I expected the unexpected

One early morning I woke up and got ready for Thanksgiving, but this one was different. It was not at Grandmas, this was in Massachusetts at my Aunts. As my Parents and I got in the car, we prepared for the 2 hour drive. We did not need to bring any food, which was unusual, this Thanksgiving was catered, and my Aunt ordered a catered meal for my family. So after the long drive to Massachusetts on that cold breeze day, we arrived around 12 in the afternoon, obviously ready to eat a lot of food, obviously it’s thanksgiving. As I walked into my Aunts house, there were around 8 people that I had never met before, I was confused. My Uncle came in and introduced me to my new “family”. My Aunts husband, my Uncle, is from Nepal, and this was 8 members of his family, that just moved to Massachusetts. It was a little weird, I still do not remember their names even though I see them often. I sat in a room with my family, and the new family, they did not speak good English so I could not really communicate well with them, which was a little weird, but I knew it was not a big deal. I was still waiting for my food, my Aunt was picking it up at 1 from a nearby catering place. She finally left to get the food at 12:45, I was so excited to fill up my empty stomach. As the time went by really slowly with minimal conversations, we realized it was 1:30, but my Aunt was nowhere to be found. You may have thought my new family was the unexpected part but just wait. We all started getting worried at 1:45, where was she?

Finally she comes back, but she had grocery bags? Why the grocery bags we all thought, that is not the catered food is it? My stomach was rouring, I could not believe how hungry I was. She came in, and we knew something was up, even the new family that did not speak English. Would I also mention, it was their first day in the USA, they came here from Nepal the night before. I do not know what language they spoke, but let me tell you it was not English. My Aunt yells, “They got the wrong date for our catering!”, what did that mean? NO FOOD? Wow that was amazing for my roaring stomach. She explained that they messed up the date that she got the food for, and we had nothing but the groceries she picked up, and the worst part! They had no turkeys at the grocery store! She got cheese, crackers, ice cream, pies, pepperoni, a bunch of chicken, potatoes, some frozen appetizers, and veggies.

It was like an episode of no one my favorite chopped tv shows. In chopped you get certain food items, and an hour to cook, and make a meal out of it. That was about what my family had to do. It was like we were on chopped, making meals with a limited amount of food items, since the grocery store did not have many food items.   Let me tell you I ate a lot of cheese, pepperonis, and crackers, but still I was starving. We had to wait to eat. Time went by slow again, with all my Aunts and Uncles helping cook. So again my Cousin and I were in the living room with my non English speaking family, but we tried to make conversations but it was difficult. It felt like forever just sitting there watching tv, and I did not wanna go on my phone and be rude, so let me tell you it was awful boring. With my stomach roaring I wish I could have just taken a nap. As the clock hit 3, the food was ready, I was so excited. I ate a lot of food consisting of French fries, chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, peas, cranberry sauce, pie, and ice cream. Finally my roaring stomach came to a silent full belly. Now I really needed that nap. The food was good, but I wonder how the catering would have been. After our dinner, we all played monopoly. That was the only usual thing that happened that day, we play every thanksgiving, let me tell you it’s a long game. We left my Aunts around 7, it was a long boring ride. But it is okay because I finally got to nap. I arrived home around 9. It was an unexpected day. This day was more unexpected then I would have imagined but these are the memories I will always remember. I will always remember this day, and my family basically recreating an episode of chopped.

Photo on Foter.com