HOSTING THIS HOLIDAY? WE’VE GOT THE PERFECT TABLE FOR YOU.
Nouvelle offers a variety of quick ship options - furniture that is available now! Upgrade your dining space before the holidays with one of our many options.
It seems that the holiday season arrives earlier and earlier each year, so pace yourself South Charlotte!
Showing love for our kids doesn’t always mean giving them all the gifts they ask for, so we suggest a balance of gifts and holiday experiences. It’s a good time to get to know your family better and spend time doing some simple things. We offer suggestions on how to enjoy spending time with your kids.
Our marketing partner and veterinarian Dr. Erin Koballa and her dog Merlin appear on the Cover of this issue, and they are ready to celebrate the holidays. Merlin is aging and Dr. Erin wants to keep her ‘fur baby’ with her as long as she can. She wants the same thing for us too, so she shares information on how to care for our older dogs and enjoy many holidays to come.
southcharlottelivingmag.com
Melinda Burris
Publisher
Melinda Burris, Edie Marshall
Editors
Melissa Latin Social Media Director
Dr. Erin Koballa, Jessica Landon, Effie Russell, Melissa Latin, Edie Marshall, Melinda Burris
Writers
Allegro Foundation, Kobi Brinson, Anna, Keith and Serena Cockrell, Dr. Erin Koballa, Melissa Latin, Carmel Christian School, Troy Cherry, Alicia and Scott McMakin
Photographers
Picante Creative
Design & Production
Rachel Moore
Ad Designer
Barbara McKay
Advisor
Melissa Latin, our social media director and expert foodie, is big on nutrition and teaches us how to prepare bone broth for ourselves and for our doggies.
Lastly, we celebrate with Carmel Christian school and their success as one of the best private schools in South Charlotte. It’s a great environment for child development and learning.
Let’s get going South Charlotte, the holidays are here!
Publisher South Charlotte Living Magazine SouthCharlotteLivingMag.com
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Hyatt Centric SouthPark is nestled in the vibrant mixed-use Apex neighborhood, just six miles south of Charlotte’s Center City! Explore a variety of dining options, bars, outdoor spaces, and retail destinations within walking distance, including the Premier SouthPark Mall and two on-site dining options. Start your day on the 2nd floor at IRO Restaurant for coffee, and handcrafted cocktails. Elevate your dining experience at Mizu, our stunning rooftop restaurant with outdoor terrace on the 9th floor of the hotel. Enjoy breathtaking views of SouthPark, amazing sunsets and seafood-focused dinner menus with wood-fired dishes from the robata grill, sushi, and shareable plates.
We’re honored that friends of the magazine were excited to share their ultimate 2024 Summer Olympic experiences with us. Keith and Serena Cockrell, who live in the Charlotte area, were proud to witness their daughter Anna Cockrell win a silver medal in the women’s 400-meter hurdles. She won with her best time at 51.87 seconds and came in second to Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the gold medal winner. Anna attended Charlotte Latin School. Other members of Anna’s family and friends also joined in celebrating with her in Paris.
Charlotte resident Kobi Brinson and her daughter, Emory visited Paris for the Olympics as well. They enjoyed mother and daughter time visiting the sights, shopping and they will never forget the dramatic Olympic Opening Ceremony. They were also very fortunate to watch Charlotte native Stephen Curry win his first gold medal with the USA Men’s Basketball team. They will cherish their memories forever.
Northwestern Mutual sponsored this year’s event on a beautiful day in September at Cedarwood Country Club to benefit Allegro’s children living with disabilities. Other sponsors with golfers participating included those from Domtar, Hendrick Family Foundation, Mark Ficken Lincoln, PCI Group, Parkwood Wealth Advisors and others. Allegro’s Board Chair Jason Schugel and students also attended.
Proceeds from the tournament support Allegro’s FREE movement education programs for more than 800 children with disabilities throughout the Charlotte area. Additionally, funds raised will assist Allegro with expansion to reach a greater number of the more than 17,000 disabled children in the Charlotte area, giving them the opportunity to show what children living with disabilities can do.
