I have a lot of friends that start decorating for Christmas as soon as the Halloween decorations are put away, but I cannot seem to skip Thanksgiving and the browns and oranges of fall. However, in our family, we use the days after Thanksgiving to put up our beautiful Christmas decorations and make our house as festive as can be.
This year, however, will mean a little bit more to me than most. My life has changed much in the last couple of years, but my new focus on the true meaning of the season, the birth of Christ, makes it a little more special this year. While our beautiful tree, twinkling lights, and fun decorations make for a cozy home, it’s the spirit that fills our heart that means the most. Enid Buzz Monthly wishes you and yours a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
When Cheri Ezzell moved to Enid in 1984 she expected it would be a short stay — a few years at most. Now, almost 35 years later, the executive director of Community Development Support Association (CDSA), is a well-recognized leader in Enid’s nonprofit sector and champion of causes benefiting those in need.
Ezzell has compiled an impressive resumé of achievements and contributions to the Enid community. Her work was instrumental in relocating CDSA in the old Newman’s Department Store which is now The Non-Profit Center, a collaborative space for nonprofits. She has also served on the board of Enid Beautiful and helped make Dillingham Memorial Garden a public space.
Other achievements include being a founding board member of Loaves & Fishes, a board member at Autry Technology Center, and a fundraising volunteer with 4RKids and Gaslight Theatre. She even served on the Enid City Commission from 1995 to 1997.
Although she has accumulated a lengthy list of accolades, Cheri has one she remains most proud of. That honor, she said, goes to the daily work of CDSA to serve those in need.
Whether you’re a small business owner, a corporate human resources manager, or a front-line supervisor, promoting physical activity on the job makes sense. More opportunities for physical activity at work leads to healthier employees, stronger job performance, and a boost to the business bottom line via decreased health care costs and improved productivity.
A Happier, Healthier Workforce
Physical activity is a natural mood elevator — studies show it relieves mild anxiety and depression, improves energy, and increases a general sense of well-being. It’s not a big stretch to suggest that the extent to which workers are physically active on and off the job affects company morale. And supporting worker exercise efforts sends a strong message of support to employees — which in turn can positively affect job satisfaction, retention, and recruitment. In addition, employees who exercise regularly have a lower risk of heart disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes, musculoskeletal problems, and some cancers — big health care cost drivers for most companies.
First Things First
According to health promotion experts, organization-level commitment to focus on employee health as a corporate goal is one the most influential and cost-effective changes to implement. When leaders regularly communicate the importance of employee health and well-being — and walk the talk — it becomes part of the corporate identity. Implementing a workplace physical activity policy drives home the value of this lifestyle behavior to the corporate mission — and outlines a framework describing how workplace physical activity will be promoted. Formalizing a policy also sets an expectation for management support — just like other business initiatives. Adopting a new habit of physical activity is hard work — but support from leadership can make it more practical and more likely.
To get started, review sample workplace physical activity policies available online and adapt them to your company’s needs and existing policy format. Invite input from stakeholders such as human resources, employee relations, safety, ergonomics, and employee health representatives.
Integration Is Key
Focusing on increasing the physical activity of your workforce is a good start — but successful corporate health promotion initiatives target a variety of health behaviors —like tobacco use, drug and alcohol abuse, nutrition habits, and becoming a savvy health care consumer. The impact of these interventions is optimized when health benefit providers get involved. A 24-hour nurse advice line or employee assistance program, for example, could help promote an onsite walking program when employees call in with health issues. Coordinating with vendors to send consistent messages is essential for increasing participation in any workplace health promotion offering — including physical activity.
12 Ways to Promote Physical Activity at Work
Even if your corporate culture isn’t quite ready for a workplace physical activity policy, you can get things moving in the right direction with these ideas:
Conduct a workplace walkability assessment to ensure a safe and pleasant environment for walking.
Offer secure bicycle storage and showers for employees who actively commute.
Implement flexible scheduling where feasible —making it easier for employees to carve out time for exercise while juggling work and home responsibilities.
Make stairwells more appealing with paint, artwork, and motivational signage.
Purchase a corporate membership with the Y; low-cost membership benefits are sometimes available through medical benefit vendors.
Encourage workers to take brief, 2-3-minute fitness breaks throughout the day for brisk walking, stretching, or stair climbing.
Offer free or reduced-cost pedometers to employees. Run a simple steps-per-week team competition to drum up peer support for increasing daily steps. No money? Invite your health benefit vendors or local businesses to sponsor this purchase in exchange for co-branding.
Sponsor or promote employee participation in community events like 5K or 10K runs, basketball leagues, or charity walk-a-thons.
