Daily Archive

By Mark

This Thanksgiving Blog post is brought to you  by our sponsors- the C&MA Church of Russellville!  We love and miss you guys — thank you so much for sending the great treats for Thanksgiving.  Toby and Cinda are opening a package that Russellville sent with Jiffy Cornbread mix just in time to make cornbread casserole (a favorite). 

Our family traveled 3 hours west of Darhan to to the town of Bulgan.  Bulgan has about 13,000 people in it.  Jeremy and Renee Bergevin graciously opened their home (pictured above) to all who wanted to come and celebrate Thanksgiving; yes, its a log home- Bulgan has a lot of timber around it and log homes are the norm. 

Annika chows on some chicken.

Because there were so many families we had to eat in shifts.   The kids went first filling tables upstairs and downstairs.  The menu included chicken (we couldn’t get turkey but the roast chicken was fantastic- I wanted to sprinkle benadryl on it to simulate the tryptophan (sp?) in turkey but was turned down) fresh rolls, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole with the onions on top, jello jigglers, cornbread casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy and several other salads that I can’t recall.  We had plenty of coffee circulating to go with pumpkin and apple pies. 

The guys went outside to throw the football around while we watched the kids play on the frozen stream.  Although there was snow (is snow) in Darhan there was none in Bulgan. 

The cards came out to play some cribbage, euker and a serious game of Rook. 

Uncle Larry gets kooky while entertaining Anna Wahlen.

The kids’ upstairs table.

Toby goes after his favorite food group, gravy.

We also got together to sing Christmas carols as a team and had a game of musical charades.  You picked a slip out of a jar and had to come up with a song that fit the category. 

Kids watching a movie upstairs before bed.

Superhero’s play together: Toby, Jack, and Levi

In some ways it was very easy to forget that we were in Mongolia- except for the ride home.