Afternoon Tea

There are certain things that I really hope to do with Abby some day. Some of these dreams might be put under the category "Crazy Asian Mom" like helping her with calculus problem sets or proof-reading her physics project paper or attending her first piano recital. Others come from my own memories of childhood like going on hikes and collecting bugs or helping my mom wrap dumplings. I put Afternoon Tea under this latter category. My mother is a bona fide tea addict. She loves to sit down and have some tea. When I lived at home briefly after college, my parents and I would sit down almost every night for tea and we would just talk about our day. As many asian families will most likely note, tea is not simply a beverage in our culture. Particularly in Japanese culture, it is central to social interactions. My five year old niece who goes to pre-school in Japan drinks tea everyday at school. So when Michele visited earlier this month, I wanted to show her how tea is served in Western culture so I took her to a tea shop close to my house for some girlie time while my mom watched Abby.

Although Michele didn't have tea, she got to have hot chocolate. She also ate half of my tea sandwiches, soup and most of the dessert. Like any proud woman in the Miura family, she has the appetite of a small bear waking up from hibernation.


Michele prepares to demolish the dessert

My mother reports that upon getting back to Japan, Michele bragged to all of her classmates how cute her cousin Miyuki is. I like that Michele calls Abby by her full Japanese name. Everyone else seems to shorten it to Yuki but Michele insists we use the full name.

Ma-chan, it's not just Yuki! It's Miyuki. Miyuki is so much more special than just plain Yuki!

Michele is Miyuki's advocate in our family. Hopefully, Michele knows that she has many advocates within our family too.