Domestic Goddess Travels: End Of Year Parties & Christmas Day

Over the past two weeks it has been a busy time for social events here in Mongolia.

Mongolian people don't traditionally celebrate Christmas instead they celebrate New Years and with the company Ben works for, each department has an end of year celebration. Each party seems to start off really slow and once the traditional speeches are given and the vodka starts flowing then the Mongolians let their hair down.

Admin Party - 15th Dec

After attending the Engineering Party which was a bit quite, Ben and I decided to crash the admin party, as we knew some expats that where going to be still partying on. The party was in full swing when we arrived and it was nice to see that the van drivers who I know having a great time. I was amazed at how many employees make up the admin part of the company, it would be interesting to know what they all did. I found it also interesting that one of the managers was presented with a roasted baby pig, I still don't know why this is done but seems this presentation is quite common.

Picture: Dave & Ben at admin party

Picture: Bernadette & Tracy at admin party

Geology Party - 21st Dec

What a great night this departments end of year party was. As usual with any Mongolian function it started off quite and turned out to be a very big night. It must of been the red wine and all the vodka drunk. A part of the celebrations is when there where a number of party games played that we took part in. Another part of the celebrations was when "Winter Grandfather" appeared. He is kind of like what we know as Santa Clause. What I could remember of the night, everyone had a great time and I am sure I wasn't the only person to end up with a sore head the next day.

Picture: Geology Department Employees with their partners & Winter Grandfather

Picture: Ben, Winter Grandfather & Jok

Picture: Some Geology Team Members & Bernadette

Christmas Day - 25th Dec

Well we didn't get the white Christmas that we wanted but we sure did have a great day. Our morning started off with a wake up phone call from my sister, Narrelle and with Paige running into our room saying "Santa's been, come and see". Santa had left a mini Ger for Paige but what he didn't do was leave instructions on how to put it up. (I had seen the mini Ger put up a couple of months ago and had taken photos but it was a bit harder to construct to what I remember). In the end Ben and I didn't give up and finally we where able to say it was worth the trouble seeing Paige playing house.

In the afternoon we headed to the Nicoletto's for Christmas dinner. With a number of expats in town, Pam and Wayne opened up their home to us all. One of the traditions on the day is everyone brings a present for a Secret Santa gift which has a bit of a spin to it.

The spin to this gift exchange is each person picks a number, then the person who has the lowest number starts and chooses the first gift from under the tree. If someone likes a gift that has already been chosen they are allowed to steal the gift from the person. As the game progresses, gifts seem to be going backwards and forwards between everyone. This game was really fun and everyone at the ends gets to take a gift home. During the afternoon we also had a special guest drop in. Santa Clause came and gave the children a gift and he even sang Happy Birthday to me for the day before.

We are truly lucky to have been able to spend our Christmas here in Mongolia with friends who all enjoyed some great food, drink and laughs together for 2007.