Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all!  We wrapped up 2024 with a festive week of parties and fun.  It began with a celebration for Christina on Tuesday and on Wednesday we partied with the therapy dogs!  Thursday was spent at Carol's home theater for a great time watching movies and socializing with each other.  We ended a wonderful week with our "office" party and Secret Santa gift exchange on Friday!  Lots of great memories were made as we said goodbye to 2024!

Tuesday, December 17

One of our favorite traditions is celebrating Christina's birthday, which is December 16.  She always comes to our center in December, instead of us visiting her at the Art Museums.  And even though it's her birthday, she brings us a very lovely project to work on that we send home for our families to cherish!  This year, we made pine swags!

First we had to string berries and pinecones on the string.

We added bells and bows! 

They are so pretty!  Christina, we can't thank you enough for the many fun things you do with us throughout each year, and especially during your annual December visit to our center.  We have made many beautiful holiday projects with you over the years, and we cherish each one as much as we cherish our friendship with you!

But wait, there was more.  Christina brought each of us a gift of an oversized deck of cards.  We had so much fun playing card games with her last month, that she thought they would be the perfect gift for us.  We love them, Christina!  Thank you for your thoughtful gifts!!

We finally turned the spotlight on Christina.  After all, we were celebrating her birthday!  We made new (for us) kinds of cards for her this year.   They were folded a certain way so that when she pulled them open, our picture and message would be revealed!

Christina, we hope all your wishes come true and that your birthday was as special as you are to so many people.  We can't wait to see what 2025 brings for us, and you, as we continue our partnership AND friendship! 💖💖💖 P.S.  Thank you for the homemade cookies, too!  

After our party with Christina, we rode over to visit Tessa!  What GREAT "medicine" it was for all of us to see her!  She looks just like her "old self" with that big, beautiful smile, but we were saddened a little bit to see that she isn't able to be up and about yet.  She will continue to work with her mom, other family members, and therapists, and we just know she is going to get all of her strength back.  Her mom, Michelle, said it could take up to a year, which means she may have to keep working on it until summer, but we're pulling for her, and her seat is waiting for her at the AoA as soon as she's ready!

We brought her a Secret Santa gift!  She was so happy!

Tracy, who worked with Tessa at Days of Discovery Camp when Tessa was younger, met us for the visit.

Happy Holidays, Tessa and Family!  Keep up the great work!

Wednesday, December 18

Our Library Leaders wrapped up 2024 in the JRES Library this morning.  Thank you, Mr. Nonnemacher and Mrs. Ortega for letting us shelve books.  We appreciate you for finding books for us to read with our therapy dog friends on special days, too.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Speaking of our therapy dog friends, check out the wonderful holiday session we had with them today!  They brought so many "good tidings" to us this morning!  🎄🎄🎄

Xavier, Thomas, Sam, and Michelle with Vicky and Aubree

Drew, Bryan, Kate, and Liz with Caroline, Pip, and Indy

Erik, Alexis, Laura, and Kevin with Kent and Leo, plus Kent's Westie Tavish, who is joining the team, and Kent's friend, Lisa, who will join the team soon with her pup!  It was nice to meet you, Lisa!

Devin, Annmarie, Beka, and Patrick with Carol S. and Casey 

A tradition we love during our December visit with our therapy dog friends is the sing-a-long!  Thank you, Kent, for bringing your guitar and leading us in this fun tradition!

Carol S. joined Kent for "O Holy Night" and it's just beautiful. 💗💗💗

Here's a sweet video that Kent 's friend Lisa created and they shared with us from today's visit!  Thank you, Kent and Lisa!  This is great!!

We enjoyed refreshments after the sing-a-long.  We made hot chocolate with marshmallows and peppermint spoons.  Caroline shared Cranberry Christmas Bars and Vicky made beautiful gingerbread people cookies for everyone.  She wrote our names on them with edible ink!  Thank you, Vicky and Caroline, for your contributions to our little party.  Your deserts were delicious and we appreciate you for taking the time to bake and create for us!

Here's a close up of the cookies Vicky made.  Aren't they adorable?!  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of our therapy dog friends!  We love our time with you each month and cannot wait to continue our partnership AND friendship in 2025!  

Later in the afternoon we played Bingo.  Kevin was Nan's helpful assistant!

Laura shared her family's Peanuts Christmas edition of the game, and it did not disappoint.  Our gang loves playing Bingo!  Thank you, Laura and family, for sharing your game with us.  What a fun way to end the day!!

