We would like to invite the Residents and their family members to enter our Door Decorating Contest! Please “deck the door” (The Residents Apartment Door) to be entered into our contest. The doors must be completed by Monday, December 12 th at noon. Winner will be announced at the Christmas party on December 13th. Please do not use fresh greens or electrical decorations as these items would be a fire hazard. Happy Decorating!
We are so excited about our new partnership with Alliance Pet Therapy. Carol and Judy will be bringing their certified pet therapy dogs, Ahri & Kara, to visit with us every other week. These pet therapy visits fill us with joy and happiness as we pet and snuggle with these special animals.
The cold, wet, and rainy day couldn’t keep us from participating in the annual Walk to End Alzheimer's. We gathered our purple beads and walked around our cottage to help raise awareness for Alzheimer’s care and support. #ENDALZ #Walk2EndAlz
During the holidays, many shoppers wonder what to give their loved ones with Alzheimer's and other types of dementia. Too many gifts might be overwhelming or make the person feel bad if they don’t reciprocate. When you’re shopping, remember where the person is now, rather than buying something they would have liked before they suffered from memory loss. Here are some gift ideas many people would enjoy or find useful. Joy for All is the company that created and sells some of the best robotic cats and dogs. Now, they are offering super-cute birds called Walker Squawkers. The device is a battery-operated bird that can perch on a walker or wheelchair. It has motion sensors and chirps different tunes when the person is moving. After a period of stillness, the bird sings a playful “don’t forget about me” tune. Use an online service like Artifact to create a photo book. Put plenty of pictures of people, but also consider photos of animals, favorite locations, and gardens. Create a playlist of music the person loves using Spotify or another app. You could also program music into a phone or iPad. Record a simple video for a tablet or phone that the person could watch. You could sing a holiday song or simply say “Hi.” Beach balls are simple and inexpensive, and almost everyone loves them. This Intex beach ball is sturdy and a good size for chair “volleyball.” You’ll likely need something to inflate the ball, too. Ravensburger makes sturdy, good-looking puzzles by hand. The pieces fit perfectly and don’t easily peel or get soggy. Look for a puzzle with 24 to 60 pieces with a photo that isn’t too childish. MagicStix markers come in vibrant colors, are easy to hold, and are washable from most surfaces and fabrics. The handiest thing about them is they last a full week without their cap on. So, if someone forgets to put the lid on the marker right away, it won’t dry out. Short stories for people with memory loss aren’t easy to find. This collection is a digital download with 10 large-print short stories. Each story has a slideshow with photos that accompany it. And, yes, this is written and produced by Activity Connection
Halloween fun! Our residents enjoyed pumpkin painting and trick or treat.
The cottage will be hosting two holiday parties this year and the residents are looking forward to celebrating with their family and friends. Please join us on Sunday, December 18 th for an open house from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm. We will be celebrating with hot appetizers, sweat treats and a 2:00 pm holiday performance by Maggie Sings! To keep the festivities going, we will be hosting Cocoa & Caroling on Wednesday, December 21 st at 6:30 pm with a performance by Chris Darin!
To honor our Veterans this year, we celebrated with a Red White and Blue themed luncheon, followed by an amazing performance by Chris Darin! Thank you to all our brave Veterans!
Our talented staff competed to win the prize for the best pumpkin! The residents had a challenging time voting for just one! In the end, everyone was a winner, and we are all looking forward to next year’s challenge! Everyone had a blast giving candy out to the Trick or Treaters that stopped by. The residents had so much fun seeing the kids decked out in their Halloween costumes. We had Elmo, Bumble Bees, Super Mario and a Princess stop by, just to name a few!
A big shout out to our crafty volunteer Deb McCoy. Deb has done some amazing crafts with our residents every week! Residents enjoyed painting pumpkins, stuffing the Cottage scarecrow and dabbling in some sand art. Everyone looks forward to Deb’s weekly craft corner activity!
The Cottage hosted trick-or-treat for families and employees. We even had some four-legged trick-or-treaters that did tricks for their treats.
Many of us seek out the opportunity to step in and take control of a particular situation or event. Whether it is leading a sports team to the World Series, running a fast-food restaurant, or even caring for an elder family member, when things are going smoothly, it’s easy to feel as if you’re in charge. The more you perceive yourself as your own master, and the more comfortable you become in this role, the harder you will fall as it is said that storms will come, and uncertainties will loom on the horizon. If you cling to control and feel entitled to having things go your way, you are likely to sink when difficulties surface. I believe that we are encouraged to enjoy times of smooth sailing and to be thankful for them, but we need to be equally warned not to become addicted to this sense of mastery over your life as we are being trained to always trust in Him – for He is your Refuge. He uses adversity to set you free from the illusion of being in control. When your circumstances and your future are full of uncertainties, look to Him. Therefore, we are encouraged to find your security in knowing Him, the Master who is sovereign over the storms of your life – over everything. Wishing you a wonderful holiday season. May your holidays be filled with joy and laughter through the New Year. Jim
As we enter another Christmas season, children worldwide will be asking an age-old question that has challenged parents and grandparents for centuries: Is there really a Santa Claus? Since September 21, 1897, the answer has been a resounding “Yes, Virginia.” That’s when New York Sun veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church penned the most famous and most reprinted unsigned editorial in the history of journalism Virginia O’Hanlon was the daughter of Dr. Philip O’Hanlon, a coroner’s assistant in Manhattan. In September of 1897, shortly after youngsters returned to school, Virginia came home to report that her classmates claimed Santa Claus didn’t exist. She asked her father if this was true, and her father responded with a suggestion. He advised her to write a letter to the New York Sun and ask the editors, saying, “If you see it in The Sun, it is so.” Virginia followed her father’s advice and wrote this now-famous letter Dear Editor, I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says “If you see it in The Sun, it is so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus? Virginia O’Hanlon 115 West Ninety-Fifth Street. The letter found its way to Sun editor Edward P. Mitchell, who handed it off to one of his veteran writers and asked him to reply. That writer was Francis Pharcellus Church, who was irritated by the request, because he found it both absurd and beneath him. Church was a former Civil War correspondent, and those who knew him believed he had been jaded by the experience. Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished. Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world. You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
