It’s finally beginning to feel a bit like Christmas! This weekend we trimmed the Christmas tree and put up the decorations. For your viewing pleasure, a video of our tree trimming… complete with a little caroling!

We even managed to have friends over for cherry pudding and hot apple cider. So the holidays are creeping into our house! Jrock and I worked on the girls’ room a  lot this weekend – we hope by Christmas they will be able to move in. Mom and Dad are coming back from Vancouver tomorrow with the girls’ IKEA mattresses in their truck, so once we have those, I know the pressure will be on!

PS: Nona, your new angels are in the video!

On a completely lighter note, I ordered the first of the girls’ new bedroom furniture today. Most of it we will source second hand, but I fell in love with these two chairs from Target. We live close to the border (2 hours) so I have them shipped there and then just pick them up.

Aren’t they cute?

We also decided on the girls’ walls – Auntie Ena is going to do 2 foot high Matryoshka dolls all along one wall.

They will be in traditional costumes from a variety of countries – I’m sure the girls will want some from Ethiopia, as well as China, Lesotho, Swaziland and other countries they have friends from.

Sugar would like me to add that they will not be “all pink-skinned like these ones – they will have brown skins too!”

It will be so cute!

BTW, our new guy will have the girls’ current bedroom downstairs – they are taking over the guest room.

Oh – don’t you love the age where the kids want to help you clean, and can actually be of good use? It’s great.

Whenever Jrock and I clean the house, the girls are in there like dirty shirts (or, should I say, clean shirts!) wiping and scrubbing.

Today, I found out that if I leave the carpet-sweeper out in a corner of the kitchen, Spice is just drawn to tidying up the floor.

May this phase last forever! (I know it doesn’t… but you can let me live in dream land for a while.)

Well, it’s taken a long time to learn how to make injera properly. Those who have been following my blog WAY back will remember that first I learned to make “cheaper injera” with bubbly water.

Then I went through the rigamorol of many Ethio-adoptive parents.. I watched every youtube video out there about injera. I learned that in Ethiopia you make a porridgy dough out of the injera and then add hot water… still! gummy injera. I even got pointers from an Ethiopia acquaintance, who incorporated 6 flours into her recipe. I EVEN bought an injera pan for $180.

Still – my injera sucked.

Enter my friend M. She makes THE BEST injera. I mean, her injera kicks many Ethiopian restaurants’ butts. And she only lives a few blocks away from me. Ethiopian’s from our community always congregate at her house for her food – no wonder. It’s just fantastic.

So one weekend, we set it aside for me to learn to make injera - her way. She said the methods they use in Ethiopia simply do not work here in North America. From her basement where she stores her flours, to her kitchen making starter and batter, and a day or so later, to my kitchen to cook it, I followed her… wrote down her instructions, and VIDEO-TAPED HER!

That’s right folks, we made an injera-making video! I plan on sometime this year putting it together as a movie and selling it as a fundraiser for Vulnerable Children Society. If you are interested in purchasing a copy of a “how to make injera in Nth. America” video when we produce it, leave a comment below!

But in the meanwhile, I am perfecting my technique, and teaching the girls. My “eyes” still aren’t quite wide enough in the injera (the sourdough holes) but overall, I have achieved very respectable and tasty injera. Yum! Thank you M!!!

Spring has sprung in our neck of the woods. How’s the weather where you are? We know some of you are still in snow; others have tulips blooming.

Today we seized advantage of the good weather and I took the girls for their first neighborhood bike ride. You can see me raising the seats to their maximum above.

The girls have biked lots in the church parking lot near our house, but this was the first time they navigated streets and traffic and pedestrians. In reflection, I have to say that I overestimated their road sense! But they are learning and we made the whole trip a lesson in “fun meets safety.” White-knuckled (me), we all returned home safe and sound.

Here is video of the relaxed creek-side portion of our trip for your viewing pleasure – the girls are chatting at the end and have some special grandparent messages in there! (Gramma got cut off the beginning – they didn’t forget you!)

This past week, the girls also zoomed around the neighborhood with their little neighbor across the street. It was like a biker rally for small people. (For my grandmother’s sake – Spice is in the pink bunny helmet and Sugar is in the yellow duck helmet.)

We also had some other fun events this past week… including my Bday dinner. To close, here are some pics of Sugar and Spice with their friends Tigger and Chuckles (I have renamed the Leopard) eating and doing the ring-around-the-rosey after we paid the restaurant bill.

