Makiko Itoh’s gyoza post is fantastic, especially this bit:

My family has deep emotional ties to the gyoza. My sister Mayumi loved gyoza when she was a teenager. While her schoolmates put little Hello Kitty dolls and such on their school bags, she made a felt gyoza dumpling and hung that from the handle of her bag. I didn’t go that far, but I’ve always loved this little meat-and-vegetable filled dumpling.

Her family sound just like my kind of people! If I was the crafty sort I would make felt soup dumplings for all my friends.
I haven’t had great gyoza since moving to New York (a tragedy, I know—any pointers to tasty gyoza here would be much appreciated) but Alaina mentioned two of my favorite NYC dumpling places, Mandoo and Grand Sichuan International, in her NYC Eats does dumplings round up last year.
In conclusion: dumplings = happy belly. Have some with people you love!