We were thrilled to be back at the Arc of Abilities this week, and we were busy! Since we stayed safer at home last week, we had less time to get our room decorated for the Christmas holidays and work on a few special holiday projects. We had to get right down to business to make the room look festive and get everything else done! It was a tall order, but were were up to it, as we are used to being busier than Santa's elves!
TUESDAY
The first thing we did on Tuesday was take a picture of our group. (This will also appear on the family gifts we are making.) Cameron, Patrick, Alexis, Liz, Nancy, Sam, and Kevin were smiling behind their masks!
The pretty tree is in the entrance foyer at the AFCC. It was a perfect setting for us this year. Lisa, Carol, Nan, and Lilly also smiled as Liz snapped a picture of them!
As if we need another reminder that this is the year of the pandemic, we got a great shot of Laura, Drew, Annmarie, and Becky during our Zoom session. They all join us from home where they are staying safer until the virus is under control. 💖 We miss them...a lot.
When Thursday's group comes, we'll get a Christmas photo of them, and then we'll be able to finish our family gifts!
Meanwhile, our Zoom lesson today included a story called Santa on a Panda and it was fun, silly, and something we didn't expect. Parts of the book were sung by the person reading it to us in the video. In the story, Santa's reindeer are on vacation, so he gives a panda special powers so it can fly him all over the world to deliver gifts. When the panda goes so fast that Santa ends up in another galaxy, a "bad" boy learns the true meaning of Christmas! Great message, but very silly story! We enjoyed it!
We also did a doodling activity. After reading a series of clues, we had to doodle the answer on our paper All the riddles were about Christmas things.
Everyone did a great job with their doodles! We are getting into the Christmas spirit around here!
After Zoom, we did what Lisa called the "Man Bun Workout." It was a 15 minute video with Joe, from The Body Coach TV, who styles his hair that way! His workouts are active, so he needs to have his hair up! After Joe, we spent some more movement time in the gym. It was too chilly to be outside!
After lunch we worked on preparing our calendar for December. We needed some pretty accent items to go around our big letters, so we got out the shaving cream and paint to make "swirly" designs on our cutouts. Nancy used a pencil to swirl the red and green paint into this pan of shaving cream.
The girls really got into dipping their cutout designs into the colorful mixture. Carol then used the ruler as a squeegee to get the excess off, and the designs came out beautifully each time.
Sam is using the pencil to tap his cutout further into the mixture. It needed to be coated well so the design would stick.
At first, Kevin pressed his cutout in a little too far, but with practice, his designs were pretty!
Hmm...wonder what this will become? Alexis was doing her part to prepare a green paper plate for something!
Cameron was thinking about where to put the red ribbon sticker on his part of the project. He had put a snowman in the center of the plate.
Any guesses as to what these will become?! Keep reading to find out! We need Thursday's group to contribute before we will be finished. But with this activity, our Tuesday was finished!
WEDNESDAY
We had another busy day that began with our dance warm up, and then lunch preparations. This team of Liz, Nancy, and Lilly were in charge of making the cornbread. We forgot to buy milk for this week so Carol brought some from home, and it was in this little bowl with an unusal lid that the girls couldn't figure out how to open! 😕 (Carol helped and the cornbread got mixed!)
In the kitchen area, Kevin washed and portioned out servings of fresh grapes for our side dish. Cameron unpacked our "real" bowls since the chili would be too hot for a paper bowl.
Patrick, Alexis, and Sam worked together to get the chili going. Sam browned the meat while Pat and Lexi got beans, tomatoes, and seasonings ready.
Here we were busy at work on a holiday craft/decoration that we have never made before! Hint: It's green! 😄
We exercised to a new video today; the letters in the word CHRISTMAS were used to describe movements: During this shot, we were "skiing" for S!
How did our chili lunch turn out?! The grapes were juicy, the cornbread sweet, and the chili just spicy enough! It hit the spot on a chilly day!
Last year Laura's mom, Lisa P., picked up some craft kits from Michael's after Christmas, and gave them to us for use this year. Even though Laura is staying safer at home and not here to use them, some of our guys had fun creating with them today. Cameron worked on a penguin. Thanks so much, Lisa P., for this donation! We are enjoying using it and they make great decorations in our room, too!
Nancy put together a Santa coming down the chimney. He was so cute!
Liz and Alexis used a lot of glue, and patience, to make fun penguins like this fella!
It was fun to join Bette Faye, Pam, a couple of merry elves, Santa, and about 30 of our friends from The Arc for a Holiday Zoom Party this afternoon! We enjoyed the jokes. sing-along, and visit with Santa! (Can you see the "green" craft/decoration we made earlier today on display on the whiteboard?! It's the Grinch!)
Great job, Bette Faye and Pam! The Holiday Zoom Party was a fun time for everyone!
