Holy Christmas! Cinnamon Rolls, year 2

I baked homemade cinnamon rolls again this Christmas.  The first reason is because I wanted to eat them on Christmas morning with homemade breakfast casserole which I blogged about a couple months ago when our friends stayed with us.  And we have a Keurig now and the thought of piping hot coffee with sweet rolls and breakfast casserole on a cold Christmas morning just sounded lovely. 

So one weekend day I spent several hours in the kitchen making these little gems.  I made one batch....which is about 40-50 rolls or 7-8 pans...then once I got started and realized how perfect they were turning out I decided to share some with our closest friends and family so they could enjoy cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning too. 

I had pans of cinnamon rolls everywhere.

And our kitchen smelled wonderful all day long while they baked. 

I used the maple-coffee frosting from the original recipe on The Pioneer Woman blog and sprinkled a few chopped pecans on some of them before packaging to deliver.

It was nearly impossible to not get a fork and just eat them from the pan as soon as they came out of the oven with icing drizzled over the top.  But, I did resist.

I sealed up the pans with a bag of icing and used these cute little place cards to put a little label on top.  What a good use for place cards, huh?

 I delivered 8 pans of rolls before Christmas day meaning we had 8-9 pans for here at home. Dangerous!  I kept out two pans for us then froze the rest.  I will try to not eat anymore for a month or so but Robbie just loves sweet things for breakfast so I will let him pull out a pan to reheat every once in a while.

I  found several variations to The Pioneer Woman's sweet rolls on her blog and would love to try to make the orange or caramel ones, maybe around Easter.  I love making these things!  It's a yeast dough but extremely easy to work with and there is no kneading involved.  I had several messages from friends and family about how much they enjoyed their rolls on Christmas morning.  I think it may have been one of the best gifts I gave out this year and will continue to be an annual tradition here at this old house.