Thank You, Eaton Corporation!

We had a wonderful week going on a few outings, celebrating a birthday, and receiving a very generous gift.  Check out all of our adventures!

On Tuesday we began our week at Mariners Museum, where we learned that these beautiful trees are called longleaf pines, and that they are far less plentiful than they used to be.  They are a slow growing pine, taking 100-150 years to reach full maturity.  They can live up to 500 years!  Longleaf pines are resistant to fire and provide habitats for numerous species and are helpful in preventing erosion, so around the southeast efforts are being made to preserve their numbers.

Our Mariners Museum friend, Wisteria, is the manager of interpretation and community outreach.  She recently visited us at AFCC and invited us to become regular visitors to the museum.  During our visit Tuesday, she taught us about the longleaf pine and taught us how to incorporate the long pine needles from it into a pretty Christmas ornament.

The idea was to wrap longleaf pine needles around the outside of the clay ornament, attaching them with string that was woven through the holes in the ornament.  Here is a before picture...

This is the after picture!  The skill of running the string through the holes was a challenge for most of our guys, so Lisa, Carol, Nan, Becky, and Wisteria helped them.  Everyone was happy at the end with their ornaments.  They were reminiscent of something that may have been made in Colonial times.

Saying "cheese" with Wisteria and our ornaments!

We had a delicious lunch in the museum cafe followed by some time exploring the International Small Craft Center, which we didn't get to visit when we came during the summer.  There were a lot of interesting types of boats to learn about, and some of our guys found favorites.  Kevin, Kacie, and Sam really liked the gondola from Venice, Italy.  

Patrick found an old wooden roundabout that was named "Sue," which is his mom's name!  So of course this was his favorite!

Chris found a skiff that came from Yorktown, VA and was used for oyster harvesting.  

Annmarie enjoyed exploring the museum.  She was not with us on our trip here during the summer, so everything seemed cool to her!

When we got back to AFCC, we celebrated Carol's birthday!  We had yummy cupcakes that Patrick brought in from leftovers at his sister's weekend wedding.  Fancy AND delicious!!  Happy Birthday, Carol!

We had fun celebrating National Dice Day on Wednesday, even though we were also practicing math skills!

In a game called "Beat It," each player tried to roll a higher total than the player before.

These guys combined 6 dice for a finale game of "Beat It."  This gave them a chance to make combinations of 10 as they added up all the dice.  Dev won with a whopping 25, but Sam was close with a 24!

These players hoped for a bit of luck as they rolled a number and then covered it on the gameboard before someone else did!

Our friend, Chuck, from the Rotary Club worked with some of our friends on the computers.  With Laura, they practiced phonics skills and she showed him how she uses the touch screen instead of the mouse.

Devin and Drew worked on number concepts when it was their turn with Chuck.  In this photo, Chuck is seen using some counting cubes to help them figure out a problem in the computer game.

We began "putting our tree up" on Wednesday.  But first, we needed to make paper chains!

Meanwhile, this group sorted and organized our Food Drive donations. 

Chris took inventory and was thrilled that we had collected over 146 items!

Our morning was busy, and next we had some chefs gather in the kitchen to prepare our lunch.  Patrick and Sam eagerly volunteered to "grill" the sausage!

Liz and Kacie were equally as eager to cook our French toast for our belated French Toast Day celebration.  We used Liz's dad Greg's recipe again this year, with the "secret" ingredient being vanilla ice cream (melted) instead of milk.  Guess this recipe will be a tradition now, because it's really tasty!!

We took some time to reflect on the loss of our country's 41st president, and watched part of his service that took place at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.  Several of our associates were born during George H.W. Bush's term in office.

We found out that Patti was needed by Parks & Rec to teach a class in another location, so we joined our video teacher, Jaime, for her Christmas edition of yoga.

Here we are singing while we yoga!  Merry Christmas, everyone!

Finally on Wednesday, Cameron made sure our bird feeder was refilled.  Our bird friends have been hungry during the recent cold snap!

What a thrill it was on Thursday morning to represent The Arc of Greater Williamsburg as Jorie, Chip, and James presented our executive director, Pam, with a generous donation of $10,000 from the Eaton Charitable Fund!  The Eaton Charitable Fund is dedicated to supporting programs that improve the quality of life in communities where the company operates.  We certainly believe Eaton in Williamsburg improves the quality of life for our associates at the AoA.  They look forward to "work" and take a great deal of pride in what we accomplish for Eaton! 

Thank you Jorie, James, and Chip for the privilege of working for your corporation!  We LOVE being part of your team!

