Red Egg & Ginger Party

My pregnant friend Marney is having a baby boy later this month so my other pregnant friend Laura and I threw her a baby shower on Saturday. Marney and her husband lived in China for a year and just loved it so I thought it would be really different and fun to throw her a Chinese-themed baby shower. It turned out sooo fun. I did a lot of research in preparation for it and somehow managed to get terminal viruses on both our home computer and on Christopher's work computer! Yikes! (A long, depressing story for another blog entry...)

In Chinese tradition they don't have baby showers before the baby is born but rather when the baby is a few months old and they call it a red egg and ginger party. People come, meet the new baby and give the family money and gifts - all symbolic of their well wishes for a long, prosperous life.

What we did was decorate in red (good luck) using the number eight (also good luck) and showered Marney with gifts and well wishes (words of wisdom hung in red Chinese envelopes above her head instead of money :-) We hung 7 red umbrellas on the ceiling, with 1 blue one above Marney's blue chair of honor (1 symbolizes the birth of a boy plus the other 7 = 8 for good luck).

We ate red hard-boiled eggs (symbol of fertility), long noodles (symbol of a long life), cheese (as a treat for the rat - because this is the Chinese zodiac calendar year of the Rat), fortune cookies, orange chicken, pot stickers, and Asian chicken salad. And I made an 8 layer cake for dessert(really just 8 tiers of red velvet cupcakes - also for good luck).
Poor Laura was stuck cooking in the kitchen forever! But the food was fabulous! (At least Emma was keeping her company :-)We also got Marney's husband in on the gig and he lent us some cool decorations they bought in China including this awesome rain hat which we made Marney wear :-) It was a total surprise to Marney and I think she loved it. I love throwing parties! It was so fun! Here I am with my prego friends, Marney and Laura. Aren't they so cute?! The shower was on 11.08.08 and maybe Marney will have her baby on 11.28.08! How lucky would that be! All those lucky number 8s! (shes actually due the day after that so its possible!)