Bradley's Dol Janchi

The first birthday is a big celebration in the Korean culture. This time I decided to do everything myself - I did some research to find out what all exactly is involved in a traditional Korean Dol Janchi and then I thought I would add my own flare. It is only as elaborate as you want it to be. My house being fairly small in size, I kept the guest list to a minimum 10 and planned to use one area for pictures. Bradley's birthday, being the day after Christmas, limited my color palate. I already had Christmas decor up so I used green and red for decorating. I am quite pleased with how everything turned out.
We served traditional Korean food: Korean BBQ ribs, chicken and stir-fry vegetables, tempura potatoes, egg rolls, and vegetable pancakes.
I decorated the table with candy and cookies stacked and filling trifle dishes to act as filler and decor for picture taking. I chose a simple Asian privacy screen as my backdrop behind the table. Balloons and a couple of hanging paper lanterns help hide my kitchen.
A traditional game is played where everyone predicts what the birthday child will choose to be when he grows up. Once votes are made, the child is brought to a table to choose an item that represents each occupation. It is interesting to know that my child chose the calculator. My husband says genious (he is a computer guru) and I say mathmetician (I am a math teacher).
I must say it was quite a task. My Korean mother helped me prepare the food so it really was quite low stress. Of course it is only as big of a deal as you want it to be. For me - it was perfect!