In a brisk start to the morning, we had to evacuate the building "out of an abundance of caution" after Carol bumped into the fire alarm on our wall and it went off...which isn't supposed to happen! It wasn't even 9:00 yet, so when Lilly and Abraham arrived, they thought we were the "Welcoming Committee!" Turns out there was a glitch in the fire alarm, and it wasn't anything Carol did that made it go off (twice!). The Fire Department checked the school from top to bottom, and Plant Services fixed the glitch. We were good to go for the rest of the day!
After the fire alarm excitement, we got this great picture of the Thursday / Friday group for our family Christmas gifts. Michelle, Xavier, Abraham, Kate, and Devin were looking sharp in their holiday duds! Now we can finish making the gifts, just in time to send home next week. 😊
We love to get shots like this that show our gang focused on a certain task. In this instance, they were doing their part to finish our December calendar. Even though we're only here for 8 days this month, we still put our best effort into updating our calendar.
Our first fitness activity today was the "Man Bun Workout" with Joe from Body Coach TV. Today's group said he looked "really good!" Here, Alexis, Kate, and Xavier were pumping their arms!
In this pic, Michelle, Devin, and Abraham were in various stages of the frog jump. This workout got our hearts pumping!
During another movement activity, Lilly invented a game she called "Marco Polo." Taking advantage of us having to wear face coverings, just pull part of it over your eyes and then try to tag your friends! This was fun!
Michelle was excited to show off the blinking lights on her new Frozen sweatshirt. She lit up our day with her joy!
We had more of the craft kits that Laura's mom gave us, so during Choice Time the girls worked on making Santas. We aren't naming any names, but they didn't mind us joking that the one on the left represents Santa before he heads out on Christmas Eve and the one on the right is him after all the deliveries!
What happens when Lisa, Carol, and Nan step out to pow-wow in the other room? Lilly and the gang ham it up for a mirror selfie! So much fun!
We finished "putting up" our tree today! This year's version is a table-top tree (because it's small) made from paper plates decorated with all kinds of odds and ends we had on hand. Our teams did a great job decorating the plates, and we love the finished tree!
Before wrapping up for the day, Xavier and Devin refilled the bird feeders. We have to take care of our bird friends!
FRIDAY
Friday morning's dance warm up was led by Lilly. She's got great DJ skills, just like Liz! She played her "favorite" Christmas song for us today, "Carol of the Bells," by Trans Siberian Orchestra.
Cooking time was after dancing time, and Kate and Liz were on Lilly's cornbread team. After they double-checked the directions, they added milk and eggs to the mix and got it in the oven. (No trouble opening Carol's bowl of milk today! 😉)
Over at the chili station, Michelle and Devin put their skills to use, browning the meat, then adding onions, peppers, beans, tomatoes, and seasoning mix. When they were done, the room smelled delicious...and the chili tasted great!
At lunch time, we dug into our yummy creations, and forgot to take even one picture! Here is a substitute picture... Our lunch was super tasty!
Michelle and Alexis helped Nan wash and dry our "real" bowls and spoons after chowing down on the chili. We didn't forget to get a picture of this! Thanks for your help, girls!
The Thursday / Friday group immediately noticed the Grinches that the Tuesday / Wednesday group had made when they came in yesterday. They were looking forward to making theirs, and adding them to the wall around our Christmas tree. Here, they were hard at work painting their Grinches.
Aren't they fabulous?!
We also finished our DECEMBER letters for our front wall. Our room is looking great for next week!
Even though this is a blurry shot, we wanted to include it to show Alexis and Michelle in action throwing our big (soft) balls against the wall in the gym. Each time they threw, they tried to go higher!
Down at the other end of the gym, Abraham, Xavier, Devin, and Kate kept the basketball hoops busy!
We created artwork and wrote a thoughtful birthday letter to put into a card for Christina at the Art Museums. Her birthday is next week. Lilly glued it all together for us.
During Choice Time, Kate asked Lilly to ready a holiday book and everyone stopped what they were doing to listen!
Next week won't be as busy, since we got our room decorated this week. We'll enjoy lots of holiday activities, especially our holiday party via Zoom on Thursday! It will be a fun week making memories with our friends, and leading up to our last day of 2020...a year we won't soon forget!
Here's our plan for next week:
Tuesday / Thursday: We will see everyone on Zoom each day at 10:00. Tuesday's topic will be Holiday Dancing, Singing, and Bingo. On Thursday, we will have our 2020 Holiday Party! We will have two sessions: 10:00-10:40 will be fun and games, after which we will take a short break. We'll log in again from 11:00-11:40 to exchange and open Secret Santa gifts! It's going to be virtually epic! 🎄🎅 Also on Tuesday and Thursday, we will do some baking for our family gift bags and have an educational holiday scavenger hunt! Bring your lunch today!
Wednesday / Friday: We'll spend the last day of the year with our groups preparing goodies to take home, completing holiday activities that require us to think, and relaxing with Jaime and Christmas yoga, so dress to stretch. For lunch, we'll make one of our favorites, pigs in a blanket, with sides of fruit and chips.
Happy Weekend to Everyone,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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