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.
I am starting to recover from the busy and super fun holidays. Because we live close to both my family and my husband’s family, we are fortunate to celebrate with all our families and this year we had 4 Christmases.
Christmas Eve was also the first night of Hannukah. It was special to watch Uncle Mark and Aunt Bernice’s family light the first candle of the menorah and say a blessing.
The girls played high-stakes backgammon with Cousin Jill and Scott.
They also decorated their 7th gingerbread house of the season.
We stayed one night in the Berkshires, came home, unpacked, took showers, got dressed, let the girls open the rest of their presents from Grouchy Husband and I, and then drove to Brooklyn to celebrate Christmas with my family. It was a busy day.
My 9 cousins and I use to take a photo each year in from of the Christmas tree. We can hardly see the tree now. Our families has grown a bit.
My sister and her family came into town the day after Christmas.
My mom hosted a dinner that night and invited my grandmother and the rest of her family to celebrate another Christmas.
There were more presents to open. This is 3 consecutive days of present opening for the girls and it was as exciting as the first.
We also celebrated my uncle, grandmother, and brother-in-law’s birthdays.
Our 4th Christmas was with my sister-in-law’s family. And if you were wondering, yes, there was present opening.
This year my brother hosted 
I brought a crudités plate and cut heaping piles of vegetables to help counter-balance the fried chicken for dinner. I also brought Cheetos because it is our party food must-have.
We all had a champagne bottle (or two) of our own to drink.
The night starts out with lots of time catching up. My cousin Karyn (on the left) came in for the holidays from California. My cousin Cheryl (on the other side of me) dyed the bottom of her hair purple. So cool.
My cousin James is on the left. We called him James-y growing up and now we call him J-Poo.
My cousin Karyn is a newlywed and this is her husband Josh.
This is my cousin Artie and his girlfriend Nadya. She lives in Russia.
Nadya made a Russian salad for our dinner.
This is Grouchy Husband. He thinks my cousins are crazy but wouldn’t think of missing Cousins Dinner.
Dinner is A LOT of eating and drinking.
Lots of story-telling.
Lots and lots of laughing.
And more laughing.
Then things start to get silly.
And our pictures get a little off balance.
Then things get a little crazier.
Happy New Year from the Wong Cousins + Sami on FaceTime!
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.
One of my favorite things to eat when I would visit my grandparents in Chinatown growing up was char siu or barbecue pork. The strips of pork hung in the windows and my family would eat them for lunch over rice and noodles. I’ve been on a mission to make barbecue pork at home that is nutrient dense without gluten, dairy and processed ingredients. Here is the recipe and share photos of the barbecue pork on 
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place the pork shoulder on the cutting board.
Slice the pork shoulder into slabs that are 1/2 inch thick.
Cover the baking pan with aluminum foil. Place the baking rack on top. Spray the rack with the cooking spray or brush oil/fat on with the silicon brush. Place the slabs of pork on the rack.
Sprinkle salt and white pepper on both sides of the meat.
Place the tray of meat in the oven. Cook the meat for 15 minutes on each side. Set the timer.
After you have placed the meat back in the oven to cook for the second 15 minutes, put the stove on medium and pour in the coconut aminos and five spice powder.
While you are making the barbecue sauce, the meat will finish cooking. Take it out of the oven and set aside to cool.
The sauce will be ready a couple minutes later. Is ready when it has thickened to the point you stir it with the brush and it takes a couple seconds for the liquid to come together.
Place the meat on the cutting board. I use my wooden cutting board to cut non-raw food. Brush the meat with the sauce.
Cover both sides of the meat and the edges with the sauce.
Barbecue pork is ready. Slice and serve!
My girls get so excited when I make these eggplant medallions. They will eat them by themselves, on top of (gluten-free) pasta, on top of rice. I make a big batch because they make great left-overs.
Heat the skillet over medium heat. Cut the eggplant into 1/2 inch thick medallions.
Setup 3 bowls for the crust.
Cover the bottom of the pan with oil or fat, about 1/4 cup. I use ghee because it is mild with little flavor.
Take one of the eggplant medallions and cover it with the arrowroot mixture in bowl 1.
Then dip the medallion into the egg mixture in bowl 2.
Finally dip the medallion into the almond flour and sesame seed mixture in bowl 3.
Oil or fat should be hot by now. If you are unsure, splash a few drop of water into the oil and it should pop. Cover both sides of the medallion with oil by dropping one side into the oil then flip it over and place the other side on the pan.
Wipe the leftover crumbs out of the pan with a paper towel. Heat 1/4 cup of oil or fat into the pan. Repeat the coating and pan-frying process until you’ve cooked all of the medallions. 3 – 4 batches, 18 – 24 medallions.
The egg mixture in bowl 2 can get thick and gooey. After coating the second batch, replace it with a new egg mixture of 2 eggs.
This recipe makes a big batch. Store in the refrigerator or freezer and re-heat in the toaster oven. Enjoy!