Thursday, December 19

We had a very, very nice time at Carol's beautiful home today as she hosted us for a movie party!  She has a theater with a super large screen in her basement, as well as another room with a very large screen, so we were able to divide up and catch a couple of holiday flicks!  Allison joined us and helped Carol prepare popcorn and pretzels for snacks, and we had a blast at our private movie screenings!

Carol has another room in her basement where we set up puzzles for those who weren't into the movies.  We had something for everyone!

Group photo op before lunch!

We had subs from Jersey Mike's for lunch, and no leftovers today! 😋

After subs, we decorated brownies to look like Christmas trees.  That's our traditional dessert at Carol's Movie Party!  So tasty!

We had a wonderful time, Carol!   Great memories were made today.  Your hospitality made us feel welcome and special.  Thank you for inviting us into your home!

 

Friday, December 20

Everyone was excited today as they arrived with their Secret Santa gifts!  We got some work done, including lunch prep, and then had a blast the rest of the day! 

Thanks to Beka and Emma for finishing up the homemade cards from the kits Krafty Karen gave us.  They are so beautiful!  Thank you, Karen, for providing these for us!

Thanks Beka and Patrick for breaking up pecan pieces for our grape salad recipe.

Dance warm up is always fun during holidays!  Today, Devin channeled Bruce Springsteen to lead us in a rendition of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."  We're not quite ready for prime time, but we have a lot of fun!

While Lisa, Carol, and Nan finished prepping things for lunch, we played a game called North Pole Pals.  It's a trivia game that we play each year.  We divided into 4 teams.  There was much strategizing over which point level of question to choose!

Thanks, Liz, for running the technology to keep the game going!

When the game was over, Team 3 emerged victorious!  Way to go, Abraham, Kevin, Kate, and Erik!

Nan, Lisa, and Carol would like to thank our families for your generous and thoughtful gifts.  They are never expected, but always appreciated.  

Lunch time was getting closer!  We put colorful coverings on our tables and got the Grinch Punch ready.  Liz was our friendly "beverage cart" server, and she did a great job!

Nan was so happy when her great-granddaughters Haley and Jordan stopped by for a visit and joined us for lunch!  On a sad note, our wonderful volunteer Allison fell ill overnight and wasn't able to join us.  You were so missed, Allison. We hope you feel better soon. 💖

Thank you APEX-PT and Movement Center (our friends Kelly, Scott, Kristin, Denise, and Bret) for providing these delicious desserts for our party!  Thanks to Haley and Jordan for the nutcracker that was filled with tasty candy, too!

Our beloved custodian Sevarina is retiring and today was her last day!  She made the rounds and gave every one of us a big hug, and she had tears in her eyes.  We will miss her, especially when we have fire drills.  She was always around to give us a "head's up" and then open the doors to let us back in when it was over.  We were happy to give Christmas gifts to Heike, Sevarina, and our newest custodian, Juwan, who joined us last month.  Happy Holidays Heike, Juwan, and Sevarina, and many thanks for keeping our space clean and fresh!  Best wishes in your retirement, Sevarina!

After lunch we had our Secret Santa gift exchange.  There were lots of smiles as friends opened gifts from one another!

Thank you to our families for their support of the Secret Santa gift exchange.  This is the highlight of our holiday party!

Farewell to 2024!  We will be back to kick off 2025 on January 7th!  Here's what we have planned:

Tuesday, January 7:  We'll kick off our new year with bowling and pizza for lunch.  We'll also enjoy catching up with each other after Winter Break!

Wednesday, January 8:  We'll volunteer at GCOC today, so please wear Arc shirts.  Volunteer Allison is part of the family now, and she had a birthday on December 31, so we'll celebrate her today with pasta, salad, and cupcakes for lunch!  We'll also update our calendar for January, and continue our read-aloud, Stargirl, which we didn't finish before Christmas!

Thursday, January 9:  We'll get (kind of) scientific today as we celebrate National Static Electricity Day.  It's also National Balloon Ascension Day, which commemorates the first balloon flight in the United States in 1793, so we will learn about hot air balloons!  Lunch on your own.  Microwave available.  The menu hasn't been released as of this writing, but JRES Cafeteria usually offers Domino's Pizza or Sub of the Day on Thursdays.

Friday, January 10:  Our first work day of 2025 will be at Pet Supplies Plus, so please wear PSP shirts today.  One group will go to work while the rest if us do some new year's cleaning in our room!  It's National Save the Eagles Day, so we'll also have a lesson about our national bird, and check live webcams to see what some of them are doing.

Thank you to all of our families and friends for another year of support and love!

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang

Happy Birthday, Emma!

