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Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Nothing says "Christmas" like end of the season airag

Peace
Brian pouring the airag
Christmas is a hard time of year to be away from family, but somehow we managed to celebrate in style. I made some Christmas cookies which my family calls "snowballs" but apparently are also called, "sandies" and "russian tea cakes". We had tons of food, egg nog (homemade), and loads of libations. The best cultural fusion came when Brian brought out the old oil canister that was full of end of the season airag. End of the season airag is a bit tangier than airag you get at other times of year. Nearly all of us partook in a bowl of the delicious, fermented mare's milk. This airag was given to Brian as a gift from a friend...lucky him! This was definitly not your average Christmas party. We also sang Christmas carols, accompanied by Mike on the Morin khuur. It was a hybrid, cosmopolitan, party for sure with people of several ethnicities and nationalities represented. All in all it was a good time, and a lovely way to spend Christmas. The perfect Mongolian gingerbread house

3 comments:

Andrew Campbell said...

Bagsh:

Merry Christmas! And don't hog all the airag. Friends don't let friends...

Hopefully you'll get to watch the Glorious Badgers beat up on the Volunteers on New Year's Day.

best
A+M+M+J

JPRiordan Bagram said...

Riordan, did you follow Riordan tradition and show your moon to the guests?

What are the plans for New Years? How can you top such a humdinger of a Christmas?

Love John

Anonymous said...

Showed my mom the picture of the gingerbread house..we had the same kit, but ours fell apart and looked like crap. So I showed her it and said if they can do it like that in Mongolia why can't you do it like that in America!? She was not pleased....but looks like you had a good time!