First Deepavali celebration for Leia

We all had so much fun! It was a full day celebration!

We had a real early start...

Dressed!

"Leia, comb hair now..."

"Mommy, are you done?"

Our first program of the day was to visit Leia's "ammama" (Tamil word for great-grandmother). "Kong kong" (grandfather) joined us too. No early notification given to her "ammama" as we wanted to surprise her!

"Ammama" stays in a chinese pre-war house in town. Spacious and airy...It has never ceased to bring back great old memories to both my hubby and pa-in-law. So, it was pa-in-law who did most of the talking, reminiscing the good old times...

Sight-seeing...

"Ammama" has a big mango tree in front of her house. With her very ripe age - 90 years old, she could no longer pluck the fruits on her own. So, a brilliant idea came up. Pa-in-law suggested that we'll help!

2 men busy at work with "ammama" providing "the back-up" support - making sure the right equipments are provided


While Leia and mommy enjoying the swing...

Wow...! Nice, plump mangoes...!


Very good harvest!


Pa-in-law ended up helping "awa" (Tamil word for grandmother) to prune the tree...

While her "kong kong" pruned the tree out there, Leia had a jolly time playing with "ammama"'s rattan chairs... At this stage, you just can't stop them from being inquisitive and wanting to explore everything. They get extremely curious to explore especially those things that you say "no". Hmmm...guess, forbidden fruit always seem to taste better.

"I want to sit on this chair..."


Leia was "singing"!

We didn't leave Leia's "ammama"'s place empty-handed. The smaller bag of mangoes that you saw earlier was given to us! Thoughts of dipping these mangoes with my dad's home-made, tasty rojak sauce can make us all salivate...yum, yum....

So, did we head home straight away? Absolutely not! Next was pa-in-law's friend's house. More Indian food savoured! And Another ang pow (red packet) collected for Leia! Or it is called cheh pow (green packet)? No? That's for Hari Raya? Then? Purple pow???

It's simply unbelievable that any pow-giving has been so commercialised nowadays that it has become a must-have for our major festivals - Chinese New Year, Hari Raya and now Deepavali. What's next? Pek pow (white packet) for Christmas? I really hope not...

Deepavali money collection. Think it's about time we open a savings account for this little girl...

Later that night, we introduced fireworks to Leia. Hehehe...

"No more..."

Truly a beautiful, memorable Festival of Light celebration for all of us... :)