bonnie & jason

Alissa’s red egg and ginger party (aka, custom red egg and ginger party favors)

We had Alissa’s red egg and ginger party today at Moonstar. (It seems that all Chinese parents in San Francisco have their red egg and ginger parties there.) We were very happy that so many of our friends and family were able to make it. Everyone seemed to have a good time and certainly had enough to eat. For the kids, in case chinese/japanese buffet wasn’t to their liking, we made some personalized takeout boxes with some kid-friendly snacks.

And for the adults, we had some chocolate branded as Alissa “fat cheek” milk-chocolate bars.

And if that wasn’t enough, of course there were plenty of red eggs (and ginger) for those looking for a protein fix.

In addition to the plentiful tasty food, we were also really happy with the service. Susan, our coordinator, was very attentive, ready with hot water to warm baby bottles, additional seating when things got a little crowded, and floating amongst our guests taking pictures which she provided on CD before we left. She really was great… utterly exceeded our expectations.

Besides Susan, we were also grateful to have Bonnie’s dad there to take a bunch of pictures as I was on host duty. (I’ve posted all of them here.) And last but not least, as I mentioned earlier, we were very pleased that so many folks were able to make it, some to meet Alissa for the first time. It’s so nice to have such a great group of friends and family. If only wish we could see everyone more often.

So that concludes the first of many Alissa parties to come! Bonnie will probably start thinking about crafty things to do for the next party as we work on getting the thank-you notes out. (If you know anyone interested in this kind of stuff, Bonnie is ready to start taking orders!)

EDIT 10/7/2007: I’ve now had two people contact me about our where we got our red egg and ginger party favors (customized label chocolate bars) As it turns out, we did them ourselves with some photoshop magic and Bonnie’s creativity. So if you’re reading this and interested in having us do the same for your party, feel free to shoot me an email (jasonwang99 at yahoo dot com) and I’d be happy to answer your questions and provide a quote.

EDIT 1/25/2008: I’ve now had more than a few people ask about the favors. Here are some FAQ’s that might be helpful.
1. The design itself is $60. If you want me to print them for you as well, the price is $0.25/label.
2. The candy bars you need are from Trader Joe’s. They come in packs of three for about $1.50/pack. I think they offer both milk chocolate and dark chocolate available. Here’s a pic of the dark chocolate version. The milk chocolate one looks the same except the wrapper is red.

3. When posing your baby for the picture for me to extract for the design, try to either prop them up on a pillow with their hands and arms in front. Or you can also lay them down looking up with a contrasting color blanket over their torso but behind their hands and arms.
4. The back of the candy bars have “nutritional” information on them. For example, birth date, weight, height, etc. Also, ingredients like love, sweetener, cheesy stuff like that. I’m happy to put whatever you like on them though.