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McPeak's Assisted Living Newsletter

March Newsletter

By Linda Ohlsen, Recreation Director

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We welcomed 2008 with a fantastic New Year’s Eve party complete with noise makers, hats and entertainment by singer Vic Victorrio. Vic sang some wonderful songs that got Bobbie Smith and Tess Donovan up and dancing. Vic also led our countdown to the New Year which ended with a sparkling "champagne" toast to all.

The cold weather and snow flurries at the beginning of January were a perfect accompaniment to our craft projects. Polar bears made by Julia Manganiello and Hazel Nargi looked wonderful in our recreation room.

Sitting atop our faux ice and snow they reminded us of what a warm and cozy spot we have here at McPeak's . Snowflakes and snow laden trees added to our wintery scene and were made by Gilda Messina and Russell Smith.

Our snowmen looked ever so real with their eyes of coal and carrot noses. These cute gentlemen were made by Anna Potter and Marie Giuri and brought lots of smiles as they decorated our hallway.

Ruth Faustich and Annette Dunne did a wonderful job with our fuzzy mittens. They looked like something we might very well want to slip on on a cold January day and just looking at them warmed our hands and hearts.

There's nothing like mixing up a batch of homemade cookies to get your mind off the gray clouds that sometimes ourwhelm us in the winter. Josephine Crispo and Mary Morris mixed and measured all our cookie ingredients to a tee and our Snickerdoodles were a delicious treat at our afternoon bingo.

"The Anticipations," Vivian Dongers and John Goff, gave a memorable performance here in mid-January. Their comedy routines were appreciated by Jimmy Hopper and John Sharpe and Florence Lamke and Irene Huether were delighted by their wonderful singing voices.

Special bingo games were enjoyed by Bertha Mazzillo who took home a cute plush puppy. Her husband Nick was a winner too, as was Nina Sutter who shared her prize of boxed chocolates with all her fellow players.

Our month ended with a visit from members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church Choir. Their songs of inspiration moved us all and their charming personalities made us feel very special and very loved. We are all eagerly anticipating another visit from them in the spring.

February found us eagerly waiting to see if the ground hog would call an end to the winter. He didn’t and instead gave us the promise of six more weeks of cold weather. Making the most of his prediction we enjoyed some hot cocoa topped with whipped cream as we reveled in one of the nicer aspects of winter.

We found lots more to celebrate in February too. We learned our Chinese Zodiac signs and their related characteristics as we celebrated Chinese New Year. We now know Anna Potter and Muriel Lizak are dogs, Russell Smith is a tiger and Bobbie Smith was born in the year of the dragon.

Mardi Gras found us playing word games with a Louisiana flair and discussing past promises of what we would give up for lent.

Abraham Lincoln's birthday found us waving American flags and singing along with our favorite entertainer here at McPeak's, Trina Janura. Trina's program was just fantastic. Lacking neither energy nor enthusiasm, Trina was able to consolidate all the February dates of importance into one fabulous hour. Chinese fortune cookies were passed around, Mardi Gras beads were thrown to the crowd and love songs were sung. Perhaps Trina's finest moment was when she sang "Happy Birthday Mr. President" while dressed as Marilyn Monroe. It was a great afternoon and we are most certain honest Abe wound agree.

Of course, the most outstanding of February holidays is Valentine's Day and we had lots of fun with our special preparations for the holiday of love. Emily Rubacka and Nina Sutter made gorgeous vases covered with hot pink paper, red ribbon and lots of hearts. Filled with red, white and pink roses they were a visual treat to all entering the recreation room.

Conversation hearts were fun to snack on as we made our lacey Valentines. Those done by Joan Mason and Hank Koleski were ever so lovely.

Mary Garbarino and Muriel Lizak made the gorgeous cut out hearts for our recreation room while singing along to some romantic tunes crooned by Perry Como and Frank Sinatra. Their projects and voices were both lovely. These two ladies were also leaders for our magazine scavenger hunt. Each led a team of guests on a search for various items needed to complete a Valentine's Day shopping list. Mary Garbarino's team thought they had it made when Hank Koleski found the elusive red rose bouquet, but in the end, it was Muriel’s team who completed their list first. First place team members received large chocolate hearts for their victory while others received smaller chocolate lips as prizes.

Valentine's Day itself had us receiving a very special message of love as Pastor Bonfiglio and his assistant Janet visited. Besides the beautiful service, the pastor and Janet brought red Valentine's necklaces for all the ladies and special heart covered ties for the men. Everyone wore them to our special bingo rounds later in the day where everyone found a single red rose carefully placed across their bingo card waiting for them. Special games, entitled "Prisoner of Love", "Victoria's Secret" and "25th Wedding Anniversary" were played with all winners having their choice of one of our many red items as a prize. Julia Managaniello won a red scarf. Josephine Crispo a red teddy bear and Bobbie Smith a red can of hair spray.

From start to finish our Valentine's Day was filled with love and laughter and couldn’t have been nicer. Still to come is our salute to leap year when we'll be leaping into a variety of active games and enjoying some crazy competitions and prizes.

Congratulations to our monthly bingo winners:
Nick Mazzillo - December
Tess Donovan - January

Our bowling team has been having some very fine games these past weeks. Nina Sutter has been coming in first at most of our games and as always Bobbie Smith, Julia Manganiello and Tess Donovan are doing well. Agnes O'Shea and Ruth Faustich have been getting their share of spares and strikes and the games of Gilda Messina and Marie Giuri continue to improve. New bowlers Hank Koleski and Joan Mason are doing great and we expect to see their scores continue to rise.

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