Link Roundup 23.12.11

Clearly I'm not too focussed on blogging lately. I suspect that most people aren't too focussed on blog reading right now either, so hopefully I'll be forgiven for failure to post. I have, incredibly, only three tabs are open in my browser as I prepare to shut down for a holiday hiatus, and I think they say a lot about how I spend my on-line time at the moment:

• How to keep your curls, hormones and environment happy at the same time.
• A treatise on processed sugar.
• An epidemiologist's nerdgasmic smack-down on Ancel Keys and those who smack him down.
• Bonus link: probably the cutest nativity story I've ever seen.

Enjoy your holidays, however you celebrate them! Try not to succumb to family pressure, tinsel stress, long-drive exhaustion or paper-tearing orgyism. Being so far from the family around whom my holiday traditions are built, I find that simple is ... good. I'm still running like a headless chicken to get the gifts for the neighbours done, but our 5 decorations hung on our ficus turned out to be pretty cute, and entirely enough. I can't eat Christmas baking anyway, so I'm actually relieved that I don't have anyone who would give me some or expect any in return. And having to take my own simple food to Christmas dinner (long story) also means that I will not end the evening bloated, tired and in need of antacids as others may be. That just leaves me more attention to devote to enjoying the evening, and that's the whole point, right?