On Christmas morning, we gathered with our family to open gifts together with family, but Dan wanted to do something a little special for Mio since this is the first year she really understands the idea of Santa Claus and how he comes to deliver presents to each house. He found out about an app called SantApp, which uses the light and sound features on your phone to create the illusion that Santa Claus is right in your living room delivering presents. He set it up and woke Mio up early Christmas morning. We thought that it’d be hard to wake her up (because it usually is), but as soon as Dan said, “Mio, I think I hear Santa. He’s here!” she jumped out of bed and ran down to the foot of the stairs, from which Dan told her to wait and listen. It was really dark, so I mostly caught just the audio in the video below, but you can hear and see what went on below:
Afterwards, we let her open just one present before the rest of the family gathered later that morning to open gifts. It was her much-anticipated pink octopus that she’s been asking for from “Santa” (actually thoughtfully sent by Uncle Ted and Auntie Jackie) — you can see her happy (and a little bit sleepy) reaction in the following video:
We’re so happy that we could share with Mio some of the magic of Christmas, and bring Santa Claus to our home! We then went back to bed and slept in a little more, before Ted & Elisa came over and it was time for us to exchange gifts…
The gifts under the Christmas tree
This was Mirei’s first Christmas!
Ted & Elisa brought their dog Asher over! It was his first Christmas, too!
Mirei was happiest about the puffs she got from Grandma and Grandpa!
Mio hugging the Zoku Character Kit for our Zoku popsicles that we love to make!
Mio with her Christmas haul. I think she got the most presents out of anyone!
Dan handled cooking most of Christmas dinner, and it was delicious!
Christmas honey ham. So good!
Green beans with mushroom and bacon, made by me. I usually dislike green beans, but ever since my friend Mimi awakened me to this recipe, I can’t get enough of them!
Fresh salad prepared by my mom
Crisp potato roast! This was also delicious, and we made two pans of it!
Dan carving the ham
The family gathered for Christmas dinner
Christmas Day also happens to be my birthday, and this year I turned 32! Growing up, I used to be saddened by the fact that I often couldn’t spend my birthday with friends, or that a lot of them would be out of town when I had a birthday party close to Christmas, but recently I’ve grown to appreciate the fact that I’ve never had to go to school nor work on my birthday, and that my family is usually gathered anyway for Christmas, so I can always spend it with them. In a way, it’s the perfect day to celebrate a birthday!
Celebrating with a birthday cake after dinner
Blowing out the candles… Mio is very serious about helping me out here.
A happy Mio! She loves birthdays.
My first birthday with this sweet chubster! She has made this past year all the sweeter.
Mirei also turned 11 months old on Christmas Day! Her birthday is exactly a month after mine.
Love Mio’s ecstatic expression here!
We hope everyone’s Christmas was just as warm and sweet! There’s so little left of 2014, and we wish everyone the best as we close this year and ring in the new one!
Continuing from Part I and Part II of Mio’s birthday party posts, here’s the finale portion of Mio’s first birthday celebration — the smash cake! While we had made plenty of cupcakes to go around for our guests (in lieu of a birthday cake), we had a dedicated birthday cake all for Mio to enjoy! For those who are not familiar with a smash cake, it’s a common first birthday tradition where the child is encouraged to attack the cake with her fingers, fists, or face — no utensils required! It typically makes a huge mess on both the baby and the surrounding area, but it’s a whole lot of fun for the grown-ups to watch and get a good laugh out of it. And I’m sure most children don’t mind digging into a sweet dessert without restraint, so it’s a win-win for all!
Dan with Mio's smash cake
Because we haven’t really exposed Mio to anything with sugar in her diet yet, and would like to avoid giving her sweets for as long as we can manage, I did some research before making her smash cake, to see if there were any wholesome cake recipes that didn’t contain sugar and artificial sweeteners. Thankfully, it seems that there are many other mothers out there who feel the same, and I was able to find some helpful resources and recipes! After going through various recipes, I decided on making a carrot cake that used applesauce and apple juice concentrate as sweeteners in place of sugar, and that used whole wheat flour instead of enriched white flour. (I took a taste of it when it came out of the oven, and it actually still tasted pretty sweet, thanks to the natural sweetness of the apples and carrots!) The frosting was the toughest part, as most frosting depends on sugar to achieve its thickness and ability to crust, and many of the sugar-free recipes I found on the web used artificial sweeteners and sugar substitutes like Equal and Splenda, which I think are just as bad (if not worse) for a baby to ingest. I ended up using a stabilized whipped cream recipe, which used gelatin to help it hold its shape, and added some meringue powder as well to help with stiffening the frosting. I then added icing colors to achieve the hues I wanted as I frosted roses onto the carrot cake. Even stabilized, the whipped cream was melting down the sides of the cake (see picture) while I was frosting it, and I had to keep it in the freezer until right before the party began to make sure it held its shape. I guess something’s gotta give when you are working with limited ingredients! I am just happy that I was able to make a cake that was pretty healthy and wholesome and still enjoyable to eat.
