Happy New Year everyone! Brad was pretty wiped out from his trip to Baltimore so we opted to stay in on NYE. We picked up a bottle of champagne, some cheese, and a piece of cake and got comfortable.
I made my traditional "chaise" that I have to make whenever I open a bottle of champagne.

You know you want to sit on Madame Clicquot's face.
For lunch Brad, me, Dorothée, and Jay went to dumplings at our favorite dumpling house, Jeng Chi. The tradition originates from my family. Because my mother would slave away in the kitchen all through the holidays, she insisted that she would not cook on New Years Day so we went out to eat. The only restaurants that used to be open on New Years Day were Chinese restaurants so we'd always go out to Chinese food. When Brad and I moved to Dallas we found out about Jeng Chi from a review in D Magazine and have been eating there ever since. The dumplings, in my opinion, cannot be beat!
The hot and sour soup is the best I've had other than my mom's (mom took Chinese cooking classes and makes some really great dishes), and it's loaded with good stuff!
Scallion pancakes, just delicious.
Pork and napa dumplings.
Small juicy dumplings, these are our favorite! Inside the soft noodle is pork and an extremely flavorful broth. They're small, they're juicy, they're delicious.
After the feast that only cost $34 we went for a stroll in the shopping center.
We found a store that has a ton of Sanrio stuff. Brad and I were so pleased to see so much Chococat merchandise, we're big fans of his. I had to hold Brad back or he would have bought every Chococat item in the store, remember I said we need to be more abstemious this year, but at least I know what to fill his stocking with next year!
Our final stop was the Asian grocery store. I didn't realize there were so many varieties of instant noodle soups and in so many colorful packages.
For the piece de resistance I give you this photo that I have titled, Only In Texas. It's self explanatory.