Turkey Time

It’s here… it’s finally here, time to pull out that old (or new) turkey recipe and get it going on in the oven. We don’t really celebrate Thanksgiving per say, but it is a long weekend, and turkey is not available all year round. 'Tis the season for turkey! And it's really the only time we get access to turkey, especially the Halal kind.

As we mentioned from yesterday’s post, we had some hardships getting a large turkey, so we end up with 2 smaller turkeys. Every year, we try to out-do the previous year. Last year, and the year before, Thanksgiving coincided with the Muslim fasting month. This year however, Thanksgiving weekend came after EID. So this Turkey feast is also our Raya Open House. We’ve been planning it for a while now.

So we have 2 birds and 1 oven. That won't do. So for the first time since coming to Vancouver (we're had to borrow ovens for turkey before, in New York), we have to “borrow” an oven from the other Malaysian students. We prepared everything beforehand, rubbed in the spices, put it in the bag (literally), and then delivered it to the their house with baking instructions. Hopefully, it’ll turn out all right. We started the party at about 6 pm. The turkeys didn’t take too long to bake. We had meat thermometers, and the turkeys were done before the time we set. We were a little worried, but they looked cooked. What do you guys think? Mmm…. Yummy!

We had lots of guests. Baby Adam and his parents were here to enjoy they’re first taste of turkey. I hope they enjoyed it.

There were also a few new Malaysian students (new to UBC, that is) we invited, whom we met at the last Raya open house. This is probably their first taste of turkey too. If so, we’re honored.

Oh… If you recall at the last CG Open House, I mentioned that we were roped into performing at the MABC Deeparaya festivities. We took this opportunity to practice for the show. Jehan, Mira, Shahrir and I will be performing a couple of Raya songs, hence the guitar. Wish us luck. We perform next weekend.

Anyway, overall I think everybody had a good time. The kids certainly found ways to entertain themselves (after stuffing themselves with turkey). They played a few games of checkers, which they learned recently. I'm really proud of that. I had lots of fun too. Love the turkey. I wonder when we’ll get to have turkey again. Well, I guess I’ll be having turkey leftovers tomorrow, and possibly the day after. But what about AFTER that? Christmas maybe?

For those who celebrate Thanksgiving, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. For my fellow Muslim brothers and sisters, Eid Mubarak! And for everybody else, hope you had a fantastic long weekend. This is a good time to enjoy a good meal with family and friends, no matter what you celebrate. Enjoy the long weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

PS: For more pictures, visit Our Photo Album on Facebook.

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?”