Happy Thanksgiving, 2024!

The Arc of Abilities enjoyed an abbreviated week, including a Monday session, as we looked forward to the Thanksgiving holiday.  This is the only week of the year when we have a Monday session, because we close Wednesday-Friday.  We spent Monday working on gifts for our families and had another Friendsgiving meal with our friend, Sandra.  On Tuesday we delivered food to GCOC and spent time at Chippokes State Park.  It was a short, but very sweet week!

Monday, November 25

We met for our only Monday session of the year today.  No one seemed to notice it wasn't another typical "day at the office" though!  First, we worked on several gifts for our families.  We like to send a gift bag home at Christmas time with a few keepsakes made by our members (and some homemade goodies), so we got a head start this week!  We set up stations and rotated in groups to make the surprises!

Jars, colorful tissue paper, rocks...

Pinecones and paint...

Not a gift for families at this station, but a gift for our room - pretty pictures that will decorate our walls!

Allison was on hand to lead this project that involved paint, Modge Podge, and glitter!

It was another one of those mild days that we appreciate for a chance to get outside.

Our sweet friend Sandra surprised us with a visit today, and treated us to her delicious pork and rice with salsa verde sauce for lunch!  It is soooo tasty and we are blessed by Sandra's thoughtfulness in cooking for us.  Thank you for sharing your Colombian cooking with us, Sandra.  This was a joyful Friendsgiving meal!  You call us your "angels," but we think you are an angel, too.  Your joy and kindness are contagious. 💙💚💜

Thank you, Allison, for adding the yummy cupcakes to our Friendsgiving meal!

Sandra and Drew squeezed in a quick dance!

We ended the day with a couple of Thanksgiving games, including a "Would You Rather" where we had to decide if we would rather swim in gravy or wash our hair with mashed potatoes!  Lots of laughs with this one!

In this game, we used our brains to think of reasons why one of the objects didn't belong in each group.  We came up with two reasons why the golf ball doesn't belong, and one reason for the football in this example.  We're so smart!!

Tuesday, November 26

As we prepared to take a few days off to celebrate Thanksgiving, we gathered our food drive donations and delivered them to Grove Christian Outreach Center.  We are grateful for the generous contributions of our Arc of Abilities families!

Ally helped us unload and thanked us for our kindness and generosity!  

About half of these donations were collected at Frothy Moon Brewhouse.  We added them to our donations and made the delivery on behalf of The Arc of Greater Williamsburg!

Ally also showed us around The Gathering Place, which is Williamsburg's first free grocery market.  The large room where we work when we volunteer has been renovated and made into a beautiful market which offers a dignified shopping experience to vulnerable families across the region.  Click on the first picture for a link to read more about this innovative program.  We are so proud to call Grove Christian Outreach Center one of our partners and friends!

Katie Patrick, GCOC's Executive Director, greeted everyone with a high five!

The weather didn't cooperate as nicely as we hoped for our trip to Chippokes State Park in Surry, but we managed to avoid the off and on rain sprinkles for a nice visit anyway!  It was too wet to play games, but we took a good hike down to the river, looked for a few shark teeth, hammed it up for the camera for a Turkey Trot, and had a delightful lunch.  We were joined by Tracy, Katrina, and Javante from Parks and Rec.  It was a fun morning!

It wasn't as wet back at the center, so some of us played corn hole while others enjoyed Choice Time inside.

Bryan and Kate topped off the bird feeders.  It will be a week before we can fill them again!

Here's a preview of our Christmas tree for this year.  Tracy and Carol are using garland for a design that Liz found online.  It's going to be beautiful when we finish it next week!

The highlight of the day was drawing names for our Secret Santa activity!  The boys selected first, and no one picked their own name.  Phew!

After the girls made their selections, we reminded everyone to keep it a secret!!  

We have an update on our friend Tessa's progress.  We sure do miss this sweet girl!  Mom Michelle reports that Tessa is persevering and working hard to build her strength back, and that she's definitely stronger with more control of her arms and legs.  She says they are working a lot on helping Tessa to stand up straight and tall, and Tessa is able to do that for about 30 seconds now.  She exercises for 6 days a week and has one day to rest.  Tessa and Michelle, we are proud of how hard you are working to get Tessa back to full strength.  We keep you in our thoughts all the time, and we look forward to the day we can see Tessa again.  Thank you for sharing the photos and updates.  Tessa looks determined and pretty!

We will see everyone back at the center on Tuesday.  Here are our plans for the first week in December!

Tuesday:  We are kicking off Winter Birthday Season as we celebrate Carol, even though (technically) it isn't winter until December 21.  It's also the first Tuesday of the month, so we'll go bowling and have pizza for lunch.  Carol chose cherry cobbler for her birthday treat!  We are also going to prepare for a big luncheon we are hosting tomorrow by working on decorations and cards.  

