New Christmas Traditions

So Matt and I are exchanging gifts tonight. We didn't want to take our gifts for each other on the car trip, along with our gifts for family, luggage, etc. We picked tonight, because we'll be busy tomorrow night preparing to arrive HOME for Christmas! :)

Matt is currently finishing wrapping my gifts. ;) I asked if I could help, and he said that would help things get done a lot more quickly, but that I'd better refrain this time since they are presents for me. :) hehe

Since we'll be doing an "early" Christmas probably from now on as long as we're traveling on Christmas, I wanted to think of a special "early Christmas" dinner tradition. I thought of a couple things, tossed around some ideas with Brad on IM (I wanted to surprise Matt), and decided on a gourmet breakfast dinner. No really, I made this fancy french toast (it's soooo good--I'll have to post the recipe) that's so gourmet and yummy that I feel like a culinary genious when I make it. :) I also make bacon and sausage, as well as scrambled eggs (Matt's request). I set the table with our china and crystal, put all our special Christmas candles around the table and breakfast nook, had a set of our Christmas placemats and napkins out, as well as our fun jingle-y napkin rings. I thought it looked pretty, if I do say so myself. :)

Dinner was quite delectable. Yum! The best part of the french toast, besides its a-MAZ-ing taste, is that you prepare it the night before! This makes it the perfect new early Christmas tradition dinner. This time of year will always be busy with the end of the semester for me as long as I'm teaching, shopping, wrapping gifts, and preparing to travel to our parents' for Christmas. But I can make this dinner before we go to bed and all I have to do is bake it the next day! Woo hoo! :)

Lastly, I made cinnamon rolls for a post-present opening dessert.

While Matt finishes wrapping, I did the dishes, took some fun artsy candle/ornament pictures, and I'm trying to finalize selections for our wedding album. I went through and made a list all over again and then analyzed this list against my first one to see which pictures made it on both lists. And GOOD NEWS--including choosing all the ones on both lists, we'll even get to pick some more! We're not at the set included # of pictures yet. :) So now we need to decide on our real favorites from the pics that made only one list. :)

I'm off to take some more artsy pictures and wait for my sweet husband so we can OPEN PRESENTS!! I've NEVER opened presents before Christmas before--not even Christmas Eve. That's just not how my family has done it. So I am quite excited. I'll live it up for you, Joy!!! :)

Love,
Becca