The Christmas Session

J's contemporary worship service is cancelled at our church during the month of December so that our entire church can all attend church together. There are pros and cons to this. One such con is that we never sing Christmas type songs because we don't meet during that time period. This year, J and I and our friend wrote a Christmas type worship service and it was held the first Sunday in December. You can go to the link below an watch.

http://vimeo.com/33312612

Here's a picture of our friend and me in our festive Christmas sweaters.

Recipe Disaster....Sort of

So I attempted to make this -

http://www.southernliving.com/food/holidays-occasions/white-christmas-desserts-00417000070182/page14.html

for Jeremy's work party yesterday. I knew my time was short so I bought all the ingredients before going away for the weekend. I actually only needed a white cake mix, 3 blocks of cream cheese, and whipping cream. I had everything else. So I made the cheesecake layers on Sunday night and froze them, just as it said. Not too hard to make but time consuming. Went to bed after midnight.

Then on Monday night, I made the white cake layers, which deemed difficult because I only have 2 layer cake pans, not 3. However, I used a cheesecake pan that was roughly the same size as my round cake pans and it worked. In addition, did I mention that we had a Christmas party to go to and I didn't start on any of this until 8:30. 

The process of making this cake was more complicated that I thought (aka I will never make it again). It took so much time just waiting around for everything to freeze, cool, etc.

Now on to the frosting. I made the white chocolate sugar syrup concoction. Then it was on to whipping the whipping cream, which you would not think would be that difficult. However, I have never been successful on whipping anything or making meringue without my aunt in my presence. There is a fine line between whipping and making butter....unless my aunt is present, I usually cross that line. When she is there, it works; when she is not here, it fails. I whipped too long and ended up making white chocolate butter. Oops! After tears and no sleep, at 11:30 PM I went to bed with a cake that looked great but no icing.

Woke up yesterday morning, went and bought icing  and was at Kroger before 7 AM (probably the wrong flavor, but I couldn't find "white chocolate icing" so I used buttercream). Then what was supposed to be this great white cake, looked a little yellow which made me think of yellow snow and yellow snow is never a good thing.

Remember when they used to make those little silver balls as adornments for your cake? Well apparently they don't make those anymore - probably a choking hazard. Well we went to this fancy kitchen store in Savannah this weekend and I saw silver sprinkles so I paid the $4 for the bottle of silver sprinkles. Even silver sprinkles couldn't really save this cake. And with a cake like this, you can't really taste test beforehand.

All in all, Jeremy brought home about 3 slices of the cake. People seemed to enjoy it and told me how great it was. I'm glad they enjoyed it because I will never make it again. I did taste a piece and it was good, but I would have rather slept or used my energies elsewhere. I can't really blame the recipe as it said it would take 8 hours and 30 minutes for everything to complete. Oh well!

Craft Projects for November

I was very crafty this month, but can't post some of the stuff because they are Christmas presents.

I did make another growth chart as a baby present.

Please excuse the fact that it's hung up on the closet door and not along the wall like it should. Here's some close-ups:

I also made my aunt a set of 4 placemats and napkins but forgot to take a picture of them. Maybe she will read this and send me a picture of them on her table. *Hint, Hint, Hint*

I also got the "great" idea to make our Christmas Cards. Usually I buy some at the end of the season, but apparently last season I forgot so I didn't have any. Because we've served in ministries/churches in different places, our Christmas Card list is rather long. My creative brain forgot that part, so I only handmade 85 cards. Sorry if you're at the end of the alphabet - you got a store bought one. I just ran out of time, ideas, and willpower.

And I also forgot to take pictures of the cards. Each of them were different, so it would have been a bit difficult to post all those pictures. Maybe some of you reading will see this and send me a picture of yours.

That is all for now. Notice that this blog is late, because the month of December will have more craft projects, aka Christmas presents!

A Christmas Tour

J and I got married a week before Christmas. With that being said, we got a lot of wedding presents that were involved Christmas...ornaments, table settings, decorations, candlesticks and the like. We didn't register for any of this but we love it because it's really easy to decorate our apartment at Christmas. Here's a look:

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!

My last name is Wilkerson so we have to have some type of musical decor.

 And the top of the other book shelf...

Both the snowmen on the left side of the previous pictures are from Hallmark. My mom's best friend buys her the singing snowman every year at Christmas. Several years my mom has ended up with two because she's received the same gift from someone else. She happy bestows the extras on to me. At my mom's house, she must have 6-7 of these by now. my mom's favorite thing is to press all of them at the same time. Each of them sings a different song and dances and lights up in a different way. I love Christmas music but 6-7 of those singing at the same time is a bit much. Last year, however, J turned all of them off so when my mom went to turn all of them on, they were all "broke". It was funny at the time...at least we thought it was. Here's the chaos in action...decide for yourself.

Our corner shelf

The shelf behind the couch

 Part of the china cabinet

 The tablescape

 A close up of the table setting

My favorite wall hanging
(It used to hang in my grandma's house and when she passed away and my mom asked me what I wanted, I'm pretty sure this is one of the first things I laid claim to)

The bathroom
(because I believe every room needs a little something)

Here's another decorative piece that's pretty easy and looks great.

Yes those are split peas. The non-profit I work for does an annual fundraiser and last year that decorated with peas and had candles in the middle, similar to this one here. What do you do with bags and bags of peas?!?!? You split them up between those that decorated and take them to your own house to decorate. So easy and inexpensive but pretty too!

Pretty Kitchen Towel

And the Christmas sheets with stockings

(that I got on sale last year for next to nothing, they're festive but really soft and comfy)

So Mom, you're not coming to my house for Christmas this year - hope this tour makes you feel like you're here in spirit.