Thursday, December 24, 2009

Busy Christmas Eve = Relaxing Christmas Day!

The gingerbread houses have been picked over - note the teeth marks in the icing on the roof of the house on the left...that would be Max's two front teeth!

I learned years ago that if I wanted to have a relaxing day on Christmas, I would have to do a lot of prep work the day before...but it's so worth it to pretty much just have to shove pans into the oven at various times on Christmas day and end up with a couple of good meals that my family loves. So today I made our traditional Christmas Breakfast Casserole (pretty much a strata with a fancy name), hash brown casserole, sweet potato casserole and two pumpkin pies (can you believe Sam's Club was completely OUT of pumpkin pies?!? I had to go all retro and actually make mine from scratch!).

The kitchen is clean - for now - and my house smells like pumpkin pie, so that's good. Gifts are all wrapped and under the tree - and to answer Lynn...no, the tree skirt was not put back as I was too lazy to move all of the presents. It'll be back under the tree sometime tomorrow once we have the grand unwrapping!

I have to say that once again, I am finding myself snacking a bit now that the boys are home. Must.stop.myself. Nothing too bad, but more than I normally eat. By the way, did you know a mini-candycane has 15 calories?

I hope those of you who celebrate Christmas have a wonderful day tomorrow...and those of you who don't have an equally wonderful Friday!

11 comments:

  1. Hooray for preparing early! Love that your house smells like pumpkin pie too!

    I too have eaten so many things I don't normally - I am with you - must.stop.myself!

    Merry Christmas Shelley!! I've loved getting to know you over this past year!

    Hugs!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like you have a great plan and even with the GB houses being picked over they look great - did the boys do them?

    Happy Christmas to you and your family and a Happy New Year too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think mini candy canes should have zero calories because they are gone so fast!!

    Great job on the preparing for Christmas. I do things very similiar to you - except I don't wear our tree skirt!! :)

    I hope you have a fabulous day tomorrow. Take care!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Meh, I'm sure you haven't been THAT bad. Enjoy your beautiful Christmas!

    Lots of love to you, sweetie!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Merry Christmas!! I hope you have a great day full of wonderful food!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Merry Christmas, Shelley. I like to prepare like that too. I almost always make a menu, and then make the plan of what order to do what in.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Merry Christmas to you too! Have a wonderful relaxing day, you deserve it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Have a merry Christmas Shelley.

    Christmas has started here. I woke up and it was snowing, this has been really years ago: snow on Christmas Day. However now it's raining :lol:

    I hope you have a great day today surrounded by your loved ones.

    xxx

    ReplyDelete
  9. Merry Christmas. Thank you so much for your honesty. I think most people eat a little more than they would like at this time of year. Most of us just don't admit it. :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Sounds like you planned for a stress-free holiday. I've never had a strata before. It sounds good and the gingerbread houses are adorable. My daughter and the kids decorated their gingerbread house and I was amazed that the kids didn't want to eat it? Geez.

    I hear you about the "eating more than you normally do." That's a good thing. Back in th old days, we wouldn't think twice about eating 5 or 5 little candycanes, and don't even get me started on the cookies.

    Enjoy the day Shelly.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are now moderated to prevent spammers from leaving, well, spam - but rest assured that as soon as I read a real comment, I will publish it. So please, comment away, even though the blog is officially closed. Thanks!