BRING ON THE VITAMIN C - AS THE WINTER COLD AND FLU SEASON NEARS...........

Oranges, and other citrus fruits are my year round favorite fruits, which I, like many people especially enjoy during the Christmas holiday season.  The navel oranges this time of year are splendid, and the mandarins, tangerines, tangelos, are also a wonderful addition to these December days.  OLOL parishioners, the Pennington Family, graciously provided the rectory with a beautiful two boxes of homegrown, handpicked, lemons and mandarins, this morning.  Just in time to crank up the dosage of Vitamin C daily, taken, eaten, and drank, to strengthen the immune system against the likelihood of colds and flu, that are so hard to avoid this time of year.  The oranges and mandarins I particularly like to eat; and the lemons are great as lemonade, as Arnold Palmers, (ice tea and lemonade combined) lemon in hot  tea, or as lemon juice in water.  We didn't have many fresh lemons at home during my childhood, only the occasional cups of lemonade.  But oranges and mandarins were staples of the Christmas Season, especially on Christmas Eve and Day, and through the week until New Year's.  An orange, or a mandarin in our Christmas stockings meant as much to me, as a more expensive stocking filler; plus they went well with the peppermint candy canes, Christmas hard candy, and mixed nuts in the shell, with them in the stockings.  I wish you and your familes a citrus fruit bounty this holiday season, that is not only good eating and drinking, but an effective antidote to keeping the common cold and flu, at bay as much as possible...........Fr.  Troy