Jan. 2: Tevye said (sang) (hollered?) it best

Over the past 15 years as a family of 3-4, we’ve created some traditions to help make our Christmas season special and memorable—that’s what traditions are for, right? The kids know they always get new PJs on Christmas Eve, which they open after we’ve finished our Chinese food dinner. Sometimes they get to open another gift, but we choose the gift because I am Controlling And Overbearing Mrs. Claus, or so they say. Actually, we wait to put most the gifts under the tree until the kids have gone to bed (they’re not Santa believers, we just like to see the looks on their faces when they come down on Christmas morning). They know they’re not allowed to start opening presents until Vic and I each have a cup of coffee in our hands. Depending on what other family members we’re with on Christmas, the rest of the day’s activities vary from year to year.

I cling to our long-standing traditions, but I like to try out new ones here and there too. In recent years, I’ve made a point to prepare an extra-yummy Christmas morning breakfast/brunch. We don’t always sit down together to eat, but when each of us gets hungry, I like to have something delicious ready. This year I planned two dishes: my bodacious frit-TATA (originally Debi’s recipe, but tweaked into my own) and eggnog baked French toast. Both required preparation the night before.

Although I can’t seem to find the frittata recipe on my blog, I’m sure I’ve shared it before. Basically, it’s potatoes, cheese, eggs, and sausage. Savory. Delicious.

Here’s the French toast recipe we followed. It was new to us. We enjoyed it immensely, and its very sweet, Christmas-flavored goodness was the perfect companion to the frittata. 

The new part of this Christmas breakfast tradition—and my favorite part, the one I hope stays—is that Katie and Jack prepared the frittata and French toast. The only thing I really did was put them in the oven on Christmas morning. We loved turning the chef responsibilities over to them, and they loved all the compliments from our stuffed moufs. :)

“Tradition!” Those Anatevkans were really onto something.