Monthly Tea at Shore Pointe Assisted Living

Yesterday was the monthly tea at Shore Pointe Assisted Living. My theme was "The Nutcracker and Other Christmas Classics."

The building was beautifully decorated for the residents to enjoy.

Since I had just seen the Nutcracker Ballet, the story was fresh in my mind.  I love that in the Land of Sweets there is a Chinese Dance dedicated to tea.  Even though tea isn't a 'sweet' it was a rare delicacy at one time in its history, and considered special enough to have a dance dedicated to it. There is also a dance for chocolate from Spain, coffee from Arabia, and candy canes from Russia.  I gave each resident a candy cane as a favor, while I shared history and legends surrounding them.

I took several 'props' to make the presentation more interesting.  My recently acquired nutcracker came along, and I retrieved a ballerina doll from basement storage that I received for Christmas in the 1950's. Somewhere in the passage of time she lost her ballerina slippers, so I need to get her a new pair, but otherwise she's still in very good condition wearing her original tutu.  Anyone else in blogland remember having one of these dolls?

We talked about the history of nutcrackers and Christmas trees and their ties to Germany. I love researching information for the residents.  I took a set of wooden Christmas trees Jerry made for me many years ago.

We talked about Santa Claus and how he's traced back to St. Nicholas.  When I was a teenager my mother bought a mechanical Santa to place under the Christmas tree.  When I got married and had children she passed the Santa on to me, and I've  placed it under our Christmas tree almost every year for my children, and now grandchildren to enjoy.  He's a bit bedraggled from handling all these years, but he still rings his bell when wound up.

And lastly, since Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer celebrated his 76th birthday this year, I had to tell the residents the story of how he came to be.  I found the original poem [online] written by Robert May, that was published in a booklet for Montgomery Ward Santas to distribute to children in 1939.  The song [sung by Gene Autry] didn't come along until ten years later.  I read the poem to close the program.  My wooden Rudolph that Jerry made the same year he made the Christmas trees made an appearance too. Can you tell I'm a saver? You just never know when things are going to come in handy!  ;-)

Now to decide what the program for January 2016 will be???