It’s a long weekend here in Indonesia due to Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha yesterday or some people will refer it as Lebaran Haji (Hajj Celebration Day). We have several Muslim relatives in our extended family, so we took time to visit and greet them yesterday. The first stop was to my SIL house, they are hajjes, so the day was even more special for them. She cooked plenty of special “mouth watering, spicy and filled with coconut milk” Lebaran food, such as ketupat, rendang, opor, sambal, etc. They looked delicious and very tempting! I said “tempting” because I could only see. I’m avoiding such food because I’m still nursing my baby, so ended up just having some fruits . Lucky husband and son, they really had a great time eating.

We made another two stops after my SIL before we headed to the nearest mall to do our first Christmas shopping for this year. My husband was not really sure with the idea, he said it was still November so too early for Christmas shops. But I insisted to give it a try. It only less than a month before Christmas, I argued. Besides, I was hungry after seeing those delicious food earlier, so I wanted to eat something at the mall.

It turned out my husband was right, there were only few Christmas items displayed at the mall yesterday. In fact the mall itself haven’t decorated for Christmas. I saw some stores began to unpack their Christmas stock but they were not ready for sale, others were still plain. I guess, like my husband said, it was still November, so too early for Christmas shopping! Or maybe we just went to the wrong mall. Anyway, I’m glad he didn’t say the words, “told ya!”

The only store that was ready for Christmas was… ACE-Hardware! which was definitely not on my list of stores I wanted to visit. However, we went in anyway and wasted some money bought not really necessary some Christmas decors and lights. I was actually looking for some new clothes for us to wear on Christmas and some baby items with Christmas theme on it.

Then we went to Pizza Hut for late lunch, but since the boys were still full from my SIL house, I just ordered take away bruschetta, pizza and milkshake for my late lunch. After that we went home. So much for my first Christmas shopping. I’ll try different mall tomorrow .

Ramadan is over, today all Muslims in the world are celebrating Eid ul-Fitr or Indonesians call it Hari Lebaran. In Indonesia, this is the time when Muslims visit their family and friends to ask for forgiveness for any wrongs they have committed in the previous year. We will say, “Mohon Maaf Lahir Batin” which means “forgive me from the bottom of my heart/soul”.

My in laws are Muslims so we’ll be visiting their house today to wish Selamat Lebaran. We expect to eat ketupat there also. Ketupat is a type of rice dumpling, made from rice that has been wrapped in a woven palm leaf pouch which is then boiled. As the rice cooks, the grains expand to fill the pouch and the rice becomes compressed. Here ketupat is traditionally eaten during Eid, usually served with various vegetable and meat dishes. Most (if not all) of the accompanying dishes are cooked in spicy coconut milk.

Unopened cooked ketupat