I hope you all had – or are currently enjoying – a wonderful Christmas with all your friends and loved ones. Just thinking back to this time last year, it was -16 degrees and today we enjoyed a very mild 13.4C, that’s 30 degrees warmer on last year. Not complaining at all:)

This year has certainly flown by and soon we will be welcoming 2012 – I hope the remainder of 2011 is a safe and happy one for you all and that all the people you love and care for travel safely into, and through, the new year with you. That’s what really matters when all’s said and done.

Merry Christmas XXX

Our son spent some time in hospital recently after having an asthma episode during Halloween – nothing serious but the doctor at A&E decided his condition needed monitoring for a day or so and so kept him in for a little while. They did a range of allergy tests on our son and we discovered he is allergic to cat hair and dust mites – the cat hair can be sorted easily as we don’t own a cat, but tackling the dust mites is a more complicated area as every house has regardless of how clean and ‘dust free’ you assume you are.

I have stepped up the washing of the bed linen now to several times a week instead of weekly, which might seem over the top to many people who probably only think to wash their bed sheets once a month. I vacuum the mattresses and in his room, around the house, on a daily basis. The mites feed off the dead flakes of skin that we all shed in bed so that is what I have to keep on top of. We bought new mattresses for all the kids – a special one for James and something like a memory foam mattress for my two other sons who don’t suffer the asthma.

So far so good! with him now on a new course of treatment after a review on how we were doing things he is 100%, better than he has ever been, and the asthma has been totally arrested. Keeping him  warm in the winter now is a main concern – but to anyone with a similar problem…check those mattresses and sheets as the problem could be in the bed rather than in the air.