Thursday, February 22, 2007

Survived Tsaagan Sar - the Big New Year

We just got done celebrating the Lunar New Year. Wow, what a lot of national food! That, coupled with the word of the holiday "eat!", made for a very filling festive three days. The exact same food at every house we visited: Tea, Mutton, Meat Dumplings. Mix in some candy, vodka, horse milk, home made pastries, and you get a feel for how these three day just kind of blurred together. In all we vistited 8 homes across 200 kilometers.

It was like Mongolian culture on steriods, or for the kids...on sugar cubes. Those little square granulated delights decorated every table without fail. After all, it's a holday that celebrates all things white, and table sugar does a nice job of making the kids feel festive, and adds a frenetic dimension to the parents' frame of reality to be sure.

We made it through with no serious sicknesses, which seems like a miracle, and perhaps it was. We thank God for our continued health, and that we have a whole year before the next New Year festivities!

4 comments:

Kacey said...

Bless your hearts! You all look good and healthy. I guess you have been able to live with the horse milk at every stop, but I don't know if I could handle it. I have been reading your news from the church, but didn't realize that you had a blog and am happy to find it. You can click on my name at the bottom and it will take you to my blog. (This is Kathy Cook from Westgate--- which is why my blog name is Kacey --- my initials) For Renee--- I have found some wonderful women bloggers who are true Christian women. If you want to have a laugh now and then, check out "Antique Mommy" or "Big Mama" on my blogroll. They have young children and some of their links will lead you to other young mothers with great senses of humor. We miss you in Ohio and look forward to your furlough time.

Anonymous said...

Hey cousin,

You and the family look like a happy bunch. I'm impressed that these folks are so close to how you grew up in western style U.S.,with the horses and all. I guess you could call it 'eastern meets western' way of life!

Keep doing God's work and we'll see you back here in the U.S. shortly.

Much Love,

Cousin Tim Sorey

Anonymous said...

It sounds like your family's had quite an adventure out there! What's Tsaagan Sar like? I don't know anyone else who's celebrated it. Is it on the 9th this year?

Jeremy and Renee said...

It started last night on the 7th this year. We're getting ready to visit our first family this evening, the 8th of February 2008. Happy New Year! Who are you Nestor?