Our Christmases these days are quite different from the days of old, much calmer, for one thing -- but part of me misses the "old days," when we had to borrow an extra table and chairs from the local community center and when we were never really sure how many people would show up.
In the years when we were hosting foreigners in our house (70 in 10 years, from 15 different countries), whichever of them was in the neighborhood (i.e., the western United States!) they would plan to spend the holiday with us. Sometimes we managed to squeeze as many as 24 people around the dinner table (bear in mind that our room is 22' x 15' !)
I love this picture because it
kind of epitomizes those days. Walt always used to read "The Night Before
Christmas" to the kids before they went to bed, and even as they started
getting older, they insisted he continue the tradition. When there were
visitors, they, too, got into the spirit of things. So in this picture we
have, going round the circle from left to right: Pujol from Brasil, David
in Walt's lap, Tom in the lap of Marcio, also from Brasil. Next to Marcio,
bent over and wearing glasses is Felix from what was then Yugoslavia, then
Paul, and Ndangi from Zaire and Jeri.
Ndangi
was one of the first persons from another country to stay with us at
Christmas time. We had already planned to host Chieko from Japan, but
Ndangi ended up with no place to go, so we invited him to join us as well.
He didn't speak much English at that time and my French got a good workout.
For the next several years, wherever either one of them were in the states,
the two of them (who developed a kind of brother and sister relationship)
would fly in to join us for Christmas. Chieko is now married with three
children and living back in Tokyo. Ndangi works in Silicon Valley, is
married and has twin girls.
I think Marcello (Brasil--Rio de
Janeiro) was the next one to be here for Christmas. Marcello arrived in
this country speaking no English (awkward, because he was here to go to high
school). He was also not happy with his placement in the middle of
California because he was a surfer and hoped to spend his days surfing (he
had no idea the water in this part of the state was so cold!). By the time
he left here, he was better at speaking English, so good that he was able to
return to the United States a few years later and, the last I heard of him,
he had been working as some sort of official for Marriott Hotels.
Maria
(here with Grandma Sykes) came from Mexico. Her minister recognized that
she had great potential and wanted to find a family which would take her in
so she could study in this country. I heard of her by chance, and agreed to
have her live with us. She was bright and delightful (and is now married
and owns her own restaurant, which has received awards for excellence in a
Sacramento magazine). 
Her
sister, Sandra, came to visit one year and spent Christmas with us.
What we
did to that poor woman shouldn't happen to a dog. It happened that at that
time, Jeri was working for a theatrical supply place and so she gave David a
break-away bottle as a gift. Those were the years when the kids took movies
of everything, and created elaborate plots (all involving chase and
fight scenes, or falling off roofs or whatever). The kids had been filming
a complicated movie all day and it was going to end with a fight scene at
the dinner table. Sandra was totally unaware of what was going on, was new
to our family and how weird we were, and didn't speak English all that
well.
So we all sat down at the table
and most people had been told what was going to happen, but nobody thought
to tell Sandra. All of a sudden, David chases Paul through the house
yelling at him. Walt yells at both of them to stop fighting, David growls,
picks up the wine bottle off of the table and hits Paul over the head with
it, the bottle shattered and Sandra screamed. Everybody goes on eating as
if nothing unusual was going on. I thought poor Sandra would have a heart
attack.
Vince
was from Malaysia and had lived here in Davis for a few years with his
family while his father studied at UC Davis. When the family went back to
Malaysia, knowing that Vince's chances of a good education, as a Chinese
student, were poor in Malaysia, and that they would either have to leave him
here or send him to Singapore, contacted the church to find a family. The
church called us and we said sure. So Vince moved in for three years, and
continued to spend Christmases with us through his college years at UC Davis
and until he married and began having a family of his own (twins now).
Victor was Ndangi's cousin and
came from Zaire speaking not a single word of English. One of my very
favorite memories is of David and his friend Jeff setting up English lessons
for Victor every afternoon. Victor and David developed a special bond and
after David died, though we had not seen Victor in years, he showed up at
our door unannounced, tears in his eyes, to be here for the memorial
service. When it was over, he disappeared and we haven't heard from him
since.
Felix also joined us for several
Christmases in a row. He came from Yugoslavia on vacation and lived with
us for three weeks, but he then went to graduate school at Cal Tech, and
would return for the holiday. He later got a job with an engineering firm
in Sacramento, so lived close enough that he could join us each Christmas.
He is now married and he
and his wife own a B&B in the Seattle area. They have two
beautiful white poodles and I often see pictures of them on some hike or
other around the area. We saw him this spring when he was in
Sacramento for a conference. I like this picture
of him helping Ned to peel the potatoes for Christmas dinner.
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