Allegro is a 501 (c) Charlotte-based non-profit organization that combines movement instruction with medical and educational expertise, creates new techniques to teach children with disabilities and helps to enhance their quality of life. To learn more about Allegro and to find out how you can support this organization, please visit AllegroFoundation.net.
Written by: Dr. Erin Koballa | Photography by: Alicia and Scott McMakin
Just like with all our other family members during the holidays, we appreciate our family pets more than ever.
As our beloved pets grow older, their needs change, and so do our responsibilities as their caretakers.
Senior pet care is essential to ensuring they enjoy a happy, healthy, and fulfilling life in their golden years.
Just like humans, aging pets experience physical and emotional changes that require special attention. Managing health issues, adjusting diets, and providing comfort are key to improving their quality of life.
What defines a senior pet? It depends! Cats are considered “senior” at around 10 years old, while dogs reach senior status in the last 25% of their lifespan. Smaller breeds may live 12-14+ years, while giant breeds may only share 6-8 years with us. Every pet is unique, so partnering with your veterinarian ensures personalized care tailored to your pet’s specific needs.
Caring for senior pets is a journey filled with love, patience, and understanding.
As pets age, they may experience physical and behavioral changes, such as decreased energy, weight changes, mobility issues, and shifts in appetite. Your veterinary team plays a crucial role in identifying these changes and offering solutions to keep your pet comfortable. Screening tests like bloodwork, urine tests, and imaging are recommended annually or even more frequently to detect and manage long-term conditions like diabetes, kidney disease, or heart issues. For example, increased urination could signal anything from a urinary tract infection to diabetes or even cancer. Consulting with your vet can help determine the cause and improve your pet’s quality of life.
Routine vet visits are key to monitoring disease progression, adjusting treatment, and optimizing comfort for senior pets. Arthritis, a common issue for aging animals, can be managed with anti-inflammatory medications, joint supplements, monthly injections, or physical therapy. If surgery is needed, it could address issues like cataracts or mobilityrestricting tumors. For overweight pets, a tailored diet plan can promote weight loss, reduce joint pain, and extend their lifespan.
In addition to medical management, your veterinary team can offer advice for improving comfort at home. For instance, slick floors can be difficult for senior dogs to navigate, and raised food bowls might be tough for elderly cats to access. Simple changes, such as providing traction with yoga mats or runners, trimming nails, and grooming, can make a big difference. Placing food and water bowls on the ground for cats with joint pain and adding night lights for pets with age-related vision issues can also enhance their day-to-day comfort.
Caring for senior pets is a journey filled with love, patience, and understanding. By recognizing their changing needs, providing appropriate medical care, adjusting their diets, and creating a comfortable living environment, pet owners can ensure their aging companions continue to thrive. Cherishing the time spent with our senior pets creates lasting memories, deepening the bond we share as they navigate their golden years.
> Visit Dr. Erin Koballa at Charlotte Companion Animal Hospital, 13331 York Center Dr., Suite A, Charlotte, NC 28273, 980.276.1205, charlottecompanion.com.
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Written by: Effie Russell
It’s time to get the family ready for the holidays, which means prepping your kids for one of the busiest and best times of the year for your family.
You can celebrate that you’ve successfully made it through almost half your kid(s)’s school year, and everyone deserves the break that’s coming. This down time is great for catching up, getting to know your children better and finding out what’s really going on inside their heads. It can be an evaluation period of sorts to see where changes are needed. Is there too much social media or cell phone usage, too much television and internet? Talk to them and find out how the influences from friends or acquaintances are having an impact on their thoughts.
As the weather cools and days pass quickly on the calendar, the holiday commercials and attractions for spending money are everywhere. All things seem to revolve around the holidays and temptations can be overwhelming.
Get ready! Your kids may ask you for anything and everything. At this time of year many kids reach a high pitch of excitement and sometimes they invent surprising new behaviors that leave you wondering, where did that come from. These are times that require your best parenting skills.
