Ye Ganna Baal - Merry Christmas to Ethiopians!

Today is Christmas in Ethiopia, referred as "Ye Ganna Baal." I have been looking forward to today for weeks. It's the first time we are making Ethiopian food! We did some prepping last night because the cooking is so different than we are used to. The cooking uses a ton of spices and I had to do some serious searching at the grocery store yesterday. We were going to visit the African markets in Kansas City, but the snow we are getting stopped us from venturing that way to get them. So, we had to prepare the spices from scratch.

We will be celebrating this every year, just as we celebrate our own American Christmas. By the time January rolls around we are pretty ready for Xmas to be over with, but this celebration and tradition for us will be a little different and mainly our celebrations will consist of a big Ethiopian meal. Our house smelled amazing last night. I'm anxious to see how everything turns out.

I'll post some photos of it, but here's what we are making:

Injera - it's the foundation to their meals and looks like a pancake. The dishes are served up in one communal platter and your roll up the food in the injera and eat it. Utensils are not used as the injera works as a fork or spoon.

Dora Wat - basically this is like a chicken stew.

Yataklete Kilkil -Gingered vegetable stew.

Once we get this cooking down, we do hope to have people over to experience it.

As far as an update on the adoption goes...we are getting ready to get our first series of travel shots. We're still waiting to hear about a referral. Right now, they are referring older children I guess. It seems we are just to keep waiting and try to be as patient as possible. I'm starting to look at baby stuff online. I've got friends talking about a baby shower, so I thought I would see what kind of baby stuff we'll need. I really wasn't planning on doing a shower, but after several different people bringing it up I realize we are going to need stuff and it would be a fun way to celebrate this experience with everyone. Plus, besides your wedding and baby shower, when else can you pick out stuff for people to get you! I do admit...that is pretty fun. I'm building a registry online and found one that lets me add stuff from my favorite online store...Etsy (all stores are products that are handmade).

Other than that, just trying to stay warm and really really hoping all this snow goes away and spring hurries up this year! I need some warm weather now more than ever.