Some Christmas

Every year I tell myself that I am not going to stress over the holidays. It's hard not to. You have all the shopping, kids school activites, holiday cards, baking, decorating, wrapping, and added to my list this year, finals. Now that was stressful! Luckily after finals were over I was able to get the rest of my stuff done early enough to enjoy this wonderful season. I actually didn't stress one bit. I was very proud of myself. Now lets see if I can be this calm next year. For the first time I had my shopping done pretty early (for me), presents that needed to be wrapped were already wrapped before Christmas Eve. I listened to a good amount of Christmas music to put me in the holiday spirit. Watched some classic holiday movies with the kiddos and did some a lot of baking. With all this calmness about me, I ended up not worrying about the camera for Christmas Eve pictures of jammies or Christmas morning for that matter. There may be a few on Jared's iphone so maybe I will post those at another time. One activity that I was happy to include in the Christmas festivities was a gingerbread house party for my kids and their cousins. I grew up having a gingerbread house party with my family and have fond memories of that. So I decided that is what my kids will have. I think it will be a yearly tradition with us. I think the kids had a blast. I do, however, have pictures of the party courtesy of my sis in law Jen. Thanks Jen!

I'm also posting my Chocolate Bread Pudding recipe per Jens request. I made it for our dessert that night and they loved it just as much as we love it. So I will share with the rest of you. Oh, and super duper easy to make. Enjoy!

Chocolate Bread Pudding
4 cups stale white bread (10-12 slices. Let sit out overnight)
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup milk
3 eggs
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup butter melted
1/2 bar of Ghiradelli semi sweet chocolate baking bar shredded (I usually use 3/4 of the bar because I like it chocolatey)

Preheat oven to 350. Use 9x13 baking dish, lightly buttered. Cut stale bread into cubes. In large mixing bowl, mix bread, whipping cream and milk and let stand for 5 minutes. In another bowl mix eggs, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Gradually stir in the melted butter. Add mixture to the bread and milk and add chocolate. Mix gently. Pour into buttered baking dish and bake until golden brown and center comes out clean. About 45 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes. Serve hot, warm or room temperature.