Office Eid Party Craziness

Last week was out staff Eid party.  Part of my job is to encourage staff to understand and celebrate the diversity of our communities and also our staff.  One way of doing this is through staff events.  Last year we held an event telling people about Ramadan and a staff Eid lunch.  For our first few events we struggled to get people to come along, but over the course of the year people started taking an interest, also food is a great way to break down barriers. 

This year I found some sisters who were interested in helping to organise and we made posters for the prayer room.  We posted on the online staff message board and sent people invitations.  Then we all cooked and hoped for the best.

On the day, one of the sisters helped me to decorate the staff lounge – she does party décor in her spare time and was really good.  I also brought in my banners and Eid poster frames.

Alhamdulillah the sisters involved were all amazing cooks and keen to share their food with others.  We had sooo much food: jollof rice (veg and non-veg), chickpea curry, lamb seekh kebabs, samosa chaat, a number of different types and sizes of samosa’s and spring rolls, Bombay aloo, pasta, dhokla, salad, tuna pinwheels and pasties and lots and lots of sweets.  The brothers were good too, their contribution was to go to the shop and buy hot wings and chips.

We did start off laying it our nicely, but it just kept coming:

One sister made three trays of samosa chaat (on the right below). This is samosa’s layered with chickpeas, yoghurt, spices and green chutney.  Most people hadn’t seen anything like this before so were trying it for the first time and loved it.

The Gujerati sister was representing with dhokla, no Gujerati function is complete with dhokla. The sister was so sweet, she had heard about our Eid party last year but was at a different office, this year she had moved to our office and was looking out to see if we would do it again. She brought along five or six beautifully made little dishes along with the dhokla including samosa’s, sweet colourful rice and dates.

The sister who was a whizz at décor was Nigerian, so made Jollof rice, a veg and non-veg version.  Alhamdulillah she filled these cool double hot pot and also a cool box – big heart, big portions alhamdulillah.

There was so much food we separated all the dessert onto a separate table: cake, chocolates, dates, fruit, sweet rice, homemade biscuits and cake bars

One sister made three trays of samosa chaat (on the right below). This is samosa’s layered with chickpeas, yoghurt, spices and green chutney.  Most people hadn’t seen anything like this before so were trying it for the first time and loved it.

It was a really nice event and I think it will become an annual fixture in my office insh’Allah.  I hope next year we get even better at getting more people involved.  A nice outcome was that I got to know lots of Muslim sisters in the office and many are keen to create an informal group for Muslims to support each other in future insh’Allah.

Mini Eid Party for the Mini's

One of Darling’s friends invited her to an Eid party along with other girls from her class.  Her mum was kind enough to invite both of my little girls.  It’s quite something to watch the little girls in action, full of excitements and happiness at being together outside of class.  Darling’s friend circle and her class and friend politics are an ongoing source of entertainment in our home: who is friends with who, who they are not talking to and who is in and out of favour.

This is her bestie, the one she talks about every day and an absolute sweetheart of a little girl.  It was nice that she was invited as she is not Muslim – I believe in being inclusive and not leaving people out, especially children.  And it made Darling’s day.  They had had their first fight the day before and were never going to be friends again.  Someone forgot to remind her that this was the case when they met at the party (we all teased her that the world had turned upside down if she and her bestie were no longer friends, it was too strange to believe).

They had lots of games and seemed to spend most of them jumping up and down and squealing excitedly.  Midway through, they suddenly got distracted by the chickens making a racket in the neighbours garden – that’s not something you hear often in the city.

There was a lot of sparkle at this party:

The hostess put on a really nice little spread for the girls:

The strawberries were the first to go. What is it with little kids and strawberries?

It was a really nice idea to do something for the little kids, we don’t do birthdays, so this would be a nice little replacement and I liked how relaxed and simple it was. I might consider something like this for a future Eid or a summer party.

