A Chinese Baby Shower for Dumpling

One of the highlights of December for our family was the birth of Rya, Aki’s first first-cousin on the Endaya side. Because it was a much awaited event, we just had to have a party. Before Rya was born, everyone called her Baby Dumpling. Since siomai came from China and it was the year of the dragon, I thought of a Chinese-inspired baby shower for her.

This means Siomai in English.

We started with the decors.

With the help of Ate Dorina and Tina, I made and hung some 60+ red lanterns. It was too late when I realized that we don’t have a white thread so we had to use a yarn. The lanterns still looked like they were floating.

We also made a wishing tree. Guests wrote messages on a piece of paper and placed them inside the red Chinese envelopes. Thank you, neighbor, for the your twigs!

Here is my very first diaper cake. I made it from a 40-pc pack of diaper, 40 rubber bands, a blanket, shiny shimmery crepe paper and an ampao.

The diaper cake was the centerpiece of our tablescape which looked like this before the food arrived. Rya’s parents, Mae and Kuya Fiel,  came as soon as the food arrived so I did not have time to take a picture of the table.

My contribution were the mini siopaos which I ordered from Susan, my suki from the Mary Help of Christian Sunday market.  The mini siopao costs only 100 pesos per pack of 10. All three variants, bola-bola, asado and vegetable were hits!

Lechon Macau c/o Babita, Siomai c/o Mae’s cousin, Buchi and Lumpiang Shianghai c/o Mae’s mom and my favorite, pancit from some motel from Pasig. Mental note: get the name and number of the motel from Tita Mildred.