Gearing Up!

Everyone continues to gear up for Christmas and the excitement in the air is contagious!  We're busy with our regular plans, plus the extras that come with this time of year, and we have to remind ourselves to pause and enjoy the little things!

  Our second week in December began on Tuesday with the most delightful day spent at the Mariners' Museum and Park in Newport News.  We were fretting at the end of last week that the weather would prevent us being able to eat outside or walk on the Noland Trail.  Who knew it would be almost 70 degrees and mostly sunny on December 10th!  

Our first thing to do upon arriving at the museum was to hook up with our friend Wisteria for a project.  She explained that we were going to "tell a story" with pictures and objects.

She and her staff had set up a gazillion bins full of supplies all around the room, and we had fun picking out things to add to our collages.

There were stickers, papers, sequins, shells, sticks, glue guns, and more...and we spent over an hour creating our scenes.

Look how busy we were!

Carol worked with Annmarie to create this beautiful scene, and we love Annmarie's smile to go with it!

Cameron was super busy getting all these stickers placed on his artwork.  Great colors!

Voila!  Our creative "Arc-tists" score again! Thank you, Wisteria, and your fabulous staff.  We had so much fun with this project!  

We were so happy we could eat outside and didn't have to return to the center.  We had the patio all to ourselves, too!

On our way back from putting our lunch bags in the van, we caught up with Santa and Mrs. Claus heading into the museum!

They were stopping by to Skype with kids in another state.  They were happy to pose for a picture with us, and to find out that our guys have been pretty good this year!

Santa told us to check out the new exhibit called Toys Ahoy, where all the toys have a maritime theme, and many of them are throwbacks to earlier decades.

Sam and Laura were intrigued by this gigantic Battleship game.

Xavier and Cameron enjoy working puzzles at the center, and they made quick work of putting a few wooden ones together in the exhibit.

Carol and Liz worked together to form sentences with the words on these cubes which, when flipped over, made a scene with a pretty picture on it.

All of the hands-on experiences in Toys Ahoy were fun, and it wasn't crowded at the museum so we got to do a lot of them.  Our guys enjoyed themselves a lot!

After Toys Ahoy, we headed to the Noland Trail.  It was a perfect day for walking, and we had about 45 minutes to savor the beautiful trail.

We were grateful for such a nice day to walk, and to have access to a world-class museum as well.  We look forward to our next visit!

On Wednesday morning, Alexis and Kacie worked in the JRES library for a while.  On the way back, they spotted the school's mascot and were reminded of how grateful we are to the school for their partnership with us!

Wednesday was also a "holiday" called National Noodle Ring Day.  It is a nod to a retro time, the 40s and 50s, when moms stayed home worked in the home and meals were not eaten out or on the run.  It's just a casserole made in a round cake pan, but when unmolded and touched up, makes for (supposedly) a pretty presentation.  Here's ours about to go in the Nina...it cooks in a "water bath," too.  Beside it are our Shake n Bake chicken tenders...which we think is kind of a retro dish as well!

While our noodle ring and chicken were baking, Krafty Karen from the Master Gardeners came, along with several other MG friends, and worked with us on making a couple of cute ornaments!  Here, Karen is going over the directions while Vicki, Linda, Joanne, and Barbara stand by ready to help us!

Elizabeth (gray sweater) also came to help, and Rich was here too...but he was taking pictures and we failed to get him in one of ours.  😔

Linda and Barbara helped the girls tie knots to make a hanger for their ornaments.

Vickie helped Abraham with a sticky sequin part.

Rich asked us to pose for this group shot.  He takes a lot of pictures for the MGs!

Our MG friends are so good to us.  In addition to helping us with the craft activity, they also brought us surprises.  Elizabeth made a 2020 calendar that's full of gorgeous pictures taken at the Botanical Garden.  It's beautiful!

Linda, Karen, and Barbara brought these goodies!  We are so grateful for our partnership and FRIENDSHIP with the Master Gardeners.  They are special to us!

Here's how our noodle ring looked after we inverted the pan and released it onto a serving tray.  We put some chicken tenders inside the ring and around it, too.  It was very firm and actually cut like cake!  It was tasty (our guys love everything we cook), and kind of like mac 'n cheese, but not as cheesy.  We added a fresh side salad, and lunch was a hit!

Speaking of hits, the treats from the MGs were "yum-scrumpti-licious" (a word we made up today)!  We had a sampling and saved the rest to enjoy at lunch with our pierogi on Friday.  Thanks again, Master Gardeners.  You guys are the best and we love you!

We're still missing Yoga Patti on Wednesday afternoons, but we have heard from her that her recovery from lung surgery is going well!  We are so happy for that news! 💙 In her absence today, we practiced with Kiley via a video she shared with us.  Practicing by video isn't the same as having Patti or Kiley live and in person, but it was still a great session, and we felt wonderful afterward!

We texted this shot and a short video to Kiley, who made it safely to frigid Minnesota.  She wrote back that it made her day to see us doing yoga "with" her! 🤟  What a great ending to an awesome day!

Thursday was our last Eaton work day of this decade!  We saw Jorie when we first arrived so Cameron gave her one of our Christmas cards.  

