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Christmas Dinner with family and friends is always a special part of our holiday celebrations. The menu is planned, the guest list is complete. Now what are you going to do

to your table to add that special touch?

Candles, you can never go wrong with candles, but forget about the perfect set of candle holders and matching tapers. Bring out the mismatched candles and holders. You can decorate some of your pillar candles by wrapping them with sheets of birch bark. Mix crystal and silver holders, try different shapes and styles too. Tall and short, round and square – they all work on today’s table.

Decorating your table doesn’t need to be expensive. Set Christ-mas balls on candle holders mixed in with the display of can-dles and holders. Collect some pine cones and spray them with white or silver paint then strategically place them among the candles.

Keep your table linens simple, so they don’t compete with your decorations. A small festive table runner or placemat as a base for your center piece is sufficient. What about dishes? They don’t have to match either – add a splash of color to your table with the addition of small red plates mixed with your regular dinner plates. Small sprigs of greenery – pine or cedar – and a small decoration on the plates make a welcome, whimsical ad-dition while waiting for that delicious meal you have prepared.

Really, there isn’t a right or wrong way to set your Christmas table. The most important part is the people who will be sitting around it sharing your meal.

What’s on Your Table?

Table design by NewView Interiors by Laurie Cole

What’s on Your Table?

The festive season is upon us and for some it is time to liven things up with a drink or two or three or more. Many of us have regretted the “more” when morn-ing comes.

Picture it. It’s 11 AM January 1, 2015 and you are just waking up. Wow! Now that was a par-ty! You sit up, ready to start the first day of the New Year…but wait…headache, thirsty, heart pounding, shaky, and the light hurts your eyes. You, my friend, have a hang-over! Welcome to 2015!

This could have been pre-vented, but we’ll talk about

that later. You need relief - NOW! Alcohol causes your

body to become dehydrated, so first you need to rehydrate

yourself…sip water or juice. Ever heard of the hair of the dog? Even

though it may be tempting, stay away from more alcohol – you’ll only feel

worse in the long run. Try and eat some-thing – but keep it simple – soup is a smart move for a hangover because it will help replenish the salts your body lost with all those bathroom trips. If the soup works, move onto bland foods – toast or crackers are a good bet.

Was the Party Worth the Hangover?

Aspirin can be hard on your stomach and acetaminophen can cause liver damage, but the benefits of taking a pain reliever can-not be dismissed. The Alcohol Hangover Research Group (yes, it’s for real) suggest taking an anti-inflammatory before you go to bed.Finally, go back to bed. Sleep it off. If you sleep long enough, your hangover will be gone when you wake up. (Hope Mom isn’t expecting you for brunch.)

Now, let’s play devil’s advocate and see what you could have done to avoid this curse that has been bestowed upon you…did you eat supper? Alcohol is absorbed much faster when you drink on an empty stomach. Were you in a drinking contest? No? It’s important to limit yourself to one drink an hour.

Choose your poison. Research has shown certain alcoholic beverages are more likely to cause a hangover. Rule of thumb, the darker the drink, the better chance you’ll wish you hadn’t chosen that beverage last night.

Finally, sipping water between drinks has been shown to help prevent a hangover. First it helps to keep you hydrated and you’ll drink less alcohol.

Was the party worth the hangover? Per-haps it was. Maybe you don’t remember much after 10 PM, or maybe you are up with the birds, ready to take on the day and the new year. Either way – Happy New Year and here’s to a year of healthy, hang-over-free socializing in 2015.

“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and

love and kindred, and we are better throughout the year for

having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas time.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Photo CreditsOur Girl Jessica Leota Spilman

Baby Camden Hallett

Hair by Kirsten Thomas Look at Me Hair Design

Beautifully Designed Home by New View Designs by Laurie Cole

Life has gotten busy. When did that happen? Why did we allow ourselves to get caught up in the busyness of the season? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to turn back time?

Turn back time to a simpler time? I remember as a child…waiting…so excited for the holiday sea-son. Around the first of November I would be begging to hang the tinsel wreaths with the red candle in the windows. Pleading with my parents to put up the Christmas tree, make cookies, wrap presents - anything. After all, Christmas was mag-ic. When I think back, and try to describe the feeling – magic is the only word I have.

I remember Christmas Eve, laying on the floor in front of the Christmas tree with my brother – no lights on except the tree lights and the tinsel wreaths in the windows – listening to the radio. The Norrad reports tracing Santa’s journey were exciting and frightening at the same time. Going to the Christmas Eve church service and singing the age old carols at the top of my lungs – who doesn’t love Christmas carols – even if they are sung off key by a precocious 7 year old.

