Traditional Ways to Celebrate Holiday Seasons

December 9, 2022December 9, 2022 Vera

The holiday season can be hectic and stressful, but there are many ways to make the season more special. They can be simple and inexpensive. Adding little moments of joy to the season can create great memories. These moments can be as simple as baking cookies or going to a holiday wonderland.

Giving back to the community

One of the most traditional ways to celebrate the holiday season is by giving back to the community. You can volunteer at a soup kitchen or food bank or buy food and wrap gifts for needy families. If you want to get involved, you can form a group and help the homeless in your area.

Getting together with your family and discussing ways to give back to your community is a great way to create a family tradition. You can even brainstorm ideas for activities you and your family can do together, whether old holiday traditions or new ones.

Sharing positive and encouraging words with family

When you are feeling down, sending encouraging words to your loved ones can be a great way to make them feel better. Sending cards or notes to your family can also be a great way to spread cheer. During the holiday season, consider writing some encouraging words to your family.

If your family has no unique holiday traditions, try to establish new ones. Some common ones are watching movies together on Christmas Eve and reading the Night Before Christmas. Before the big day, you could also read a classic Christmas story to your family, like A Christmas Carol.

Baking and decorating Christmas cookies

Baking and decorating Christmas cookies is one of the oldest traditions worldwide. These treats have a long history dating back to the 10th to 11th centuries. During this time, the winter solstice was a time of feasting, and cookies were often baked in large batches and stored for sharing. It was also a time to give gifts, though these were often not material items. Most gifts were handmade crafts or sweets.

Baking and decorating Christmas cookies is an activity that families enjoy every holiday season. These delicious treats are edible holiday decorations that can also be given as last-minute gifts. They are a great way to get kids involved in the holiday spirit. You can bake and decorate various Christmas cookies, from snowflakes to Santa and star cookies. Some recipes are complicated and require …

Health officials concerned by rise in flu, RSV cases – The Suffolk News-Herald

December 9, 2022 Vera

Health officials concerned by rise in flu, RSV cases

Published 5:48 pm Friday, November 25, 2022

The Virginia healthcare community is encouraging local residents who haven’t done so to get vaccinated against the flu, get vaccinated or boosted against COVID-19, and to take personal health and safety precautions as we enter what could be a particularly intense flu and respiratory illness season.

This year’s flu season is already showing early, concerning signs that it may be worse than in recent years, Virginia Department of Health officials said in a recent news release.

There are also increasing numbers of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) cases, which may cause serious illness and hospitalization in children and older adults.

If these trends continue, healthcare officials both locally and across Virginia say this could strain healthcare systems in some communities. Virginia doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers are already being inundated with a surge of sick patients seeking care, filling hospital beds, and in many cases requiring longer hospital stays.

Data from Virginia hospitals and public health surveillance information from the Virginia Department of Health suggest that the Commonwealth faces the prospect of a particularly challenging flu and respiratory disease season throughout this fall and winter. Emergency department and urgent care clinic visits involving patient diagnoses of RSV have quadrupled since early September and remain significantly elevated.

Visits for flu-like illness are also rising – for the week ending November 5, such visits are at least four times higher than in the same week for each of the past four years, according to VDH.

In Virginia, we have seen a 41 percent increase in flu-like illness and an overall 18 percent increase in respiratory illness from the week prior. Virginia Immunization Information System data from July 1-November 9, 2022 indicates that flu vaccination uptake in children younger than 12 is lower this year as compared to the same time periods during the previous three years.

Virginia Department of Health Eastern Region Public Information Officer Larry Hill gave some general everyday techniques for people to stay safe and healthy.

“The best defense is a flu shot,” Hill said. “Also wash your hands, cover your sneeze or cough and stay home when sick.”

Likewise, the Western Tidewater Health District shared a Facebook post on Nov. 13 with information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Respiratory Syncytial Virus.

Described as a “common respiratory virus that

Whitestone REIT Signs Anchor Agreement with High Energy Health & Fitness Brand, EoS Fitness

December 9, 2022 Vera

HOUSTON, Dec. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Whitestone REIT (NYSE:WSR) (“Whitestone” or the “Company”) today signed a long-term, 51,000 square foot lease with EoS Fitness, establishing a strong relationship with the dynamic, high energy, fitness brand. Securing EoS as the anchor at Williams Trace Plaza center in Sugar Land, a fast-growing suburb of Houston, aligns well with Whitestone’s community center focus as it leverages EoS’s growing reputation for family friendliness and great service. The addition of EoS will dramatically increase investment returns for Whitestone’s center in the coming years. EoS Fitness replaces an underutilized grocer, and is anticipated to increase traffic to the center, create greater tenant demand for spaces and potentially support the development of a future pad site at the center.

“We are thrilled to be bringing EoS Fitness into our Williams Trace Plaza center. The addition of a high-quality, state-of-the-art health and fitness tenant like EoS Fitness positions the center to thrive,” said Whitestone REIT Chief Operating Officer, Christine Mastandrea. “Investing in a high-traffic center in the vibrant Sugar Land community is anticipated to contribute to Whitestone’s future earnings growth in 2023 and beyond.”

Sugar Land is a hub for numerous industries, including advanced manufacturing, biotech, financial services and energy technology. The city has a highly educated workforce with over 60% of residents holding a bachelor’s degree or higher, nearly twice the national average, according to the Greater Houston Partnership.

