this christmas

disclaimer: i'm not a big celebrator of Christmas [insert huey freeman's rant on christmas here] but i do love to cook and eat with loved ones.

I was getting ready to go to a Christmas get together on Christmas eve. I wasn't really looking forward to it for various reasons. To console myself i kept saying: it was an excuse to wear green [which so happens to be my favorite color :D] so i slipped on a green top, a tweed jacket, some jeans and some heels....ready to combat this season.

The kids and i arrive at the battlefield. Kahlil [my baby boy 4 months old] is being passed around like a specimen for scrutiny and observation. One girl says "isn't he mixed asian?". [i'm standing right behind her] and I say, "yes, i'm his mother. I'm right behind you." [and i'm a HUMAN being got damnit]. maybe i was just being way too sensitive...but you can't really blame me. I mean i was in the same environment where someone felt it was okay to say "Wow, you speak really good english" [another topic for another time]. I tell myself, "i'm here for the kids, it's okay...atleast you'll get some food out of it." I walk over to the table where the food is...and think to myself "is this it?" there was chicken, ham, and some smoked salmon with the kapers and other weird toppings for the salmon...so i played it safe and just went for the chicken.

Then there was a lady who tried to start up a conversation about the economy. At first it peeked my interest to hear something worthy of some discussion. until I ear hustled enough to hear that they were just skimming the topic. I overheard one person saying "there is no recession...did you see all the people in the malls...people are going to have a christmas even if they have no place to live the next day". [the optimist in me dies when i hear conversations like this...then i realize just the kind of people i'm dealing with out here in the sticks]

I was glad when we left because i still needed to do some christmas food shopping [refigerator was looking like an animal...it was bare]. My husband's cuzzo was coming upstate from the city. We were going to go food shopping when she got here. she got here about 30 after 10. we ran to the super walmart [because that's 24 hours--alegedly]. BUT they LIED! it was closed. so we scrambled over to the grocery store...where a convenient little sign was placed on the door stating, "we will be closed christmas day so that our employees can enjoy the holidays with their families." all i could think of was "aren't we in a recession...don't people need jobs...so why aren't they WORKING?!" I swear that stores aren't closed christmas day in cali...but we aren't in cali anymore...[booooooooooooooooooooooo]