MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I'm baking up some Pecan Balls and making Christmas White Trash (I have no idea why it's called that, but it's good!). Now I'm feeling like it's really Christmas time! :)

http://www.beyondkimchee.com/pecan-balls/

This is my first time making pecan balls, but I was trying to keep my baking to a minimal this year and these were the one thing Jacob requested. They taste really good, although since this is my first time eating one I guess I'll have to wait and see what Jacob thinks about them to be able to give a good opinion on how they stand up to other recipes! The reason why I've never had one is probably because there's usually multiple chocolate desserts at Christmas time, and yes, I normally go the chocolate route. :) I'll definitely be making these again though, because even without chocolate these are yummy, and they're not too sweet like a lot of chocolate stuff so it's nice for a change. 

As for the Christmas White Trash...

http://www.cookingwithk.net/2010/12/christmas-white-trash.html

I made it a couple years ago and it was very good, but also very addicting! So, beware if you make it cause you might not be able to stop eating it! :) Plus, it's extremely easy to mix up, and is great for giving as gifts.

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 So, I know this is kind of a Christmas post, but I figured I should squeeze in a pregnancy update since I'll probably be taking a blogging break for a bit.

I thought Friday night I was going to have to call up the midwife since I was having a lot of contractions (that were actually pretty painful), but they never got regular so I waited it out and they finally went away. I did do a lot of walking that day and hadn't drank my normal amount of water so that could have triggered it, but I'm just hoping it actually did some work on prepping my body for the real thing....cause any dilating that can get done before going into labor would be awesome!

I feel like I've had more false contraction with this pregnancy than I remember with the girls, so I hope that's a good thing. Of course, I couldn't help getting a little excited that maybe Ella would come sooner rather than later, but I know it's wishful thinking. :)

I saw my midwife today, and everything was looking good. Ella had switched sides, but is still facing sideways instead of backwards, but at least she still has room to move so I'll keep trying to get her to turn the right way. I'm measuring at 36 cm, so I'm still behind, but at least she's growing. I was also thrilled to have not gained any weight they week, but I'll probably make up for it by next week....it's crazy how that works!

I'm also faithfully taking my Gentle Birth/5 Week Formula three times a day now.

This is definitely nasty stuff, but it's only 1/4 tsp three times a day, so I take it and literally gulp down orange juice as fast as I can to try and not taste it. Orange juice doesn't totally take away the taste, but it's definitely better than water or milk! I'm trying to follow the directions this time because with Bethany I never took it more than twice a day, but after an extremely easy labor I couldn't help but wonder how it might have been even easier if I had taken the whole dose the entire time! I'm looking forward to seeing if I have similar results with this labor...I know the midwife I used with Bethany (that recommended I use it) said that she's had first time mom's taking this that couldn't believe that labor was that easy, and after my labor with Bethany I can totally believe it because it was amazingly different and easier than my labor with Abigail! I mean really, I couldn't complain with finding out I was 10cm after I had been climbing stairs two at a time, laughing and talking, and then decided I was ready to just go to bed because I thought nothing was happening! I would definitely love to have a repeat of that. :) We'll see though...every labor is different, but I think this stuff really does help a lot!

Well, I should get back to the rest of my baking. :)

I hope everyone has a very 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!