Wednesday:  First thing this morning, we will volunteer at GCOC so please wear Arc shirts. We are also hosting a luncheon today for John Carnifax, who recently retired as Director of Parks & Recreation.  We'll be joined by the new director, Arlana Fauntleroy, Pam, and a number of Arc board members.  We'll end the day with dice games as we celebrate National Dice Day!  Lasagna, salad, and cake for lunch!

Thursday:  Today we will kick back and catch our breath.  We'll finish our family gifts, complete some brain work, and watch a holiday themed episode of Gilligan's Island (one of our go-to activities on a kick back day).  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is offering Domino's Pizza, Chef Salad, or Yogurt Combo.

Friday:  We're headed to Pet Supplies Plus for a work day, so please wear your PSP shirts.  The crew who remains at the center will work on organizing our crayons, markers, colored pencils, and other craft supplies.  We will also make another decoration for the room!  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is serving Corn Dog Nuggets or Chicken Sandwich.

Enjoy the holiday,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang

November Rolls Along!

We said goodbye to our friend from Parks & Rec, Rachel, this week.  That's her on the back row beside Devin. She's our backup whenever Tracy isn't available, and we are very fond of her.  She's moving to Charlottesville to be closer to family, and will work for Parks & Rec there.  We know they are lucky to have her.  We'll miss you Rachel, and wish you all the best!  Thanks so much for stopping by to tell us goodbye!

November is rolling along and we're starting to hear more rumblings about the Christmas holidays that are fast approaching.  Even though we saw the big tree at The Art Museums AND got to hang ornaments on it, we're all in agreement that we want to keep this week and next week mostly focused on Thanksgiving!  We'll try!

We had another active and engaging week where, besides visiting with Christina at the Art Museums, we also had a great visit with our therapy dog friends, cooked a Thanksgiving meal with a twist, and worked at Eaton.  We began the week with spring-like temperatures, and ended it in winter!  Here's the scoop on another fun week!

Tuesday, November 19

This morning we gathered ingredients to make peanut butter fudge.  Tomorrow is National Peanut Butter Fudge Day, so need we say more?!  Plus, we thought it would be nice to have a little treat with our therapy dog friends tomorrow!

Drew, Erik, Xavier, Alexis, and Liz were ready with sugar, butter, vanilla, and peanut butter!

A check on the National Day Calendar's website showed a photo of peanut butter fudge with sea salt sprinkled on top.  Even though our recipe didn't call for that step, Liz noticed we have sea salt in our pantry, so...  It's going to be very tasty, but not until tomorrow!

We prepared for tomorrow's fudge with a brisk walk today! It was a mild morning that reminded us of spring!

National Play Monopoly Day is today, so we learned a little about the iconic game.  Did you know Monopoly was based on a game created by a young woman named Lizzie Magie who in 1903 designed it as a way to show that concentrating land into monopolies in real life was a negative thing?  Eventually, the idea for the game ended up with Parker Brothers, who began marketing it in 1935.  It's been played all over the world ever since!  We celebrated by playing a few different games, including Monopoly, including some favorites that we brought from home.

After lunch we traveled to The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg where we learned about games from the 18th century with Christina.  She didn't realize it was Play Monopoly Day, but her lesson meshed with it perfectly!

When we first arrived, we noticed some new displays in the foyer area.  One that caught our eye consisted of chamber pots, which Christina explained were very handy back in the day! 😉

In the 18th century, card games were very popular.  This object is a porcelin cup and saucer that is gilded with gold, and features playing cards in its design.

Christina explained that card tables looked like this, and were straight along one side so they could be pushed against a wall and out of the way when not being used.  The 1/2 top of the table could be flipped back to make a fully round table for playing card games.

Xavier was all smiles when Christina pointed out a chess table with a top that was made with a variety of different stones.  It is very pretty.

We played a game from the 18th century that is similar to our game known as "Simon Says."  Called "Grand Mufti," if you made a wrong move, you had to "pay a forfeit," such as acting like a silly monkey in front of everyone!

In the Education Center, Christina taught us a card game called "Kings in the Corner," and a numbers game called "Shut the Box."

Even though we're trying to focus on Thanksgiving, we were in awe of the huge Christmas tree being decorated!  From upstairs, we spotted Jan working on it, and next thing we knew, we were helping to place a few of the nearly 2000 ornaments on it!  Thank you, Christina, for another wonderful time at The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg!  You and the museums are a treasure!

Wednesday, November 20

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving-themed visit with our therapy dog friends and handlers today!  First, we had two reading rotations.  For our third rotation, we did brain work.  The handlers were so impressed with our skills, and how much we stuck with the challenges!  Thank you to all of our handlers for your monthly visits with the most loving and caring therapy dogs.  We enjoy working with you very much!

Thanks to Allison for working with us today, too!

Happy Peanut Butter Fudge Day!  We love sharing treats with friends!  The peanut butter fudge received many compliments from the handlers.

We shared a spoonful of plain peanut butter with the therapy dogs.  They were happy, too!  What a great morning!

We tried a new chair workout today.  It felt good to stretch after all that brain work...and peanut butter fudge!

