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HEALTHY AND YUMMY HOLIDAY RECIPES
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If you're looking for some healthy Holiday recipes (some of our favorites!) try http://www.healthyperspective.com/holidayrecipes.html.  Enjoy.

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LOOKING INTO 2002
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We are looking forward to some changes (good ones!) and growth to be happening at Healthy Perspective in 2002.  So check with us often at http://www.healthyperspective.com/ for even more health news coverage, information for your family's spiritual and physical well-being, new products, more articles, and some fun new stuff.  If there is something you would like to see addressed, either in "Your Healthy Perspective" e-zine, or on the Healthy Perspective web site, please send an email to ideas@healthyperspective.com.

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HEALTHY PERSPECTIVE ON THE SEASON
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There's a good article on "Medscape Health for Consumers," entitled "The Holiday Season - How to Celebrate and Not Gain Weight!" written by Lisa Drayer, MA RD.

Here are ten great tips from the article:

 1.  Don't Go Without Food Before a Party or Dinner
 2.  Keep Food Records
 3.  Don't Love It? Don't Eat It.
 4.  Plan to Exercise
 5.  Fill Up on Vegetables During Cocktail Hour
 6.  Concentrate on the Company
 7.  Obey the 20-Minute Rule [it takes your brain about 20 minutes to tell your stomach it's full!]
 8.  Rehearse the Words "No Thank You"
 9.  Drink a Glass of Water After Each Alcoholic Beverage [or better yet, drink the water and skip the alcohol!]
10. Leave the Leftovers

You can catch the entire article at http://health.medscape.com/cx/viewarticle/411137.

You may also want to check out a couple of articles from "Your Healthy Perspective" archives:
   "Healthy Holiday Partying" at http://www.healthyperspective.com/yhparchivevol2.html and
   "For a Healthy Holiday Season" at http://www.healthyperspective.com/yhparchivevol1.html.

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A HOLIDAY STORY
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The following story was sent to us as a forwarded email about a year ago, so many of you may have seen it already ("forwards" do make the rounds, don't they?).  This one purports to be a true story.  Of course, we're not sure of the veracity of this claim.  But it's a heartwarming story nonetheless, and we would like to leave you with warm and uplifting thoughts today.

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The Tablecloth
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The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry, to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn,  arrived in early October excited about their opportunities. When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve.

They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering  walls, painting, etc. and  on Dec 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished. On Dec 19 a terrible tempest - a driving rainstorm - hit the area and lasted for two days.

On the 21st, the pastor went over to the  church.  His heart sank when  he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit,   beginning about head high. The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home.  On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity so he stopped in.

One of the items was a beautiful, handmade,  ivory colored, crocheted  tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a  Cross embroidered right in  the center. It was just the right size to cover up  the hole in the front wall.  He bought it and headed back to the church.

By this time it had started to snow. An older  woman running from the  opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She  missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next  bus 45 minutes later.  She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall  tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area.

Then he noticed the woman walking down the  center aisle. Her face was like a sheet. "Pastor," she asked, "where did you  get that tablecloth?"  The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check  the lower right corner to  see if the initials, EBG were crocheted into it  there. They were. These  were the initials of the woman, and she had made  this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria.

The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten the Tablecloth. The woman explained that  before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria. When the  Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week.  He was captured and sent to prison, and she never saw her husband or their home again.

The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth;  but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on  driving her home, that was  the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning  job.

What a wonderful service they had on Christmas  Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great.  At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return. One older man, whom the  pastor recognized from the  neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn't leaving. The man asked him where he got the  tablecloth on the front wall because it was  identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before  the war and how could  there be two tablecloths so much alike?

He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety, and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and  put in a prison. He never saw his wife or his home again all the 35 years in  between.

The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the  same house where the  pastor had taken the woman three days earlier. He  helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman's apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever  imagine.

True Story - submitted by Pastor Rob Reid

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God bless you and yours this Holiday Season and prosper you in 2002.

-Rev. Clarence Russell, Kimberly and Nicole
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The material in this file is provided for informational purposes only. We do not prescribe nor diagnose. If you use the information in this file without the approval of a health professional, you prescribe for yourself, which remains your constitutional right, but the author(s) assume no responsibility.
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Copyright (c) 2001 by Clarence Russell . All rights reserved. As long as this file is left intact, permission is granted for use on web sites or in newsgroups or mailing lists.