Love Is In The Air

Last week Ben casually mentioned that his sister, Naima, was bringing a man to our house to ask for her hand.  Ok...fine.  WHAT?  Her hand in marriage?  Who is he?  What does he do?  Where's he from?  Where did they meet?  When are they getting married?  Do you think Ben had the answer to one of those very important questions?  NO!! 

Since this was the first time I had been involved with the tradition of someone asking for someone's hand, I had lots of other questions too.  What do I serve?  Is there some sort of ceremony?  Do I need a live sheep to mark the occasion?  What does one wear to a hand-request ceremony?  Is he going to bring the traditional giant sack of sugar?  Because I don't know where I'm gonna store it.  Again, Ben was no help. 

Luckily last week I got a preview of the future groom when I picked Norah up from Naima's.  He seemed nice, Norah liked him, and Naima and Majda had lots of good things to say, so he's alright in my book.  They came over Sunday night and took us out to Samba, where we had planned to go at Norah's request to celebrate her birthday.

So I guess I'm gaining a brother-in-law!  I lost count a while ago, but the more the merrier!

Here are some photos from the big night:

Not big fans of fire...Norah got upset about the volcano (and every time after that when the chef squirted something onto the hibachi), and Adlani hid under the table.

We brought an extra kid (kids eat free on Sundays!), our next-door neighbor, Leah:

Manners are not Norah's strong suit:

The happy couple:

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