CHRISTMAS EVE AND CHRISTMAS DAY!

Christmas Eve was spent baking sugar cookies for Santa, Christmas Eve church service, chicken enchiladas for dinner (can't remember a Christmas where we didn't have enchiladas on Christmas Eve), reading Christmas books and lots and lots of talk about Santa.  Lots!

My sister and mom were in town for all the fun.  I am not sure why my pictures don't document this fact but we were so happy to have them.

For the cookies I actually made the dough the day before and let it refrigerate overnight before using some Christmas cookie cutters to cut out shapes and then bake.  Last year I used premade sugar cookie dough and the dough just did not allow us to use cookie cutters.  This year they turned out a lot better.

We had a lots of fun getting creative decorating the cookies.  Kenny, never to be outdone had some amazing cookies considering I did not do a great job on buying things to decorate with. (next year!)

Decorating cookies!

The snowman, the pink reindeer and the pretty Christmas tree were all done by Kenny.  I told you he was the best.

Santa Claus came!

Elle was totally Santa Claus obsessed this year but she still didn't get some of the aspects of how Christmas Eve and Christmas Day went down.  She threw Santa Claus for a loop when while we were putting her to bed she started talking about how Santa Claus was going to come in her room and leave her presents under her personal tree.  Luckily Santa Claus had picked up the three Frozen dolls at the last minute and those were placed under her little tree to greet her when she woke up.  She was so excited.

So excited about her Frozen dolls!

Checking out the all the cookies and milk Santa ate and drank.  He must of been hungry.

This Minnie Pet Shop was the first thing she saw when she saw Santa came and she wanted to play with this  Completely ignored her kitchen until we encouraged her to go check it out.

Excited about her realistic groceries.  

Finally notices her kitchen and is so excited!

Making Daddy some breakfast.

I realized I had all the stuff to make this cinnamon roll breakfast casserole.  And yall! It was a-mazing.  So so so good and so easy.  Excuse me while I share and document this recipe so I will have it in my blog book for future Christmases. I did not use the maple syrup at all.

Cinnamon Roll Casserole

Serves: 12

Ingredients:
cooking spray
2 cans (12.4 oz each) Pillsbury® refrigerated cinnamon rolls with icing
4 eggs
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2  teaspoons ground cinnamon
2  teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup chopped pecans (you can use more or less according to your liking)
1/4 cup maple syrup

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°F.  Spray a 13×9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray.

Separate both cans of dough into 16 rolls; set icing aside. Cut each roll into 8 pieces; place pieces  in dish.

In a medium bowl, beat eggs. Beat in cream, cinnamon and vanilla until well blended; gently pour over roll pieces. Sprinkle with pecans; drizzle with syrup.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, remove covers from icing; microwave 10 to 15 seconds or until thin enough to drizzle.

Drizzle icing over top.  If desired, spoon syrup over individual servings.

Okay back to Christmas!

Elle also received several princess outfits.  Here she is playing with her new doll clothes wardrobe in her Princess Jasmine outfit.

And checking herself out all decked out as Tinkerbell. Melt my heart.

It was a fantastic Christmas.  Kenny and I did not do a lot of gifts for each other.  I got him a tailgate tent and he got me an electronic accessory for my car and an overnight bag I had been eying. It was all about seeing the excitement of Christmas morning through Elle's eyes.