Sam and Thomas had some brain work they wanted to finish after lunch!  Good for them!

We wrapped up this busy day with a couple of Mystery Science episodes.  We learned that we eat turkey, as well as corn, cranberries, squash, and pumpkins at Thanksgiving because they are all native to North America!  We also learned that many countries throughout the world observe holidays in which they give thanks, but they have other names for them.  There was more brain work, too, as we worked with buddies to label a map of continents and oceans.

Thursday, November 21

We gave thanks for our friendships at the Arc of Abilities with a Friendsgiving celebration today!  A Friendsgiving meal can take place any time, but it began as friends getting together for a meal a few days before the traditional Thanksgiving with family.  For our lunch, we put a twist on the traditional Thanksgiving meal and made turkey chili with cornbread stuffing and cranberry gelatin salad for sides.  

Beka sauteed onions, which always makes the room smell good and our mouths water!

Beka also worked on napkin rings with Emma and Lexi.

One of the beautiful napkin rings!

We always need more decoration pages.  Thanks today to Abraham, Liz, and Michelle!

It takes two skillets of chili to feed our crowd!  Thanks to our chili chefs Drew, Devin, Thomas, and Bryan for cooking today!

Thanks to Patrick and Kate for mixing up a cranberry relish so we could celebrate National Cranberry Relish Day, which is tomorrow!

We were celebrating National Stuffing Day today, and we appreciate Nan, Kevin, and Erik for making ours very tasty!

We were pleased with our Friendsgiving meal of turkey chili, cornbread stuffing, and cranberry relish!

Earlier, while we waited for lunch to finish cooking, we watched a video of the wedding ceremony for Liz's brother, Stephen, and his bride, Erica.  We loved seeing Liz as a bridesmaid!  This was the first time the AoA "attended" a wedding!

Drew was particularly interested in how this all goes down, as he will be in his sister Alex's wedding in February!

After Choice Time and read-aloud, we tried to watch an old movie from the 1960s called The Mouse on the Mayflower, but our internet connection was slow today and it kept buffering, so we gave up and checked old blog posts instead!  If we have time, we'll try the movie another time...probably next year! 😄

Friday, November 22

Brr!  We were a little surprised by how cold it was this morning!  We've been spoiled by so much mild weather lately.  Luckily, it was comfortable in our room at Eaton, and we spent a busy morning packing materials and assembling PowerSlide Doors.

Drew and Thomas persevered with the challenge of packing these large box-like parts that had to be "nested" together before going into the tub.

Abraham, Devin, and Patrick got good stretches as they reached into the bottom of the big bin to transfer handles to smaller tubs.  Behind them, Sam was working on a sorting job.

Buddies Annmarie and Laura took care of sorting duty today!

The rest of our team worked on PowerSlide Door assembly.  

Xavier, Kate, and Kevin put the screws in loosely before sending them to Erik for tightening.

Bryan unpacked and Michelle inserted amber lenses. They set the pace for the rest of the team.

Emma, Nan, Beka, and Lexi stuck a lot of labels on the doors!  Wonder if customers ever read all of that fine print?!  Over Beka's shoulder, "Erik the Electric" can be seen using the electric screwdriver to put the finishing touch, or tighten, on the screws.

We finished at Eaton by 12, so we returned to AFCC for lunch.  After Choice Time, Emma read a couple of poems she wrote after observing cloud formations recently.  She's a talented writer!

We wrapped up the day and week with indoor corn hole.  We're currently reading a book about a girl who cheers for both her school's team and the opponents whenever there are good plays made.  It doesn't go well for her...   Our guys  also cheer for each other, and the opposition.  And it always goes well for everyone!

Today's winner by a score of 20-19 was this team, also known as Thing 1! 🙌

Corn hole brought another fun week to an end, as we head home for the weekend.  We will be back for our only Monday of the year on...Monday!  We have a two day week coming up before the Thanksgiving holiday.  Here are our plans:

Monday:  We have a lot going on today!  First, Allison is coming to help us work on another item for our family holiday gift bag.  We lucked out getting a volunteer who is really into crafting and is good at it!!!!  We also have a surprise guest stopping by to visit and treat us to lunch!  The menu is a secret, but it's something we've had many times before, so everyone should be good with it!  We'll try to  squeeze in some Thanksgiving games, too.

Tuesday:  The weather forecast looks promising for being outside, so we plan to hop on the Jamestown ferry for a ride over to Surry where we will visit Chippokes State Park.  Tracy will join us as we explore, play games, and take a "turkey trot" walk.  Bring a bagged lunch!

We will see everyone on Monday and Tuesday next week!

Thank you to our Arc of Abilities families who have supported our food drive.  We will be taking our donations to Grove Christian Outreach Center on Tuesday, so there is still time to donate.  Also, The Arc of Greater Williamsburg's Aktion Club has extended their collection window through December 13 in a partnership with Frothy Moon Brewhouse.  Check out the details here:

Happy Weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang