Christmas Morning 2008

"MOM! SANTA WAS HERE!"
"HE LEFT US A NOTE!"
"HE SAID THANK YOU FOR THE COOKIES YOU MADE!"
"HE LIKED THE CHRISTMAS MILK"
"HE SAID WE WERE GOOD THIS YEAR!"
"can we go see Mom? Please? We won't wake up Daddy...."
Me: "huuh? Kids, Dad is just as awake as I am now. Come show me the note...." (Stalling to stay in the warm bed for a few more moments....)

Why as parents do we put our kids to bed as soon as we can on Christmas Eve and then stay up so late ourselves? Oh, because we love our kids. That's right.

We woke to a wonderful rainy morning, with the yule log already burning on tv, and the boys ready to be angelic while Mom stumbled around looking for a hairbrush and her camera. The boys "snuggled up" their Daddy while I got ready for the Kodak moments. Then they all came in and the paper tearing commenced. It was just a lovely morning. They were so excited. I think it was all over in about 30 minutes. Less time than it took to drive to Toys R us and back. But they were happy and we now have enough Legos to protect our property from barefoot bandits. (WHY can't they make Legos that don't bring you to your knees when you step on them barefoot? Not that my children ever forget to put them away....ha ha)

I tried making Monkey bread for the family for breakfast, but I called them "Cinnamon Roll Balls" to make Mr. W try them. The house was so cold it took about 2 hours for them to rise, but they are a new favorite! Thanks Wen for sharing the recipe! It was sooo easy.

What is the recipe? Grab a package of Bridgeford frozen bread loaves. It comes with 3 loaves on a yellow foam tray. They sell them at Albertsons. Defrost bread overnight in your fridge. Once defrosted, melt a stick of butter in a small dish and mix up some cinnamon and granulated sugar. Make up a little more than you think you'll need because I had to re-mix and re-melt butter as I ran out. Tear small balls of dough out of loaves, roll into balls, and dip in melted butter then roll in cin-sugar mixture. Put a little of cin-sugar in bottom of bundt pan sprayed with pam, then drop the balls into the pan, going for even height around the pan. Place in warm spot, cover with clean fabric towel, let rise 30 min-2 hours depending on how it rises. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 20 or so min, you'll be able to tell when they're done. I baked for about 20 min, then since some of my bread was baking out of the pan I pulled those off, and put the rest back in the oven. Some came out doughy, some done completely, all delicious. To please my Mr. W I microwaved a container of vanilla frosting and drizzled it over the masterpiece. Ah, heaven, all for about 3 or 4 bucks. This was soooo much cheaper than buying the pop cans of cinnamon rolls and much easier than making the rolls from scratch!