Eid al-Adha 2009: Big Hugs and Burnt Offerings

I awoke with the best of intentions, an early start, everything organised and an easy day. Of course things rarely turn out as you plan them. I got the tandoori chicken out of the fridge to put in the oven and prepared the batter for the cupcakes I like to make the kids on Eid morning only to find that the oven had decided to stop working. I also managed to burn the sevaiya (sweet vermicelli we traditionally make for Eid breakfast) and put too little chilli in the channa chaat we make to snack on throughout the day.

I kind of got the message and gave up then. The house still looked good though after two days of solid scrubbing from top to bottom (I went a bit crazy and started taking the house apart before I realised there is only so much you can do in two days) and hubby's balloons:



Baby came down and got super-excited when he saw them



I also made an attempt at matching my flowers and candles to the balloons and tried my hand at this "cake-plant" made with a wet foam brick used for flower arranging placed in a basket and covered with fake flowers. The sticks are bamboo skewers. I have guests for dinner and lunch tomorrow so will light the candles then and put new cakes on the "cake-plant"

When hubby saw my long face over the oven, he insisted we could still make the cakes and put them under the grill. No-one touched them, although he insisted they were perfectly edible.

I managed to get the kids dressed and lined up for their photo-shoot. As usual baby decided he would have nothing to with it (I barely managed this one photo of them all).

Little Lady was enjoying her sparkly new shoes (I have a feeling she will be wearing these with everything).

Her cupcake purse also came in useful to stash her choclate money.

We went over to mum's for lunch and Fashionista decided to give Little Lady a mug she could paint. Of course she also managed to paint her face, hands, white top and new dress.

Mum's cooking was gorgeous as always. As usual she flouted my sweet ban (I am sure she enjoys this) and laid out sweets for the kids to gorge on.

Spent the afternoon watching Shrek 3, had dinner at an aunties and then got back in time to share out the qurbani (sacrifice) meat and send hubby off to deliver it. I think this was my fave part of the day for some reason.

Tomorrow I have my parents and siblings over for lunch and uncles family and other friends over for dinner. Little Lady did try to stay up to get her henna done, but was just too shattered and just conked out on the sofa. I'm off to the kitchen to get the mutton from my share of the qurbani on the hob in preparation for tomorrow.