Mio went to town with the cake and really worked the crowd (she’s quite the entertainer!), but you can see for yourself here in the video, or scroll further down to see the cake demolition step by step!
Mio staring at everyone while we sang "Happy Birthday" to her.
My little birthday girl!
Reaching her hands in...
Scooping up the frosting...
Fistfuls of frosting!
Bringing it to her mouth!
"Go Mio! Go Mio!"
Surrounded by paparazzi!
Going for more...
An impressive cake beard.
She just keeps going...
The cake didn't stand a chance.
Breaking into the cake
A sheepish smile.
"Banzai! I am victorious against the cake!"
Me surveying the damage.
Mio trying to hand me a handful of frosting. "Here, have some!" No thanks, Mio...
The demolished cake.
Afterwards, Mio changed out of her caked dress and we gathered around to open presents.
Thank you Sarah for the adorable lamb hat!
Mio with her lovely new ruffle shoes!
Because Mio had been up from 6:45 am, and didn’t take her morning nap due to all the excitement, she was noticeably cranky and tired by the 3 o’clock hour when we were opening presents. I can’t believe she was able to stay up that long!
Starting to whine.
Getting more and more cranky.
We tried to carry on opening presents, despite all her protests.
Mio ended up curling up in Daddy's lap, crying with her eyes closed.
Can't... stay... awake.
And within a minute, she passed out. Poor Mio was exhausted.
It was so noisy, but she didn't even stir. Even rolling a toy on her doesn't wake her up. She was out cold.
So we just continued opening presents on her behalf, in peace.
Thank you everyone for all the generous and thoughtful gifts!
In all my busy-ness running around during the party, I lamely didn’t take many pictures with our guests! I have what little photos I have with them from pulling them off of friends’ Facebook and phone uploads. Thank you to everyone who shared their photos with me, and if you have any more photos from the party, please feel free to send them on over! 🙂
Adorable Megumi and Sam with their mason jar mugs. With lovely Sam!
With beautiful Megumi, who has spoiled Mio so much, from even before she was born!
With Jason! Thanks for coming from all the way across the bridge!
Hyang Sun was 8 months pregnant at the party and was still a month away from her due date, but she ended up having her baby girl a month early, the day after Mio's birthday party! Congratulations! Special thanks to Wynn, Megumi, and Sam who came an hour before the party started to help with last-minute preparations and set-up! We couldn't have pulled it off without their help.
I didn't get to take a photo of the favor box until after all the favors were gone, but we gave away our homemade cookies in little packages for our guests to take home with them.
See below for a slideshow of all the photos taken at the party! (We couldn’t post all of them on the blog without crashing your browser.)
Thank you so much to everyone who came out to Mio’s birthday party to celebrate with us! It was definitely memorable and we will treasure these precious memories for years and decades to come. Our first year as parents was definitely a challenge and had its fair share of ups and downs, but it is thanks to the love and support of our family and friends that we’ve been able to come this far. We look forward to many more great memories together with you! 😀
Last Sunday, we hosted a baby shower for our dear friends Megumi and John, who are expecting a baby girl around Christmas next month! It was my first time planning and preparing a shower, but it was a lot of fun to put together! (I did realize how much work goes into them, though, and awakened within me a deeper appreciation for all the effort friends have put into the brial shower and baby showers they threw for me in the past.) I’m glad that we had this opportunity to gather together as friends to celebrate this new life and welcome Megumi and John’s beautiful baby girl into our lives!
Setting up for the baby shower!
Megumi is a big fan of Studio Ghibli films, especially Totoro, so I created a Totoro-themed calendar for the guests to guess when the baby would arrive.
Guess when the baby will arrive!
Little umbrella favors for the guests to take home.
...complete with personalized tags.
And what is a shower without some delicious food? As baking is more of my forte than cooking, I made the desserts — cupcakes and sugar cookies!
Chrysanthemum cupcakes. The cream cheese frosting was a little runny, so it looks a little like the mum petals are melting.
This was my first time making sugar cookies with royal icing, but they turned out decent, thanks to some awesome tips from my dear friend and sugar cookie guru, Miss Megumi Kaminaga (different Megumi from the one we hosted this shower for). Thank you Mamagumi, and hope I’ve made you proud!
My first time making sugar cookies with royal icing.
Totoro, onesie, and baby carriage cookies
For the main course, we had a Korean platter, with bulgogi, japchae, and dumplings. Thank you for cooking everything, Kayo!
And a special thanks goes to Ann Helen for the delicious salad (not pictured) and the veggies, hummus, and homemade guacamole!
Mio took everything in as her Mama ran around preparing and setting up.
