Monday, December 13, 2010

Last saturday we had our open house Christmas party & we had more people than we expected. The party was from 1-4pm, but our 1st person arrived at 9am (helped setup) & our last person left at 9:30pm (helped cleanup.) I wasn't counting because there were so many people, but Teresa figures that there were plus or minus 60 people. Our foreign & Mongolian friends (lots of Mongolian & foreign kids came to play too) came to eat great food, to talk, play games, relax, & get to know each other. Everyone said that they had such a great time & were thankful for making time to host a party.

This year Ulaanbaatar has changed. Last year you could not find anything that was really Christmas like & when you looked outside it was just a normal winters day. However, this year their are "New Years" trees everywhere, Coka Cola has brought a big red Santa Clause to downtown & some downtown buildings downtown have put up lights. I am amazed how fast things are changing here. But I have to be honest that I am not happy that the crazy Western Christmas commercialism is coming. Well, it is not Christmas because Mongolians do not celebrate Christmas, for them it is to celebrate New Years.

We all are excited for Saturday because it is when all four of us will be on our winter break. Although this break will be much different from last year. many of our friends are leaving (Thailand, China, Switzerland, India, US, UK, Canada, etc...) this year. In some ways I am really looking forward to only having a few friends around & most of our time being with just Teresa & the kids. We are taking in (I think) two friends this year. Both are going to be alone during winter break & will have no one to celebrate with. We asked if they wanted to have a family to celebrate with & if they did could come to our place this year. For some living overseas away from family & having friends leave is very difficult when you do not have a family of your own.