A wee bit of a possibly selfish rant...
I decided at the last minute to go to my mom’s place for Christmas, she lives in the Bay Area and I need some water and beautiful scenery in my life. My mom initially had no plans, but decided to decorate the house for Christmas since I was coming (she’s a Black Martha Stewart when it comes to decorating). I was super excited to spend time relaxing with my mom and taking daily strolls by the beach. I planned on visiting a winery with mom and a couple of friends, visiting a friend and her baby, but other than that. Nothing but beach walks and naps...
Mom picks me up from the airport and tells me we’re going to Christmas dinner at my cousin’s house, I’m going to have dinner with her “friend” (her boyfriend I’ve never met) tonight (the night I arrived), and I’m going to a winery with mom and her “friend” Thursday.
I’m annoyed.
1. My cousin is a super religious bigot and I cannot stand to be around him unless the whole family is there, which they won’t be this time (the older cousins pull rank and shut him down when he goes on his homophobic, anti-everyone not Christian rants. I call him the Christian Osama bin laden)
2. I don’t feel like being “on” the night I arrive after a long flight. I’m an introvert and prefer to choose when I have to engage with new people because I don’t want to give off the impression that I don’t like them simply because I just want to be quiet. I can be charming and engaging but the stuff is exhausting with new people. I just want to drink spiked egg nog and watch Christmas movies with my mom, not try to get to know her new boyfriend, at least the first day. We had dinner and it was as I expected...
3. I don’t want to spend a full day in Napa getting to know my mom’s boyfriend. I’m mentally exhausted thinking about it. My mom told me to be myself for dinner, so I was pleasant but quiet, so of course he kept bombarding me with questions to try to make conversation. I was tired and my body was 2 hours ahead of my current time zone, I don’t want to hear your conspiracy theories man!
I’m gonna tell mom that I planned on visiting Napa as a girls trip, not as a “bond with new boyfriend trip”. (I’ll leave off that last part). Im really tired from my job and the draining white women I work with, I just want to be surrounded by people I can be myself around and rest. She usually doesn’t throw stuff at me like this.
Long story short, we ran out of holiday cards and my assistant asked if I wanted her to pick some up on her lunch hour. I was like 
. She comes back and circulates cards with tree ornaments on the front that say "Merry Christmas" (all the other cards that SHE has sent out for the last 14 years have said Happy Holidays) and every person who signed the cards including me was big mad about how much glitter got everywhere. You would not believe how much glitter would fall off the card from just moving it .
(Ex. sweet and savory dishes with sides of sour cream and vinegar!
) She texted me just now a pic of what she's excited to get. It looked good in the pic but when I looked at the menu and saw the description I was like umm cool for you but I'm gonna go with something else. She came back saying let's get everything and then split it. She always does this but I don't want to. I have been trying to figure out a polite way to tell her for ages that her taste in food is questionable at best and sickening at worst 
Yesterday SO and I went to Christmas in the Park close to SO's parents house about an hour away. My middle sister backed out because she was tired and I wish my youngest sister had done the same. I know she's 19 and trying to grow up but she needs to learn you cannot do everything. I thought she was done with finals, (she's in college) but she wasn't. She's been hanging out with her friends who are done, and then pulling all-nighters to finish her papers. She did it the day before Christmas in the Park, which meant she was tired, cranky and more high maintenance than usual. She took forever to get dressed, needed to make stops in the busiest areas of town and when we finally got there, she complained the whole time. Luckily my dad also came so SO and I had some fun by ourselves while he kept her occupied. 
And I got to introduce SO's parents to my dad before we went home.
She claims I said something similar to her yesterday. I don't remember but she's very overwhelming and I don't have the energy or desire to do battle with her. I honestly don't care if I did or not. I'm tired and want to be left alone. 
. She’s doing the best she can. Not trying to spring anything on anyone. Just trying to make it work and make sure she is happy as well.
. Overall it’s still great to be back in Cali, just hasn’t been as restful as I hoped. I unfortunately do need to work a couple days due to a tight deadline when I return, so I think that added to my annoyance as well. With work plus commitments she’s made, my time to relax is more limited than I hoped.
and I was like mmmmm hmmmm, guess who go be sitting back laughing when you get your edges snatched through ya soul. 
They had goose instead of turkey which was funny because we had a run in with a goose the day before so there was great mirth in munching that bird. Nobody acted up but we just laughed away the day at that place and then went and played spades at the bar. If you're ever in LA and can get to the Sofitel, it's beautiful and they decorated the hell out of the place for the holidays.
