So i told mum we needed to be a bit more organised this year...no mad dash on Christmas eve...or getting sent to the Indian shop on Christmas day lol...yes it has happened in the past!!! So we went shopping on the Wednesday (22nd)...and true to African Christmas we couldn't do all the shopping in ONE shop...no no no...we started in cricklewood buying the turkey...i told mum not to buy a massive bird as turkey isn't exactly favourite. So from the halal turkey man to the English butchers in kensal green... Now if any of you live in and around northwest London may know about John Line...where the line is literally out the door and around the corner. My happy happy joy joy mood was fast slipping away when i saw it...and then low and behold my cousins comes out with her purchases and well lets just say she went back in and we were done in 5minutes :-) happy mum...happy me... Next stop harlesden proper for the aff essentials...Plantain, Yam, scotch bonnet peppers...all the while i was just hoping to fit this all in my boot... Next on the agenda all the Christmas dinner bits...but why oh why couldn't I find the much needed pigs in blankets...otherwise known as pig wrapped in pig...lol. So after what seemed like an age in Tesco we finally made it to the checkout. Imagine my mums dismay when the checkout lady, rather the scan the items for the family in front of us, was having a conversation with the gentleman being served by her colleague. Needless to say mum wasn't pleased and was like *insert ghanaian accent* "Hi darling...can you go a bit faster please..." embarrassed is not the word. Anyhoo after all this shopping we went to nandos to eat and now mum was happy. As we took our seats, the music changed and my mother was adamant that it was ghanaian music...o_O...hmmm...lol i wasn't buying it until she started singing the words lol...once again now happy mum...happy me...
So fast forward to Christmas day...i got all of two hours sleep because i was up putting the finishing touches to the box for bestie...LONG...but she liked it :-) ...during this time my mum had gone to sleep and awoke in the cheeriest of moods lol. So while Im fighting sleep she thought now was the time for fun and jokes and to show me peoples presents and wrap them...then she said *insert ghanaian accent Here* "bestie will like the box; but aren't you tire? Anyway, midwives don't need sleep" looooooool... Classic there... After what felt like a minute, I had to get ready for church...but my eyes were burning with sleep! By this point my house smelt like a restaurant...yum...except that after I'd now showered so did I!
Church was nice, bestie liked her box, I loved mine :-)
Anyway...so i don't know what it is about ethnics BUT why can't anyone arrive on time eh? Two o'clock meant three o'clock and dinner was ahem...delayed...nothing new there then! And so it begins...the chatter from uncles, the aunties laughing, the teens...well being teens and mum flapping lol! Now in my family, tere's the loud uncle, the 'you think he's quite until he starts bussing jokes' uncle and the shyish uncle. The aunties all are different too; there's the joker/helper/get me sozzled aunty, the not so smiley aunty and the aunty with the quick one liners! SO amongst them...conversations are JOKES... As for the teens most are real cool and some well, some have gotten a bit to big for their boots, but thats a story for another day!
Anyhoo...between the frying of plantain and yam and the taking all the food to the table i was knackered; and that's before any eating had taken place. Well my mum can throw down so as you can imagine, dinner as it was by now 5pm, went down a treat. The kids, sorry teens piled their plates like there was no tomorrow lol...i on the other hand was quite disappointed with my performance. I can't put it away as i could before lol! But it tasted good...Now there's nothing like some after dinner conversation...topics such as the role of the wife in Ghana vs UK and how to put on a good funeral...fellow affs will get that! Apparently a wife in Ghana should happily serve her husband like a king, because really and truly, she has home help that do the work and she takes the credit! And as for the funeral, apparetly keyrings are a great souvenir...lol... I was in stitches, especially when one of my uncles couldn't quite keep up with the conversation and kept being corrected by his wife! Meanwhile the teens were trying to back drinks like they were in Bar Rumba...sorry but no, "take your hands off my archers" lol...
Dessert time was calm-ish and then i was flagging, but time for Eastenders...why oh why are you can"ooo and aaah and tell me again-ing" while Im trying to watch easties? o_O
Anyhoo a great time was had by all and as crazy as they are...i do love my family!
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