Super Sisters Eid Event

I love anything Eid related, sisters only events, any excuse to get dressed up and party and also inspiring people.  So I was more than pleased to hear about the SuperSisters Big Eid party which ticked all of those boxes.  Tickets had sold out by the time I heard, but a colleague from work organised some for me and Little Lady to go along.

The event had a host of young and inspiring women: Quran reciters, spoken word poets, inspiring speakers and nasheed singers.  I was impressed by the courage these sisters had to get on stage and perform and share their stories.

This sister had a gorgeous voice and I thoroughly enjoyed her rendition of Hallelujah/Ya Ilahi:

The event had free food, although we spent so much time talking and networking that we missed most of it. There were stalls and there was a very talented henna artist (Asma Ali) who did Little Ladies henna , much to her pleasure:

 

I love this tray of colourful body paint that was being offered as an alternative to henna:

It was a really nicely organised events, with plenty to keep us interested and entertained and I couldn’t believe it didn’t cost us anything (including the food and henna).  I hope there is a lot more like this insh’Allah. 

Eid-ul-Fitr 2018/1439: Rainbow Pastel Eid Party

Last weekend was the date of our annual Eid party.  This year I kept it small to make life easier, with family and neighbours invited. I had my decorations from Eid which let me indulge shamelessly in my love for colour and rainbows:

I found some rainbow roses and mixed them with these creatively named “bubblegum chrysanthemums”

This unicorn piñata was a hit. I didn’t manage to get it back home without bending the horn, but it was very strong and no amount of whacking it with a wooden spoon by little girls seemed to make a dent in it.  I also learned that giving little girls free reign with a wooden spoon is equal to taking your life in your hands, I had to grab the spoon off at least one who I thought was going to hit me with it.  In the end I had to rip it apart and shower the girls with sweets.

Harlequin Sister did the work of wrapping all the prizes and gifts including two for pass-the-parcel, one for adults and one for children.  If I had realised that she had wrapped the ladies pass-the-parcel in about 12 layers I might have stopped her at some point.

We added a traditional touch with henna and these little packs of Pakistani snacks called “Shahi Meva” which I really like (it’s basically a small handful of chopped almond, dry dates, fennel, coconut & sugar).

As it was a hot day, I put out drinks, strawberries and cubes of watermelon beforehand alongside this little drink dispenser full of cheats mojito mocktail (recipe to follow).  I had to top up three times because everyone was chugging it down and asking for refills.

I had asked guests to bring a dish (less work for me and I get to taste other peoples amazing cooking). My neighbour bought this amazing channa chaat that was full of flavour and a good solid kick from the spice.

Alhamdullilah there was a lot of food: chicken pilau rice, lamb kebabs, lamb seekh kebabs, chicken tikka, tandoori chicken with roast potatoes, channa chaat, mousakka, potato wedges, lamb chops, two types of salad and chicken sandwiches which got polished off very quickly.  It all tasted good and everyone was full of praise and satisfied bellies.

My aunt (mum’s younger sister) made the moussaka and the dish was enormous – the layers of aubergine, potato and yoghurt were really very refreshing.

The kids got free reign on the sweet stuff while I was distracted.  I saw baby going past with a cup brim full of water more than once, until I realised she was helping herself to the mojito and put a stop to it.

There were lots of party games and in time-honoured fashion there was very loud howling going on at losing, followed by some not-so-subtle engineering of games by the adults so that all of the little ones got a prize for something.

After the food and games, everyone relaxed, chatted and nibbled on fruits and sweets while my very talented neighbour put henna on everyone.

My neighbours equally awesome mum made short work of all the dishes in no time despite our protests.  You can always tell when you have had a good party by the aftermath.  I made the babies pick this up off the trampoline:

This year’s party was so easy and relaxed, that I am almost tempted to do another after Eid-ul-Adha – we shall see. 

My thanks to Harlequin and Shutterbug for helping with photos and to set things up for the party, there is a very pretty photo from the party on Harlequins blog here.