Jorie and James had gathered a lot of tasks for us to complete.    Patrick and Xavier had to open a bag with 3 parts inside, and sort them into different boxes.  

Our "Pink Ladies," Laura, Kate, and Annmarie, worked on a job they love.  Removing the pink film from the aluminum plates takes attention to detail so as to not leave any traces of the film on the plates.

Cameron and Alexis both had counting tasks.  They had to place a certain number of screws and/or small metal plates into the plastic bags.  Later, they went back and added more screws (a different size) to the bags as well.

Kacie and Liz always enjoy working with Meemaw to unpack lightbulbs.  The three of them love to chat and catch up with each other, too!  

James needed a lot of small plastic bags filled with 10 screws each, so Kevin enlisted Nan and Becky to help! He kept them on track! 

Each of these boxes had different packs of small parts inside.  Devin and Sam worked with Carol to remove the parts from the packages, and then place the loose parts back into the same box from which they came!  It's very helpful to the workers at Eaton to have the parts already unpacked when they are assembling product.

Drew and Abraham have become our go-to team for this job!  First, they sorted 4 tubs of mixed parts.  Then, they emptied each tub on the floor and repacked them into neat stacks.  They can get more pieces in each tub this way!

As we prepared to leave, we snapped a picture of this cart that is loaded with our completed work from today.  The boxes may look empty...but they are not!  Most of the parts we counted, sorted, and packed today are small!

Thursday was also our last Frosty stop for the year!  Nina gave us a very generous gift card last Christmas so we could have Frosties "all year long" and we have enjoyed stopping by Wendy's after our Eaton work days many times in 2019!  Cheers to you, Nina!! 🥰

Friday was another busy, busy day.  We didn't even get to all the activities we had planned, but that's ok.  We adapt when we need to!  The first thing we had to work on was the January mailing for The Arc. Be sure to kick off 2020 in a fun and engaging way by signing up for some of the great events planned for January!  Fill out your sign up sheet and return it to Bette Faye by the deadline date! 

We learned about the 21st state to enter the Union today, Illinois!  We found out that it is called "The Land of Lincoln" because he spent most of his adult life in the capital city of Springfield, and that's also where his final resting place is.  Illinois is also known as "The Prairie State" because, except for the almost 3 million people who make Chicago the third largest city in America, most of Illinois is rural.  

For lunch, we made pierogi since they are loved in Chicago.   We learned that pierogi are a Polish dish, made popular in Illinois by the many Polish immigrants who settled there years ago.  Described in our video as similar to ravioli or dumplings, they were filled with a cheese and mashed potatoes mixture.  We sauteed onions and a bit of kielbasa to serve with them.  We also made baked green bean fries!  Here are Laura and Kacie using flour, egg, and bread crumbs to coat the green beans before we put them in the oven.

The pierogi, kielbasa with onions, and green bean fries all went well together.  We enjoyed our Illinois inspired lunch!

Later in the afternoon we began working on a gift for our families.  

It involved coloring a picture of a nutcracker.

It also involves a potato chip can!  Here's a preview...but we can't say anymore!

Ending the week with a tease about an upcoming surprise is fun!  Speaking of fun, we have a lot of it to look forward to next week.  Here's what we'll be up to:

Tuesday:  It's time for our "off campus" holiday party.  Yes, we party twice!  We will travel to Carol's home for the second year in a row where we'll enjoy a movie in her theater, followed by lunch, games, and lots of fun.  Pizza and salad for lunch, and we'll make our traditional brownie Christmas trees for dessert.  Before arriving at Carol's, we'll stop by the Salvation Army to deliver our Food Drive donations, so if you have any more to contribute, today's the last day!  Thank you, families, for your support of this project!  No need to wear Arc shirts today!

Wednesday:  Our dear friend Christina, from the Art Museums of CW, is joining us for lunch today so we can thank her for another fabulous year of working with us AND celebrate her birthday!  We'll make breakfast casserole with a side of fruit.  Chuck from the Rotary will also be here today to work with us in the computer lab.  Plus, we'll learn why it's National Wright Brothers Day!

Thursday:  It's going to be a fun day today as we have special events with a couple of family members.  Laura's mom, Lisa, is going to help us make Christmas Crackers (the kind you pop, not eat!) and tell us about the tradition of playing with them having come from England, where Laura was born!  Nina and Coach Teri are bringing sloppy joes for lunch, too!  Nina wants to visit with her AoA friends and we are so happy about that!  Thank you Lisa, Nina, and Teri, for blessing us with great experiences and food today.  We are thankful!

Friday:  The only thing on the agenda today is to enjoy each other's company and have fun.  It's time for our annual "Holiday Office Party" and we're looking foward to our potluck luncheon and Secret Santa gift exchange.  🎅🎅🎅 We'll also enjoy music and games, and time with some of our JRES friends who will stop by to enjoy a bite with us. 🎄🎄🎄 Many thanks to our families for the delicious food that will come today, and as always, their enduring support of the Arc of Abilities throughout the year! 🎄🎄🎄

Wishing everyone a happy weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang