Northstar News
December 2014
Northcrest Care Centre, 6771 120th Avenue, V4E 2A7
Celebrating
December
Surrey/Delta Food Bank
Donations (ongoing)
Tree Trimming Party
December 2
Student Carols
December 4th
Resident Family Council
December 8th
Christmas Parties
December 9th and 10th
Ladner Glee Club Birthday
December 11th
Fraser Valley Carols
December 13th
Brownie Carols
December 15th
Student Carols and
Gingerbread Houses
December 18th
Christmas Day
December 25
Keeping Healthy for the Holidays
By the first of December, the holiday season is already
well underway. It’s a season of feasts and parties,
tempting desserts, and freely flowing drinks. Combine
this steady eating with harsh and discouraging
weather, and it is not uncommon to suddenly pack on
a few extra pounds. Fortunately, there are ways to both
enjoy the holidays and stay fit well into the new year.
Despite our best intentions to eat light, it is near
impossible to resist a full holiday table with all the
trimmings. The trick is not to “save” your appetite
before the big meal. Don’t skip breakfast and lunch.
Instead, have four to six mini-meals throughout the day
to sustain your metabolism and keep burning calories.
Then you will be less likely to overeat.
Try out a new exercise program for the New Year, just
like we have done at Northcrest with our Resistance
Exercises. This program occurs twice per week for 30
minutes at a time. Using three different resistance
bands, according to individual strength of the resident
allows for a progressive musculoskeletal workout.
Providing an opportunity to break a sweat outside of
our daily exercise program, this group is becoming a
staple in our weekly programs.
December 2014
Christmas Bazaar Recap
Thank you so very
much to all of the family and community
members that came out to support the annual
Northcrest Christmas Bazaar! It was a huge
success and we could not have asked for a
better response from the community. The
residents and recreation staff have been
working hard since September to create the
crafts, baking and knitting that went into the
Bazaar. The cookies in a jar were a huge hit
(both in snack programs and in the sale). We
are running out of residents who enjoy knitting
and are avidly looking for donations of knitwear
for next year! The joy of the Christmas season
was apparent during the three week baking
spree that had residents taste testing,
observing, assisting and singing along to
Christmas carols during this preparation period.
The total raised for the resident council fund
was just over $804.00 not including the raffle
funds. Thanks again for all of your support!
Residents and recreation staff making epsom bath salts.
A resident working on the template for homemade
decorations.
December 2014
Reaching Out
JAVA MUSIC CLUB
An exciting addition to the Northcrest
Recreation calendar is the Java music program.
This program was purchased with a combination
of support from a donation from the Kitson family,
the Resident Council Fund and the Recreation
Department. The premise of this program is sitting
down to a cup of coffee with friends and sharing
using music and guided conversation to bring
residents closer to one another.
The Resident Family Council chose to donate
two shoeboxes to Operation Christmas Child.
The shoeboxes were filled with toys, dry goods,
and school supplies. These shoeboxes are
then shipped up North (Canada) to children
who need them most. A great way to give back.
So often with passing conversation we
never get to truly know our neighbours. Java
Music Club encourages residents to share about
their experiences, hopes, joys, sorrows and ideas
for the future with one another. Using songs to
match discussion topics, recreation staff facilitate
this program but the residents truly carry the
converstion. This program is held every week with
12-15 residents and we are hoping to have
several different Java Music groups going in the
New Year. This program has brought the
residents closer together as friends and
challenged them to share the good and the bad in
order to connect with others and let themselves be
connected.
Truly a program where you can feel the
relaxation, trust and engagement of all the
participants. Java Music Club is a great way to
spend Wednesday mornings at Northcrest.
Residents during Java Music Club
A bittersweet goodbye to our Horticultural
Therapist Monika as she moves on in her
career. Her time at Northcrest with the
residents was treasured deeply and she will be
missed by all. The horticulture program has
been modified and is now being offered as a
program titled “Plants with Lauren”. This
program will encompass similar traits to
horticultural therapy, but at no cost to the
residents who attend. We are hoping to get
live plants for this program starting in the New
Year, meanwhile we are creating garden
inspiration boards, crafting with pinecones and
talking shop about how to care for your
gardens in the winter.
Family Council
Dear Family Members,
Northcrest Care Centre is pleased to invite you to an
information session to be held on Tuesday, January
13th, 2015 to discuss the formation of a Family
Council. The meeting will take about 30 minutes,
followed by a question and answer period. We’ll
discuss the logistics and guidelines of operating a
Family Council and will ask at the end of the meeting
if there is interest from our family members in
establishing a Family Council.
We hope you will join us on:
January 13th, 2015 - 6:30PM
Northcrest Care Centre Library (Main Floor)
.
December Birthdays
Margaret Cacic ~ December 10th
Marjory Hincks~ December 21st
Bobby Kinnon~December 24th
Karnail Dhaliwal~ December 27th