Christmas Favorites

Ashley gave me a great idea. She began posting about her favorite Christmas things. Christmas is my favorite time of year so I have a ton of favorites!

10. Our tree. I love it. We bought it with Macy's credit our first Christmas. I love the decorations even though D claims that the lime green, hot pink, purple, and teal ornaments are not Christmas-y. I respond, "Who cares they're so cute!" We seriously have this same conversation every year. And now thanks to Michelle I will have 2 of these ornaments. D's exact words when I put this on the tree, "That seriously makes me throw up a little."

9. Our fireplace. Though its not really a Christmas thing, I think it should still fall under this category. I love coming home and turning everything on including the fireplace. I feel like it completes the Christmas ambiance.

8. Christmas on the River. Thank you 104.5 for being our official Christmas station. Even though D has a love/hate relationship with you, I will always listen to your non-stop Christmas music. You really are in the background for all my Christmas baking and shopping.

7. Shopping. I loooooove Christmas shopping. I love searching for the right gifts for the people I love. And thankfully this year I got a great jump start.


6. Peppermint Mocha. Starbucks you really did create for me Christmas in a cup.

5. My table centerpiece. Its simply a gorgeous, unique glass bowl that we got for a wedding gift filled with dull, shiny, and glittery ornaments of every color (yes lime green, pink, teal, and purple are in there too!)

4. Christmas card holder. Julsie gave me the idea. String a strand of white lights around a door frame. We chose our back door because its in a central location. Then we take clothe pins and use them to clip our Christmas cards to the strands of lights. I guess you could use any time of clip, but those were cheap so that's what we chose.

3. Christmas lights. I love looking at Christmas lights. We grew up having pajama rides during Christmas time. Pajamas, blankets, hot chocolate, warm van, Christmas music on the radio and Christmas lights. Such a fun tradition. We still do it just not in pajamas. In fact we crammed all four of us (Kacie, Jeremy, D and I) into the backseat of mom's explorer one year. Good times.

2. Family. I love my family. Both sides...a ton. I will admit with busy schedules I wish we could see everyone more often, but Christmas time especially makes me love them more. Shopping for them, baking for them, and of course our annual Burbee/Jerkins Christmas Party is quickly upon us.

1. I have 3 "things" that are ranking as my number 1 favorite purchase of this season.

1a. Target Dollar Spot wrapping paper. I love the size and the price. I will never buy normal paper ever again!

1b. Tulle. I bought this rather than ribbon and it definitely makes my packages pop. Its easy to tie and has now become one of my must haves for preparing for Christmas. I coordinated my lime green tulle with my red paper. The tulle really does pop.

1c. My Scentsy warmer. Though I can use it all year round, I currently have the scent Christmas Cottage melting away. My house seriously smells like a sweet, cinnamon-y Christmas. Even my Scrooge said it was his favorite thing I've bought.

Since So Many of You Have Asked....

Upside Down Apple French Toast

1/2 stick butter
1-1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp water
2-3 Granny Smith apples
Cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1 loaf French bread, sliced 1/2" thick
1-1/2 cup milk
6 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Nutmeg

-Combine butter, sugar & water in saucepan & bring to a boil, whisking to stir. Pour into 9x13 glass baking dish.Let cool 20-30 minutes.

-Cover this with sliced apples, arranged overlapping in rows. Sprinkle with cinnamon. (& raisins if you want)

-Put slices of French bread on top (do not overlap). Sprinkle bread with a small amount of nutmeg.

-In large bowl, beat eggs, milk, vanilla and pour over bread. Cover and refrigerate overnight or 3 hours before cooking.

-Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

*I discovered that if you drizzle with syrup it enhances the deliciousness!*

For your viewing pleasure....

Christmas Shoes made by the Bellevue interns several years ago....



When I first saw it, I told him I didn't like it because it promoted violence. He just laughed.

Try it Tuesday

I've never been a fan of carrot cake... until yesterday. D asked Mrs. Debbie what her favorite cake was so I found a recipe and fixed it. All. From. Scratch. Even the cream cheese icing. It's ok, you can act shocked. I was when I decided to try it. It was very easy and I will definitely make it again. I found it under Paula Deen's section on food network.com. Anything by Paula Deen is delicious...not at all nutritious...but oh so delicious so I decided it was the recipe to go with. Thankfully my guests weren't disappointed either. Here's the recipe:

Grandma Hiers' Carrot Cake

Ingredients

• Butter, for pans
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans, optional

Frosting:

• 2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 stick salted butter, room temperature
• 1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 3 (9-inch) round pans; Line bottom of the pans with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add eggs and vegetable oil. Using a hand mixer, blend until combined. Add carrots and pecans, if using.

