NO.......I'm not going nutso!!  (I'm already there )
Today is ENGUTATASH EVE, New Year's Eve, in Ethiopia and they are partying like it's 1999..... because it is.  I posted a while back about Ethiopia using a different calendar and that they are 7 years behind us.   This is really confusing I know but that's how it is! 
On one of the Yahoo Groups I belong to, this post was written by someone who lives in Ethiopia and I thought it was a great insight as to what is going on over there so I asked for permission to post it.  I wonder if our daughter will be in on the celebrations? 

Ethiopia is really gearing up for a huge celebration tonight and
tomorrow. The streets are full of people on their way to market with
chickens over their bicycles, in baskets and hanging from sticks
over their shoulders. Children are adorned in new bright and clean
outfits and men and women are parading the streets in their white
traditional clothes, with decorated shawls, umbrellas and baskets.

Everywhere the markets have been full of vendors selling new and old
styles of traditional clothing, and all the food makings for a real
feast: spiced bread, coffee beans, chickens, corn, potatoes, and
onions galore peddled along the roadside. The clothing stalls tout
the lasts fashion of fish tail bottomed skirts and strappy shirred
tops, while children and chickens run amongst the legs of buyers.

People have been cleaning and decorating their home, laying new
flooring, painting with fresh bright colours and hanging coloured
lights or candles in windows. Last night the first fireworks
cracked the night air here in Bahir Dar and children and adults
alike ran to the waterfront park where the celebration will be held
tonight to see the display.

All around the country visitors have been arriving for weeks, many
are family members who have not been back to Ethiopia for decades.
The cafes are full of old friends boast past victories and successes
to captivated audiences. Foreigners and family visitors flash money
at anyone who comes begging, so the streets are also filled with
children and women from the countryside hoping to beg enough for
several new cows, another plot of land, new clothing and the years
school fees.

The celebrations span the western tradition of midnight and
fireworks and the Ethiopian tradition of gift giving and feasting on
Engutatash (New Years Day). 1999 was a leap year so today (11th
Sept) is Pugami 6 in the Ethiopian calendar, the leap year extra
day. Regardless, celebrations of Ethiopia's enterance into a new
millennium will continue for days as family and friends down their
tools and work clothes to eat, drink and share time together.

Please pray for the country over this time, for safety of travellers
and for a dawing of a new era for the Ethiopian people.

Leith Harding
Bahir Dar, Ethiopia