2012 - 4th Quarter

Our fourth quarter update includes October, November and December. As busy as we were, each month could have had their own entry. 

 

I organized a Women's Ministry event at church called "Crafts and Conversations". It was my third time orchestrating the whole event. It's always a lot of fun for a lot of people but also a lot of work too. Women sign up beforehand and pay for dinner plus the cost of the crafts they want to make (they can make up to 2 things). Here are a few pictures from the event:

After spending way too much time deciding which pictures I should use, I decided to make it its own post. Read more about "Crafts and Conversations" here.

A few weekends later, I got together with some seminary friends. We all moved to New Orleans in August 2003 and 9 years later we still love and adore each other. I would make our memories their own post, but alas ET thinks she sent us the pictures but she didn't (hint, hint, ET!).

J went to Texas to attend a Worship Conference with his dad. It was a fun trip for him to see his family whilst in Texas.

J and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary a few weeks early. We went to Nashville and had a fun night away. We saw the Rockettes perform, stayed in the Opryland Hotel and went Christmas shopping at Opry Mills. We also ate at Chuy's - one of my favorite Mexican restaurants.

On our actual anniversary, we went out for pizza. It might not sound so fancy, but that's just the way we like it.

I decorated for a Christmas party given at church. It was for the adults that invest in the 2345 Ministry. It was very festive, wintery, and blue.

I also organized an event at church called Festival of Nativities. People were able to come and browse the nativities as well as have their pictures taken in the dress-up area and listen to festive music. It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun!

We went to Texas for Christmas and had a great time. Sad to say, after J and I have been together for nine years, this was our first actual Christmas spent in Texas on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We had a great time visiting with our family and you can read more about it here.

Christmas 2012 - A Texan Christmas

We went to Texas for Christmas and had a great time. Sad to say, J and I have been together for nine years and this was our first actual Christmas spent in Texas on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I realize how bad that might sound, but the other 8 Christmases we were a little busy. We made a timeline:

• Christmas '04 - I spent several days prior to Christmas in Texas and then flew home to be with my family in Virginia. 
• Christmas '05 - We got married the week before Christmas and had to be back at our church the following Sunday because it was Christmas Day. 
• Christmas '06 - We stayed in Mobile for Christmas in our new house that we had purchased the summer prior. 
• Christmas '07 - I graduated from seminary so everyone came to us in New Orleans.
• Christmas '08 - We flew to Virginia for Christmas. 
• Christmas '09 - J graduated from seminary so everyone came to us in New Orleans.
• Christmas '10 - We flew to Virginia for Christmas.
• Christmas '11 - It was our first Christmas in Huntsville so we stayed put. Christmas was also on a Sunday so J fulfilled his ministerial duties. 
• Christmas '12 - We drove to Texas for Christmas. Details below.

• I won the Wilkerson Family jackpot consisting of over $70 in dimes, nickels and pennies. Long story short, J's grandpa collects his change all year and during Christmas Eve breakfast, you place your bet as to how much change you think is in each container. I guessed closest in the dimes, nickles, and pennies category.

We had Mexican with J's sister and our nieces and nephews.

It snowed on Christmas Day and everything in Texas is bigger...including the snowflakes.

I made Christmas morning breakfast. This helped me to share some of my own family's traditions despite them being miles and miles away. Breakfast casserole (made with hard-boiled eggs) and homemade donuts - yummy!

A Wilkerson Christmas tradition is to switch the letters of "NOEL" to "LEON" and see how long it takes for J's mom to notice. No one claimed this switch-a-roo but it makes me laugh every time.

• The idea was for the entire Wilkerson family to sing/play during the Christmas Eve service...that is, until multiple family members got sick. J and our niece did a great job representing all of us. You can watch the entire performance here.

A Family Christmas Carol

Projects for Christmas

I made homemade Christmas cards as I usually do. At several points in time, I was sure I had bitten off more than I could chew, but 85 cards are now made and mailed.

J's work exchanges names for Christmas. I made these two towels for the J's co-worker. I also made homemade bread for her in my fancy loaf pan and it came out perfectly!! I could take credit for it, but I told my friend who is a divine cook that I was having trouble and she gave me this cooking spray that makes it work EVERY time!

In addition, I need several gifts for friends who we were either going over to their house and/or I wanted to give them a little something. I made a template and then made several of these towels to give to our friends for Christmas. It's more pretty than functional.

I did have a small Christmas disaster. I have this snowman cake pan that my mom purchased for me several years ago during an after-Christmas sale. Since we were going to visit my nieces and nephews, I thought it would be fun to make the cake for them.

I whipped up the cake batter with ease and placed half of it in each side of the pan. Other than a little longer to cook, everything seemed smooth sailing. The cake came out and cooled off and then I began trying to assemble the two sides. I used store-bought icing to place the two sides together. It wasn't perfect but worked okay. Then I began to ice the outside and add decorative icing for the top hat and eyes. At this point, things started going down hill VERY fast. I tried using toothpicks to keep things together. At one point, it began to look like this -

I used the leftover batter to make mini cupcakes. I thought the mini cupcakes would help it stand up, but it continued to decline. The decorative icing wouldn't stay in place so the snowman's top hat looked more like blue painted running down the snowman's face.

I finally decided there wasn't enough toothpicks in the world to keep the cake together and if my nieces and nephews really loved me they would eat a fallen snowman. So as you see, we have a front half in one dish and a back side of a snowman in another dish. Oh well, E for effort!!

I received several new craft books and supplies for Christmas so I'm thankful for a new year and new ideas!

Christmas Carols

J sang "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings" 

at two events this Christmas. 

The first is a duet with our friend Bobi Ann 

and the other duet is with our friend Alison 

(please excuse the sound guy who interrupts my second video - 

I only taped them during their sound check). 

Projects for the Fall

Quilting Class - September Block #1 - Chain Block

SILK Ministry Block for September

Quilting Class - October Block #1 - Friendship Circle

These were the centerpieces for the "Crafts and Conversations" event. It's decking board cut to the desired length and turned upside down. Then I painted it hot pink and added candles that I had wrapped in zebra paper. I can use these centerpieces over and over again by painting them different colors and adding different candles.

For those that helped me teach at "Crafts and Conversations", I bought these bags and used my Cricut to cut their intial out of vinyl and placed that on the bags.

For NOLA girls weekend, I made us matching aprons.

I made fun cupcakes covered in sprinkles.

Crafts and Conversations, October 2012

I organized a Women's Ministry event at church called "Crafts and Conversations". It was my third time orchestrating the whole event. It's always a lot of fun for a lot of people but also a lot of work too. Women sign up beforehand and pay for dinner plus the cost of the crafts they want to make (they can make up to 2 things). Here are some pictures from the event:

All the decor was zebra print and hot pink.