And then there were the presents – from the little stocking stuffers to the “big” present. I remem-ber one year Santa left a little vanity with a mirror and a bench, full of “make-up”, I thought I was a princess. One of my favorite Christmas mem-ories was the year my grandfather visited from Massachusetts. He came with boxes of gifts, but my favorite gift he brought was a blue plastic cup shaped like a cowboy boot, the handle shaped like a “Z” for the TV show Zorro!

Children find the magic in the small things – the decorations, the wrapping, the anticipation and the little blue cups. Life is simpler for them. Somewhere along the way, we have had to grow up. We are now responsible for decorating the tree, doing the baking, the shopping, the wrap-ping and we still have work and, have you noticed meals and laundry don’t take a break over the hol-iday season?

Where is the Magic?

Even though childhood Christmases are re-membered with fondness and longing, the holiday season is a sad time for many. Some are missing a loved one during the holidays. There’s an empty chair. Some people are alone for the holidays – some by choice, some by fate.

For families separated by marital break-ups, the holidays are difficult for the adults, but also for the children. Someone once said, “But they have 2 Christmases”, the little boy replied, “I would rather have my Mom and Dad in one house and have one Christmas.” Let’s not forget the dedicated people who work shift work - trying to arrange their cel-ebrations around 12 hour shifts.

Did growing up take the “magic” out of Christmas? Maybe grown up magic is dif-ferent than our childhood magic. We chal-lenge you to find some “magic” this Christ-mas. It may not be the magic we felt as a child…it may be the feeling we get attending a Christmas Eve candlelight service. Maybe it is from helping at the local food bank, or volunteering at the homeless shelter. How long has it been since you went Christmas caroling? Did you ever go caroling? Perhaps it is something as simple as watching a snow-fall - you know the ones with the huge snow-flakes - with someone you love…whatever it is – try and find some magic this holiday season. Try and get back to a time when you felt the anticipation and wonderment of the season like you did when you were 7. Happy Holidays to all our ShopFredericton friends!

“Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.”Dale Evans

Leticia DeGante has started 3 businesses in the past 3 years and plan-ning on more. She recently was presented with the Business Immi-grant Mentorship Program award by the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce. Can you say Powerhouse?

We recently sat down with Leticia DeGante, a diminutive woman with enormous ideas! An immigrant from Mexico, Leticia arrived in Fredericton in 2007. Her two daughters had been living here, learning to speak English in an immersion program – loved it here and encouraged Leticia and her husband to move to New Brunswick. Since then it has been non-stop for this family.

Working as a landscaper for 23 years in Mexico, Leticia applied her expertise working for a local nursery until she gained permanent res-idency and then opened her own landscaping business in 2011. In 2012 Leticia opened DeGante – Authentic Mexican Jewellery special-izing in silver jewelry imported from Mexico. House of Stone was her 2013 project. House of Stone sells bricks, pavers and decorative brick – a business that compliments her first business and her pas-sion – landscaping.

Family is very important to Leticia and each member of her family is or has been involved with the development and start-up of each business. They work as a family with each member bringing their individual talents to the table. The sleek white décor of DeGante Jewellery was designed by Leticia’s daughter-in-law who is an Interi-or Designer in Montreal. Leticia’s daughter Alejandra, designed the logo and branding for the store. Leticia’s husband Mario completed the construction.

Leticia and her husband have taught their children about business and their three children are all in the infancy stages of starting their own businesses. They are taught to start small and work their way up – not to incur a huge debt to start a big business when a small start will ensure success. Strong work ethic and honesty are at the foun-

Award Winning EntrepeneurBrings Mexican Silver Jewelery and her Family to Fredericton

dation of each of the businesses, and it is important to be a worker in the business. Be hands on. Be involved.

What’s next for this busy woman and her family? Alejandra is study-ing architecture and making plans to start a furniture business featur-ing her designs. Leticia (daughter) is studying at STU and is also pre-paring to become a personal coach with her own studio. DeGante’s son, Hugo lives in Montreal and is getting ready to open a Mexican restaurant with his wife Milena in the spring of 2016. Demolition has begun and renovations will be under way in January.

They’ve come a long way in a few short years. Leaving family mem-bers and everything they had in 2007 and coming to New Brunswick and now being awarded the first Business Immigrant Mentorship Program Award, there seems to be no end to the successes for this family.

Anaphylaxsis

With the holiday season upon us – we are gifted with treats, attending parties and snacking at many festivities. If you have food allergies don’t forget to ask the ingredients in that cookie before you take a bite and if you are providing food for the company party or a potluck with friends, take a minute and list the ingredients you used to create your treat.

