Breakfast Morning Confessions

There is nothing better than long lazy mornings sipping coffee, sitting in front of the fireplace and enjoying good company. We don't host a lot of out of town guests, mostly because right now, all of our beds and rooms are filled with actual people that reside in our home full time, but on the occasions that we do host friends or family, we like to make our time with them special.  

Fall is here and before you know it, winter will be upon us. Imagine yourself wrapped in your favorite blanket with a warm mug of something yummy sitting in front of the fire with the smells of breakfast wafting through the house. But before you get all comfortable, let me rewind a bit. I have a few confessions.
Confession one. I'm not a morning person. Sure, I wake up early and head to the gym most days but I can't seem to utter a single word until I've been up for at least a few hours.  My brain just doesn't seem to form coherent sentences before the sun is up.  
Confession two. My husband and I wish that we were more hospitable people, but as much as we try, we just aren't. We are extroverted introverts and we like our space and our time and our routine. We've even taken one of those personality quizzes and hospitality was so low on both of our lists that it barely registered!
I stress out like it's nobody's business when I am hosting something or someone at my house. I set this unbelievably high standard that is so hard to attain, especially with three kids living in my house {they still make messes faster than I can clean them up and they are so far from the toddler years, I didn't think that was possible!}, that I just don't get excited about hosting. I wish it was easy for me, but we all have our gifts.  So all that said, if you are invited to be a guest in my home, it's because we love you so much that the stress and change in our routine is worth it.
Next year, all I can think about is how my oldest son will be like a guest in our home when he comes home for the holidays from college. I'm getting all nostalgic about the time that we have with him but I'm not kidding myself that the dynamics in our family are going to change when we launch a kiddo off to college next fall. Don't get me wrong, our home is still his home, but being independent changes you. 
So why am I getting all sappy and making confessions?  Well...it's because through the years, I have learned a few things. 
I have learned that I won't get up at 5 am to make my guests a homemade Martha Stewart breakfast spread, even though I wish that I could totally pull it off. I've tried and trust me, no one wants me to start my day like that. 
One Christmas when my parents were visiting I found this recipe for homemade cinnamon rolls that took me four hours to make. FOUR HOURS! Hours I won't get back to spend with the people who I love and who I would have rather spent time with than four hours {can you tell I'm bitter!} in the kitchen. And you know what all of my kids said when we dug into those cinnamon rolls that morning? They thought they were OK but they wanted to know what happened to our "normal" cinnamon rolls.  

OK, last confession.  Want to know what those "normal" cinnamon rolls were? They were Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls right out of the refrigerated section. They take me two minutes to put in a pan and twenty five minutes to cook. And you know what? We all like them better than the ones that I made from scratch that took me four long grueling hours to make. 
I love how the house smells all warm and cozy with the Cinnamon Rolls cooking. It's like the official mark of the holidays, without all of the work that goes into making rolls from scratch. It's really a win win. I get to spend more time with the people I love, and less time in the kitchen and everyone gets to enjoy the special treat. 
This time of year, I always have a can of Cinnamon Rolls in my fridge for those rare weekends when there is nothing on the schedule and we are enjoying a long lazy morning at home just our family. Our time as a family of five at home like we know it is nearing an end, so I want to make those moments special when I can. 
Cinnamon Rolls always make my grocery list because nothing says good morning to your guests like waking up with hot cinnamon rolls fresh from the oven.

The best part? I save hours. I get to sit back, release the unrealistically high Pinterest-perfect standards and actually enjoy my guests. We can actually curl up by the fire and enjoy a long lazy morning. Lazy is the key here because all I had to do was pop open a can! There is nothing more perfect than that.