Organize lunchtime walking, running, bicycling, or yoga groups.
Encourage walking 1:1 meetings.
Make standing or pacing vs. sitting at long meetings an acceptable option.
Encourage workers to be active at their workstations as much as possible — by stretching, standing while on the phone, or pumping out a few desk pushups while viewing a web conference.
A Smart Business Move
Employees spend a significant amount of time at work. Businesses already have a significant investment in each worker in terms of hiring, training, compensation, and benefits packages. Driving a culture of physical activity helps protect that investment — and maximize the returns in cost savings, cost avoidance, productivity, and human capital.
Hungry? It’s amazing how things can inspire one to bake. My most recent inspiration came from our surprise ice storm with its downed power lines and piles of limbs under the nearly 100-year old trees in our yard. All of those logs were so sad and no power to turn on the oven and bake up a batch of cookies to soothe my sadness and take the chill off. (Any excuse can inspire baking cookies in our house!) We are always hungry for cookies with one resident cookie monster and one eager cookie baker around.
If you live in an area out of town where fewer folks live, naturally you will be down the list for getting the power back on. After a week I was beyond thrilled to get back to baking and testing my ideas for making some cookies I thought about for a week: “Yule Logs.” Perhaps like the ones I had crafted for the holidays over the years with rich chocolate cake rolled around a coffee buttercream filling and coated with a bark of fudgy frosting.
Yule log cookies would be easy with refrigerated dough on hand. Certainly, if you have the time and inclination, use your own favorite slice and bake recipe, but any variety from your go-to grocery store will work. Draft some helpers to form the logs from the dough. (What little elf would not like a chance to play with cookie dough?)
Here’s the long and short of it: Make one long snake form about an inch thick and cut it into 3-inch segments. Or slice the cold dough into cookie-size segments and roll those portions into smaller logs. Chill the segments on the baking sheet before baking. Once chilled in place, I find that the tines of a fork raked or pressed into the dough will suffice as bark.
Decorating the long can be as simple as a sprinkle of powdered sugar snow, once the logs are cool, or get more elaborate with your favorite icing piped in long streams to resemble bark. Of course, you can go overboard if you like, or even make a family cookie making contest to see who makes the prettiest yule logs.
My favorite intensely chocolate cookie recipe is one I’ve adapted from Martha Stewart’s “Weddings” book. I cut back on the sugar and then form the dough into refrigerator rolls instead of doing the usual roll out and cutting into shapes.
The most important ingredient in the recipe is super dark Dutch Cacao. I found it at Jumbo Foods of course! It is expensive, but if you love chocolate like some people I know….it is a matter of priority. Each recipe requires a lot of it so don’t think one and a half cups of this deep dark stuff is a misprint!
Keep some dough (cookie dough that is) on hand in your freezer for satisfying those cookie cravings that are bound to happen, especially during the holidays. I have told people over the years that I’m a little like Will Rogers— I never met a cookie I didn’t like! ….so “Log ON!”
*I owe a big batch of cookies to the folks at OG&E, especially the lineman who put their lives on the line to work through freezing rain and all kinds of weather to keep our homes and businesses up and running!
Recipe
This is an adaptation of a Chocolate Heart Cookies recipe from Martha Stewart’s “Weddings” book. I recommend you make half a recipe to start with as this dark cocoa powder has a way of spreading chocolate dust like the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s if you aren’t careful!
I like to form the dough into rolls for slice and bake cookies or in this case roll it into coils or snakes and cut into log forms in the spirit of the Yuletide. If you have any helper elves in your kitchen, think of it as chocolate playdough!
Combine butter and sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and beat well.
Sift dry ingredients together and stir into butter mixture by hand until well blended. Chill briefly and roll into slice and bake size logs. Dough may be stored in fridge for up to 3 days until ready to form into yule logs.
To make logs:
Divide prepared dough and roll into coils like snakes about 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Slice into logs approximately 3 inches long.
Place logs on baking sheet and chill for about 30 minutes. Mark logs with tines of a fork by dragging length of logs or press tines into the surface of each log to make bark.
Position oven rack in middle of oven and preheat oven to 350-degrees.
Bake logs for 10 to 12 minutes.
When cool, dust with powdered sugar or decorate with your favorite chocolate icing.
Cooking notes: This dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days and also freezes well in slice and bake rolls. (Best to thaw several hours or overnight in the fridge before using.)
Caution elves not to eat unbaked dough…and keep the dough and cookies away from all pets especially your favorite puppy dog.
