Kisah di bulan Syawal...

1st Syawal - Every raya eve and raya morning, will be spent at my mom's house. That's the standard operating procedure ever since I got married... no compromising! Kejam ke saya? Or is it, the power of negotiation? Am I good or what? Haha
Everything went on just fine. Spt tahun2 lalu, saya dah ziarah kubur arwah abah, hari terakhir ramadhan. Dan kali ni, saya bawak sekali anak dara saya yg umur 5 tahun tu. Sebelum ni, dia tak pernah pergi kubur arwah atuk dia. Masa tu dia tak berapa faham lagi. Tapi bila sekarang dia dah lancar baca Al-Fatihah, boleh la saya ajar dia sedekahkah Al-Fatihah utk atuk dia. Saya tak suka pergi kubur pagi raya sbb selalunya pagi Syawal kawasan perkuburan tu boleh create traffic-jam. Havoc! At least, pergi sebelum raya, boleh lama sikit kat kubur sbb tak pyh terkejar-kejar nak pergi beraya pulak lepas tu... nak pergi rumah in-laws, sedara-mara, etc.

4th Syawal - My sis in law gave birth to a pair of twins... Ayra and Asif! Syukur semua selamat... ibu & anak2 yg comel tu! Bila cium kembar tu, the smell of a new born baby (bau johnsons & johnsons punya lotion. Emm... best!) rasa macam nak tambah ahli keluarga pulak! InsyaALLAH... kalau ada rezeki!

8th Syawal - Kalau ikut bulan Islam... tahun 1428 hijrah ni, wedding anniversary yg ke 8. Alhamdulillah... we survived in this marriage for the past 8 years (and more years to come, InsyaALLAH). No marriage is perfect... but, we can always try to make it as perfect as we can!

Hari-hari yg lain tu... saya masih bercuti. Walaupun husband dah kerja hari raya ke 4, tapi saya masih tetap beraya! Mother & daughter outing!
Overall, raya has never been the same since arwah left us in 1999 but we still cherish this moment... beraya dengan mak. The rest of it, tak de apa2. The excitement of raya, is when you see the kids getting excited counting their duit raya collection... that's all!