Well what a great Open House we had...It was a Christmas Day and it was our turn to have an Aidil Fitri's Open House...since other days have been taken up by friends for their Open Houses, we thought that... why not do it on Christmas Day...a holiday in the country....so we decided to held ours on that day....when we told our friends that we are holding an Open House on December 25....they all say....on Christmas Day!!!.....well my reply.. Yes, then we all shall celebrate the Aidi Firti, The Christmas and the New Years as well on this day...so the story goes and we did.....We open our house from noon till five in the evening.... so that guests could come at anytime on that day...fixing such time duration is part of the Open House culture...so as to make it easy for the guests to come at any time of the day they could...in doing so they could visit other's Open House as well on their way to our House or on the way back....it makes thing easy for everyone, the host as well as the guests...more time to meet friends and chat, with time to enjoy those sumptuous meals....the nasi bryani, the rendang, the cookies and the cakes...the menu in a open house are many...it is a normal buffet serving and that make it easy for everyone to enjoy the food...The Malaysian Open house is not just about eating, it is more then that....it is a new concept of entertaining guests for a religious or other festival...in the past friends would just visit the house on the actual day and some time because there are many house to go...it would be impossible to visit and meet everyone we know...In these open house concept...a date is fixed and the friends and relatives are told of the particular Open House in advance....so they all could plan the visit and in doing so might be able to visit more they one Open House in a day.....Soon our guests began to arrive...in their best dress, colorful as usual....with their spouses, their kids....so the party begin.....all are welcome to enjoy the buffet of traditional Malaysian foods and..... those freshly bake cookies and cakes....most of these are freshly bakes by our teenage granddaughter....she love to cook and this time she did bake delicious cakes on her own...indeed we are proud of her...I guess cooking and preparing great foods runs in the family.... their grandma love to cook....well truly its in the gene....A Mat Salleh [an English man], a friend of mine from the UK make a surprise appearance with his foster child and his son...What a surprise....I did send him an email inviting him to this occasion...he was then on his way to Malaysia from London.....I thought that I would try to get him in cyberspace and it did... and here he is...great......some of my friends from the Volvo club soon arrive, this is the first time these Volvo group people came...and of course our daugher and our son in law's friends came in throng...most of their friends are doctors...soon the party were full of young doctors with their spouses and their kids....it is nice to see so many young MD's around...the joke then was that.....eat as much and enjoy and not to worry...there are many doctors around to take care if one get ill.....by three in the afternoon the crowd swell when more guests arrived....it was indeed a colorful and joyful scene..... seeing the young and old.... the grands....the young couples and their spouses and their kids....mixing and enjoying the meals and chating with friends or meeting new one...the Moslem wishing their Christian friends Merry Christmas with the Happy Aidil fitri [Selamat Hari Raya] still echo on....it is indeed the Malaysian way of enjoying a festival of this kind....Many of our relatives that live in and around Kuala Lumpur came...a couple from distance Kuantan also were present with their kids....so it soon became a sort of a family reunion....Interesting to see those kids of their have grown up and some have event start to work and have a career of their own...a son of my niece is now a pilot...flying the international route....it is amazing how time flies and seeing these young man achieved some of their dream, making their parent real proud...We chat and exchange notes of the families and asked what and where the rest are and got new info....A once small family now have grown to became a large extended family...and the number keep growing.....as for me and my wife, our daughter and her husband it was a great day, we all enjoy being the host and entertaining friends and relatives....we tried to meet and chat with as many of the guest as possible and I guess we really did manage to meet everyone and happy to see that everyone did really enjoy the food....and meeting friends and exchanging news and making new friends....it soon got late and the guests began to leaves with a happy note...We end the party an hour later then we had planned, happy the this year Open House went extremely well....We were tired but it was worth of being Host to such a wonderful guests.... that make our Open House a success...so until the next Open house...the next year InsyaAllah....thanks everyone for making our life so wonderful....friends thanks again and may God bless you all.......Happy New Year....