Let’s set the scene for you – it’s two weeks before Christmas and it’s been a busy couple of weeks – work, meetings, shopping, wrapping, excited kids and you have been missing your best friend. The two of you exchange texts and decided to meet for coffee last night after supper…nothing better than spending down time with your BBF, right? Relaxing, catching up with each other’s lives; sounds like a per-fect break. But it wasn’t! After 3 sips of her coffee you noticed her face was turning beet red and her eyes were starting to swell. Gasping for breath, she tells you she is having trouble breathing. Although you are panicked, you managed to call 911 and yell for help while waiting for the ambulance. She was getting worse and you wondered where the ambulance was, but in reality it had been less than a min-ute since you phoned. A few minutes later the ambulance pulled up and the EMTs took over care of your dear friend and rushed to the hospital with lights flashing and sirens blaring. You were shaken up, but managed to get to your car and follow the blinding red lights to the hospital – going over and over the past 10 minutes in your mind. What happened? What happened? What happened? You know she has food allergies…but you only had coffee – it didn’t make sense at all.

While sitting in the waiting room, you tried to piece it all together, but you couldn’t…she only had a couple sips of coffee. Finally, the nurse came out and took you to see her. She was so pale, an oxygen mask covering her pretty face, intravenous in her arm for fluids. She looked so sick. The doctor came inside the curtain and told you she had an anaphylactic reaction to something she ate or drank, but she was very lucky to get to the hospital as quickly as she did or the out-come could have been much different.

So, what exactly happened to your friend? The coffee shop had served her regular coffee from fresh ground coffee beans, but the previous beans had been Hazelnut and the small traces of nut residue had been enough to trigger an anaphylactic reaction.

Bet you didn’t know something so simple could put someone’s life in danger, right? Now this is where this gets really serious folks…people with severe allergies can die from even the smallest of small exposures. Someone with an allergy to almonds, for example, can have a serious reaction to many products containing almond oil…shampoo, suntan lotions, body lotions, coffee and liquors. The same way someone with a seafood allergy can have a reaction to Ceasar Salad. Yes, you read that right – Ceasar Salad – because of the ancho-vies in the salad dressing…or a reaction to french fries because they were cooked in a deep-fryer where shrimp is regularly cooked. You don’t have to actually eat the allergen to find yourself in a life-threat-ening situation. Would you know what to do if this was your friend?

Signs of Anaphylaxsis;

• flushing (warmth and redness of the skin)

• hives

• a feeling of “impending doom”

• anxiety

• sometimes a rapid, irregular pulse

• hoarseness, difficulty swallowing, and difficulty breathing

• sneezing, and wheezing

• vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach cramps may develop

• a drop in blood pressure

• lightheadedness

Learn how to use an Epi-Pen and encourage your friend or family member to wear a Medic-Alert bracelet.

Anaphylaxsis

Do you believe everything you hear? Do you believe everything you read? What is your “go to” for up-to-date information? Chances are it’s the internet.

Standing in front of 40 students enrolled in an Ethics class, the Instructor asked if they would sign a petition to ban a substance. The students voiced interest, but needed to know about the substance prior to signing the petition. The Instructor told the class she had compiled the information and pro-ceeded to project information onto the SmartBoard.

First she discussed the many dangers of DHMO; Death due to accidental inhalation of DHMO, even in small quantities. Pro-longed exposure to solid DHMO causes se-vere tissue damage. Leads to corrosion and

oxidation of many metals. Found in biopsies of pre-cancerous tumors and lesions. This was just the start and she had them hooked. The students were furiously making notes, whispering among themselves, and with each of the 9 “dangers”, they were more incensed.

And so it continued…next came “The Uses of Hydronium Hydroxide” (a pseudonym of DHMO) and their distress continued to escalate, almost to a palpable level. Hydroni-um Hydroxide is used as an industrial solvent and coolant, in the production of Styrofoam, as a spray-on fire suppressant and retardant, as a major ingredient in many home-brewed bombs, in animal research laboratories plus 19 more uses.

The instructor decided it was time for a break. Astonishingly, no one left the class.

Instead they asked questions and talked among themselves about the dangers and ramifications if they didn’t ban this sub-stance. Break was over and class was ready to resume. You could hear the proverbial pin drop as the instructor, once again, began her campaign.“What Products Contain DHMO?” An ad-ditive to food products, including jarred baby food and baby formula, in cough medicines and other liquid pharmaceuticals, in spray-on oven cleaners – and the list continued for an-other 11 products.

It may be beneficial to know these students were studying a branch of the medical pro-fession, so their outrage was evident with the next group of slides. “Symptoms of Overdose of DHMO”. Excessive sweating, excessive urination, nausea, vomiting, elec-trolyte imbalance, degeneration of sodium homeostasis, and death.

The Instructor, taking advantage of esca-lating anger and disbelief in the class, asked who would sign the petition. Every single student agreed. In case they wanted more information, they were provided with 3 web-sites for more information, but none felt it was necessary to do more research, they had heard enough.

