Christmas!!! *phew*

Christmas was a BLAST! Thanks to all who labored continuously and unselfishly! *big clap and bow to you all!* The skit was a success! There were hiccups here and there, but based on feedback, it made a great impact! Thank You Jesus! All Glory be to Jesus!

Apart from preparing for the Christmas skit, I decided to try to cut cost this year while adding in a more personal touch to Christmas presents we'd give out. It's been eons since I baked cookies, and from memory, it included me slaving in the kitchen for a few whole days just for a few tins of cookies. So....... I decided to make cupcakes instead! This journey started a month back when I had to put my cup cake baking into practice, dad, mom, and the darling hubs were fed batches and batches of cupcakes.

First batch: too much coffee and too crumbly, didn't taste at all like cupcake - REJECTED!
Second batch: texture got better, no more coffee, experimented with icing for the first time and it was too dry and too sweet (250gs of icing sugar!! Madness) = REJECTED!
Third batch: just the right texture, just the right taste, icing was perfected but... they looked severely out of shape. My hypothesis was that I must've not cleaned my oven well enough, so there may have been bits of cupcake batter stuck in some corner of the oven so when the cupcake tin was rotating, the cup cake batter peeked out of the cup cake moulds to look, just like Malaysian drivers, viola.... lopsided cupcakes!! = REJECTED!
Fourth batch: by this time I was contemplating just buying cupcakes off the shelve. but they are soooo expensive compared to cost price. This time, everything turned out perfect! I added sprinkles, Hershey choco chips, and some grated white choco.... end product = PERFET!!!!!!!


Then came the even crazier part. (poor hubby can testify to this) I searched for gable boxes of the perfect size... too big = cup cakes may get bumped around, too small = can't fit cupcakes. There weren't any of the right size! So me being a craft fanatic, decided to make my own. Drafted my own template for the box and cupcake holders. Bought very beautiful double sided gold card stock, and there I went, tracing, cutting, and assembling... All this was done the day before Christmas. I thought I could finish it single handedly, but in the end, the poor hubby was dragged into it. And he never once complained, in fact, he was so sweet and cheered me up along the way, giving me shoulder rubs to reduce stress and hugs to calm the now messy-haired, frantic wife. (this is where you should go *awwwwwwww*, and guys, please learn this!) Result: 40 boxes of cupcakes (2 each), packed, decorated with ribbons, and tagged (personalized tags which the hubs had to print, cut, and label), and to bed we went at 1.30am.

All in all, it was amazing when we gave out the presents (mostly to those who helped in the skit), the look on people's faces when you hand them a present makes all the hard work pay off and stress melt away. =D I love giving gifts!!!!!!! Garghs!!!

This Christmas was indeed magical and blessed! Looking forward to Christmas in 2009!

on a side note, Thank you all who gave us presents! Thank you thank you!! And a special thanks to daddy for our new camera!!! Muahahahaha. I shall name her soon.