Eid Prayers

We celebrated Eid on Tuesday. Alhamdulillah, I managed to convince dh to bring us to the Eid prayers at the oval of the islamic school which was about half an hour drive from home. At first he was adamant not to take us, saying takbir starts 6 am and prayers at 7am and it would be hard to wake the children up early similar to what happened at last year's Eid. (It was raining last year so Eid prayers were performed at the nearby masjid). So I devised a plan this time round that the children should go to bed early so that they could wake up nice and early. It worked like a charm.
After a quick breakfast for the kids, we drove to the venue at 6 am. We arrived half an hour later near the school and it looked like heaps of cars carrying muslim families were headed in that direction too. In fact, cars packed up along the road in a bumper to bumper situation waiting their turn to enter the school grounds so dh just dropped me and 2 of our kids in front of the school gate and sped off to find parking outside the compound.
The crowd was streaming into the school whilst dear daughter and I proceeded towards the prayer saf and laid down our sejadah. She was looking quite sweet and girlie today with her hijab and baju kurung unlike other days when she wore just a tee and long trousers. My one year old baby wore a perfectly good grey jalabiya which I had bought for his older brother in Makkah a couple of years ago.
When the salah was about to commence at 7.15 am , crowds were still streaming in, masha Allah. The imam called to them to hurry up before he stood up to lead the prayers. A lady stood next to me and she was holding her very cute little 4 months old baby while takbiratul ikram. I put my not-so-little baby son and started to takbiratulikram. He weighs 13kg and I am sure my biceps couldn't accomodate him on my arm during the takbir. Needless to say, my baby wasn't happy about that and cried and tugged at my jilbab half the time as he is very clingy when he is in an unfamiliar surroundings.
After the Eid prayers, I was expecting a long khutbah like back in KL but all I heard was the imam saying praises etc in arabic and then it was over and done with. Now, it was time to eat and drink some refreshment and to mingle a bit.
It was a sight to behold , the sea of people in their best attire converging in a school yard to celebrate the first day of Eid. There were people who originated from all corners of the world. Afghans, Africans, Indians, Lebanese, Palestinians, Caucasians, Eurasians, Turkish, Indonesians, Malaysians, Somalians and Fijians to name a few. Perhaps no other religion could boast uniting all color and creed into one ummah that worships the One true God ie Allah, as Islam does. It is truly a deen ie a way of life that cuts all language barriers and physical borders, Masha Allah.

US muslims one family in Eid