Christmas Traditions

MERRY CHRISTMAS! I love Christmas. I love the whole day and I also love eating the whole day! We have very specific things that we make on Christmas and frankly it just wouldn't be Christmas morning with the breakfast casserole baking in the oven!

This year was erin's first year experiencing Christmas at my house and we didn't want to disappoint :). We start off opening presents under our "santa" tree (that's right folks we have two trees: one for santa and one for the family) and drinking morning coffee. My mom always picks up all the holiday creamers: eggnog, gingerbread, bailey's (opps how did that get in there at 9am in the morning dad?!). This year we took a mini break from presents to throw the breakfast casserole together along with orange cinn. rolls. YUM. This year my mom also picked up fruit to make a great fruit salad, so I was in charge of that.
Look how amazing this breakfast looks!

As mentioned in my prepping post we also have mimosas and bloody mary's as well. We start the morning quite "spirited!!!".

After the craziness of the santa tree we all enjoy looking at our new gifts and usually watching a new movie...or two...or four!

We weren't planning dinner until around 6:30 because we were waiting for my Sister and Brother in law to come! Plenty of time to make all our dishes. I started with the Asiago, Potato and Bacon Gratin.

I had prepped the potatoes and had to saute up the shallots and cook the bacon. I also needed bacon for the Brussels Sprouts so I put my dad on bacon cooking duty. I combined all the dry ingredients and threw the casserole together...1, 2, 3. Simple! I didn't take alot of pictures this day :(, but did get the casserole before it was completely gone! It was a hit.

I didn't take any pictures of my Butternut Squash Casserole because It went the same as Thanksgiving...simple and delicious. I will say that I would recommend steaming the squash on the stove if possible. The microwave took awhile with that much squash! I just prefer my steamer basket.
I helped my mom with my Grandma's rolls as well. These are so great. They look almost like biscuits but have a sweet flavor to them. I grew up having these only at Christmas time and they are something that I will always make around the holiday. These are pretty messy to make, just use ALOT of flour:). Here they are awaiting their 20 min bake time.




Finally on to the Brussels Sprouts with Bacon-Horseradish Cream! Now doesn't that even sound amazing...I had already cut up the sprouts the night before and my dad took care of cookin up the bacon so all that was left was the "sauce". These came together really quickly right after the turkey came out. Honestly I don't think I could have a Brussels Sprout dish without loving it.



After dinner we moved on to our Family tree. I just love giving gifts to all my family members :). I just love Christmas. We had my mom's famous pies for dessert and my sister and brother brought over a raspberry cheesecake (i stuck with the pies).

My stomach was full.
and my heart was fuller!