So many times, it starts with us. We want our kids to have everything and the best of everything. Pace yourself, be realistic so you can help them understand that they may not need everything they want. Temper your expectations so you can help them not get lost in the hype.
It’s alright if they experience a few tears. Help them learn that happiness is not always found in stores or online. Now is
the time to teach them that there are more exciting things about the holidays than the gifts they might receive. It helps to start prepping them early for holiday disappointments and other letdowns that will come later in life.
It’s great to receive but it’s even better to give! Children will model your behavior. They will often do what you do or what they see others do. If you give to those who have less than your family or who need help, then they will want to do the same. If they have not been exposed to persons who are less fortunate than them, then teach them to understand that many others are not as fortunate as them and those in their family. Take them to visit the sick, elderly or even to homeless shelters. Find places or a shelter where you feel safe in a setting that your child will be comfortable in and will not be fearful. You want your child to feel the joy of helping and giving to others but not be afraid of
those who have less. Don’t wait until the holidays to practice these activities. Take steps to continue teaching them good giving habits after the holidays, too. Your child’s school or your church may also have programs that your kids can become involved in, with the purpose of helping others. Maybe your kids will consider giving their old toys and games to kids who live in shelters during the holidays.
Whether it’s baking cookies, singing, dancing, playing music, writing, participating in a holiday play or making holiday decorations and crafts. Your child has special talents that are uniquely their own. You can show them how they can integrate their talents into holiday activities and experiences. This is a time to teach them that everything fun and beautiful does not necessarily come from a store. Gifts they make can create lasting memories for their family and friends. Simple things can mean so much more. Even the use of things found at home or reused wrapping paper can teach them how to recycle and make the best use of items in multiple ways.
Help your kids identify their best skills and talents and find ways to enhance what they enjoy most. Explore activities with them during the holidays that can help you recognize what they are best at doing. Talk to them about their current and future interests. It’s perfectly fine if they try many activities or sports before settling into what suits them best.
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Are we there yet? Get used to hearing that question if you’re traveling. If your family is taking a trip during the holidays. then make it a learning experience. Whether they’ll be riding in a car, on a plane, bus or train explain the process from start to finish days and hours before you leave home. Share all things about the destination when you begin making plans for your trip. Tell them about the uniqueness of the destination and why you’re going there. Explain the distance, logistics and time it will take to get there. Travel can provide great educational time in geography, science, math, sociology and more. Use this time to help educate. Think of this experience as a family field trip.
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No matter if your family is religious or not, teach them the purpose for this season according to your family’s beliefs. Do not let the time expire on the calendar without giving them knowledge about what the season is really all about.
This is also a great time to help them understand that families of different faiths and cultures locally and all over the world celebrate this season in many different ways and for different reasons. Learning about diversity is good and can hopefully be accepted by all. In the end, there is no right way or wrong way of celebrating the holidays even if you only focus on the best way for your kids and your family.
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Family downtime during the holidays can be spent discussing and evaluating the best options for children’s educational opportunities. One of the many wonderful things about living in South Charlotte is the great choices we have for private schools that focus on educating and preparing our children for the future. One of our favorites is Carmel Christian School, a college preparatory school serving over 1,100 students in Grades K-12. Accredited by Cognia and the Association of Christian Schools International, Carmel Christian offers an excellent education built upon biblical truth, which equips students to reflect Christ to the world. Students participate in a challenging college-preparatory curriculum taught through the lens of a biblical worldview while fostering the growth of artistic expressions and athletic distinction.
The school is a ministry of Carmel Baptist Church located in Matthews. It offers an environment where minds are engaged, lives are changed, and hearts can serve. The school is committed to providing the best in academic excellence while nurturing students through intentional discipleship. This purposeful commitment to both areas creates a unique educational experience for each child. The school believes that parents are the primary disciple-makers of their children. When home, church, and school provide the same message it creates a powerful partnership. The discipleship vision for each student is summarized in their Portrait of a Graduate: CCS seeks to graduate students who reflect traits of a disciple of Christ: Relational, Prepared,
Responsible, Gospel-driven and Passionate about serving God and others.