And my birthday cake, later that evening…

I’m not sure what it is about Christmas – but after it gets into full swing, it’s hard to get a good picture! Or that seemed the case this year at least. Hold your cursor above the photo for an explanation, or click to embiggen.

We squeezed in some visits with friends in the week before Christmas: with T, my friend’s daughter from Swaziland…

…and then with their three Chinese friends (oh, and their parents too!) So funny that a year and a half ago, when us three families would get together – it was just us six adults. Now there are 11 of us!

Then Gramma and Grandpa arrived. We went swimming (no pictures of that, I can assure you!) and the usual walks and crafts and singing.

The girls set out cookies and soy milk for Santa (he prefers soy milk, they assured me,) and carrots for the reindeer, then pranced off to bed with Sugarplumes dancing in their heads.

In the morning, well! What excitement! Miracle of miracles, the girls did indeed get skateboards from Santa for Christmas. (On Boxing Day after Gramma and Grandpa left, I took the girls over to my office to skateboard in the quiet hallways, and they are already scooting quite well.)

Jrock and I were laughing Christmas morning, because we both remembered being little and our parents forcing us to eat breakfast before opening our non-Santa presents. Now, we are those super mean parents!

Our Christmas dinner was a highlight – we invited our Ethiopian friends, M and H and their son N. Apparently, after 8? years in Canada, it was their first real Canadian Christmas dinner. They spontaneously brought along their other Ethiopian friend M (very sweet). As M laughlingly told me, most ferengi expect some warning when extra guests are coming, but since I am practically habesha in her eyes, they knew an extra Ethiopian would be welcome! And so she was. We had a lovely dinner and they were surprised and tickled to see presents under the tree for them as well.

Well, my parents are gone, but tonight my sister arrives and the next wave of visiting begins. I hope you are all continue to have a lovely holiday with your families as well!

It’s no “Frosty” around here! but we did get a huge dump of wet wet snow last night. This morning, we rushed outside to craft a snowman before all the snow melted away…

Ta da! We’ll see if he even lasts the day… but it was fun!

REALTIME UPDATE! NEWS FLASH: Melty didn’t make it. 2 Hours later…

Farewell, sweet snowman.

Everybody has a different lifestyle and living experience. These snapshots from the last couple of weeks does give a hint of ours, anyway. Busy busy busy! but with lots of time for the improtant things, such as play and gardening, fmaily and friends.

BTW: You will see some pics of Sugar and Spice’s friend Tigger.  Guess what? she is going to have a new sister. Check out the Drinkwater’s blog for the cute pics of tigger’s new sis!

Of all the strange places in the world, I finally bought my very own injera pan in… wait for it… New Norway, Alberta. Look it up on google maps and you’ll know why I was surprised. 

Jrock and I were taking a round-about way home, wandering through the secondary highways looking for antiques, when we pulled into the unmarked antiques store.

Just when Spice and I were about to leave, what should I see but a PILE of BRAND NEW INJERA PANS! And I mean stainless steel, North American plugs, super duper looking injera pans! 

Well, it makes sense, since Norwegians use the same pans to make lefse (Norwegian pancakes.) But it was still surprising.  So if you want a pan, call the lady there!  She was super nice and is happy to ship them. The pan cost $170ish… but worth every penny if you ask me. I’ve been trying to get my hands on a good pan for ages, and finally, I have one!  Now, I just have to start making better injera….

To buy your own pan…

Call Joan at Nifty Things in New Norway, Alberta. 780-855-2696!

Last year we had this grand scheme for the side yard, which was basically this grassy, weedy pit of a place. The previous owners has some half-baked plans that never came to fruition. We decided to build a shaded play area, with butterfly attracting, soft plants, trees to make shade, and many indigenous plants. Then after we took all the gravel and stuff out last year – oops! off I went to Ethiopia.

But we still had the plans. So this year we’ll see it though. The girls helped us pick rocks last week. there was a considerable amount of dirt to move, and a lot of weeds and grass to take out. Then I staked it out with our plan, and today we bought most of the plants.

Today I started planting, but stopped after an hour. This could take a while! The only ingredigent that we’re missing is the thyme for the middle. We’re not sure if we can get away with white creeping thyme, instead of the thicker stuff we had planned (but don’t have enough of at the store…)

I’ll post more pictures when it sharts to grow in more…