My Super Sweet Dol

All cultures have traditional celebrations for their little ones: Americans have sweet sixteen, Mexicans have quinceanera, Jews have Bar/Bat Mitzvah. My people are no exception. Koreans celebrate two major milestones:

1) Bek-il or 100 day celebration - back in the day before immunization and modern medicine, the first 100 days of a baby's life was critical as most babies who fell ill during this time rarely survived much longer. So on the 100th day after a child's birth, a small feast is prepared to celebrate the child's having survived this difficult period.

2) Dol or 1st birthday - this is the big shindig when all the big guns come out. If Korea were to have a TV show about children who live in excess, it would be called my Super Sweet Dol. After the first birthday, it's all down hill for the kid. No more big celebrations, just expectations.

My niece Victoria's dol.

H's 100-day celebration back in March was a success although our house smelled of Korean BBQ for weeks. I didn't realize until AFTER the party was over that we didn't get a single picture! :(

This week I started doing my research to get ideas for my H's 1st birthday and quickly realized I had no idea what I was getting into. I found that most moms start preparation MONTHS in advance and some celebrations would put the average wedding to shame.

As of today I have 9 days to give my baby the best 1st birthday bash I can. I keep telling myself that as long as I have the 3 F's (family, friends & food), it'll be a success but I can't help but feel the pressure to do everything I see in the blogs. I am so blessed to have my mom lend her cooking skills so I know the Korean food will be AMAZING. I plan on making 99% of the decorations so I need to hit up Michael's & Hobby Lobby ASAP. Please pray for me as I have never used a glue gun before in my life. I hope I still have fingertips when all of this is over.