

Anyway, that was the end of our very festive Eid. I hope you guys have/had a wonderful Eid.

Eid Mubarak!