Foxy Festivities

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December 29th 2005

Published: November 27th 2006

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Mel and Gareth

Mr & Mrs

Our first married Christmas

We think it's safe to say there'll never be another Christmas like it. Apart from a massive oversupply of yummy food and a lone Santa hat, it bore little resemblance to festivities of years gone by. One of the most remarkable novelties was the recently departed fox which travelled with us, securely strapped to the roof racks of Zulaa's van.

Thanks to the lack of tourist activity at this time of year we had the luxury of a sleeping ger and a party/eating ger an hour out of civilisation. While Mel got to work preparing a delicious hot soup for lunch the rest of us busily plastered our surrounds with tinsel, balloons and colourful paper snowflakes. All of us pleasantly stuffed on soup, we headed to the (mostly) frozen river, via the Great Wall of China...a smaller detour than you'd expect, thanks to some thoughtful filmmakers who'd left their replica segment of the Wall behind. Gareth and Zulaa did their sex proud by clambering precariously all over the rather shoddy construction. Down at the river, we skated, played ice torpedos, dragged Lucy around on her back, and pushed Moogii on a big ice slab sled. We ogled at great

Our Christmas Ger

chunks of bubbled ice, then delighted in smashing them. Mel was the first (and only) casualty, typically stacking it with an unsettling thud. Her failure to move for a few seconds brought everyone running, but she was up and about with just a mild hangover to deal with (even before the festivities had begun!) Now four days later, the pain in the neck is almost gone.

We arrived back at our ger for sunset, played some cards while sweating by the over-zealous fire, then started on dinner - a rather untraditional Christmas fare of pasta...with festive colours, followed by vanilla pudding and fruit.

Zulaa left us after dinner to take his van back to a garage in UB, where it wouldn't freeze overnight. The rest of us chatted and drank "gluevine" (mmmm!) until midnight - our agreed present opening time. Gareth played Santa, and an hour later we were well-stocked with enough chocolate to last a year (or maybe just a month if you factor Gareth in), Vegemite, cricket news, fortune-telling knuckles, an apt "Worst-Case Scenario Survival guide", a thermometer (that goes to -50!), and Surprise Peas (???) amongst other goodies. We felt not so far

Getting into the spirit

away with all the presents, cards and thoughts from home...THANKYOU!!!

We retired to the cosiest ger we've ever slept in - 4 quilts apiece and pillows full of wheat. Zzzzzzzz! After a glorious and much-needed sleep-in, we emerged into the bright white snow to move to our party ger, where Luisa slaved over the stove making us apple cinnamon pancakes. A huge load of washing up later, we were ready for our Christmas Day mountain climb, but time was tight, so we had to settle for the smallest, closest one. With such a gorgeous day, size didn't matter. It was beautiful, sunny, and a mild -10ish.

Packed up, we piled back into Zulaa's de-foxed van (the roadkill having been delivered for its transformation into a scarf). We arrived at the opera house looking wholly shabby, as we'd had no time to have a shower before taking in the Nutcracker ballet. A Mongolian Santa greeted us with a big bag of goodies each, and were ushered to our seats by Ukranian and Polish friends who had been beating back the hordes of excitable children for us.

Thoroughly exhausted, but content, we opted for some "married

Sweating over the stove

people time" and went home...for leftovers and more pressies! There was a distinctly Mongolian theme to our presents. Gareth scored a morin huur (a traditional horse head fiddle), a couple of CDs and yet more chocolate, and Mel got a very pretty Mongolian style jacket, Mongolian boot earrings in an embroidered pouch, and an original Hockings artwork (featuring the symbol for eternity and "Melanie Hockings" in ancient Mongolian script...Awww!)

Today we finished work for the term and have now started 2 weeks of holidays. We've been busily trying to find beds in Germany for June, which is quite a challenge, even with German mates dragged into internet rooms for 3 hours of slave labour. We'll spend New Year's in UB with a bunch of European friends.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

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