EoS Fitness is a leader in the fitness industry, offering an inclusive and welcome environment for fitness enthusiasts of every level. The brand offers top-of-the-line health, fitness and wellness amenities, a variety of high-energy group fitness classes, multiple high-tech strength and interactive fitness experiences, and expansive recovery spaces where members can focus on improving their overall health and achieving their fitness goals. EoS gyms draw steady, repeat foot traffic and are heavily connected with the surrounding community.

Fitness remains one of the top retail categories for foot traffic growth. For more information on foot traffic levels and other key data, please see refer to Placer.ai’s Quarterly Index on their website.

Whitestone achieved record occupancy of 92.5% in the third quarter 2022 and continues to focus on finishing the year with strong results.

About Whitestone REIT

Whitestone REIT (NYSE: WSR) is a community-centered real estate investment trust (REIT) that acquires, owns, operates, and develops open-air, retail centers located in some of the

Ashburn mom finds a healthy new lifestyle after joining a local gym | News

December 7, 2022 Vera

As a busy mother of three children with a husband who served in the military, like many mothers, Ingrid Herrera-Yee of Ashburn often finds that it is difficult to prioritize her own health and fitness needs.

Last year, Herrera-Yee, 54, said she had high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels and was on the obese side of the body mass indicator (BMI) chart.

Should I skip Thanksgiving if I feel sick?

December 6, 2022 Vera

By Rose Hoban

The number of travelers on the move for the Thanksgiving holiday is up with airports expected to screen as many as 2.5 million passengers nationwide today, and possibly surpass that number on Sunday, Nov. 27, according to the federal Transportation Security Administration.

“We expect to be busier this year than last year at this time, and probably very close to pre-pandemic levels,” said TSA Administrator David Pekoske. “We are prepared to handle the projected increase in travel volumes.”

People are eager to get back to their holiday rituals after years of pandemic restrictions, but what happens if just as the holiday approaches, you find yourself sneezing, sniffling, coughing and maybe even testing positive for a COVID-19 infection?

“The name of the game for the last couple of years has been COVID, COVID, COVID. And now there’s a lot less masking and a lot less distancing,” said Laura Murray, an intensive care medicine specialist from the Cone Health Medical Group in Greensboro. “People are, you know, rejoicing and being in public together, maybe not being as careful about covering coughs or masking.”

At this point in the pandemic, the worry is likely not so much about COVID, but about the other respiratory viruses that have been circulating with a vengeance. For older friends and family, or people who are immunocompromised, flu and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) are real dangers.

If you’re sick this week, it’s likely that you’ll be sick on turkey day. So, the question becomes, should you stay at home? Or go? And if you go, how should you act?

A surge in RSV, flu

Pulmonologist Brad Drummond who works at the main UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill said there’s a steady trickle of coronavirus cases in the intensive care unit, but it’s only one or two beds out of 30.

“During the Delta wave, it was ‘you’re young and healthy and sick as stink,’” he told NC Health News last week. “The COVID that’s being admitted now is ‘you’re on chemo or have chronic immunocompromised condition.’”

Instead, it’s Flu A that’s making people sick. To him, it felt like it was doubling every week.

He’s not far off. Positive flu tests went from being about two percent positive reported to North Carolina’s hospital-based surveillance network in the beginning of October to being 27 percent positive in the week ending Nov. 12.

“Not all of

USDA Invests More Than $59M to Improve Dietary Health and Nutrition Security

December 4, 2022 Vera

USDA Invests More Than M to Improve Dietary Health and Nutrition Security

WASHINGTON, Nov. 22, 2022 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced an investment of $59.4 million to support the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program’s (GusNIP) Produce Prescription and Nutrition Incentive programs designed to encourage families and individuals to eat more healthfully by increasing access to fresh fruits and vegetables. This investment delivers on a commitment made in the Biden-Harris Administration’s National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health to improve access to healthy and affordable food.

Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young, USDA Chief Scientist and Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics, visited the Takoma Park Silver Spring (TPSS) Co-op in Takoma Park, Maryland. Crossroads Community Food Network in partnership with TPSS is receiving funding under this program to launch “Year-Round Fresh Checks” to expand access to affordable fresh fruits and vegetables in the Takoma/Langley Crossroads community, a primarily immigrant neighborhood just outside Washington, D.C. Over the course of the project, it is anticipated that 3,000 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) users will spend $450,000, which will be matched with $450,000 in incentives ($250,000 from federal funds and $200,000 from state and local matching dollars).

“Partners such as Crossroads Community Food Network, Inc., are invaluable for USDA’s nutrition security efforts,” said Jacobs-Young. “By understanding the lived experiences of their community, they help deliver USDA programs into the hands of the people who need them most.”

GusNIP programs strive to improve dietary health through increased consumption of fresh produce, improve individual and household food security, and reduce health care use and associated costs. GusNIP Nutrition Incentive programs provide incentives at the point of purchase among income-eligible consumers participating in USDA’s SNAP and income-eligible consumers participating in other USDA nutrition assistance programs. Produce Prescriptions leverage medical assistance programs to provide “prescriptions” from a health care provider for fresh fruits and vegetables.

“Since its creation in 2019, GusNIP projects have increased access to healthy foods, and this investment serves to ensure that even more consumers can provide fresh, locally-grown fruits and vegetables for their families,” said Dr. Dionne Toombs, Acting Director of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), the entity administering the awards. “In fact, as a result of additional funding provided through the American Rescue Plan Act, NIFA is expanding our reach to many first-time program applicants from underrepresented communities nationwide.”

Forty-three awards make up a $20.7 million Produce Prescription Program investment through USDA’s American Rescue Plan funding for