Title: Well-Behaved Indian Women Author: Saumya Dave Reviewed by: Michaelene M
Well-Behaved Indian Women is Saumya Dave’s debut novel spanning the lives of 3 generations of women. Mimi is the grandmother who still lives in India and lately, has been curiously unreachable. Nandini is Mimi’s daughter and a mother of two who immigrated to America hoping for a better life for her children. Simran is a psychology student who begins to question her future career as well as her upcoming marriage to her best friend and high school sweetheart.
Though the story is told in two points-of-view–from Simran and her mother, Nandini–this is a layered, multigenerational story that explores what happens when one’s reality and expectations don’t match. All three are led to question where their lives are headed, if they made the right choices, and if changing course or pushing forward is the right path. From Nandini feeling as if she had to sacrifice her career for her marriage, to Simran who is caught between making her mother and fiancé happy and following her own course, even after everything is said and done.
The characterizations truly shine as readers are offered glimpses into mother-daughter relationships, the ups and downs of marriage, and the personal journey to change and acceptance–whether that’s based in tradition, modernity, or a little bit of both.
Readers searching for an intimate story will greatly connect with these multi-dimensional women and their journey to define their own identity and personal autonomy.
Well-Behaved Indian Women is available as a paperback in the library. Call us at 580-234-6313 to reserve this title.
Title: Sulwe Author: Lupita Nyong’o Reviewed by: Michaelene M
Sulwe is a picture book for young readers written by Academy-Award winning actress Lupita Nyong’o.
The book follows Sulwe, a young child whose skin is darker than anyone else in her family, and she is treated differently because of it. It isn’t until Sulwe’s swept amongst the stars and she learns a tale of two sisters that she begins to understand her beauty.
Nyong’o based Sulwe’s story on her own childhood experiences with colorism. The book is beautifully written with illustrations by Vashti Harrison that are particularly striking, each page alternating between soft pastels and deep navy that add a touch of magic and whimsy.
Sulwe is an uplifting, heartwarming tale that radiates warmth and embraces acceptance, self-esteem, and self-worth. Recommended for any young reader.
Sulwe is available as a physical book in the library and is also available as an e-book in the Oklahoma Virtual Library. Call us at 580-234-6313 to place a hold.
Welcome back to our new edition of Tween Scene for December. I hope you guys enjoyed our Thanksgiving column in Enid Buzz Monthly! This time we are going to talk a little bit about the holiday, CHRISTMAS! Let’s get to it.
What is Christmas you may ask? Well, Christmas is a holiday held on December 25th every year. It celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Some people celebrate with parades, others also give presents throughout the family, or have family dinners. Hey, maybe all three!
“I celebrate Christmas by baking delicious peanut butter cookies for Santa with my dad and then waking up in the morning to open presents. My dad and I wear matching holiday pajamas. After we get done with that, I go with my Mom, her boyfriend, and my siblings to my grandmas to have a lunch feast and open presents there.” – Sophia
“I celebrate Christmas by first opening presents at my house then going to my grandmas with my family and having a big dinner, then opening presents there.” – Mallie
Let’s talk a little bit about the history of this wonderful holiday.
According to history.com, in the fourth century, it was made a holiday because church officials believed that they should make Jesus’s birth a holiday. Did you know that December 25th isn’t actually his birthday? Since the Bible never said when his real birthday is, a person named Pope Julius l chose this particular date. You might be wondering why? People believe it’s because the church chose December 25th in an effort to adopt and absorb the traditions of the pagan Saturnalia festival. First called the Feast of the Nativity, the custom spread to Egypt by 432 and to England by the end of the sixth century. By holding Christmas at the same time as traditional winter solstice festivals, church leaders increased the chances that Christmas would be popularly embraced, but gave up the ability to dictate how it was celebrated. But sadly as time went on Christmas got canceled and was not a holiday anymore because when Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan forces took over England in 1645, they vowed to rid England of decadence and, as part of their effort, canceled Christmas. Did you know that Christmas was outlawed in Boston Massachusetts!?! But….. the citizens of America decided that Christmas was a fun and enjoyable holiday and so it came back and they declared it a federal holiday on June 26, 1870. The more you know!
What Christmas means to us. “ Christmas to me means a fun holiday where you get together with your family and friends to have an enjoyable day all together opening presents, feasting, playing games and hopefully having snowball fights.” -Sophia
“Christmas to me means a time to open presents and hang out with family.” – Mallie
Well, we hope the people reading this, whether it’s adults, teens or kids, enjoyed our December column of Tween Scene in Enid Buzz Monthly. See you next month!
Enid is known as an entrepreneurial community. Many of our largest employers today started as a “micro enterprise”. Micro enterprises are our smallest businesses that have one sole proprietor and fewer than six employees. Often, these businesses are self-funded and can have a difficult time securing traditional financing. Understanding the challenges our smallest businesses face, the Enid Regional Development Alliance (ERDA) offers an annual competitive grant program targeted specifically at this audience.
