Uncle Felix or Fifi, in red in the middle, has been in a lion dance troupe for as long as I can remember. Fifi is my dad’s cousin, so my second cousin or uncle. This would be his last year doing lion dances and his troupe would be the last performance in Chinatown so we came out to see him.
Fifi’s troupe has a lot of members organizing, performing, drumming. They all wore the same jackets.
The Chinese lion performances are a tradition that starts on New Year’s day and continue the 15 days of celebration. The parading lions go through the streets to bring good luck to everyone they meet and visit stores, restaurants, and businesses.
We watched them setup.
And stack these red wooden benches that Fifi in the lion costume would jump onto.
A Chinese Association paid to have the lion dance performance in front of their building. They strung oranges, lettuce, and red envelopes for the lion to reach for good luck. The lion would put the lettuce in its mouth and then spit it out to symbolize spreading good luck and a fresh start.
Here is a photo of the lions spitting out lettuce at the Lunar New Year Family Festival at MOCA.
There was a great crowd. I was nervous for him to jump up onto the red benches. Fifi had nerves of steel.
These would be the performing lions.
The performance started with the lions walking down the street to the front of the Chinese Association building.
The Laughing Buddha came to tease the lion with a fan and make it jump, roll, and lay down. The Buddha climbed up a pole and cut down the oranges, lettuce, and red envelopes to feed to the lion.
Then did some acrobatics for the crowd.
The lion dance performance was awesome.
We saw another performance earlier in the day and the lion was on stilts and unraveled a scroll with a message of good luck.
When I grew up fireworks were part of the lion dance performances to scare away the evil spirits. For safety reasons they are no longer part of these performances and now that I’m older, it’s somewhat unbelievable to have firecrackers going off around huge crowds of people.
I’ve seen so many lion dances and always impressed with the athleticism and skill. It’s one of my favorite parts of Chinese New Year.
The Dumpling Mama xo
I am honored to review ,100 Fun & Easy Learning Games For Kids, for 
My daughters chose “How Many Bricks” in the “Really Cool Math” section. They love Legos!
All we needed were plastic bricks like Legos, muffin tin liners, paper and a black marker to label the liners 1 to 10. To play the game, you need to fill the muffin tin with the number below and color of the muffin tin. For example, a blue muffin cup with a 3 below it would need to be filled with 3 blue legos. The focused skill for this activity was sorting and grouping items in specific number groupings.
First, the girls played together and were timed how long it took to finish. My 5-year-old filled muffin tins 1-5 and 8-year-old filled muffin tins 6-10.
I would check to make sure each of the tins were filled correctly. Each tin filled correctly was a point.
After a dozen games, we divided the tins in half so each player got some low and high numbers and the girls played each other.
Cousin Cheryl was visiting and she got in on the fun. We made the game more complicated for her so she had to not only fill according to the color and number, but also all pieces in the tin had to be the same size.
Then I played…and got the slowest score!
You look at the calendar and realize there are only 2 weeks until Chinese New Year! Don’t fret. Follow this list and you will be ready to celebrate.
Even though my daughters are only 5 and 8, I think about the people they will marry. I wonder who will be able to achieve the very high standards I have already set for them or break through the steel and kryptonite wall my Grouchy Husband is building around his little girls.
Going out for dim sum is a very happy time for my family. We go as a multi-generation group from my grandparents to my children and we always go hungry because these are some of our favorite foods. Here is how I have an awesome dim sum experience.
This can be somewhat cryptic because the dishes most likely have been translated exactly from their Chinese characters. Don’t be surprised if you see misspellings and no pictures. Here are some of my favorites that are worth trying.
Shrimp dumpling
Cilantro and Scallion rice roll. This is vegetarian but some have meat and they are all delicious.
Bean curd skin roll
Steamed spare ribs
Sticky rice in lotus leaf
Shanghainese Soup Dumplings
Turnip cake with XO Sauce
I went to a baby shower recently for a friend having her third baby. It was a surprise because most woman wouldn’t agree to a shower for a third child, but it was lovely and a great time. Most baby shower gifts are purchased from a registry. As a Chinese-American, I love to include Chinese tradition in an American occasion. I wish good luck and prosperity to the soon-to-be born baby and parents with a 
The shower was at a cute cafe that served a French brunch menu all day. Love the French.
