No Place Like Home for the Holidays

We had an incredible opportunity to share some of the holiday here with our friends in a small town a couple of hours from where we live.  This time is like Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years (with some Halloween and a few others thrown in).  So it was a real treat to be included with the family.

This is a traditional village house.  Its the kind you'll see in ALL the "Home for the Holidays" type commercials on TV right now.  We stayed in a concrete house and this one was next door.  The more traditional don't really have glass windows like this but open frames and wooden shudders than can be opened to allow more mosquitoes to enter ;-).
One important thing to note was that we were invited to stay the night.  But we had started to think all our invitations were like "funeral home talk" and so we didn't actually come prepared to stay the night.  We had no change of clothes, toothbrushes, contact stuff, nothing!

(Aside:  OK, by funeral home talk, I mean the following conversation:  "Hey, wow.  Its good to see you.  Its been too long."  "It has, hasn't it?  I haven't seen you since [some person's name] died last year. Man we should get together more often."  "You are right, its a shame we only get together when someone dies."

This funeral home talk is common for us.  Like in Hiseville when someone says, "Ya'll go with us."  Except they have no intention or desire for you to accompany them. We say, "Lets get together sometime."  And mean, "See you when I see you."  

In your home culture this is so easy.  You know fairly well when someone is "inviting" you but doesn't mean it.  "Hey, give me a call sometime and we can grab some lunch."  But when you are in a new place its really hard to know when someone is inviting you and when someone is "inviting" you.  So we had a number of invitations to "go" places and see people for the holiday. But they never called so we didn't go.  Our friends said we should just drop in but all our arrangements were like "Come Tuesday."  And we say, "OK.  Call me because I don't know where you live."  And they never call.  Hard to miss that hint.  Even today someone said, "I want to invite you to my house."  And I said, "We'll come."  Then they smiled and left.  No directions + no time + no specifics = no invitation.

This got a bit discouraging, thus by the time we were going to "spend the night" we didn't bother to take it seriously.  We went with the clothes on our back and that was all.  BTW, do not tell him I said so but this was all Craig's fault.  End of aside)

Here are some attractive folks we saw there.  After promising to get full length photos of the family; we didn't.  Sorry.  After a bit of hanging out everyone was so sweaty and stuff we didn't bother.   Notice the kids playing PS2 in the background.
Here are our noble hosts preparing some food in the kitchen.  We had rice and fish.  Lots of traditional food.  Tasty stuff.  The shrimp paste was spicy and delicious!
This is a telling photo!  See those mats?  They are also dining tables, TV couches, and lounging places.  In our house we typically think that we don't have room for lots of people.  Here folks roll out some mats, thrown down some mattresses and just add another family.  Pretty cool, if not as comfy as a La-Z-Boy.
Craig with the traditional stuff (minus the skirt).  This clothing is mostly just worn the first day of the holiday.  So we were overdressed but looked spiffy. And shiny.  They feel like satin pajamas.  
More typical lounge wear.  The skirts get more comfy all the time.  Craig says men in the USA are totally missing the boat on the skirt thing.  He is still not so comfortable with the idea of grabbing a small shoulder bag and wearing it.  Too much like a purse for him.  Skirt-wearers must draw the line somewhere, right?
Angie and her friend.  You can see into the kitchen.  They had some cabinets but normally here dishes are stored in a more accessible fashion than we had in KY.
Getting ready for a ride around the neighborhood.  Craig was the only one with some variety.  Since he wore a t-shirt under his shiny shirt he could look like he changed clothes.  Swiping the skirt from Caleb's outfit made a whole new look.  Notice how manly men ride in a skirt.  Never sidesaddle, you just gird up your loins.  That biblical imagery takes on a deeper level of meaning when you try to run in a skirt.
Finally time to head home.  This is our friend's dad, the master of the house.  Notice Hudson's face.  He is so passive-aggressive in pictures...
Everyone saying goodbye. It was a great time (even if we were stinky).  You should really take in some foreigners some Christmas or Thanksgiving.  Seeing people like us look goofy and not knowing what to do (where do you put the gravy if you've never had mashed potatoes?  Well, of course in KY, you just put the gravy on everything), how to do it, when to do it.  Its amazing how much stuff we know to do just by seeing it done.  We just absorb our culture.  You can see how odd your habits are by trying to watch foreigners fit in with you.

So these patient folks gave us clothes to wear, gave up their beds, let us use their soap, bought us toothbrushes, let us eat their treasured holiday treats, drug us around to their friends and introduced us.  It was good.  But as you can imagine, we had to stop at McDonald's on the way home...