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Abigail Adams Center, 1283 Washington St., Weymouth MA 02189
 Fall/Winter 2007:
Oh No, It’s that time of year again!
The calendar tells us it’s almost November 1st, but when the thermometer says eighty degrees and the frost is not on the pumpkin, then its even harder to envision that the holidays are fast upon us! I guess one constant is that the days are now shorter and the Winter Solstice will arrive, prompting the ancient agricultural harvest celebrations that have become the Thanksgiving/Christmas/Hanukah/Kwaanza holidays.
Are you tired of the same old traditions every year? I know that on one level (the commercial), I am tired of the whole gift-giving scene, but I never tire of the beauty of the greenery and decorations, the music of the holidays, and the sentiments of peace on earth
and good will towards men.Many of the caregivers with whom we are acquainted are running on empty already! When you are caring for a loved one with AD or another medically complex condition, it is really necessary to know when to say “no” to many of the demands of the holiday season. Hopefully, if you are in the “senior citizen” category, the burden of preparing the Holiday or Thanksgiving meal is no longer on your agenda. Enjoy it! You should also try to choose the best offers out there instead of every invitation you get and if your loved one with AD doesn’t enjoy gatherings (and you do), then please give yourself the gift of hiring a caregiver for the evening! There are many capable homecare agencies out there, and its good for you to allow yourself an evening respite a few times a month. (Also, when people ask you what you want for Christmas/Hanukah this year, tell them a free weekend from caregiving duties!)
In terms of shopping for presents (and unless you truly enjoy it), you can always limit yourself to one to two small specialty stores. Often the smaller businesses are the ones who will help to distract your loved one with AD while you are able to shop. Some stores offer one-stop, but creative, shopping. The other day I was at the Plymouth Plantation Gift Shop (after the Alzheimer’s walk) and I thought to myself that it was pretty much a one-stop shopping venue, carrying books, clothes, home décor, jewelry, gardenware, cookware and interesting New England type trinkets. Have the gift shop wrap for you as well or even ship to your out-of-town relatives.
Decorating your home for the holidays need not compete with the annual Disney World display! Simple can be elegant too, and in our neck of the woods I’ve seen some very cute ideas, such as starfish tied with Christmas bows hanging from windows, one really beautiful, natural wreath hung on the front door in place of one on each window, and a very small but lovely hand carved nativity set poised on the front lawn.
Last year, both my parents were in the hospital and the Christmas spirit was pretty low. So I decorated just my dining room with holiday greenery and bows and bought a dwarf-variety, live, Blue Spruce for my tree, which I later planted in my front lawn and will enjoy watching it grow from year to year.
Trust me, nobody will judge you if your usual Holiday traditions get downsized. In fact, they will tell you how smart you are to NOT fall prey to the commercialism.
The beauty of the season is in the connectedness of human beings toward each other: singing Christmas carols together, enjoying a shared lunch with an old friend, or taking a walk together on a crisp winter morning. The other stuff is all, quite frankly, window dressing!
The staff and members of the Abigail Adams Center wish you all a cozy holiday season and a healthy New Year! Julie Wesolowski, Program Director
What’s Cooking At The Abby Club
The Abby Club, this past September, continued its tradition of going on the annual harbor cruise and lunch trip that we’ve enjoyed for the past three years. This time, we did not go to the Marriott on Long Wharf but instead we completed the boat trip and then set out to Schooner’s in Hull for some “surf and turf” type of meals. The picture above captures some of our clients out on the trip. Everybody had a wonderful time!
This November, we will be planning another lunch trip to Cohasset to the Windsor Tea Room, a lovely and traditional English Tea Room that serves tasty sandwiches, soups, quiches and of course, desserts. We are projecting this trip to be on a Wednesday at the latter part of the month(? the 28th). The trip will cost $17.00 to include food, beverage, dessert and the transportation over and back. To any potential chaperones, please speak to Lucia if you are interested in going along.
At this time of gratefulness and grace, we’d like to thank all of the people who participate either weekly or monthly at the Center contributing their time and talents to us. We are eternally grateful to our “regular” volunteers Gloria Varrasso and Ray Molling! Gloria comes to the Center faithfully every Tuesday with a baked treat for our AM breakfast meal. Our clients are truly pampered by Gloria’s breads, cakes, brownies, muffins and cookies. She’s always surprising us with new things! Thank you our darling Gloria! Ray Molling has been coming to the Abby Club for over a year now to call our Friday afternoon bingo-fest! He is a kind and caring man, who has also accompanied us on many of our field trips and we sincerely love and appreciate our Ray!
Additionally, we’d like to thank Aldo Delvecchio and Priscilla Connors for their dedication to the monthly support group, Richard Keyes for his bi-monthly banjo sing-alongs and for his assistance in helping us to keep the Center in great mechanical order! Special thanks to Ann Stoyle who comes to our Center almost every month to play piano and help to join our voices in a perfect Abby Club sing-along. And of course our candidate for Mr. Wonderful, we have Deacon Hank who comes over twice a monthly to conduct mass/ spirituality group. We’d also like to acknowledge people, many of them employees who give of themselves by baking for us or bringing in bingo prizes for us! Once again, there is Priscilla Connors and Ray Molling, Pat Chase, Marybeth Simmons, Lucia Cullivan, Dorothy Johnson,The Wonderful Tobin Family, Bridget McDonough, Frank Wesolowski, and Nicole Cincotta and Joe Verlicco. We are truly blessed to have such good people associated with our little “club”.
“I do come home at Christmas. We all do, or we all should. We all come home, or ought to come home, for a short holiday - the longer, the better - from the great boarding school where we are forever working at our arithmetical slates, to take, and give a rest.” - Charles Dickens
 Heads Up!!
The Abigail Adams Center will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 2007. We ARE open the day after, on November 23, 2007.
We will close early at 1:30 PM on Christmas Eve, Monday, December 24, 2007 and we will be closed on Christmas Day, Tuesday, December 25, 2007. We will be closed on New Year’s Day Tuesday, January 1, 2008.
The Abigail Adams Day Club Official Song
Written by the Abby Club Members
(Sung to the Tune of Bye-Bye Blackbird)
 Pack up all my cares and woe,
Abby Club, Here I go.
Bye-Bye Home Alone.
Where somebody waits for me,
Staff is sweet, so are We.
Bye-Bye Home Alone.
Everyone here Loves and Understands Me,
Oh what fun and Games that make Me Happy
Grab My Coat Shut off The Light,
I’ll Arrive at the Abby All right.
Loneliness…..,Bye-Bye!
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