By Colleen Hunter
December was a busy month with Christmas and New Year’s Eve. We had our family Christmas party with about 50 family members attending. Residents played the chimes, we sang carols and Rev. Stephen Ruten told a Christmas story. We had many family members stopping in during the month and Mary Derkatch had the opportunity to take a four-generation picture.
Among the entertainers to perform at the lodge during the month were: Peter and friends, the Kamsack Community Choir, the Paul band, Ukrainian Catholic Women singing Christmas carols and Marilyn Marsh played the piano.
The high school students came over on two separate days to visit and show our residents how computers work. The kids talked about Facebook, YouTube and Facetime and looked up recipes and gardening ideas. The residents enjoyed all the baking the kids brought with them.
New Year’s Eve was celebrated with an appetizer supper that included shrimp, dried ribs, chicken wraps, Co-op fried chicken, pickled herring and fresh buns.
This month we’ve already had the Polka Pals come out to entertain the residents for the January birthday parties.
Ukrainian Christmas was celebrated with a huge dinner which included beet borscht, cabbage rolls, perogies, creamy mushroom sauce, wheat, mashed garlic beans and fish. All the residents enjoyed the meal but agreed that next year we need to add some head cheese.
Music together, instructed by Darren Kitsch with the help of his music students will be entertaining the residents for the next six weeks. The residents enjoyed their first visit and were still talking about the program three days later.
