My Awkward Thanksgiving Dinner

Welcome back! It's been a minute since I last blogged. Apologies for keeping you waiting. When I tell you what I've been up to, you will be surprised I was even able to sneak this blog entry in. Trust me!
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with a long list of things to be grateful for and continues the gratitude journey beyond Thanksgiving. Please find, below, my awkward Thanksgiving story:
 Also, what did everyone get on Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Me?
All I remember about those days is that Black Friday was on a Friday and Cyber Monday, on a Monday, haha! My last Thanksgiving was spent in the desert. I guess you could say Calvin and I are starting our own family ritual of going to the desert for Thanksgiving. We did that two Thanksgivings in a row up till then. His dad's friend lives there, so, it's always nice to touch base when we're out there. Of course, we stay at Calvin's family's cabin when we're there. Not with the dad's friend. Nice privacy, BBQs, fires and good sleep.

And Guns, don't forget the guns! It's the main reason Calvin ever goes to the desert...to shoot guns.

Cal's family has two cabins out there. They rent out one and stay in the other one when they're out there. They were renovating the rental, so, Calvin was going to the desert a lot. I wouldn't always go with him. It's nice to have the house in LA to myself sometimes. Granted, I have to take care of all the plants by myself and sleep with my finger in the trigger of the .22 sometimes, but, all in a day's work.

My first plate

We went to a Mexican Buffet spot for Thanksgiving dinner and here's some of the food we devoured.

Second plate

I always order a bit of everything from a buffet, and sample everything. Sorry mom, but I have to throw the rest of the food out! Nobody has room for that much food. Well, Calvin does! If you challenge him, he will eat the whole restaurant and staff! Just don't challenge him. Side note, the food was very brown and tasted just like it looked!Hence, Sorry mom!

This was our lunch, we had ample time to do stuff and work up an appetite for dinner at Jim (Calvin's dad)'s friend's. 

What we also do on Thanksgiving, is go Black Friday shopping. You know it starts on Thursday (Thanksgiving), right? AT least in the desert, it does. It starts around 6pm. That's the best time to shop because people are busy with their families, fighting over stuff that happened in the 70's before anyone was born. That's your chance to go grab some deals in the mall! I only got one thing: A printer. The one I had bought the previous Black Friday was out of ink. Ink costs more than this printer on sale, so it's better to get a new printer. It does come with ink after all. See? I'm not just a pretty face! Calvin got one or two things. We didn't go as crazy as our first time out there together on Black Friday.

We arrived at Jim's friend's just in time. They were about to dish out. There were way more people than I'd anticipated! You know you girl isn't big on crowds. I'm more of a one on one person. Or better yet, just me. Hi, my name is Babalwa Brook, and I'm a loner! I know how to handle people. I'm not anti-social. I love people, I just am more comfortable in my own head. If you've met me, you know how I am. People, usually don't believe me when I tell them I spend most of my time alone. 

Scooter?

Sorry, the photo didn't come out great, but that was some awesome ride, I don't know if it's a motorbike, or what. This was outside Walmart.

Cheese flavored worms for snack

Worms anyone? No?

First, it was worms for Shiva, the spider, now it's worms for the hubby! Calvin loves these. In fact, I think we have more in the cupboard as we speak. Actually, no, we don't! We have dried crickets in the kitchen. Just another snack for Cal. The funny thing is: These are the very things the spider eats. Like father, like daughter! I did try one of these, I took a video of that. I will add it to my Youtube Channel. 

Thanksgiving dinner

And now, to the meat and potatoes of it all! Pun intended. I've met everyone, I've gone to the backyard for the first time and saw how whimsical it is. I've stood by the fire and enjoyed it. Now, we're at the table about to eat. Everyone is seated down. Calvin is to my left, I am next to the head of the table. Someone was sitting at the head of the table. A Nice guy, whose deal I wasn't quite sure off, until way later on in the night, when I realized they were treating him like a child. That's when it all made sense to me. At first, I didn't understand if anything I said was registering. He was still nice, so, points! 

There was a couple with a bunch of kids there. Somebody's child, not sure who. The guy never made eye contact with me once, but who's counting? There were, of course other people. One of the ladies who were in the kitchen is the wife's sister. She was in the hospital last time I was there, so it was my first time meeting her. I wasn't quite sure of her deal either, to be honest with you, but hey, not my family! She seemed to go out of her way to make me feel comfortable. Now, for those of you who may not know this, I am black and yes, Babalwa  is my real name. It's a South African name. If you wanna know why they named me that, just ask. It's a cute story, haha, I've always wanted to say that!

So! Apparently, this sister has a daughter, the sister bought her daughter a special Christmas gift that she couldn't wait to show her. In the meantime, she waited until everyone had their mouths full with the delicious food they had made to share the story of the gift with, I guess, me? I wanna say with everyone, but she stood right by the head of the table, close to me and was looking at me, the entire time, she was telling the story. It suited me fine because across from me had sat a woman who couldn't stop talking about Calvin's dad, how special he was, and ooh! And Ahhh! Apparently, she knew him, longer, and better, and thicker, and fatter, and all that good stuff. I'm almost glad Calvin's  mom wasn't there for that. Back to the daughter's gift. The mom, and everyone else at the house was white, other than, me. This lady takes it upon herself to grab the gift, give me us a preview. She was so excited to go to the bedroom and grab it. I never could have guessed what it was. She showed up with a box. Decent size. Opens that thing, whips something out. And if you thought it was quiet at the table! YOU COULD HEAR A PIN DROP! This white lady was showing me that she bought her daughter a black doll for Christmas! A BLACK DOLL!  Listen, buy your kids whatever you want for Christmas but if you're white and you buy a black doll, don't show it to me out of the clear blue sky at a table full of people I don't even know when I'm trying to act normal across from a lady who obviously had a thing for or with my late father in law! Plus, this lady didn't even warn me before hand, she kept the name of this gift a secret until, TAH DAH! As if to set me up! 

I did my best to keep a normal face. It was awkward as hell. Am I over exaggerating? How would you have felt in a similar situation? This doesn't have to be about race, but, I would love to hear your opinions on this because, granted, it was funny as heck, on account of, it would've made for a good scene in a sitcom. When it's your life, it's hard to wrap your head around it! Like, really lady? What were you thinking? It felt like ten minutes went by without anyone saying a word! It may have been less but, honey! The moment my husband and I were alone in the car, we couldn't wait reiterating that sht. We laughed till we cried! It was just so bad, we had to laugh! Welcome to America, Brook! That wasn't even my family, and I had an awkward Thanksgiving with them. What's up with that?

Delicious Thanksgiving Dinner

Dinner tasted way better than it looked. At least, the half I remember eating. After the Black Jesus, I mean, doll, reveal, I couldn't tell you what the rest of the food tasted like.

Back in LA, Calvin's mom RE-gifted me the below flowers. She got them from some event somewhere, took them home for herself. After having them for a couple of days, she gave them to me. Now I'm showing them to you! 

Please tell me your favorite or least favorite Thanksgiving story. 

Wishing everyone happy Holidays! I will touch base with you again soon. In the meantime, do check out my youtube channel, I post there often.

xoxo