The children were nestled . . . all snug in their beds . . .

After we were able to get the boys calmed down enough to actually go to sleep, we got busy.

I mean, I got busy.  Dave had just come off of working nights, and he was exhausted so I let him go to sleep while I got everything ready for Christmas morning.

I made two recipes for breakfast that you make the night before.  One is the traditional sausage and egg casserole called Bachelor's Breakfast.  It is Mrs. Frances Bell's recipe out of the Calvary Baptist Church cookbook. 

You layer cubed bread slices (6), then grated cheese (1 cup), and then crumbled (cooked) sausage (1 lb.) in a casserole dish.  I did 2 layers of the bread, cheese, and sausage.  I also did one/half side of the dish with sausage and one-half side of the dish with crumbled bacon because Dave doesn't like sausage.  I also used the Jimmy Dean cooked sausage patties and Hormel bacon pieces so I didn't have to actually cook either of them.

Mix together 6 eggs, 2 cups of milk (I used half & half), 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. dry mustard, and pepper to taste.
Pour the egg mixture over the layered ingredients. 

Cover and refrigerate overnight.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  I had to cook mine for 30 additional minutes for the eggs to set up.  I think my casserole was thicker than normal because I didn't put it in a 9 x 13 dish which is what I usually put it in.  It was really good Christmas morning.  Sorry, I don't have a picture of the cooked casserole. 

I also made Christmas Eve Shortcut Cinnamon Buns.  It's a recipe I got in an email newsletter that I subscribe to at  http://www.savingdinner.com/ . 

You layer a bag of frozen dinner rolls in a lightly-greased bundt pan.

Then sprinkle that with 1 cup of brown sugar.

Then sprinkle with 1/4 cup of instant vanilla pudding mix, and then 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon. 

Pour 1/3 cup of melted butter over the top and cover with a clean, damp cloth.  Leave out overnight at room remperature to rise.  The next morning bake it at 350 degrees (preheated oven) for 25 minutes or until golden brown.  This is what mine looked like coming out of the oven.

Then turn it out onto a serving plate.  Here's mine on Christmas morning after flipping it out of the bundt pan:

Dave really liked it.  The children didn't eat anything that morning except the candy and goodies in their stockings. :)

You can view the newsletter with this recipe and another Christmas morning recipe for a Strata - HERE.
Copyright (C) 2011 www.savingdinner.com Leanne Ely, CNC All rights reserved.

Besides getting Christmas morning breakfast ready, I also had to set up Shane's special present. . . . a remote control train set.  It was originally Zach and Alex's train set from many Christmases ago.  I had packed it up and stored it when they outgrew it.   Shane is at the perfect age for it now.  So after discussing it with Zach and Alex, we all agreed to give it to Shane Christmas morning.

I made 3 trips to the storage shed in the rain at 1 o'clock in the morning to get it.  One trip to the storage shed was to let the cat out . . . I happen to notice one of the cats was missing from the patio.  He was locked in the storage shed!  Cats are so funny.

Here is the train and tracks all set up.

We have 4 remote control trains that work with this set.  I only put 2 of them out for him.  It's a cool set.  It has moving parts, sound, and lights that work on the buildings around the track.

Before I went to bed, I checked on the boys.  This is what I found:

Their noses were painted red!  I knew immediately that Jeff, the elf, had been up to mischief one last time before heading back to the North Pole with Santa!  He left a note confessing his guilt!

When the boys woke up, they found that Santa had been to our house and had been very generous to them considering their behavior during this past year.

I was so excited for the boys when I went to bed Christmas Eve.  Even though it was 2 o'clock in the morning, I had so much fun. 

Little did I know  . . . the boys were going to be waking me up at 3 o'clock . . .  No sleep during Christmas for . . .

the Ferrell Boys and me.  :)