As December rolls along, our gang is reveling in the holiday excitement!  We stoked that excitement this week with a joyful yuletide sing-a-long with Mike, party-planning for next week, and a celebratory luncheon with our friends at Eaton.  We also celebrated our friend Emma's "Winter Season" birthday on Thursday with a sweet treat and a fun musical chairs game!  It was a fabulous week.  

Tuesday, December 10

We visited Mike at The Watermen's Museum for the last time in 2024 today.  He shared yuletide history and traditions, and as expected, sang his heart out with us. 🎵💖

Mike told us that yuletide is a word that in our time generally refers to the Christmas season.  To the Vikings, who started many yuletide traditions we know today, it was a festival to celebrate the winter solstice (longest night), and hopefully the return of the sun, and eventually spring!  He also said that last weekend local Vikings camped in Yorktown for a Yuletide celebration!   

He reminded us that in Colonial times (and before), folks believed that filling their homes with fresh scents would help ward off disease.  That's where our tradition of using pine, cedar, citrus and other scents to make our homes smell fresh and clean came from! 

Mike provided limes, cloves, greenery, and ribbon so we could make our annual pomanders.  Beka used a skewer to start holes in the lime which would make it easier to insert the cloves.

 The carriage room smelled wonderful as we worked.  Here, Kevin was pushing cloves into his lime.

Now, for the enjoyment of our readers...we sang with Mike today.  A lot.  Very loudly, too.  And we love to see ourselves on video, so here we are!

Under Mike's creative guidance, we reworked "Twelve Days of Christmas" to "Twelve Days of Arcmas," and it might go viral according to Mike!  (You had to be there...😀)

The grand finale!  Mike, we wish YOU a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and we thank you from our happy hearts for another fun year of lessons with you!  We are looking forward to 2025 and our continued partnership and friendship with you!

We decided to return to the center after our time with Mike since it was cloudy and windy outside.  We ate lunch and had Choice Time before listening to a couple of chapters from Stargirl and then a check of last week's blog.  We never took another photo today...

Wednesday, December 11

We were busy today!  Volunteering at Grove and making more decorations for our room took up most of the morning, but we also celebrated National App Day using our laptops and iPhones.  In the afternoon, we voted on which movie we'll watch at Carol's house next week, and then we made a shopping list for the items we need to buy for next Friday's holiday party.  (We're going shopping tomorrow!)   We had to reschedule our Rock Steady Boxing workout to January because Kelly was under the weather.  We hope you feel better soon, Kelly.  We'll look forward to seeing you guys in January!

Ten of us worked with Thom, Tom, Ursula, Peggy, and Joel at GCOC today!

Gosh, Ursula's holiday meringue cookies are so tasty and almost too pretty to eat!  Thank you, Ursula.  You are a baking whiz!!  Merry Christmas to all of our Wednesday volunteer friends at Grove.  We absolutely LOVE working with you!

Happy National App Day!  We certainly enjoy using our laptops (and sometimes iPhones) to explore and enjoy lots of different kinds of apps.  Today we played puzzles, solved word searches, and learned about animals.

Thanks for helping us with the Santa craft, Allison.  We used a lot of cotton balls to make those beautiful beards!

Here's Drew being a fan of a sticky glue project...not! 😜

After two rounds of voting, we decided we will watch Christmas With the Kranks next week when we visit Carol's in-home theater.  Polar Express came in second, so we may have that running on another screen, too!  (Carol has a few screens in her home!!)

Thursday, December 12

Happy Birthday to Emma, today!  She has the last birthday of our members for this year, but she was worth the wait!  She decided on a game of musical chairs, so we played a holiday version.

Who says adults can't play and enjoy musical chairs?!

We were surprised by visits from two wonderful friends today.  Moose Patti popped in just before lunch, full of smiles and with hugs for all!  She said she had some unexpected time off and wanted to stop by to "see my favorite peeps in Williamsburg!"  We neglected to grab a photo with Patti, but here's clipart that looks just like her!  Thank you for visiting today, Patti.  You always bring joy and laughter, and we love you for it!!   We wish you very Happy Holidays and...Go, Steelers!!   

💛🖤💛🖤  Have fun at the game on Christmas Day! 🏈🏈🏈

Next, we heard a knock at the door and it was Krafty Karen!  She stopped by to bring us one of her special craft kits (cards to make for our families), and a sweet treat, too!  Karen, we always love to catch up with you.  Thank you for the card kits and treats.  We appreciate you for the time you spend creating nice things for us to make.  We wish you and Steve a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 💕💕💕

Soon it was time to sing to Emma and toast her special day with delicious cupcakes!  Emma, we hope all your wishes come true!  We are thankful to your family for providing a special treat so we could celebrate you.  Happy 29th Birthday!

