Jan 12, 2005

The Never-ending Christmas

Yesterday I had Christmas all over again. My company sponsors a Christmas party at a nearby retirement home run by the Salvation Army. About a dozen of us come out to help. Usually this happens early in December, but this year the home was in quarantine for three weeks because of an outbreak of the Norwalk virus, and then one of their main buildings suffered a serious pipe burst. So this year's party was re-scheduled to January 11th. It felt a bit weird listening to Christmas carols in January. We hired professional carolers to do the hard work.

What did we do? We served cake, a bit of coffee and lots of milky tea. This year we gave them each a gift certificate from Swiss Chalet (a popular restaurant chain specialising in chicken dishes) so they could have a family dinner. And we talked to them... One fellow, who was in great shape, was celebrating his 90th birthday that day. He and his 86 year old wife had only just moved out of their own apartment! One of the women from the office brought Dusty, her little lap dog. Dusty is a perennial favourite (we've been doing this for eight years), and spent a lot of time warming laps and accepting pats.

Listening to: Superstition (iTunes Store link) by Stevie Wonder from Talking Book.

Posted by: Ben at 1/12/2005 01:13:00 a.m.

2 comments:

  1. MaryWednesday, January 12, 2005 1:44:00 p.m.

    Awwww I love older people. My parents are both going to be 77 this year and too often society doesn't value the elderly when we should because of their wisdom and experiences.

    I love Stevie Wonder.

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  2. BenThursday, January 13, 2005 3:05:00 a.m.

    It was a fun experience. It doesn't take much to lift their spirits, and it sure feels good to do it. I'm going to make some suggestions next year to improve it further though!
    Hey, Retro Girl, where you blog at?

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