Christmas at the longhose 2012

We celebrated Christmas at the longhouse last year ...Dad has been renovating the longhouse for months and it was basically done (except for the finishing touches) a few days before Christmas. And it is also the first time EVER that all of us were there together to celebrate Christmas ...the whole clam was there, including Umang who visited Sarawak (and the longhouse) for the first time ..so it was a very noisy affairs with 3 kids and 7 adults in the house :-)

We went back to the longhouse on 23rd Dec - and believe it or not, we used 3 cars! Too much stuffs to bring with us, specially with the kids' stuffs taking about half of the storage space...we also transported the presents and the food stuffs ....luckily we have a spare Christmas tree at the longhouse, so i was tasked to set it up and re-arrange the presents ..mountains of presents this years - and more than half are for the three kids ....Al was the most excited at opening presents hehehehe and he helped adik to open adik's pressies.

Christmas is usually time for family - to know new family member, rebonding of the relatives and strengthening family ties ...we have 2 new family members this time round - Umang and her daddy ....dad was introducing them to our close relatives ...we had a private bbq party at the cottage on Christmas eve ....which was a roaring success ...everyone was very happy ...to finally be on holiday hahaha I was the odd one coz I was on leave since the 20th december :-)

Dom and family plus mum went to chrch early on Christmas day, while I stayed back and do the cooking ..a very untypical christmas dish ...as making sup tulang (request from my dad), and re-heating the dishes that my mom had cooked before she left ....Umang and my sister also stayed back coz they are preparing to go to her inlaws' place after lunch that day ....she wants to wait for everybody to get back from the church and to open our presents together ....

Umang having her breakfast on Christmas morning

Mum wanted a portrait with all her grandkids ..but it was not a smooth process ..all three kiddos were not co-operating as they were more interested in doing their own things ...hahahah poor mum ...after a few attempts, the pic above was the best shot of the lot ...both al and adik were doing their own things hahaha

Umang's other aki came just before lunch to pick them up ....also Umang's first trip to her dad's longhouse ...they left after lunch, and after we opened our presents ....and guess what, coz we were so disorganised (hahaha) we completely forgotten to have our family photo on Christmas morning!

The rest of the holidays were great ...lots of visitors - my cousins and their families came over to see mom and dad ....other people from the longhouse visiting from door-to-door ...it was such a merry holiday :-) Usually Gawai is merrier than Christmas ...but somehow, I just feel that the last christmas was awesome ...dad had a grand time ...I had a good rest, doing absolutely nothing but eat, sleep and be merry ...

we also went to Pantu to visit family friends .. this elderly couple has been friends with my parents for a long time.

We waited for Umang to come back to the longhouse on 29th before heading back to Kuching. Dom & family meanwhile, headed to his inlaws' on the same day as they were spending the NY with jane's mom. It was a tearful scene again when we bid goodbyes ...especially for my sister and Al ....Coz by the time Jane and the kids came back to Kuching on NY day, Umang would have already reached KL ...so, that's explains the tears and the sad faces

the sad scenes - it was always like this everytime these two say goodbyes to each other!

It was a great and memorable time spent with family. It is very seldom that we get a chance to be together under one roof every Christmas ...at least dad was very happy to see everyone there. He kept on saying that, if his parents are still alive, my grandparents would have been very proud of us ...my granddad died in 1987, whilst my grandmother died in 2004 ...that's why our longhouse is empty, and we only stay overnight there like 1-2 times a year ....but now that dad has renovated the place, and it is beginning to look like home, i think we will be going there more often ...