My New Quest: Make My Own Candy for Christmas

I was at Trader Joe's today, one of my favorite places to go.  I had grand plans to buy some candies there to use for stocking stuffers.  I remembered from last year that there was a lot of variety.  So I was excited.  However, that did not pan out the way I wanted it to.

First of all, I could not find a single piece of chocolate without soy lecithin in it.  The reason I am avoiding soy is due to it's effect on hormone levels, not to mention it is usually genetically modified.  Then I looked at some jelly beans and cookies.  They contained soy flours, corn syrup, and soybean/sunflower/canola oils.  Is it so much to ask for foods made with recognizable ingredients?  I just want whole grain flour, butter, whole sugar, natural flavors.  Sheesh.

But then I remembered these chocolate macadamias sprinkled with sea salt from last year, which I have still not attempted.  But I did make peanut butter cups and coconut-chocolate mounds this year for Valentine's Day and they were wonderful.  I also have loved this coconut-orange fudge recipe.  At least I know I can make those from experience and try some new recipes too.  I can make a few kinds of candies and then put them in a cute package for each of our stockings.

I also have an excellent pair of shortbread recipes that I need to whip up.  It's a good thing I started sprouting some white wheat berries tonight.  I even found recipes for basic chocolate fudge, caramel corn, and these almond cookies!  Maybe something that looks similar to this Nature's Candy Box idea.  It really is worth it to me.  I'm going to do it, dammit!

I may even try to convert some of my old favorites into nourishing versions and see how it goes.  I really love these cookies, and these sugar cookies, and these peanut butter cup cookies, and these checkerboard cookies, and these mexican wedding cookies.  I want to have all of them again.  Wish me luck, I will be blogging my success!

Two Fakeouts So Far

Last Thursday I thought I was going to have to eat my words about not having E for a while. I was having...symptoms, we'll just put it that way. But then, nothing. Fakeout number one. So then Sunday night comes along and I have a bunch of Braxton-Hicks contractions (is that how you spell it?). I started timing them when they started to hurt a little. For 2 hours they were pretty much 3-7 minutes apart. And then they stopped. Fakeout number two.

Since Sunday, I've had sporadic contractions but not enough to time them or anything. Also, I went to the OB this morning and there was pretty much nothing new to report. I'm still at a 2, but she says I'm very soft so it could be any day. Her words were that it now just depends on when my body decides to go into labor. She also said on her way out the door that she was on call Christmas day and maybe she would see me. Does that mean anything?! I don't know.

Hopefully my body decides to go into labor no earlier than Christmas morning around 11am. That way I can at least see little M's face when he sees that Santa brought him "lots of trains and special crayons" just like he has stated so many times :). Not to mention the little bike with training wheels that R purchased last night at Toys r Us three days before Christmas (not recommended).

I'm just torn because E is already pretty big. I think he's going to come out at 8 1/2 pounds, maybe more. Just 2 more days little guy!

What I did for Christmas break

Ahem,

Here is a rundown of what our Christmas was all about:

First we stayed home in Michigan prior to, and up to 3 days after, Christmas Day. M brought home a flu-like virus (I know it's not the flu, since we have had our flu shots. Plus, the doctor said so.), gave it to me, and I gave it to R. It wasn't actually that bad, except M couldn't shake it for a few days, and R's sickness coordinated with late Christmas Eve/Christmas Day which was sad :( But Christmas was good. M got an Elmo. I got a Sonicare toothbrush. R got Seinfeld Season 7.

We got over the sickness. We got excited about going to R's brother's wedding. We flew to AZ the day before and stayed with our favorite relatives: N and K and O (R's brother, and subsequent wife and child). We went to the wonderful sealing and were pretty misty-eyed. We took pictures, and it was cold, but the babies were CUTE! Any miniature versions of Sunday clothes are to die for!

We spent our week in AZ playing outside, running outside, looking for summer housing, seeing family, eating a lot of good red meat at R's parents house and at In-N-Out Burger, and getting more Christmas presents from R's fam. We got Little People dinosaurs and a mini keyboard for M. There were some ill-fitting shirts. There were some interesting book choices. (Anyone who knows R well will appreciate the mismatchedness of this gift: R got a book by Mitch Albom that wasn't "Tuesdays with Morrie". Heehee!) I got a cool salad dressing thingy from The Pampered Chef. We also had fun cooking together at N and K's house. We made fish tacos*! We made creme brulee! We made fondue!

(*Now I must rave about fish tacos: First you catch (or buy) some yummy Albacore tuna or Mahi Mahi, you marinade it in fresh lemon, soy sauce, and brown sugar. You grill it to perfection and set it aside. You warm or lightly fry up some corn tortillas in some oil. You cut up mango into chunks. You shred some lettuce. You grate some cheese (preferably some organic white cheddar, yum!). You make the Pico de Gallo: 2 cups finely diced tomato, 1 cup finely diced onion, chopped fresh cilantro (one big bunch), olive oil (about 1-5 tablespoons-ish), hot sauce (preferably Cholula, also yum!). Now you build your fish taco. Tortilla, fish, cheese, pico, lettuce, mango. Enjoy!!)

Okay, so we've now been back from vacation a couple of days. We are rested and happy and even ready for the last semester at Michigan. We are excited about moving, graduating, M's upcoming 2nd birthday, new jobs, possibly a new pregnancy (later in the year, i'm NOT pregnant now). I think 2007 will be a good year. I will turn 27, wow! I will have my 5th wedding anniversary, double wow! I feel good about it :)