In 2021, ERDA will award (2) $10,000 grants to two micro enterprises. The funds received through this grant can be used for any business expense necessary for the operation, management, formation, or expansion of the company.
In 2020, ERDA awarded its first Micro Enterprise Grant to Latoya Peyton, owner of Sunny Moon Daycare. The $5,000 grant allowed Ms. Peyton to purchase new equipment, receive training, and buy educational material for the children in her care.
Small business owners are an integral part of Enid and economic growth in the community. This year, the impact of COVID-19 has been felt by many of our small businesses. In response to the need, ERDA is expanding our grant program by awarding two grants in this cycle and by increasing the grant amount. We are hopeful that these funds can help our local entrepreneurs to rebuild and grow following the economic turmoil of this past year. Grant funds may be used for rent, payroll, inventory, software, marketing, equipment, renovations, and other business expenses.
Applications will be scored on the viability of the business, the potential for growth, and the overall economic impact. Recipients must be willing to partner with ERDA and Autry Technology Center on their success through coaching and other business assistance. Priority is given to companies who make a product.
Those interested in applying for the grant may turn in an application by 5:00 pm on April 30, 2021, by emailing it to trent@growenid.com or delivering it to the office at 2020 Willow Run, Ste. 100. For more information and to download the application, visit www.growenid.com/local-incentives or contact Trent Misak at 580.233.4232 or trent@growenid.com.
Column by: Dana Hammons, Garfield County Master Gardener
December for a gardener feels like eternal purgatory, an exile from the sun and soil that feeds our soul. So instead of focusing on growing, let’s focus on showing. Winter isn’t void of the color green, let’s not forget about the many evergreens that not only thrive in winter but strut their stuff during the holiday season.
The many traditions, customs, and beliefs associated with evergreens go back thousands of years. Many customs that have been passed down through the years were from the times of the ancient Egyptian, Roman, and Pagan civilizations, and later adopted into the Christian faith to draw the unholy into the light. There are so many traditions, where does one begin? Well, let’s just take a look at a few of the more known customs of today.
The early Romans viewed evergreens as sacred and represented not only eternal life, they were also worn atop the head as a status symbol.
Head of a Man Wearing a Laurel Wreath, LACMA
They would mark the solstice with a feast known at Saturnalia in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture. The Romans knew the solstice meant that soon their orchards and crops would be green and fruitful once again. To celebrate the occasion, they decorated their homes and temples with evergreen boughs.
They were also one of the first cultures to begin decking their halls with boughs of holly as it was believed to have protective powers. It was often hung in doorways to chase away evil spirits, or to at least get caught in its prickly leaves. The Christian faith came to know holly as a symbol of the thorny crown that Jesus wore while on the cross. The prickly leaves symbolized the thorns that were crushed into His skin while the red berries symbolized the blood that ran from down His head.
Nativity of Jesus by Gerard van Honthorst
Even the Druids, who were considered wizards and magicians, saw evergreens as sacred symbols of life itself and used them in most rituals and decorations. Today we deck our halls with glorious evergreens not only for the traditions handed down, but for the rich color, and smells, that bring a joyous burst of life to a long, dark winter.
Mistletoe also has a fascinating history. The ancient Druids and Scandinavians found mistletoe to be especially important because it was considered a symbol of love and forgiveness. It was thought to have magical powers for fertility and new life, and also considered an aphrodisiac. This notion was carried into the English Victorian era where the practice of kissing under the mistletoe became fashionable. A practice we still like to do today.
The most universal custom of the holidays, the Christmas tree, has traditional roots from long ago that don’t belong to just one religion or people. Predating Christianity, the evergreen tree itself has been used by many civilizations as a symbol of eternal life, birth, fertility, fortune, and hope for a good future.
The earliest time in which we find our traditional Christmas tree referenced is in 16th century Strasbourg, Germany, now part of France. Every family, rich or poor, would decorate fir trees with fruits, pastries, candles, nuts, and colored papers during the holiday season. It’s not until the 17th century that we start to see tree decorations really glam up when a movement in the European royal courts introduced the use of gold and silver leaf on their ornaments.
With the influx of German immigrants to the new world, and influences from Europe, we start to see the modern Christmas tree we know and love taking hold in America during the early 19th century.
When you decorate for this holiday season, try to include some fresh evergreens into your decor. Regardless if it’s store-bought, from the lot, or found in the backyard, fresh evergreens will brighten your spirit and your senses this holiday season. Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, and God bless
