Thanksgiving dinner and the Christmas rush

We went over to my aunt's house around 6:30pm and left at 8:30. I really could not eat a bite more but my mom said it would not be very nice and my aunt was not giving us very friendly looks when we told her that we had already eaten. We ended up making tea and eating her home-made bread with cheese. It wasn't bad. I found some home-made pepper sauce and salad that she prepared and I ate it all in my bread and cheese sandwich. My dad had a fun time picking out all the little tangerine pegs in her salad, which she later filled in ziploc bags and gave us to take home. In fact, as revenge, she emptied all the veggie dishes she had prepared and sent them with my mom along with a loaf of her home-made bread. I guess, I will be eating thanksgiving food until sometime next week! And I am not enthusiastic. It is not that her food is not good, it actually is quite delicious, but a lot of what people eat at Thanksgiving is loaded with starch. Anyway, I got home in time to see the ending of my new favorite TV show, "Ugly Betty." I'm waiting for it to come up on abc.com so i can watch it from the beginning though...

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24th.

It's Friday and I went to sleep at 2am and was awakened at 6am because my mom wanted to join the madness of the sales. She even managed to rally my dad in this one. We got to the store at almost 6:45 and I felt like if I was the shopper in those shows where the person wins a shopping spree and they have to run around the store in X amount of time and pick up Y amount of items. The thing is we did not have a cart and it was becoming increasingly difficult to pick up large items and look for others as well. Finally, my dad finds a huge box. I throw all the stuff in the box and I am now pulling a box around the store. Then we see a cart and my dad is able to put the rest of things in the cart. We were at a linen store and my mom had seen a sale on blankets, sheet sets, comforters. I do not know why many Trini women see the need to always have extras of these and matching everything! I forgot for a little that my mom isn't Trini but it doesn't change things. My dad's sisters are the same way. And she even had the great idea in the store that she wanted pillows. I was beginning to wonder why we were getting everything in the same color when I saw her picking out the comforter sets.
Me: "Ma, how come yuh only takin that one color?"
My mom: "Come quick na, help me take that one down from up there." She was pointing at a place on the shelf that she could not reach.
Me: "Okay, but how come we can't get different colors? Like for my room?"
My mom: "Dey not for the room an them." So now me and my dad are wondering what we are buying all of these things for if they aren't for the beds or for covering with when it gets cold.
Me: "No, how come?"
Mom: "Dey for when we have prayers so we can spread on the floor with the sponge to put people to sit down." My mom is the only person I know in the US who will put a whole living room aside as a prayer room. So now my dad is asking,
Lail: "So P----, how come we can't spread dem ting on de bed?"
Mom: "Nah Lail, dey is for prayers. de ones we have starting to get hole in dem."
Me: "Lail, I think the pillow and them is for when guest come too! If I did know it was one hole you was worried about, I woulda spread de ting on de other side!" Really, shopping is something I have to be in the mood to do and I was definitely not in the mood this morning. It was far too early and a bit too cold to be out.
We are done with the shopping now and standing in a very long line, waiting to check out. My dad does not want to wait in such a long line and neither do I. We start walking and we find a line that is now forming and I stand in it and tell him to bring over the stuff. There were "limits per customer" so my mom worked it to her advantage by bringing us along. I saw a lot of Trini, Jamaican and Guyanese people there as well. They did the same thing we did. They showed up in their numbers to make sure they had squeezed the deal dry! Heh heh heh, my island people really know how to shop!
We come home. I go back in my room and a few minutes later my mom comes and says that she is going to the mall. Jeezum Crow! I stay on the bed for another fifteen minutes giving myself a pep talk on the good things about going to the mall. I can only come up with the food court. We get to the mall and everywhere in JC Penney, there is a line but they had they best sale. I helped my mom pick out a nice outfit for the holiday. I was trying to stay away from red and shiny but in the end, she went back for a red top minus the shiny stuff. After all, we don't want to be in competition with the christmas tree! Mind you, I buy one blouse for myself, that was on sale, and a jacket. I was in the mall for almost three hours and I insisted that we leave because I was starving and I was hearing a Latino guy telling his wife and kids, "tengo mucho hambre," "que hambre!" and i was already past the "hambre" part. I was at "'necesito algo que comer ahora' before I fall asleep in here!" Finally we left. I guess I left in a better mood than I was when I went to the mall. See, it's not that I absolutely despise shopping but around the holiday time, my ex usually pops up and I try to avoid him. However, I was happy for my mom. She never shops for herself and even today, while shopping for herself, she managed to pick up something for my brother, my dad, Furgie, and she saw that I chose something for myself.