Students at all levels take part in service and missions opportunities allowing them to learn and grow through service to others. In the high school program, students are challenged each year to “learn differently” through Impact Week, which takes place beyond the classroom through a mission experience, academic experience, or internship experience.
Teachers at CCS are dedicated to student success in learning and living. They build relationships that instill confidence and foster growth. The school’s academic programs allow students to engage in creative learning through elementary classroom theme days, STEM labs in all programs, the outdoor classroom and The Sprout Garden. CCS supports students by providing service plans, specialized instruction and advanced seminars. Class offerings provide a variety of honors-level and Advanced Placement (AP) choices, including the AP Capstone diploma program. Carmel Christian was awarded Platinum level distinction by the College Board for the second year!
Nurturing talent in arts and athletics equips students to use their gifts and abilities to reflect Christ to the world. With 28 middle and
high school teams, CCS has a strong history of athletic excellence including conference championships, state titles, and collegiate commitments. The arts program gives musicians, actors and artists opportunities to develop their gifts and talents to glorify God. From theater and band to yearbook staff and visual art – students receive honors in local and regional competitions including this year’s Blumey Award for Best Supporting Actor!
For over 30 years, the dedicated families, faculty and students at Carmel Christian have created a caring community where academic excellence, artistic expression and athletic distinction are marked by intentional discipleship.
> Carmel Christian School is located at 1145 Pineville-Matthews Hwy., Matthews, NC, 28105. We highly recommend that parents consider scheduling a tour at Carmel Christian and learn more at carmelchristian.org or call 704.849.9723.
Written by: Melissa Latin and Effie Russell
ust like the rest of the family, the health and diets of our fur babies are important, too. As we begin the holiday season, let’s take some time to reflect on how we can live our best lives and take the best care of the entire family.
If you are not making bone broth on a regular basis for yourself, you really should start today. There are so many health benefits, making it a key component to add to your diet. An added plus is that it is inexpensive to prepare. Not only is it a healthy addition to the human diet, but incorporating pet bone broth into your fur baby’s diet can aid in digestion, improve joint health, help the liver detox, and boost their immune system.
Probably the biggest drawback is that it takes time and takes a lot of time. However, the key is to cook it for a long period of time, over low heat. This will help extract all the nutrients, vitamins, minerals and fatty acids from the bones. Don’t skimp here. The longer, the better.
You may question why you can’t just feed your pet bone broth that you make for yourself and your family. You can; however, you need to be sure that any vegetables that are toxic to animals, are not contained in the broth. This is difficult as we tend to want a bit more flavor in our broths as humans and will use things like onions to add flavor. Onions are a big no-no for dogs. So, what should, or should you not add to your pet’s bone broth? I will be very specific as to what vegetables I use in mine.
I would be remiss if I did not mention why I am so obsessed with making my goldendoodles bone broth. In 2020, my eleven-yearold, Viva, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Considering her age and condition, we felt it was best not to proceed with treatments that could make her even more sick. We would rather her final days, months, or even years be filled with lots of love from her family, and not spend time in a hospital. We also prayed for a miracle but sadly Viva passed away not long after her diagnosis. So, as a recipe creator and food blogger, I started researching things I could add to her diet to possibly build up her immune system and reduce inflammation. Bone broth kept coming up in my searches and I was all in. I knew that I wanted to feed her both beef and chicken broth. Tumeric root was also an essential
part of my plan as it helps to reduce inflammation. For every meal, I added a few sprinkles to her food. So, I thought why not add it to her bone broth.
Pet Bone Broth –Beef and Chicken
Beef Bone Broth
Beef bone broth was my first venture. I was able to get a bag of frozen beef bones at my local grocery store for under five dollars a bag. Then, I got smart and asked my butcher if he could start saving me bones. It was a yes from him. This cost me zero dollars!