The Instructor continued presenting infor-mation to the students. There were sever-al different names for DHMO; it was also known as Dihydrogen Monoxide, Hydroni-um Hydroxide, and Hydric Acid. She con-gratulated the class, as they had all agreed they would sign the petition to ban water! Yes, water.

They had been duped. They were embar-rassed, but all had learned a valuable lesson. Do not assume all information found on-line is true. Do you ever consider the validity of information you collect from these sources? The consequences can be minor – a failed recipe for example. Or life-threatening - the article that gives erroneous information for treating a health problem or the video show-ing how to repair a vehicle. In this day and age with information literally at our finger-tips, it is good practice to question informa-tion and ensure balances and checks are in place.

To Tip, or

Not to Tip

Hairdresser, teacher, paper boy, housekeeper, babysitter – do you use their services?

Do you tip them?

How much? Gift or money? Your list just got a lot longer!

If you visit Emily Post’s website looking for ideas about Holiday Tipping, you will find an endless list of people who, according to Emily, should be tipped. She claims “Holiday Tipping is real-ly Holiday Thanking”! Well, since you put it that way…

She lists 26 different services you could be using throughout the year and how much or what is appropriate to tip. Thanks goodness we don’t have a pool cleaner, or an elevator operator, but while going through the list and seeing the people we could be tipping and or gifting, the list is long. And, it could become very expensive, very fast.

First let’s look at teachers. How many children do you have and how many teachers does each of them have? Do you gift the Music and Phys. Ed. Teachers who teach your child once a week? Theoretically, if you choose to gift each one and if you have 3 children in school, you may have to shop for 10 – 15 teachers!

Let’s take a look at how Emily thinks we should Holiday Tip our hairdresser; up to the cost of one visit! If you go every 6 weeks for color touch-up and style, well, that’s at least $75!

Babysitter – Emily says up to one evenings’ pay and a gift from your children. How much is that - $50.

Our Paper Carrier…$10 - $30.

It sure adds up fast, doesn’t it? So, when is enough, enough? Should we gift or tip people who normally get paid and often tipped for providing a service? Etiquette says yes. But, if your pocket book says no, what do you do?

After some research, this task doesn’t appear as unsurmountable as it originally appeared. Let’s make it easy! Small coffee cards - $5 - $10 for teachers, or a small craft your child makes and a card. Hairdresser – coffee card or a small tin of homemade Christmas cookies or fudge. Paper Carrier – a gift card to a take-out near their school so they can buy their lunch one day. (Their Mom will thank you for this too!)

Don’t you think you have enough stress getting ready for the holidays? Keep this one simple – you’ll be glad you did!

To Tip, or

Not to Tip

Do you have a little problem, a teeny little prob-lem?

Help has arrived – just Ask MiaDear Mia,

Christmas is around the corner and I have to buy a gift for my ex-husband, (whom I dislike greatly – which could be a reason we are no longer mar-ried) from our 4 year old son. I’m tempted to go to a second hand store or raid my father’s garage to find something because the thought of spending money on the jerk really gets my goat! Mia, how do you buy a nice gift and card for someone you wish would fall off the face of the earth?

Ticked Off

___________________________________________

Dear Ticked,

You are not going to like what I am about to say… SUCK IT UP BABY! Did you ever like him? I’m guessing you did – a bit. Well, your little boy prob-ably likes him – a lot. Keep it about your kid. Let him pick out the gift or buy a gift card for an activ-ity they can do together or have your son make a gift. Don’t give him anything used – very embar-rassing for you if it has to be returned, unless of course it’s a car. And…don’t give him your goat – he probably doesn’t want it.

Love,

Mia

XOXO

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From time to time we have a burning question and we hit the street to ask our readers for their advice. Do you have a burning question? Let us hear from you.

You find out your co-worker’s husband is having an affair. Do you tell her before or after the staff Christmas Party?

I wouldn’t do anything…I tend to mind my business and keep my nose out of other peoples’ personal “affairs”.Dan

I wouldn’t tell until after. Maybe they drew my name for the gift exchange and if I told I wouldn’t get a gift.Dick

I would have to tell before the party…I wouldn’t be comfortable at the party watching them and knowing this secret. It would be very awkward if they sat at my table and I had to act like everything was okay.Angela

I would tell her before the party so she wouldn’t waste money buying the loser a ticket!Beth

I would tell the husband he has 24 hours to tell his wife or I would be telling her myself - Christmas party or not.Joyce

I say I would tell before so she could kick his cheating a$$ to the curb and maybe she will meet someone at the Christmas party.Sandy

I wouldn’t tell, but if the party was a bust – I may tell at the party to liven things up!Celeste

I wouldn’t tell my co-worker, but I’d tell everyone else in the office. A little office drama keeps things interesting.Bryan

Question on the Street

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