Feliez Navidad

I spent Christmas morning catching up on some work I had to do. In the afternoon, the couple, Michael and Ane, in the sailboat across from me invited me to Christmas dinner. Michael is from London and owns a business providing signers for the hearing impaired. Ane is from Auckland, so I had fun exchanging and reminiscing about times in New Zealand. Another girl that is from San Francisco joined us. So we also talked about the City and what was going on in the Bay Area. The sun bathed us with warmth that is unexpected for this time of year. We sat out the back deck of their boat and shared our adventures over the past year and what the New Year had in store for all of us. Michael has a flare for cooking and made a delicious meal complete with salmon with a creamy egg sauce as the appetizer. I couldn’t stay for the entire meal because I was meeting a friend in the early afternoon. Then that evening a Swedish couple that has their boat moored on B dock had invited me to share a typical Swedish Christmas meal. We ate on a small table covered in a beautiful Christmas appliqué tablecloth hand stitched by her aunt. The evening Christmas meal started with a special toast from Sweden, really a thick sweet cracker. That is buttered and then a slice of Swedish ham that is prepared by simmering for hours in salt water, carrots, onions and special peppers. Next we had pickled heron topped with a cream and leeks. They told me traditionally it is topped by sour cream, but they could not find any here. We had another traditional Swedish dish. I forgot the name of it, but it was made with potatoes, onions and anchovies in a cream sauce. Unlike most of Europe, Sweden celebrates Christmas much like the United States, with St. Nicholas streaming across the Nordic sky dropping presents along his way on Christmas Eve. While Santa’s Reindeer might have come from the Nordic countries, St. Nicholas himself originated in Turkey. And if that is not insulting enough to Swedes, they revealed to me that Swedish meatballs also originated in Turkey. I missed being with all my family and friends during this holiday season. It is really a great time to strengthen those cords that bind us together. But maybe in it’s own way, spending Christmas with people from different parts of the world remind us all that we are all one family of God, each loving our children and hoping for their bright future. There is more in common with all of us than there are differences. I guess I count myself with John Lennon and want to imagine all the world living in peace and no he’s not the only one. I hope some day you will join us, and the world will be as one. Merry Christmas.