Back to blogging, it has been a busy start to 2015. I just
wanted to post some things we have been doing around here recently. I promise I
will blog about meeting our son for the first time soon.
We celebrated Ethiopian Christmas together as a family. We
want to help K maintain his culture and have a sense of pride for his birth
country.
MELKAM
GANNA! (Merry Christmas)
Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in Africa and one of
the very few where the ancient Julian calendar is still followed. That is why
Christmas is celebrated on the 7th of January. This holiday is
referred to as ‘Ye Ganna Bal’ which means “the birth of Christ”. On this day
most people wear a traditional garment called a shamma. Most people go to
church and choirs sing on this day. The early Ganna mass starts at 4am. It is
also tradition that one of the Wise Man who came to visit Jesus came from
Ethiopia.
Traditional Christmas foods in Ethiopia include,
wat, which is a spicy stew that contains meat, veggies and sometimes eggs. Wat is
eaten with injera, a flatbread. They use no silverware, you use the injera to
scoop up your food. I made beef wat and
chicken wat. I aslo made Fasolia, which is bean, carrots and onions sautéed in Ethiopian
sauce. I did buy the injera from an Ethiopian restaurant, momma cannot master
that. My kitchen smelled delicious. I have
to tell you the smell reminded me of Ethiopia. K kept asking me when it is done
mommy. It smells yummy but the true test was if my Ethiopian child liked it. We
wore the traditional Ethiopian outfits and decorated the table with all of our Ethiopia
treasures. We could all tell that K felt very special that day. One more thing, K loved his mommy’s
cooking. He gobbled it right up and so
did all the other kids. I love how my kids love their brother’s birth country.
