M1NNA*COM

Our living room is such a mess. There are wrapping paper, empty shirt boxes & ribbon on the floor. Also some of Max’s presents sitting around. He’s currently taking turns with each gift. Half of his gifts are stored away. He got a good load of toys, so thanks everyone for the gifts. I bought Mike a pair of Prada sneakers (like these, only with blue stripes), but when I brought them home, one of the shoes wasn’t even the correct size, but they don’t have anymore in stock, so we returned them today. Mike bought me a cashmere Burberry sweater, which I really liked, but it’s a bit tight on me, so I returned it too. How embarrassing that even though he bought the largest size, it still didn’t fit. : P I think we’re just going to end up buying a flat screen tv for our bedroom instead. I’ve never been much of a electronic gadget person, but over the past few years, the hubby’s influence has been rubbing off on me.

This year, Max understands what presents are & how to open them, so it was really fun watching him open his gifts. He’ll get all excited & once he sees what it is, he’ll “ooh” & “aah” over it. A couple of the gifts we bought him, we let him have awhile ago. Just couldn’t resist giving them to him early. We bought a new Max & Ruby dvd, and a dvd set of Harold & the Purple Crayon.

This past Saturday, we had our annual holiday party, but this year, we invited more people. We had so much fun. Been a long time since I laughed that much & not because I had a little to drink. Thanks to everyone who made it. Played lots of fun games, and ate good food, with exception to my dish. I made stuffed mushrooms, but they weren’t all that even though 700+ people rated it 5 stars on allrecipes.com. Oh well. Maybe I didn’t read the directions correctly, but it’s not a hard recipe to mess up since there was less than 6 ingredients. Maybe I’m the stupid one. Btw, Happy Birthday to Miss Shanna!

On a different subject, this is for my Hmong readers, and/or those who are familiar with Hmong history: do you agree that Hmong people never had our own original style of dancing? And that as far as we know, Hmong dancing has always been influenced by another culture? For example, what most people know as Hmong dancing today, is strongly influenced by Lao & Thai style of dancing. The reason I ask is because I’ve been having arguments with people on Youtube about my videos that I posted last year. I posted some dance routines from the New Year of those girl groups who do all those flips & acrobatic tumbling to Chinese music. Many viewers are saying that since we are Hmong, we should only dance Hmong. I say that Hmong people do not have their own style of dancing, and that we’ve always adapted to whatever culture we’re exposed to. I mean, what is Hmong dancing to a lot of people? Right now, it’s “la vong” set to Hmong music right? What about 50 years from now? It might be something else. It’s really frustrating & kind of sad that these people do not take the time to learn about their history. I mean, all they have to do is ask their parents. Anyway, just wondering what some of you guys think. Please correct me if I am misinformed.
I might put up some pictures tomorrow, so be back later.