Bringing it Together on Eid
Belated Eid Mubarak my lovelies! How was the big day for you? Alhamdulilah ours was fantastic. Here's how I managed to get through the impending to-do list in the nick of time, despite being at panic stations last weekend.
So what happened during the week?
Well after writing the list out on Sunday, I spent some time on Amazon, filtering just to see Prime products and managed to match up kids to relevant wants, needs and wishes.
Only the Big Niece wanted money (she’s almost 10 now). Big Miss had actually written a letter to 'Angel Eid' specifying what she wanted exactly. Colour options included! So off those orders went.
Now to figure out a place for these presents out of Baby’s reach. Hubby suggested we temporarily clear one of the shelves on our big bookcase wall, and seeing as it was above head height (of all the kids and almost even me) we went for it. Up went the bunting and on went the string lights. The 'Eid Shelf' was born.
It didn’t have quite the same ring as the 'Eid Tree' but it was the safest spot for the brightly wrapped goodies and mini cards that slowly built up over the next few days. I wrapped each day’s deliveries after iftaar but before isha. As time was of the essence it kept my grand wrapping plans in check. Paper, a couple of rounds of string, a tag and an Eid sticker with a name on the back. Job done. Mental note though, I must invest in some more boyish gift wrap.
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I did catch Baby trying to climb up on one occasion but he didn’t make it far enough to reach any presents. Phew. He spent most of the week dosed up on Piriton actually. There’d been a couple of suspicious looking spots on his forehead since the weekend that we originally dismissed as heat rash. When they started to fill up though I knew it was chicken pox. Alhamdulilah we got all the remedies going straightaway and he was relatively ok with it all. I’d hoped the Piriton would make him sleepy as a side effect, but nope!
Next, to the decorations...
Big and Little Miss love making garlands to hang up, so we’ve got a few from Eids and Umrah Mubaraks gone by, all carefully wrapped up. A little ‘too carefully’ wrapped up I discovered, as I unravelled about 3m of a 10m string and got stuck. Then Hubby spent a lot of his precious post kids bedtime and pre-iftaari hour having a go at this mastermind of a task, and after unravelling just 2m more, we cut our losses. Literally. Next time when packing things away, I'm going to try out these clever tips from the people over at Festive Lights.
So our garland look was, let’s say, minimal, but behind some huge E I and D foil balloons it set them off quite nicely indeed. Three days past Eid and they’re still up. I’ll leave them there a little longer I think.
The school goodie bags didn’t take as long as I thought they would either. Little Miss, the keen ‘stickerer’ she is, was on hand peeling and stickering away little paper bags filled with sweeties, pots of bubbles and hair clips. Baby slept a little extra one afternoon (possibly the Piriton helping out here) so we packed 30 bags into the boot of my car in one big go. One of the other safe spaces in my life! Our teachers ended up with chocolates this year so I apologise if they were a bit deformed. It’s not often we have 30 degree weather in Manchester!
With all the plans running smooth, you’d think us girls would have time to indulge in some extra special Eid henna wouldn’t you… Maybe even get out that special 'h2go' Nails Inc halal nail polish I picked up in the UAE a couple of months ago. Think again!
Having The Mehndi Fairy as their aunty, Big and Little Miss have henna on tap pretty much every time they go to visit. They had it done a couple of weeks ago hoping it would last but all those long bubble baths in this hot weather were just too much. And of course the Fairy was fully booked up for Chaand Raat events, so for this Eid we forewent the tradition of henna and opted for some snazzy flash tattoos instead. Talk about bling!
The day itself...
We were blessed and as you can guess, alhumdulilah, it was all about family and food!
Yes...
there were samosas at every meal.
I consumed a month’s calories all in one day.
there were plenty ‘one hug or three’ moments.
I have a wallet full of tenners (kids nowadays are lucky!) that I don’t remember who gave but will split out three ways in due course.
The kids certainly had fun (judging by how late we were to school the next day) and we did too. Alhumdulilah, it was worth all the work to see them loving Eid so much. They’re already counting down the days till the next!
I love it when a plan comes together.
Next time...
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