If you were lucky enough to be at the North Shore Living care center last weekend you heard the sweet voices of Christmas Carolers serenading the residents. Perhaps you were one of those sweet voices! There is so much Christmas music to share, a favorite hymn such as the beautiful “silent night holy night, all is calm, all is bright,” could be followed by a playful “Rudolph the red nose reindeer had a very shiny nose.” The carolers included adults and children. And many of our residents enjoyed singing along when they heard a favorite song.
Our musical volunteers have helped us celebrate this season with Christmas programs. We also hosted special events such as Ben Nichol’s recital performance with 18 piano students. A few days later, more than twenty GES kindergarten thru second grade students sang for us. The little kids learned eight songs to share with us; it was wonderful. Nadine kept saying, “Aren’t they adorable?” We also enjoyed a special return performance from Cindy Johnson’s ISD 166 Choir. Cindy’s talented students will come again in January to help us launch the bright New Year.
We have been overwhelmed with generous Christmas decoration donations. Some of the unusual donations include an Avon Nativity Scene with over twenty beautiful white ceramic pieces. A volunteer and three residents helped me set this special collection out. As we unpacked and positioned the statues, we reminisced about the Nativity scenes that we grew up with in our own families. Another fun donation was a vintage village set that has a horse drawn sleigh, kids sledding, Christmas Carolers, and Santa’s sleigh with eight reindeer. Often it is the small details in life that capture our imagination.
We received every kind of Christmas decoration you can imagine: trees, ornaments, lights, garlands, tree skirts, center pieces, serving bowls, holiday dinner and dessert plates, Christmas cards, wrapping paper, and a beautiful international “Peace on Earth” advent calendar that we will use each year now. The calendar has a green wreath surrounding the earth above 24 pockets containing people from all over the world. As each day passes, the people characters are moved from their calendar pocket to the wreath.
Secret Santa made sure that everyone received a nice gift from Santa Clause this Christmas. Santa Clause Dan, who looks a lot like Santa Clause, made sure the gifts were passed out with a smile and a hearty “Ho, Ho, Ho!” Gifts were presented on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day. Very many generous people make this all happen for our residents. Thank you to each one of you!
The New Year is coming up fast. Tom Novotny is planning a special New Year’s Eve party for us on Tuesday. Champagne and soda will be available to toast in the New Year. The kitchen crew have worked hard to present special meals for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and now they are busy preparing special meals for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Members of the Resident Council have made suggestions for the special holiday menus this year.
We have been having fun bowling these past few months and in January we are going to start practicing our hockey skills. We have hockey sticks, goal nets, and soft pucks to push around from our wheel chairs. We are also going to explore life-skill sharing where the residents teach us something that is important to them. We have lots of new books and games to enjoy, a garden to plan, new friendships, and so much more to look forward to in this bright New Year. Happy New Year, Everyone!