Pour into pans. Bake for approximately 40 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes. Remove from pans, place on waxed paper and allow to cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:

Add all ingredients, except nuts, into a medium bowl and beat until fluffy using a hand mixer. Stir in the nuts. Spread frosting on top of each cake layer. Stack the cakes on a serving plate and serve.

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Momma D!

Happy Birthday to the best mother in law in the world, Debbie Jerkins!
We are so thankful for you!

A Perfect Christmas

My sweet Julsie invited me last night to Bellevue's Women's Ministry event: How to Have a Perfect Christmas. It was such a great night. It was the perfect way to jump start this Christmas season.

We sang Christmas carols, got cute decorating ideas and also saw food demonstrations. One of my favorite food demos was the apple french toast! I'm helping throw a baby shower brunch in a couple of weeks and one of the ladies that is also helping came up to me after the demonstration and said, We want you to make that! Perfect. D is lucky because I of course have to try it out on him first.

Diane Dougharty made some delicious cakes for all 800 women present. Too bad Jules stole my icing. She took our slices of cake back to our seats while I got coffee. I came back to my seat and somehow my icing is all over her sleeve. Thanks Jules.

The best part of the night was when Rene Smith challenged us. She told her own Christmas story. When her kids were little she did all she could to make each Christmas bigger and better. One Christmas her house was perfectly decorated, she had baked wonderful things for many, gotten presents for all. Christmas day came and went. She laid in bed that Christmas night and just cried. She had missed it. She had great intentions and did wonderful things, yet she still missed it. All of those things do make Christmas more fun, but without the focus and celebration on Jesus... its all pointless.

I love to decorate, bake, and buy gifts. I love to make my home warm and inviting especially during Christmas time, but if I do all it for the wrong reasons then I too will have missed it. There is nothing wrong with of any of these things. In fact, they should be encouraged. They are great ways to show our love for others, but we should do it with the mind set of "all for Jesus and His glory."

I've heard all my life: Jesus Is the Reason for the Season. I'm sure its even been on a few church signs. :) As simple and cliche as it is it is true. We are selling our families short if we make bigger deals out of anything or anyone other than Jesus not only this time of year but year round.

This was a great reminder right before everything begins to get crazy. So go decorate and make your homes beautiful, bake lots of goodies, and buy gifts, but do it all for the name above all names, Jesus!

Cheesy Church Signs

D and I have always enjoyed a good cheesy church sign. Don't get me wrong, I know the people mean well and sometimes there are some really good ones, but most come off very cheesy and shout, "Please make fun of me!" We have been admiring cheesy church signs together now for over 10 years and boy have we found some doosies.

God definitely has a sense of humor because low and behold He called us to a church that has our beloved church signs. We were surprised to find out that a younger man actually does the sign. D has tried on many occasions to encourage only informative information or even just a bible verse or something, but still the cheese continues. I walked out of bible study last night and saw this...

I mean it is true, but really do we need it on a sign? Don't get me wrong, we love our church, but I'm afraid cheesy church signs do more harm than good. People don't drive by and say, "What a cool church sign. Let's go visit there." In fact, if we're wanting to reach a younger generation, cheesy signs do nothing but repulse and make for a good joke.

Bart from Mercy Me had this to say....

"Cheesy church signs! Why do we do this? Everywhere I go, I see the small church marquee with something corny like “God checks His Knee-mail.” Are you kidding me? Knee-mail? Or how about “CH–CH. What’s missing? UR.” Come on churches, you’re killing me!

Do we sincerely believe that some guy, who does not know Christ, is gonna drive by and see a sign that says,” Get right or get left” and think to himself,” Wow, not only is it a witty play on words, but I think I need to go in and get things settled!” Probably not. In fact, most people will think it is a joke like most of the actual church does. Maybe that church sign is meant be used to inform people what time church starts, or to support the local high school team through the playoffs, but please, no more corny phrases…actually I take that back. Do I really wanna live in a word without these ridiculous phrases? Nope. I guess deep down I kind of enjoy these church signs being comic relief for the community. Besides, how else would I realize that summertime is hot, but hell is hotter. So nevermind."

In conclusion, church signs should be informative not cheesy. Though I am thankful for the many laughs they have provided.

Maybe my favorite....



or maybe I like it just because it makes me think of a cinnabon!