Melkam Addis Amet!!!!

Happy New Year!!

Enjoy 2006!

The Simpsons Eat Ethiopian

"Marge, The kids are acting ethnic."

Tee Hee Hee!!!!

Enkutatash- The Outtakes

Yesterday was our local Enkutatash (Ethiopian New Year) Celebration. The celebration is hosted by a group that provides supports for Ethiopian immigrants in our area, and serves not only as a celebration of the holiday, but also as a fundraiser for the group. Several of my friends- fellow adoptive moms and dads- are also involved with the group. Two of them are photographers and donated their services for the event. In exchange for a donation to the group, they took photos. So we tried for a photo with the kids together.......

To set the scene- large room, somewhat crowded and the photo backdrop is by the door so there is a stream of people walking by. Music playing loudly throughout the room (so A is completely overstimulated), K and D both want cupcakes (which they can't have till after photos) and they had fallen asleep on the way to the celebration so were still cranky from waking up and X who LOVES the photographer is too busy fooling around to actually listen to what he is being told to do. I feel like I should have doubled (or tripled) my donation and his patience with my kids was legendary. Hopefully when we get the photos back from him there will be something good ('cause he tried like crazy to get a good one)

Until we get the "official" photos- here are the "outtakes" from the photo shoot

I think we will keep looking for the photo for the Christmas card this year

Melkam Addis Amet!!!! Happy 2003!!!

Today is Ethiopian New Year so Happy New Year, Everyone. Our local celebration is actually next week but as today is the official New Year's Day (for at least a few hours more) I wanted to wish everyone Melkam Addis Amet!!

For more on the Ethiopian calendar (and if you like puzzles you will love this)

From Wikipedia:

The Ethiopian calendar also called the Ethiopian Ge'ez calendar, is the principal calendar used in Ethiopia and also serves as the liturgical calendar for Christians in Eritrea belonging to the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church, Eastern Catholic Church and Lutheran Evangelical Church of Eritrea. It is based on the older Alexandrian or Coptic calendar, which in turn derives from the Egyptian calendar, but like the Julian calendar, it adds a leap day every four years without exception, and begins the year on August 29 or August 30 in the Julian calendar. A seven- to eight-year gap between the Ethiopian andGregorian calendars results from alternate calculations in determining the date of the Annunciation of Jesus.

Like the Coptic calendar, the Ethiopian calendar has twelve months of 30 days each plus five or six epagomenal days, which comprise a thirteenth month. The Ethiopian months begin on the same days as those of the Coptic calendar, but their names are in Ge'ez. The sixth epagomenal day is added every four years without exception on August 29 of the Julian calendar, six months before the Julian leap day. Thus the first day of the Ethiopian year, 1 Mäskäräm, for years between 1901 and 2099 (inclusive), is usually September 11 (Gregorian), but falls on September 12 in years before the Gregorian leap year.

The current year according to the Ethiopian calendar is 2002, which began on September 11, 2009 AD of the Gregorian calendar. The year 2003 will begin on September 11, 2010.

Happy 2002!!!

Although Ethiopian New Year was actually on September 11th, our local Ethiopian Community group held the celebration today. The Ethiopian calendar is actually 7 years behind the Gregorian calendar so it is now 2002 by the Ethiopian calendar. K actually has two birthdays- one listed in the Gregorian calendar and one in the Ethiopian calendar. So in a way, both A and K were born in the year 2000.

And in case you are wondering- total time the kids wore the white clothes before one of them got them dirty- just under 2 hours (which is a lot longer than I would have ever guessed)

Here are photos of the kids at the Enkutatash celebration.

Facepainting- D is her current favorite animal- a "meow meow" (this facepaint has alot to do with the shirts getting dirty)

Playing with balloons with our cousin Emily- can life get better than this??

Enjoying some yummy Ethiopian food (okay if you look at their plates some of them are enjoying it more than others) but they had a cabbage dish that A really likes- which he was happy about

A played his DS while the little kids found balloons to play with.

(contact me if you'd like the contact info for the photographer who took these photos)