We also planned some fun games to play during the baby shower. The first was the Dirty Diaper game, in which we melted chocolates within these “diapers” and the guests had to guess what type of chocolate each diaper contained. (i.e. Butterfinger, Crunch, Mr. Goodbar, etc…)
The guests of honor, John and Megumi
Ann Helen and Aika take their guesses
A curious Mio watched as everyone played the game.
Aika and her adorable 5-month old son, Easton.
John got all of them right and was the winner!
The next game was the baby food guessing game. I soaked the labels off of baby food jars and the guests had to pass them around and guess what type of food each jar contained, from smell and (if they were brave enough) taste.
The last game we played was the classic “Guess the Mommy’s Belly Size” game, where we measured out tape to however length it was around Megumi’s baby bump.
John with the daunting task of taking the first guess.
Megumi still looks so petite for 8 months! She looks great!
Kayo measuring out Megumi's belly to get the actual measurement.
A few people came pretty close, but Kaz was the winner!
After the games, we went onto an activity of decorating onesies for Megumi and John’s baby! I’d seen variations of this where people used fabric paint, but I thought it would be a lot less messy and perhaps look nicer if we cut out fabric and attached them to the onesies with iron-on adhesive and peel-n-stick adhesive. Even the guys got into it and created some great custom clothing for baby!
Dan exercising his creativity.
Daddy-to-be John worked on making one, too!
Everyone hard at work.
Ironing on the letters.
The results were spectacular! Look at how cute everyone’s onesies turned out! I was so impressed! 😀
We had John and Megumi each pick their favorite designs out of all the great onesies everyone created. It was not an easy decision!
Having a hard time choosing...
John chose Kai and Koreana's collaborative onesie creation.
Megumi picked Ann Helen's lovely design!
Finally, it was time to open presents! There were such cute goodies for their baby girl…
Aika crocheted this adorable hat and mitten set for the baby!
Special thanks go Kayo, who cooked for the shower and MC-ed the games! I couldn’t have done it all without all the help from her, Kaz, and Ann Helen.
John and Megumi getting some practice entertaining a baby... and Mio just enjoying all the attention.
Thank you to everyone who was able to make it to the baby shower — I think it was a great success! 🙂 Congratulations to Megumi and John — we can’t wait to meet your sweet baby girl!
Merry Christmas to all! Hope that everyone is having a relaxing, enjoyable time with their families and friends.
Christmas Day also happens to be my birthday, and today I turn 27. We arrived in Dulles airport last night with no delays and a relatively smooth flight. Once I got home, my friend Angel picked me up to go have dinner together, since she is leaving for China and Thailand tomorrow and I would not see her for the rest of the holidays. We were going to have a quiet late dinner at Tachibana, a Japanese restaurant in McLean. Once we got there, I was greeted by some of my closest friends, great sushi and cake, and ton of colorful birthday balloons. I was stunned speechless, and it was totally unexpected. Dan and one of my best friends Hanna had apparently put the whole thing together and coordinated it. I was really touched because with my birthday being on Christmas, I rarely get to celebrate it with friends since everyone is with their families, and things are just so busy in general over the holiday season. There were so many thoughtful presents that my friends had gotten for me, but honestly the biggest gift to me was that they had all taken some time to come out on Christmas Eve to celebrate with me, especially after I’d been away for so long and I had missed them so much. So a heartfelt thank you to all of my friends who came last night, as well as to those who wanted to but were unable to. You guys are the best, and I love you all!
Surprise birthday dinner at Tachibana in McLean
The cutest birthday cake ever.
up, up and away!
Dan had also gotten me a Tiffany necklace for my birthday! I immediately felt guilty for bugging him about getting a Kitchenaid stand mixer for the past couple months, because when he gave it to me he said, “You can trade it in for a Kitchenaid mixer if you really want it.” As much as I want the mixer, I am too much of a Tiffany fan to give this darling up. The mixer can wait. 😉
Tiffany necklace from Dan for my birthday
It's good to be home!
Christmas Day has been fun and relaxing so far. In the morning, we exchanged gifts among the family, and we siblings have been spending much of the day playing board games and on the Wii. My mother made some delicious hot soba noodles for lunch, and we’re going to have a sashimi dinner tonight! Not the traditional Christmas dinner, I know, but I’ll take raw fish over ham any day. 😉
Christmas morning
A Wacom tablet from my parents and brother!
And the snow! Although much of it has been shoveled off the roads or has started to melt, there is still over a foot of snow blanketing the ground. This is the first white Christmas I’ve seen in years and I’m loving it. The white landscape is gorgeous and makes for a true winter wonderland. Time for snow angels and snowball fights!
snow in our backyard
We’ll be taking a weekend trip up to New York City tomorrow, but we’ll be back in the DC area on Monday. Looking forward to all the fun times ahead with our friends and family! 😀
