Eid Mubarak ya'll (Happy Eid for all of you non-arabic speakers=])

So Tuesday was the celebration of the Muslim holiday of Eid. It is based on the lunar calendar so it's often hard to tell what day we will celebrate until last minute, which is very difficult sometimes because then getting out of work and school is that much harder. Another reason why i don't like when it falls on a weekday. Thankfully, i was able to miss tuesday's class so i was able to attend the ritual prayer they conduct. It's literally about 5,000 people who gather together decked out in their newest and most fabulous new outfits, coming to socialize..i mean pray. It's actually really nice to see everyone from our community young and old come together and celebrate. It's a tradition that we follow every year, and although it may not seem like much it is a really special time for me.
The day went a little something like this. My dad woke us all up at the crack of dawn( which for me is 7am), even though we didn't have to be at the prayer unitl 10. He then spent an hour literally emptying out all the components of our fridge onto seperate plates, like cheese and bread and more cheese and turkey and olives, and of course he uses 30 different plates, that i later have to clean. Then he walks around the house yelling that all of us need to get up and come have breakfast and celebrate. We all tell him were up( when were really trying to get 10 more minutes of sleep) and he usually gets distracted, (by pulling out more things from the fridge) and then wakes us up again in about half an hour.
We then ate breakfast, which really none of us eat all that much because at 8 in the morning, when your dads in the BEST mood of his life, going back to sleep is just that much  more tempting. We then proceed to get ready, and then of course we have to take 500 family pictures. My mom and older sister are in Egypt for the next two months, so it's just my father, my brother and his wife, my cousin, and myself. We all have to take turns switching in and out of picture, until every combination of people is taken. Finally 20 minutes after we were supposed to leave we are all in the car on our way to the prayer. We get in and day hi to all the peolpe we really haven't seen the past year, make sure to check out all the hot boys(if there is any, this is only for me and my friends btw), and then listen to the "sermon" that is about 30 minutes long. After that we pray together again, and it's once again a mad house as all 5000 people are trying to leave. Everyone's kissing and hugging and laughing, and it's stuffy and crowded, but that is the beauty of Eid prayer. We hang out for the rest of the day with friends and family, usually consisting of a brunch together, and then everyone does their own thing. It kinda sucks that i have work and school tomorrow and wasn't able to really do anything that exciting because i had to go into work for a couple hours, but i guess now that we're all older, life and it's responsibilites seem to be knocking at our doors. Hope you all had an eventful tuesday as well!