Eid Mubarak

Ok, so this post may be a little bit late. After all, it came before new years and I already have my new year's post up. I thought to myself that I didn't want to rush the post for Eid Adha and so, here I am writing about Eid.

Compared to the last Eid we celebrated (for Raya Puasa), this celebration was a whole lot better. The main reason is because we were able to celebrate it with family. When I made plans to visit the in-laws over hubby's new year vacation, I didn't care how expensive the flight tickets were going to be (they were $508.60 a piece due to the new year rates). I knew it would be a great holiday. Especially since hubby rarely gets vacation. Most of the time he has to work on public holidays. And he only gets time off when he requests for it, which is such a hassle coz you have to request it 2 months in advance. Hubby isn't a big planner.

Anyway, it's been a long time since I donned my baju kurung. Over here I would dress up, but very rarely in baju kurung. It's too cold. Plus I didn't feel like being the only person in baju kurung since there are no other malays at the masjid we go to. So I sifted through the ones that I had in my closet to find which ones still fit. I was so freaked out because all but one of my traditional outfits still fit! I knew I gained 15 pounds over the past 2 years, but to think that none of my nice traditional outfits fit me made me so depressed! I think it was a wake up call for me to watch my weight. I still get all creepy thinking about it now. Luckily I have *ehem ... bigger and looser outfits at my in-laws house. I had left them there two years ago thinking that those didn't look too good on me anymore because I was so tiny then. I still can't believe 15 pounds can make that much of a difference! Haiye....

We celebrated eid on Saturday instead of Sunday. The prayers were held in the downtown convention center since the islamic center where the in-laws live could not accomodate the thousands of people who were going to perform the prayers. In fact, there were 2 prayers on that day. We attended the first round at 8:30am and by 10am we were asked to leave the hall to make way for the second group of people. The prayer was short, the qutbah straight to the point and brief and the breakfast superb (starbucks coffee and donuts! - Take that for a hari raya breakfast!). After prayers we went to the Malaysian community eid open house. It was nice meeting up with all the other malaysians. Everyone had nice congratulatory wishes for me since mum-in-law had basically broadcast the fact that I had graduated and did so with a job offer. Alamak malu lah. Macam menunjuk2 pulak. But I think she was just proud of me. The rest of the day was spent at home where we had our own little raya feast.

I'm so glad that we were able to celebrate such a special occasion with family this time around. And it's so so nice to be able to properly celebrate eid the whole day with hubby. If we had stayed here we would have probably spent only the morning at the masjid and then do our own thing later in the day. The day came and went so quickly too that I didn't have time to feel homesick or wallow in depression knowing that my family back home were celebrating eid to the max while I was alone with hubby. I think having any type of family around you helps make the holidays a more cheerful occasion. MIL and FIL had a nice conversation with hubby too, stressing the importance of observing our holy celebrations and to try to take time off from work to celebrate the different occasions. Hopefully when hubby is finished with his training and can be more flexible with his work hours, we'll be able to spend eid with his parents more often.

I hope everyone else had a good celebration too, being with family or not. Eid Mubarak to all