For us, one of the best parts of being a transracial family is the opportunity to explore our daughter's birth culture. We want Evie to feel proud to be from the amazing and beautiful country of Ethiopia. Indeed, we feel blessed to now be an Ethiopian-American family.
Earlier in the week, we checked out this book from the library. It's the traditional Christmas nativity story with added Ethiopian flare (and absolutely amazing artwork!).
Legend has it that one of the Magi was King Balthazar of Ethiopia. It is said that he came bearing the gift of frankenscence.
Customarily, gifts are not exchanged for Ganna so we held to this tradition. Sometimes children receive a new piece of clothing. Our kids donned their traditional Ethiopian garb. Seeing the girls together like this, or my beautiful wife surrounded by our kids, brings indescribable joy to my heart.
Miss Iris was kind enough to cry only in the car, allowing us to enjoy a peaceful dinner, which Evie tackled with gusto.
We ended our Ganna celebration with a family movie night, Jude weilding the ever-present light saber he got for Christmas.
Melkam Ganna! (Merry Christmas!)
Loved learning a bit about Ethopian Christmas...very cool!
ReplyDeleteSuch sweet pictures! Thanks for the book report--will have to get that one next year. We had gelato to celebrate. ;-) Oh--and we have the same lightsaber at our house, but blue. And it's getting a lot of play time... ;-)
ReplyDelete