Believe it or not, Christmas 2020 is almost here. We've already acknowledged what an unprecedented year it has been, and at times, it seemed to crawl. But ever since we reopened the AoA in September, time has flown by! Maybe that's because we are always busy?! At any rate, we want to wish everyone a Happy Holiday season, and say, "Thank you, one and all, for your enduring support of The Arc of Greater Williamsburg and the Arc of Abilities!" Unprecedented year or not, we wouldn't be here without YOU!
TUESDAY
Tuesday morning meant Zoom time with our friends at home! Today we played Christmas Riddle Bingo, which required us to use our excellent listening skills! Lilly read the clues and we found the answers on our Bingo cards. They weren't too tricky, and even Laura's little niece Olivia joined in the fun! Candy cane prizes for everyone!
Kevin and Liz, at the AFCC, searched for answers on their cards. Bingo is "serious fun" at the AoA!
Halfway through the Bingo game, we stopped to do a movement activity called "Elves on the Run." As we watched the video, we had to follow commands to jump, duck, dodge, gather gifts that were flying at us, throw snowballs, etc. It was quite a workout, and we made it all the way to Level 3! Here is a video snippet of the group at AFCC in action!
After the workout, Lilly finished the Bingo game and then we danced to Chuck Berry's "Run, Run Rudolph." We had to burn some calories to make up for the ones in the goodie bags everyone is bringing home this week! Today's Zoom was fun, as you can see from the smiles of the group at the center. We hope our at home friends were smiling, too!
After Zoom, we made some holiday treats. We're sending home samples in our family bags this week, along with a homemade ornament we've been working on. Here, Nancy and Nan were checking the recipe for Rice Krispies Treats, one of our holiday favorites!
Liz and Cameron made a new treat this year: Chocolate Covered Cornflakes! It's a pretty easy recipe and who doesn't love chocolate and crunch?!
Down in the kitchen, Patrick and Alexis worked on another new treat for us, Christmas Crackers. These turned out very tasty, and we really liked them, but they were not as crunchy as we had hoped. Next time, we will know not to add so much toffee topping!
We recently shared that we had discovered the most delicious oatmeal cookie recipe, so we had to include them in our family bags! We have nicknamed them, "Lilly's Famous Oatmeal Cookies," because she always leads the team that bakes them. We're afraid to let another staff member try it! Today, Lilly had assistance from Sam and Kevin, who said the cookies smelled so good, even before they were baked!
After lunch we had a history lesson to mark December 15 being National Bill of Rights Day. We were reminded of the many freedoms and privileges we have as Americans!
Does this look like a group practicing patience?! They were! Lisa had sent them to the gym so a scavenger hunt game could be set up, and it took too long. They walked laps for a while, and then decided to wait it out on the bleachers!
Finally, the scavenger hunt was ready. We divided into teams and had to look for 18 different cards, each with an interesting Christmas fact. Sam and Nancy spotted one of the cards hidden in the slot on the end of the Foosball table.
We learned some cool facts! Here, Cameron and Liz were discovering that the two men who wrote the song,"Frosty the Snowman," also wrote the song, "Here Comes Peter Cottontail!"
Kevin, Alexis, and Patrick were searching for a clue card near the green door. Once they found it, they learned that long ago, it was popular to tell ghost stories at Christmastime, such as the most famous one of all, A Christmas Carol! Our scavenger hunt was interesting and informative!
,WEDNESDAY
It was raining outside on Wednesday morning, but Kevin lit up our day with his holiday lights! He was so excited that his friends loved his lights!
Thanks, Alexis and Liz, for getting our "pigs in a blanket" ready for lunch. Yum!
Thanks, Sam and Nancy! The fruit salad you mixed for our side dish was so tasty! You two are a good team!
Kevin's job was to find (in our slightly disorganized pantry) two different flavors of potato chips. He dug around and found a green bag and a blue bag! Thanks, Kevin! Your friends like their chips!
Patrick and Cameron didn't have as good of luck as Kevin when they went to the storage closet to search for plates. They finally found some extras in the pantry where Kevin was. Thank you, Pat and Cam, for persevering!
Before lunch, we cut our brownies into Christmas tree shapes and decorated them for dessert. This is something we have done at Carol's house for the past two years, when we went there for a holiday movie party. According to Sam, it's a tradition!
Last week, when we looked back at blogs from previous years, we were reminded that we enjoyed this annual activity. It's very simple, but creates fond memories.
We added a candy cane for a trunk and a few m&m minis for ornaments, and they were done! This group couldn't wait to eat them!
Part of our brain work today was making words with the letters in "SANTA CLAUS." We thought of lots of 3 letter words, but needed more vowels to make longer words. Cameron and Lilly came up with "salt," though!
Aww! Laura, who is staying safer at home and joins us on Zoom, sent Christmas cards for all of her friends, and we passed them out to this group today! Thank you, Laura! They loved them!!
Cameron, Lilly, and Patrick led the assembly line to fill goodie bags that went home today. We also included a 2020 "tribute" ornament that we made after seeing similar ones for sale online. Merry Christmas to our families!
For our last yoga session of the year, we went with Jaime's Christmas special. She turned a story about going to the North Pole into a fun workout!
