How was your Christmas holiday? As you know, my children are getting older which means I am also getting older. I am trying to really enjoy each moment I have with my family before the children leave home.

In years past, we would invite the grandmothers over early in the morning and they would get to watch the excitement as our children opened their presents. Despite the fact that the children are now older and aren’t quite as fun to watch as they open presents, we still do want to spend time with Grandma, Uncle, and Aunty so I planned a Christmas brunch. That will give me some time to wake up after a late night of Christmas Eve partying to get the brunch ready. It also gives my late-rising husband and children a few more minutes of sleep.

I had planned on serving POG mimosas, baked French toast, kimchi fried rice, and bacon this year. We make kimchi fried rice often in our house and I know that as long as I have the rice cooked ahead of time and have the necessary ingredients, that is a fast dish to cook. I have never made a baked French toast before and this is how I attempted it this year.

I looked up recipes from Ree Drummond, Taste of Home, and Mom on Timeout who all had different ratios of the ingredients so I made up my own to fit my needs and taste. Click here for the printable recipe.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Unfortunately, on Christmas morning, my daughter’s throat was a little scratchy and we didn’t want my 96-year old MIL to get sick so we delivered the food to them rather than have them hang out with a possibly sick girl.

• 

• 

We delivered fried rice and baked French toast with a packet of bacon to them. I figured they could easily make their bacon and have it hot and fresh when they wanted to eat.

• 

Even though we didn’t get to spend as much time together as we had hoped, we did get to deliver presents and some food and best of all, wish grandma a merry Christmas! Living Hilo Style.