We discovered we had crossed our wires with Christina and we weren't scheduled to visit the museums on Thursday after all.  (We're going Tuesday.)  That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as we needed time to get some decorations up in our room!  So we spent the rest of the day on Thursday making "pretty" things for the walls!

Annmarie is shown here decorating a small tree that would become part of a larger one we would create as a decoration for the lunchroom.  She took a lot of time drawing designs and gluing sequins and pom-poms as she made her decorated tree.

Chloe and Bo shared glue and embellishments that made their little trees very pretty!

We made a similar tree last year, but we think this year's is even prettier!  It sure brightens up our lunchroom area!

After lunch we made decorative Santas.  This involved a bit of coloring and a lot of gluing cotton to the jolly guy's beard and hat.  Liz and Devin worked diligently.

You better watch out...Santa has his eyes on things!

Laura was all smiles as she posed in front of our paper chain Christmas tree. She donated the little tree she decorated to be used on the front of the card we made for our friends at the bowling center.  We had 17 little trees, and only needed 16 to make the big tree in the lunchroom.  Laura was happy to let us use hers for our group card for Ed and friends at the bowling center.  Thank you, Laura!

You can tell from what we wrote that we are grateful for the fun times we have at the Williamsburg AMF Lanes.

On Friday morning we went back to Eaton, but this time it was for a work day, with a fun celebration, too!  Here are a few shots of our fabulous work day!  😜😜😜

Sam and Dev worked on training Devin and Drew on packing parts in a tub.  

Alexis and Laura separated papers that were stapled together, so they can be easily scanned. 

Kevin and Bo worked with Nan to prepare and attach gasketing to these parts.

It's hard to see the small parts in their hands, but Kate and Kacie were attaching screws into them.  It takes a lot of perseverance because sometimes the screws don't go in easily!

At lunch, Jorie thanked us for a great year and said that Eaton was very proud to award the grant to The Arc.  She gushed about how hard we work, and how the Eaton employees enjoy working with us.  They call us the "happiest workers in the world."  Jorie said we really brighten their days, but she also stressed that we get A LOT of work done for them AND it's always well-done!  After her kind words, she treated us to ice cream cake!!  

  

We know Jorie meant what she said about our work ethic, but just in case more proof is needed, check out a snippet of today's work session in this video clip!

🎅 Finally, we ended the week on a very excited note.  It was time for our associates to draw names for their Secret Santa gift exchange.  This year, they decided they would like to buy a gift for someone, instead of exchanging gift cards as they have done the past couple of years.  The "rules" are simple:  Boys chose a boy's name and girls chose a girl's name.  Keep the name you chose a secret!  Purchase a gift for your friend with a value of about $10.  Wrap it and bring it to our Holiday Party on Wednesday, December 19th for the big exchange and reveal! 🎅 

🎄 Speaking of our Holiday Party on the 19th, we are asking everyone to provide a dish for a pot luck luncheon.  We are going to make some sweet treats at the center, so we'd like for our friends to bring their favorite appetizers or finger foods. Thanks in advance for your help with our favorite party of the year! 🎄

Remember, Wednesday, December 19 will be our last day of 2018.  We will reopen and kick off 2019 on Wednesday, January 2nd!

What will we be up to next week?  Here's what you need to know:

Tuesday:  It's Double Outing Day!  (Actually, it's more like Triple Day!)  First, we will deliver our Food Drive donations to Grove Christian Outreach.  From there, we will head to the bowling center for our last visit of 2018.  We are being treated to lunch from Kate's family!  It's "Choice Day" so everyone can choose from pizza, hot dogs, or chicken tenders...and fries are included!  Thank you, Thompson Family.  This is a very special treat!!  After bowling, we're going to stop by the Art Museums of CW for our last visit of the year with Christina!  Be sure to wear your Arc shirts!!

Wednesday:  Some special friends from Anheuser-Busch are coming today and will help us make a fun craft!  They visited with us in October before the Oktoberfest Fundraiser, and made plans at that time to return in December.  This will be fun!  We will also make a few more decorations for our room and finalize plans for our Holiday Party (next Wednesday).  Dress to stretch because we've been assured that Patti WILL be here for more holiday yoga! Lunch on your own.  By the way, the menu at JRES today is Christmas Dinner.  Sounds yummy!

Thursday:  We're celebrating National Cocoa Day today with a rich and creamy homemade version!  We're cooking, too:  Pasta and meat sauce with side salads for lunch!  We will also learn about the National Guard today, since December 13 is its birthday!

Friday:  We're calling today Crazy Craft Day because we have a few things we want to make and it may take most of the day!  We will also have a history lesson in honor of Bill of Rights Day, and maybe get outside for a walk, since the temperature is forecast to be in the 50s!  Lunch on your own.

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, and Nan