A Trip to Hometown Part Two

What's a bit different about this year's trip was my aunt birthday's celebration. It was not meant to be a birthday celebration at first but since my Dad always has this thing about making people happy and the fact that he found out his sister was having a birthday the next day, my Dad decided to invite the whole big family of 50 people and throw a surprise candle-blowing ceremony in the end.

But first, let me tell you first what we were having....

A seafood restaurant was our choice because we were sure that not many of our family members had had the chance to dine there. There were 5 tables and in each table there were supposedly two plates of udang saos padang (hot and spicy sauteed shrimp), ikan kerapu bakar (grilled fish), cumi goreng tepung (calamari), kangkung cah (sauteed water spinach), kepiting soka saus tiram (soft-shelled crab cooked with oyster sauce.



Dad already arranged that the food would be on the table by the time the first guest arrived. When the majority felt that there was enough number of people, the feast began.





When everybody literally swiped all plates, Dad's youngest sister brought a black-forest cake out complete with three candles (till now, nobody knows why she had put only three candles). Many who didn't know the scheme looked surprised. Her older sister, the birthday girl, also could not hold her surprised expression. Hers was between crying and smiling. When the candle-blowing was finally over, she then gave the first slice of the cake to her husband.



My Dad's family had gone through a difficult time before they could finally stand proud on their feet. Their condition was beyond poor. Our other blood-related family members had ignored the big family because they were too unimportant to be noticed. That's going to be another episode of this blog. But you may understand why my aunt was histerycal when we held that surprise party for her and why my Dad took time to plan such an event.