Merry Christmas

Have you had a good day?

Sock patterns from Claire!

Mine has been awesome!  I got up about 8.30, had a nice hour drinking tea and surfing the web, then I had a shower before we all opened our presents.

I got LOADS!

Claire gave me a sock pattern book and a CD with over 50 sock patterns on!

From Kathy

This gift alone will keep me busy this year!

I joined in two Secret Santas this year.  One Santa - her Ravelry username is Kathycogs -  gave me a shoe box crammed full of stuff.  There was some lovely sparkly sock yarn, Cadbury's hot chocolate sachets, chewy lollies, Galaxy chocolate, 'Keep Calm, Carry On Knitting' cup mat and little itty bitty stitch markers!

From KTjazz

The other Santa didn't immediately reveal herself until I begged her too because she bought me some lovely gifts!  

KTjazz bought me some bamboo sock yarn, some chocolate peanuts, some roving to spin up to make dread wraps, a bag she made herself and DREAD BEADS!!! How totally awesome!

She really did her research, I guess she came here LOL.

I also got some lovely angora fibre from Ambermog, can't wait to spin it!

Isis and her duck

Isis didn't get left out - she got a new toy; it's a duck that quacks.  We squeezed it before opening it and she got SO excited!  She has spent the entire day (when not drooling in the kitchen at the meat) using it as a pillow.

The kids had quite a few gifts this year - some we're not allowed to open as they're from Vicky, Matt's girlfriend, and she's not here until tomorrow.

 

 

 

Christmas Day

They seem quite happy and it took them until 8pm before arguments started LOL

After we had breakfast we sat down to watch Phantom of The Opera - no, not the crappy film version; the proper stage version filmed at the Royal Albert Hall! Mum bought it for me when we went to watch the tennis and I'd been saving it!

The kids LOVED it!

Tomorrow will be a day of gluttony as no one felt like eating - we had such a huge breakfast; no one had room for a full roast turkey dinner!

My new bag!

 So tomorrow we are going to have cold meat, mash potato, pickled onions, cranberry sauce and lots and lots of cake!

There will probably be alcohol too!

Well, whatever you did and whoever you spent it with; I hope you had a good day and that the rest of the holiday period is a good one for you and yours.

Oh....I cast on socks too *embarrassed face* but they're not for me!  I was asked to make some for Juliann ages ago, she even sent me the yarn, but I got so wrapped up in socks for me that I didn't get around to it.  In this pic I've placed the yarn with the started toes in front of the bag Matt bought me for Christmas :D

Addiction

Addiction can be a terrible thing, the desire, the need for that one thing that will take the addiction away.

I'm not talking about alcohol, smoking or drugs.

I'm talking about Coca Cola! Beautiful, ice cold Coca Cola!

I am a cola addict. It started years ago, I can't really remember when but it was when the children were small. I could quite easily consume 3 litres of cola in a day.

I kept a bottle by the bedside so that I'd have a drink if I woke during the night and would often buy a 500ml bottle if out during the day.

So, why am I telling you this?

I recently read this post by a twitter friend of mine and decided that something needs to be done about the fact that the makers of Coca Cola don't tell people how addictive and dangerous their product is!

I developed psoriasis quite a few years ago, it was shortly after I went to Florida with the family in 2005 and was told it was stress related. I was even referred to a dermatologist.

I tried all different creams or potions, emollients and treatments, but one of the baffling things was that my legs (the worst hit places) didn't really itch much during the day.

But at night.....I would start itching early evening and scratch most of the evening and half the night too.

It was driving me absolutely bananas! I was also causing my legs to bleed and scar.

After a year or so, things got a bit financially tight and we had to cut back on takeaways and unnecessary purchases for a while. I also wanted to lose some weight, so cut out the cola.

I didn't really notice anything at first.

Until we decided to splurge one evening on a takeaway from the kebab shop. We all ordered what we wanted and got a couple of bottles of cola.

Within half an hour of eating the meal, my skin was crawling with itchiness!

I did some judicial testing over the next few months and discovered that Coca Cola was the cause of the itching! If I avoid it, I don't itch and my psoriasis calms right down. If I drink it, I can guarantee that I will be scratching later that day!

Now, thankfully my reaction isn't anywhere near as bad as Jackie's and I hope her headaches continue to improve, but as I told her in the comments section of her blog; I found coming off the cola quite hard.

There is a lot of sugar in carbonated drinks and that is what people get addicted to. I found that I suffered headaches for a good couple of months after quitting it, but eventually they did cease.

But I know the lure of the cola - it's strong, especially Cherry Coke! An ice cold can of Cherry Coke on a hot day, or after a spicy meal is just fabulous. I have to avoid Poundland as they sell 3 for £1 :(

Coca Cola is addictive and very bad for you!

If you drink it (or any other carbonated drink/soda - I can't drink Dr Pepper either!) and you suffer from something that the medical people can't explain or treat - try cutting the soda's out for a while...at least 2 months....to see if it helps.

Please spread the word too, these kind of sugary drinks don't just rot your teeth, they rot your entire body!