Christmas In MN - Ethiopian Style

Tonight we enjoyed a traditional Ethiopian feast at my parent's home with Mike's mom and stepfather. My sister has several girlfriends who recently moved to the USA from Ethiopia who had planned on joining us and guiding us through the meal preparation, but unfortunately they were victims of Minnesota weather so last minute improvisation was necessary. Thank goodness they had shared the location of an African grocery store with us earlier so we were able to find the all-necessary berbere and injera, and they even hooked us up with special spiced ground beef for sambusa! I must say that we did alright with tonight's meal - we made sambusa for appetizers and followed with traditional Ethiopian entrees of tibs wat, a berbere potato dish, and a red lentil dish. They were all delicious! We all sat around the dinner table enjoying a traditional Ethiopian meal, soon to be known as a traditional McGregor meal.



Despite a welcoming Minnesota Christmas snow we made it in to MSP on time yesterday. Mike and I have ALOT of family in Minnesota, in fact between the two of us we are Hall's, Campanaro's, McGregor's, Tull's, Anderson's, and Roberts. Thanks to an unknown source of scheduling magic we're able to spend quality time with all of them during most of our visits to Minnesota. We need to start buying stock in scheduling magic...

So what did we do on day #1 in MN? Naturally, we went bowling! Based on our performance my mom and sister should probably join a league and my husband and I should stay as far away as possible from those three-holed balls that aren't supposed to go in the gutters.



Today we had our McGregor/Roberts Christmas (Mike's dad and stepmother) where Grandma and Grandpa were the center of attention. They are without a doubt the couple that Mike and I aspire to be. Grandpa is 98 years old (3 months shy of 99) with a plethora of health issues, yet the two of them are so obviously in love that it's fun to watch. Seriously, fun.



Baby Bean's Godmother was there as well!