Afternoon Tea

This past weekend was the Christmas Party at our Senior Living Community in Yorba Linda, commonly referred to as the SLC. In years past, the party had several parts, including an entertainment segment of holiday songs and jokes, a segment with Santa handing out presents for all the residents and a fancy dinner at which the Grand Officers of the current year and the last year were invited to sit with and have dinner with the residents of the SLC. The general membership was also invited to come to the party and join in the fun. All of the pieces of this party were good, but the timing and arrangement were not the best and it could get very crowded. The residents' largest meal of the day is usually lunch and not dinner, and many of them no longer like to stay up late and don't want a big, late meal, so this format was not working to maximize the enjoyment of the residents, which is the whole purpose of the party. Last year, the party pieces were rearranged to start earlier and end earlier, and that did work better. This year, we did a couple of new things, which worked well, but have a couple of spots that can be improved going forward. It was great both last year and this year to try something different and we are definitely heading in the right direction. And luckily, I get to see how next year goes before I have to make a decision on what to do. This year, in addition to doing the Santa presents, the Grand Officers have each been given some residents, three in my case, to whom we delivered presents by making an individual visit to their units. I think they enjoyed that a lot and I enjoyed having the chance to chat with my residents about their families and hobbies. That part was great! I hope we get to do that again, but I wonder if they will change us all around or let us keep with the same residents. The appointive officers in the Grand Family will change, of course, but those of us who are in the Grand Line will be the same people next year. It would be nice to have new people and over time get to know all the residents, but it could also be nice to keep the same people because it would be very hard to tell your last year's people that you need to spend your visiting time with others and not with them and that could be awkward too, so there is definitely something to think about as we move forward. After the visits, we had afternoon tea together. I had a lovely time chatting with a couple of other residents at the tea, but I would have liked to have been seated with my new special friends so that we could continue our chat and so that when the private visits were over, I could have said that I would see them again in a bit at the tea. On the other hand, sitting with different people did give me a chance to meet two more residents and find out about them and their hobbies, so again, this needs some thinking over. The tea was a little tough for me because it was all desserts and some of us who had meetings all morning had not had any lunch. And I had so hoped that there would be cucumber sandwiches. What's a tea without cucumber sandwiches? :-) After the tea, we had the sing along and then the Santa visit and then the residents had presents for the Grand Officers. In honor of the tea, I got a lovely ornament of a tea pot with a little cup with SLC 2010 painted on it. It is in my curio cabinet now and will be a lovely memento of the day. The one part that always gets a little awkward, (maybe more for the people sitting around me than for me, :-) is that I am Jewish and don't sing Christmas carols. I don't mind being in a room where other people are singing them, but I don't sing them. Sometimes people ask me if there are any Hanukkah songs that we could include, but I tell them that this party is for the residents, all of whom so far as I know are Christian, and that they should have the songs they know and love to make their holiday bright. They wouldn't know the Hanukkah songs and those songs would have no meaning for them anyway, so I don't need them and have no plans to include them in my year. What I may do, that was done a few years ago, is a little education piece on the story of Hanukkah and what it is about, because I think that could be fun and interesting. I find learning about other people's holidays fun, even if I don't celebrate those holidays. So I may do that, but we don't have to sing dreidel songs. The only problem I have run into is that other people think that I have to sing the Christmas songs whether I want to or not as part of my duty to entertain the residents. When forced to it, I try to compromise some and sing the winter/snow type songs, like Frosty the Snowman or Let It Snow, but people do not seem to understand that even these are very uncomfortable for me because no matter the lyrics, these are still Christmas songs and to me, singing them implies that I am celebrating that holiday. No one has ever asked me to eat a pork chop for the comfort of others, but I guess people don't see celebrating Christmas in the same light, perhaps because for many people Christmas has become so secular that they have lost track that this is really a religious holiday. In the same vein, I don't mind at all if other people sing these songs while I am there because those who believe in those songs should get their chance to sing them. I respect their religious views and they should have the chance to celebrate in their way. And if they want to eat pork chops, I hope that they enjoy them immensely. :-) We also had our first Transitional this weekend, but I will write about that next Monday. Next weekend we are off duty. :-)