We changed our afternoon plans from scavenger hunting in Colonial Williamsburg to grocery shopping for our holiday party!  Everyone is excited for the party, so we decided to split into two groups and let the gang help with the shopping.  Lisa's group hit Walmart and found everything on their list except guacamole mix and lime sherbet! (Update:  Lisa found those items later at Food Lion!) 

Carol's group stopped by Aldi's, and they were successful in finding everything on their list!  They put a quarter into the cart, brought their own bags, and checked to make sure the eggs weren't broken!  Great job by them!  We're going to party well next Friday!!

We also made a stop at APEX-PT and Movement Center where we picked up the donations from their very successful food drive!  We got to see Kelly, who was feeling better, and helped us load both vans with donations brought in by their staff and patients.  Each year, APEX conducts a food drive to support The Arc's efforts and we offer to pick up the items and deliver them to GCOC.  Thank you, APEX-PT, for your enduring support of The Arc.  We are thankful for your partnership and appreciate these donations so much!

Friday, December 13

Another "last" for this year happened today:  we worked at Eaton for the final time until 2025.  It was a busy, but quick morning as we sorted, unpacked, and gasketed, and then we made holiday crafts and had a pizza party!  

Next up, crafting.  We made ornaments and painted pictures, too!

That's Jorie giving Abraham a hug (and Laura with her arms ready for one).  She joined us for lunch and we were so happy to see her!

Thank you for another amazing year, Eaton!  We are very appreciative of this opportunity to work for you and learn so many good skills!  Thanks, also, for helping The Arc earn another grant from Eaton Corporation for 2024!  We are already looking forward to continuing our partnership AND friendship in 2025!

We have a wonderful update on Tessa!  Her family was able to get an EasyStand StrapStand which lifts Tessa directly from a wheelchair or bed to a standing position.  This is very good news as regaining the ability to stand and walk is one of her main goals.  They are also having a ramp built which will make transferring Tessa in and out of the house much easier.  Tessa's mother, Michelle, wants us to thank all of Tessa's AoA friends and their families, as well as our Arc staff members, for the generous donations that have helped them provide much of what Tessa needs as she rehabilitates at home.  Michelle also stresses that our prayers have meant so very much to them!  

Michelle put a bird feeder outside one of Tessa's windows.  She says Tessa really enjoys watching the birds, but they have to constantly fight off squirrels!  We can relate to that!  In other good news, we are going to get to visit Tessa on Tuesday!  We have a Secret Santa gift for her (from us all), so after lunch we will stop by her home for a short visit.  That's the kind of medicine that will do us ALL good!  💗💗💗

We are looking forward to an exciting last week of the year.  We have so much to be thankful for, and in between the joy, laughter, and fun, we will pause to reflect on our many blessings!  Here's a look at our plans to end 2024:

Tuesday:  We're going to remain at AFCC this morning and welcome Christina from The Art Museums of CW for a celebration of her birthday!  This is an annual tradition that also includes her working on a beautiful holiday craft with us.  We're excited to see what she helps us make this year!  We'll enjoy breakfast casserole, fruit salad, and birthday cake muffins for lunch!  After lunch we're going to visit Tessa at her home and give her a Secret Santa gift!

Wednesday:  Our therapy dog friends will join us for a holiday-themed visit this morning.  We'll read, sing, and enjoy light refreshments.  We will also finish making treats for our family gift bags today.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is serving Cheesy Pasta Supreme or Sub of the Day.

Thursday:  Holiday Party #1 is today!  Another annual tradition is going to Carol's house to watch a movie in her home theater, play games, and have lunch.  Thank you, Carol, for extending this invitation for a day that we enjoy very much!  Feel free to wear your holiday colors.  We'll order subs from Jersey Mike's for lunch, and add chips and fruit.  For dessert we'll decorate our traditional Christmas tree brownies.

Friday:  Merry Christmas!  It's our final AoA day of 2024, so bring on the party!  Today will be a celebration with games, music, lunch buffet, and our Secret Santa gift exchange, so don't forget to bring your Secret Santa gifts!  Lunch will consist of all the goodies we selected for our menu (meatballs, chicken nuggets, mac n cheese, chips, dips, fruits, veggies, Grinch Punch...).  Wear your holiday colors and be prepared to have fun all day!  🎄🎅

Thank you, AoA Families, for your support, not just this week, but all year!  We are grateful for you!

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang