Christmas Morning Make-Ahead Baked French Toast

This is my SIL's traditional breakfast for Christmas morning, and I'm getting the recipe down before her copy dissolves into tatters in her recipe box :)

Holiday Morning French Toast

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
3 tsp cinnamon (divided)
3 tart apples: peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
1/2 cup dried cranberries or raisins
1 loaf Italian or French bread, cut into 1 inch slices
6 large eggs
1 1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp vanilla

Combine brown sugar, butter and 1 tsp cinnamon in a 9x13" baking dish. Add apples and cranberries; toss to coat well. Spread apple mixture evenly over bottom of baking dish and arrange slices of bread on top.

Mix eggs, milk, vanilla and remaining 2 tsp cinnamon until well blended. Pour mixture over bread, soaking bread completely. Cover and refrigerate 4-24 hours.

Bake covered with aluminum foil at 375 for 40 minutes, then remove foil and bake an additional 5 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Friday Funny

Definitely not how Jesus' arrival went down :)

Sing it Saturday

No, this won't be a regular thing, but the title was catchy :) Go Fish has a great Christmas album, and this song in particular always gets me moving. I do indeed have the JOY - it has nothing to do with circumstances, and everything to do with my Savior! What an amazing gift.

Friday Funny

Have a completely non-offensive and politically correct holiday! :)

Birthday Build: Done!

This makes me smile every time I walk by. And I like it so much more than those porcelain ones (especially since the reality is that things will get broken... no problem!) I would also like to add that I have an awesome hubby, who spent over 4 hours last night alone working on the toy shop... there are some very cool details on that set.

Celebrating!

Well, the Christmas season has descended upon us.

Last Wednesday, I decorated the outside of our house - you know, so at least the neighbors think we're festive :) I wired bows onto the lights by the garage, hung a wreath, and put out the Christmas doormat. All done! The next day, I purchased a nonfat cup of steamy goodness in a jolly cup, and headed out to purchase a few things. There's a reason I shop for gifts year-round: simply put, I despise fighting the holiday crowds. I'm not a fan of crowded aisles, screaming children, and poorly organized shelves. I think I'm done now, other than the things we're waiting to purchase until we arrive in Arizona. Thursday night I also went to a cookie exchange, which was loads of fun! The bad news is that I am unable to resist baked goods, and the scale showed the results of this on Monday... the number went up for the first time since I started my weight loss journey. A bit discouraging, but not unexpected. One the plus side, the kids have done a pretty good job of wiping out the aforementioned cookies!

In other news, we "opened" a few early family Christmas gifts. We'd been debating about purchasing a Wii for over a year now (especially since our summers are so ridiculously hot here!) and ended up taking the plunge on Black Friday, courtesy of Amazon. We also got the Balance Board, which I'd really been wanting. We've already had a lot of fun with it, and I get a great core workout from laughing hysterically at our daughter boxing - it's not the movements that get me, but the trash talk to her opponents. "You're going down, big guy!" is her most-used. I have no idea where she heard it, but it totally cracks me up. I've been using the Wii Fit Plus program, and am digging the rhythmic boxing... I also foresee the purchase of additional fitness games in my future.

Last night hubby and the kids put together my birthday present. Yes, I had requested Legos. I know it may seem bizarre, but I promise it will make sense when I post finished pictures - tomorrow perhaps?

We also got the tree up over the weekend. This is the first time that we haven't put up all our ornaments. They are definitely a colorful mishmash, but in the interest of simplicity this year we simply went with red & metallic ornaments, along with some white garland. I like the different look, but the kids have already requested that we put it *ALL* out next year. I did put out a few other things around the house - beaded garland draped around doorways, baskets of ornaments, and a few special ornaments hung on doorknobs, windows, etc. I do love this cross, and it's hanging in our entryway. Such a great reminder that while so many focus on the "magic" of Christmas, there is something much better that we can believe in...

Friday Funny

It's Christmastime... which means attack of the overly embellished sweater!

More "beauties" here and here.

You're welcome :)

(I must admit that I actually sort of like this one :)