First Haircut...and a New Year

 
I'm not sure if it really counts as a first haircut.  At over 3 years old, I'm sure she's had a few by now.  Still, it's the first I've taken her to get, so I'm counting it anyway.  Plus, it's absolutely too cute not to get a shout-out. 
Here's Miss Saidie rockin' the new do:

On New Year's Eve, our church family meets to reflect on the past year and to dedicate all babies and children added to our church during the year.  We just made it under the wire with Saidie.  
She was decked in a new Chinese dress and her squeaky shoes.  

New Year's Day we decided to attempt to make Chinese dumplings.  I watched my friend Susan make these a couple of months ago, and I took notes.  Susan was amazing.  Her mother taught her to make dumplings in China when she was a young girl.  Susan grew up and lived most of her life in Liaoning province where Saidie is from.

  

grated cabbage and carrots

rolling out the dumpling skins

heating the pork and cabbage mixture

many hands make light work

ready to boil

ready to eat

So, after seeing how much work it would take to create these beauties, I enlisted the help of my 3 older kids.  It was fun, messy, and exhausting.  I think it took about 5 hours (including clean-up).  I got to try out my food processor, too.  Unfortunately, the consistency and taste were not nearly as good as Susan's.  I decided it would have been easier and tastier to just order up some Fast Dragon.  Still, it was a nice memory with the kids.