Salam Aidil Adha everyone!

On Saturday, we had a little relaxed and chilled gathering for family and relatives. My family has been planning this for a few weeks after a few things that had happened recently. It was to celebrate both my father's 61st birthday on 2016 and Aidil Adha which falls on the same day, this year, which is yesterday. Normally, we don't throw parties for birthdays for our family. We would just have a nice quiet dinner, or sometimes go for a family karaoke together and that was all. (Don't count our McD or A&W birthdays when we were kids please) But this year, we decided to do a small family gathering as it was an auspicious day, and we felt that my dad deserves it too. Although nothing my siblings and I do will ever repay all the sacrifices that he has done for us since we were born and all the hard work he has gone through to provide us a comfortable shelter, food, clothes and education since we were young till we all graduate or started to work on our own. Having a child is not easy, what more raising a child. Parents have different obligations and responsibilities in raising their children and to me personally, my parents have both excelled at it in different ways and I'm extremely grateful for that.

So, my siblings and my mom all helped in different ways to throw this gathering together. We worked together to think and discuss about the venue, get balloons, cakes, tables, ordering food, mopped and vacuumed the venue, inviting guests and everything else. We rented a nice sky villa space that oversaw a beautiful skyline of Kuala Lumpur, hired food from my Opah Chu, serving traditional Perak food that we know our father loves, and invited close family and relatives, and also Khubayb's and Sya's family as well. Since this wasn't a usual occasion, I wanted to hire a photographer to capture the event's moments. I wanted Khubayb and Nadhil to be able to have fun and enjoy the event as well (instead of having to take all the photos). Since my father is someone who really appreciates photography and capturing moments (that's where I get it from :D), we decided to hire one. We got a good photographer (as you can see from the photos) from Sya's contacts.

The food was just awesome! Amazing. It's been awhile since I last ate food from HAS catering. Opah Chu (my late grandmother Opah's sister) has been our go to caterer for most of our family events (did my engagement and merisik event too) and the food was not just authentic Perak food, but really, really delicious too. We ordered ikan patin gulai tempoyak, udang sambal, daging kicap, different types of sambal and spaghetti bolognaise, amongst others. Opah Chu is a real hands-on lady who is going strong and likes to get involved in every single detail of her business despite her age, but for that day's event, her son Uncle Azan came to oversee things. My uncle Azan also prepared appetizers with his delicious salsa and sour cream dip that everyone loved and almost everyone ordered all the bottles that he brought with him.

The gathering started around 6, and after that we gathered to do our Maghrib prayers led by Sya's father. Some of the guests arrived after maghrib prayers. A lot of my cousins from my mom's side also came. As some of you may know, on my mum's side, I am the eldest our of 41 cousins! And cousin number #41, Hanna Nashita, came and made an appearance. She's 4 months old and was constantly the center of attention. She was a happy and smiley baby and was well behaved throughout the event! Almost everyone wanted to carry her.

My younger cousins went for a swim in the kiddie pool and basically had their own party, while the rest of us were enjoying the yummy food and nice view. After Isya' prayers, my father in law led the doa selamat and we then celebrated my father's birthday with a cake. Red Velvet, one of his favourites. Of course, this Red Velvet was a special order: Less sugar, less sweet, less everything, because we have to be more conscious of what we eat now. And we have been more health conscious nowadays. My dad gave a short speech of thanks and then invited those who had birthdays in September too, and all of us sang the birthday songs another two times for Danial and Asrar.

Before the night ended, we just chilled and took a few photos and dipped our feet in the pool. We also showed everyone a short video of our recent family trip to Phuket on the TV. I've been working on the video and editing it with the husband. We only finished part 1, which only covered the first two days of our Phuket. Everyone had a good laugh over it. I'm thinking about posting it here soon about my long overdue Phuket trip with my family.

Anyways, Saturday night was a lovely night with good company, good food and a good view. Happy birthday Abah. Blessed to have you as my father and we are so blessed that you survived the recent tests. All praises to the Almighty, another year has passed. Love you very much Abah.

May God grant you health, joy, happiness and His Love always. Through the pain, I hope that Allah will bring you closer to His Love and rewards you with heaven. May you be surrounded by lots of love by family and friends always. May God reward your sacrifices and struggles with heaven and may Allah reward you for all that you have given and worked for, for the family. May Allah grant you mercy, contentment and peace.

Amin.

Anyway, below are more photos from the event!