Tsagaan Sar

Shine Jiliin Mend hurgii!  This past week was Tsagaan Sar, which is the Mongolian new year celebration.  It's on the first new moon after the lunar new year.  To celebrate we get out my Mongolian clothes and have Buuz (pronounced like bodes)!  Buuz are the traditional Mongolian food for Tsagaan Sar, but more on that later.  Here's Brooke wearing my hat!

Brooke has the unfortunate tendency to pull her hamstring!  She'll be crawling around and then sit up, reach her hand behind her leg and start scooting around as pictured.  Every time she does it I say "Oh No! Did you pull a hammy?!"

Well, with that detour out of the way we're back to Tsagaan Sar.  As I mentioned the traditional food is Buuz, so I made some for dinner.  First you have to make some dough and roll it out thin, kinda like a mini tortilla.  Then you scoop some meat/onions into it and pinch the top closed.

Then you steam them for about 15 minutes, and they're done!  We got a new steamer we could put in a pot for this year.  We had a little steamer with our rice cooker, but it was small and could only do a few at a time.  I know, there are only 4 in this picture, but those were the final 4, I did 16 before that!  They cook much faster this way!

And here is our table all set up.  You an see we have our Buuz, and our sauces.  We have a tavgiin idee, and even a sheep!  Just like Mongolia!

And here's a picture from Mongolia for reference!  Practically Identical!

Here's a close up of our tavgiin idee!  I don't think I've ever made one of these before, so I was happy to have this addition.  It has to have an odd number of layers, with an odd number of... well, we used Belvita crackers... on each layer.  Then you top it with candy, and put uncooked rice in the bowl at the bottom.  I think we'll be making this in the future as well.

And here I am ready to chow down, Mongolian clothes included.

And here's Monica showing off.  Unfortunately when I was on my mission I did not think about buying a whole family's worth of clothing, so we had to share.

We even let Brooke try them on!  The jacket was just a little big!  We took several pictures, but the following are my favorite ones.

This week Brooke got sick.  She got a cold with a bad cough.  We toughed it out for a few days at home.  It seemed to keep getting worse and her throat started hurting form coughing so much so we gave in and went to the doctor.  They said everything looked good and it was just a normal sickness, nothing to worry about.  Then of course the rest of the day Friday she seemed so much better!  So the good news is that she's on the up and up!  When she's sick she usually just wants to sit and be held all day, so those are the few days she's allowed to watch TV.  This is only the second time.  The only movie she likes is Frozen, and she has to have the remote!

This weekend my nephew, Nathan, got baptized, so my family came out to visit.  This means that more Christmas presents made their way out.  Brooke was not shy and dove right in!

And with that we conclude the highlights of the week.  I hope you all are doing wonderfully!  Have an amazing week!