holidays

Sadia woke up early that morning, wiped her sleepy eyes and tried to focus on the items in the room. At that point she remembered it was the school holidays and felt the excitement of what the day was to bring insha'allah. Everyone had talked about these holidays non stop for the past few months, the shops were filled with the latest fashion for this time of year and as she had walked around the city centre with her mother, holding her hand so as not to get lost, she wondered what the time would bring her.
Looking out of the bedroom window she saw the birds chirping away and the sun rising over the shops across the road from the house. She knew that she was always sent back to bed around this time if she woke her parents up, but surely not today... today was different. So Sadia wandered into their room slowly and quietly and sat at her mums side of the bed peering at her as she slept. She opened one eye to see her daughter watching her and smiled 'you want to get in?' she asked, Sadia thought for a minute 'just for a little bit' she replied after nodding her heavy head. She climbed over her mother and inbetween her parents, the bed was warm, cosy and soft, as soon as the duvet was pulled up to her chin she began to drift away again. She awoke startled sometime later and couldnt believe that she had fallen asleep, the excitement almost burst in her stomach as she shook her parents awake. Climbing over them and out the bed she almost shouted 'come on!' jumping up and down on the carpeted floor... 'it will all be downstairs' . Her mum looked at her dad slightly confused 'what will be?' she asked Sadia, Sadia laughed.. as if she didnt know.... 'my presents from Father Christmas' Her mother smiled almost not wanting to break the news to her that her parents had already decided a long time before Sadia and her older brother had been born. She pulled Sadia up on to the bed and sat her on her knee, 'remember when we had that big party a few months ago?' Sadia thought for a moment and eventually nodded 'well that was our celebration sweety, we dont have christmas. Remember me telling you? we have the two Eids instead when we dress up and give out presents and visit family and eat lots of yummy food,' she said trying to make it as fun sounding as she remembered christmas sounding to her when she was a small child. 'Christians have christmas,' she told Sadia, 'Muslims have Eid' Sadia looked up at her mother with a wobbly lip 'so no presents?' she asked... 'you already have many things you didnt play with from Eid, why dont you play with them? and later we can make cookies and go see Zaynab and auntie Fatima, would you like that?' Sadia nodded and wiped away the tears, 'Im sorry mummy... I forgot,' she said jumping off her mothers lap to walk to her room.
Sadia was 5 now, this had been going on for the past 3 years now. Her mother knew it was hard on the little girl, as it had been on Hamza her brother when he was younger, but she was determined to stay away from the confusion that celebrating the holiday would bring to her children. She tried to distract them as much as possible over the holidays and wondered how long this would go on, she hated seeing her children cry, especially as it was her decision to make. She felt a hand rub her back as her husband sat up and kissed her shoulder. 'We are doing it for the right reasons hanouni, they will thank us in the future. And insha'allah in Jannah they will thank us from keeping them away from the haram' She smiled 'insha'allah'