عيد شكور

This past week we had Thanksgiving, and for this my mom came up to spend a couple days with me and my brother Kent, and his wife, Trina. An amazing Thanksgiving dinner was prepared by Trina, her first time hosting Thanksgiving. I particularly enjoyed the gravy and turkey, and of course, the Finnish Braid Bread. And, though I can't stand cranberry sauce, Trina's was actually pretty good! As you can see, Trina found the time to have everything specially arranged, the turkey in the oven, along with all of the fixings, and without getting flustered the entire time. That is a great feat indeed.

That night me and my mom went out to see Enchanted, which I heartily recommend, as one of the sweetest, most romantic movies I've seen in a long time. My mom arrived a couple minutes late, not realizing that the movie begins as a cartoon. She told me later she thought, "Oh. Jed's into cartoons. Okay. Well, I can do this. I use to watch cartoons with them. I'll just try to enjoy it."

Yesterday, the day after Thanksgiving, we got to go to the Seattle Aquarium.

And then it was off, rushing up to the mosque in time for prayers. I shared how I got to the mosque last week, for the first time in over a year. Today was a special day, as my mom went to the mosque for the first time. She went upstairs, where she described the women listening intently, some praying during the sermon. She followed along with the others, in tying the scarf and making the motions. My mom was very impressed with the kindness of the one woman who assisted her, asking her if she was interested in following Islam.

.

We got there when the sermon was in progress, which is permissible- as in Eastern Christianity,

Muslims wander in throughout the service, just so long as they are there in time for the prayers (or communion, in Eastern Christianity). The Imam was speaking of hajj, coming up, the yearly pilgrimage, and how if you are financially able to, and don't at least have the intent of going on hajj, you will be treated as a Jew or Christian on Judgement Day, and God's wrath shall fall on you.

.

Afterwards I got this picture. I think my mom looks so cute!- just like one of those matrons I'd see on the street in Morocco. We went on to a spaghetti dinner, and discussed what our family might be like if we'd all been born Muslim. Sophia needs to get married off soon!