The table was decorated so pretty.
We waited patiently for the pregnant-mommy to show up.
It was a wonderful celebration and she was so surprised.
What made the time even better was the dads took the kids to the aquarium one block away.
My daughters and I just met my cousin’s new baby, Rose. She just had her first round of immunizations and could start seeing germ-y people like us. Baby Rose has chubby cheeks and loves to be held. We all took turns holding her and she sleep like this the whole time.
She sometimes would make funny faces while she was sleeping. We thought she smelled something yucky in her dreams when she made this face. The girls loved holding her. They felt like little mommies.
The American custom is to celebrate the coming of a new baby with a baby shower. The Chinese custom is to give a 
2. Make and eat special Chinese New Year foods. Growing up, there were foods I looked forward to eating because they were only made during Chinese New Year. I want to cook my family a Chinese New Year meal with all of the symbolic foods on New Year’s Day. Even though growing up I would help my mom, grandmother, aunts cook, it was a totally different ball game when you have to cook it yourself. Thankfully, with the help of my mom, cookbooks, and 7 years of practice, the dinner is pretty good now.
For Chinese New Year, my paternal grandmother made “tai”, a fried dumpling with potato mixed into the skin to make it extra crispy. When I was younger, my cousins and I would impatiently wait for the “tai” to come out from frying in the hot oil and cool off enough to eat. As I got older, my grandmother taught us how to stuff and wrap the dumpling with the twisted closure on top.
After she passed away, my mom continues her tradition for my dad’s family and makes the filling and potato dough. My sisters, aunts, and cousins gather together to stuff and wrap the dumplings. This time together is very special because we talk and catch up with each other and learn to make these traditional foods.
My brother is always in charge of frying the “tai”. He is single if anyone is looking for a “foodie” who loves romantic comedies.
My maternal grandmother makes “fat goh” (发
3. Get together with family and friends. Since I was born, we always got together with my dads family and my mom’s family to celebrate Chinese New Year. I married a Chinese man and now a third celebration has been added to the calendar. I treat Chinese New Year as a season and not a single day holiday to be able to see all of our families. Coordinating schedules can challenging, but well worth the time spent together. It doesn’t matter if the celebration is a single day with family or multiple times with friends, the important part is the togetherness.
4. Attend a Chinese New Year Family Event hosted by a local organization. I want my daughters to be immersed in Chinese culture during Chinese New Year because there is so much to learn and everything is well-spirited. Even though we don’t live in China, they get to see lots of people at these events and how big of a deal Chinese New Year is to Chinese people. My favorite is the event at the 
One of my daughters favorite activity at the MOCA Lunar New Year Family Event is the Chinese calligraphy. They got to see the artist draw a character of their choice, they chose monkey because it was this year’s zodiac, and then the artist places a sheet of paper on top, hands them the brush and they got to trace. My daughters got exposure to history and the art of calligraphy
There were several tables with crafts to celebrate the new year.
Some crafts the girls got to take home but some they made, like the wishful fish scale, to be a part of a larger project. The whole fish (complete with head and tail) is symbolic because it represents 
The girls loved the performances. They were mesmerized by the beautiful costumes and synchronized dancing. It was amazing how the red silk dancers could perform in such a small space. The family festival also had traditional lion dancing, longevity noodle pulling demonstration, Chinese New Year legends story telling, and zodiac face painting. Even though it’s a busy day, I am so grateful for this event because when I’m sitting with my daughters and walking to each activity, we are talking about the different things that are happening and they are learning about Chinese New Year.
Today my mom went to a wake of someone who was like an uncle to her when she first came to the United States at age 16. Her father, my grandfather, and uncle were partners in a restaurant in Chinatown and my mom worked as a hostess. My grandfather had a massive heart attack when my mom was 20, he survived with only a fourth of his heart working and uncle pushed him out of the business. My grandparents were so angry and did not see or speak to him after that time. My mom did not see uncle for over 40 years, until his wake. My grandparents would not attend.