Check out this "stirring with a spoon pose" and how everyone is stretching their legs. Flexibility!
Here's the last video of the Tuesday / Wednesday group for this year. They were singing along with Jaime during the yoga session!
THURSDAY
🎄🎅 Wow! We had our first (but hopefully, last) virtual Christmas Party today! EVERYONE was with us either on Zoom or at AFCC, and we had a great time! Thanks, Pam, for stopping by from The Arc of Greater Williamsburg to bring us holiday greetings! It's always great to "see" you!
After hearing from Pam, we played our dance warm up song, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," by Justin Bieber. In this version, we see what Justin would look like if he were animated.
We played a Christmas "game show" called North Pole Pals, and aced every category! Michelle (at AFCC) helped Nancy (Zooming from home) with a question about Ebenezer Scrooge!
In the end, the girls (Team 2) edged the boys (Team 1) by just a few points. It was a good game, and we all had fun playing!
Listen to all of us as we sing along to "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer." It was so great to hear all of our voices singing together again!
The group at AFCC posed with their Secret Santa gifts before we had part 2 of our holiday party, where we planned to open them!
During the second part of our virtual party, we took turns opening gifts from our Secret Santas! It was fun seeing what their friends selected for each other, and there were a lot of smiles and thank-yous being shared!
Some of our friends at the center couldn't wait to get home to enjoy their gifts. Abraham loves to color, and he loves animals, especially elephants. His Secret Santa gave him a baby animal coloring book and Abraham went straight to a page of baby elephants to color during Choice Time!
Alexis was the recipient of a hat and scarf from her favorite basketball team's school, Duke. She donned them when we were working in the afternoon, much to the delight of Michelle!
Xavier couldn't wait to work his new puzzle! It was 200 pieces and we gave him a little extra Choice Time so he could finish it. He was proud of his efforts!! Thank you to all of our AoA families for your support of our Secret Santa gift exchange. It brings lots of joy to our gang!!
After lunch we did a job we have missed since the pandemic changed so many things: a mailing! It was our pleasure to fold and stuff, affix labels and stamps, and get an end-of-year letter in the mail for the Arc of GW!
Before calling it a day, this group filled their family bags with goodies, and the 2020 ornament we made.
We hope everyone liked our treats and the ornament. It's definitely been a unique year!
Happy Holidays to all!
FRIDAY
Look who came to our birdfeeder on Friday morning! We haven't seen Mr. Red-bellied Woodpecker in a long time!
When we were finished birdwatching, we used the computers to make some last minute cards. Devin double-checked that he was about to print the correct card at the correct size.
Alexis taught Michelle how to connect to, and select, the correct printer before pushing the "print" button. Michelle was also sporting the shark mask she got from her Secret Santa. She loves sharks!
We also played Christmas themed puzzle games at the website digipuzzle.net. Alexis worked on a memory game. Here's the link if you're interested!
It made us happy to give our custodians a Christmas gift. Sevarina, Saddia, and Heike take very good card of our center, and are good friends to us, too!
We did brain work when we used the letters from the words SANTA CLAUS to make new words. Carol and Michelle worked together, as did Lilly and Abraham. Both teams came up with long lists of words!
Nan and Alexis went on a special mission to drop off surprises to our volunteer, Becky! We were happy we could spread some of our holiday cheer to her, too!
For lunch, Abraham and Devin were our "Hot Dog Kings." They browned the hot dogs before we wrapped them in "blankets" for baking!
Look how yummy our lunch turned out! The pigs in a blanket were toasty and warm (haha) and the fruit salad, made by Lilly, Kate, and Michelle, was sweet!
The gang also turned brownies into decorated Christmas trees for today's treat. Xavier was all smiles to have a gluten-free brownie tree to decorate! We baked them just for him!
It was the last day of 2020 that we would get to spend enjoying the JRES gym. Having access to this has been a silver-lining during the pandemic, with students being home and the gym being available to us all day long.
Lilly knows how much Michelle enjoys singing during our dance warm up in the mornings, so she suggested Michelle go up on stage and perform for us. Check this out! Michelle's friends loved it! Great performance, Michelle!
Kate brought to our attention that Elsa, from the movie "Frozen," has a birthday on December 22nd! So, we were delighted to play Disney song trivia as a way to celebrate! NONE of the songs in this new version stumped our guys! 👋👋
During our Christmas facts scavenger hunt, this group found a clue that was hidden on the side of the toaster oven in the kitchen. They read it and learned that the flower most associated with Christmas, the poinsettia, is native to Mexico.
Devin and Lexi found a card and discovered that the world's largest gingerbread man was made in Norway in 2009, and weighed 1,485 pounds! Wow!
Namaste, everyone! Yoga stretches at the end of the day, followed by a relaxing "Peace Out" session with Jaime, and we were good to go for 2020!
We're already looking forward to returning in 2021, and we're cautiously optimistic that within a few (or maybe several) months, we can return to being with all of our friends at the AoA! Thank you to all of our families and friends for your support in 2020, and always!
Here's a final wish for everyone:
Stay safe, and we'll see you next year!
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
The Arc of Abilities will meet virtually on Zoom each day at 10:00 a.m. during the week of January 5-8. We will return to daily operations at the AFCC on January 12.
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