The first week was themed ‘Christmas around the world’.
We started the week off with putting up our tree in the hall, while learning about how Australia celebrate Christmas, it was a brilliant day! In the morning a few members visited Hillier’s garden centre and a few shops to pick up some ingredients for our hot chocolates, while some were busy creating Festive Cups with koala and Santa stirrers! They looked fantastic! The afternoon was spent listening to Australian Christmas music, quiz’s, Around the world’ puzzles and baking koala cookies and hot chocolates! The day was filled with smiles and laughter!
We also had a South Africa themed Christmas day, it was a fabulous day!
It was filled with craft flags, while enjoying some traditional foods including a ‘Braai’, peppermint pie and hot dogs!
A group of us visited The Blue Apple Theatre to see the pantomime “Mother Goose”, it was great fun!
We have been visiting different shops to gather our ingredients for all our baking activities and view the decorations in the community.
We hosted a coffee morning this month, it was a lovely time, we met lots of new people and spent time with people in the community enjoying all the fabulous cakes and sweet treats! Several members have helped Wendy bake cakes and package up sweet treats at the beginning of the month for the coffee morning. They were beautifully decorated with Christmas ribbons and gift tags. Many skills were used during this activity such as concentration, listening and motor skills.
We created Christmas garlands to hang in the unit using a dehydrator, it was so much fun, experimenting using different essential oils and fruits! The room was filled with the lovely scents of cinnamon, orange and mixed spice!
Our Christmas party, was full of joy and Festive foods! We enjoyed playing inflatable reindeer hoop games, Christmas just dance on the projector, quiz’s and then ended the day with a visit from a magician! We have been enjoying walking down to The Old Bell and Crown pub. We enjoy the festive community, purchasing a drink and playing games down there!
We had Rebecca from Albert & Indigo, who organised a wreath making activity in the hall. The members each took home a handmade Christmas wreath, they were stunning! We used dehydrated fruits, cinnamon sticks, eucalyptus and pine to add to them, the smell of the wreaths were lovely!
We had Christmas jumper day, alongside sewing personalised gingerbread men, reindeer popcorn bags and making mulled wine.
This week we visited the village church next door to us for our Christingle service. We were taught all about the meaning and importance behind the christingle and everybody was able to take on home! We sang songs and one of our members sang “Amazing Grace”, beautifully.
Everyone from JP wishes a very Merry Christmas, and a happy new year.
We are looking forward to what the year ahead brings!