Insert happiness here........

Assalaamu alaikum everyone.

Before I ever came to Egypt....our Eid had a routine. There was comfort in that routine.....in knowing exactly what the plan was every Eid. No questions. We knew. Want me to share it?

Well, let me tell you about the families first...there was us...the BIL who lives in Cda and his family (2 kids), the egyptian sister I converted to islam with...her kids and her unmarried brother, (the unmarried brother was now my hubby's friend) another egyptian brother, with no family, and yet another one. This little group of ours was set. Every Eid....dinner would be served at my house. At the Eid ul Fitr....my SIL and I would run back to my house to start frying fish.....we would buy tons. Many time, our hubbies would invite stray families to come have dinner with us.....At one point....the Eid dinner became so huge, that our little 2 bedroom apt couldn't hold us anymore....so we'd rent the party room in the bldg. Those single brothers got married, had kids.....the strays became regulars......it was really a gathering.

The morning breakfast, after the prayer was always at my SIL's house. We'd go to her place, and she'd have every type of sandwich meat on the market....pickles and french fries. All finger foods, and specifically, things that would not dirty little children's new outfits. After breakfast, we'd exchange the presents we'd bought. Oh the excitement of it.

Once we bought my BIL a tshirt....and cut a piece of cardboard the same size as the shirt...pinned it on the cardboard and then wrapped it. LOL! You could tell a mile away it was a tshirt. Once we wrapped boxes in boxes until it reached the size of a washing machine box....for my BIL. Every little box inside was full of candy's and fruit so that the box would feel heavy. You should have seen his excitement when he realized that the HUGE present was his. I don't think we ever asked him what he thought it was. LOL.....in the last box was a couple of pairs of socks. HEHEHE!! My SIL went out and bought a Canada tshirt for my hubby.....just days before Eid he finally got his cdn citizenship finished with. She wrote a page long letter making fun of Canada's new Canadian. It had us all in giggles and rolling around. My SIL bought her hubby a phone book once....she gathered up all the scraps of paper that my BIL wrote numbers on....quite a good amount actually.....and wrapped the box full of the scraps....and then another box with the phone book. Problem and solution.

And like I said...there was comfort in our Eid plans. So when we came to Egypt....that plan went out the window. It was like grieving it. It was all we knew. My hubby has been here every Eid with us....but here's a first. He's not coming this Eid. I understand why he can't......but I still don't like it. In the midst of all the BS with the family....and now him not coming......how does that make Eid for us? FOr the kids??

So I'm gonna do some of the suggestions....and I'm gonna try my damndest to make things interesting.....but the truth is......we've got no routine to look forward to. We just never know what we are doing anymore. And until my hubby makes it back to Egypt......we never will. Like sailing the sea on the open waters.....no land in sight.....and no idea what the next wave will bring.