As mentioned earlier, if you want to extract all of the goodness from the bones, your bone broth needs to be cooked slowly for a long period of time. In the case of beef bone broth, that means about 48 hours. You can do this either in a large stockpot or even in a crockpot. I do not recommend any other way.
Place the beef bones in a large stockpot. Cover the bones completely with water. Add in the apple cider vinegar. The vinegar will help to extract the minerals and other nutrients from the bones as they are cooking. Toss in the vegetables and don’t forget the tumeric root. I added to the ingredient list, the vegetables I use most often.
Let the pot come to a boil. Once it starts to boil, turn down the heat to simmer. Simmer for the next six hours. Skim off any muck that may form on the top. Turn heat down and allow to cook for a total of 48 hours. Always make sure that the bones are covered with water. If you are doing this in a stockpot, place a lid
• 5 lbs. beef bones or 3 rotisserie chicken carcasses
• 2 to 4 TBLS apple cider vinegar
• 2 to 3 carrots with leaves
• 3 stalks celery with leaves
• 2 C green beans
• 1 sweet potato
• handful of fresh parsley
• 2 C kale
• 2 to 3 tumeric roots
allowing for a little opening. This will help to ensure that while you are sleeping, you will not need to tend to the pot.
Once cooked, remove the bones and larger pieces of cooked vegetables. Discard these as your pets should not eat cooked bones, and the vegetables’ nutrient levels have all been cooked out. Strain the broth using a mesh strainer into jars or containers. Broth will last in the fridge up to four days. I suggest making a lot as the broth stores very well in the freezer.
I would suggest not tasting this beef bone broth. Keep in mind there is no salt added, and the only flavoring comes from the bones and vegetables. For humans, it’s not so tasty. My Hubby described it as “brown water.” However, it is super beneficial for your pets.
I found a super easy way to prepare chicken bone broth for my pets. Use rotisserie chicken. I can usually find them on sale at least twice a week at my local grocery store. The cost is usually about five dollars each. I buy three. Feed them the chicken breast meat over the course of two to three days and use the rest to make bone broth. You can also buy and use whole chickens.
Unlike beef bone broth, you are going to love the taste of the chicken bone broth. Especially, if you are using rotisserie chicken. When you taste it, you will love it and you may even want to use it in some of your own recipes.
Basically, the same cooking and storing technique you used to make beef broth applies to chicken bone broth, except you only have to cook the chicken bone broth
for 24 hours. Do everything else the same as you did for the beef broth. I have also found that this is a great way to use up vegetables that you may consider ready to be discarded. Again, pay attention to the vegetables in my recipe that are safe for your pets. I simply make mine with carrots, celery and tumeric root. From time to time, I’ve kicked it up a notch and added kale, green beans and sweet potato.
First and foremost, like with human food you know everything that is going into it and you’ll know what’s in your dog’s bone broth when you cook it yourself. Often, packaged broths contain added chemicals to keep the product fresh. Honestly, when you see the end result, you will be amazed at your accomplishment. The bone broth will have a slight thickness to it. Why? Because you took the time to extract all of the collagen from the bones. This is what you want. This is the good stuff that can do so much good for your pets.
Give your pet an extra kiss and hug every single day from me and my family. Even though we now have two more doodles, we miss our precious Viva and miss her every day.
> For more recipes, visit my website at charlottefashionplate.com.
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Carmel Christian School
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Dr. Monique May, Nutrition Specialist
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Giovanna is the new sister restaurant of Ballantyne’s Zinicola Italian Restaurant, with the same ownership and the same reputation for soulful, pure ingredients and exceptional service. Conveniently located near Uptown in Lower South End, Giovanna has all the amenities of fine dining with extensive Italian wines and a well-stocked bar. As a bright light in Lo So, it is approachable for any occasion and has a warm, friendly, at-home atmosphere.entic Italian cuisine & wine selection today!
