My favorite meal of the week

The other day, Sabrina came home from school with a booklet she'd made titled "If I Could Give You Anything: My Wishes For the Holidays." One of her wishes: "I'd like to give my family a big breakfast."

Yep, our family loves breakfast, and so when Kellogg's and The Motherhood offered to sponsor a post on it I was all, Bring on the turkey bacon! (Full disclosure: I very much like lunch and dinner, too, along with eating in general.) On average, families spend about 17 minutes a day preparing and eating breakfast, according to a survey the Kellogg's people did (because, you know, it wouldn't be like them to do a martini survey). That is approximately 10 minutes more time than our family spends on b-fast during the weekdays—and 30 minutes less than on Sunday mornings.

For us, Sunday a.m. breakfast is the most relaxing time of the week. It's the only day when Max doesn't have therapy appointments, and so there's nothing to schedule the morning around. Our day, and our stove, are filled with endless possibilities, as opposed to weekdays, when we're more likely to be scrambling to get out the door than scrambling eggs.

The kids think cooking anything for breakfast is good fun, and I'm happy to let them stir up pancake batter and add blueberries or chocolate chips; I slip in flax seeds when they aren't looking, because I'm sneaky that way. Then we make smiley faces with syrup. There's also time to teach them about the joys of kitchen cleanup and that, actually, the DustBuster won't pick up batter from the floor but isn't mopping soooo much fun?

Once we're done eating we hang out at the table, looking at iPad games (the kids) and the Sunday paper (me and Dave) and generally feeling happy to be at home, all together, with nothing to do but enjoy each other's company.

Wishing you and your family many, many happy breakfasts this season—and that your kids also enjoy clean-up!

Survey stats from the Kellogg's Breakfast in America Survey by the NPD Group