Happy Holidays from Craig!

Hello friends and family of Merrill Gardens at First Hill,

Can you believe it? It is December already, the last month of the year. Soon 2014 will be over and we’ll be sailing forth into 2015! I am already very tired of hearing there are only “so many shopping days left” until Christmas!

Wherever did 2014 go? I honestly feel as though this year just flew by faster than a Canadian goose on its way south! Who knew time could fly by so quickly?!

Now the holiday season is upon us. I remember the first time that my grandmother taught me to make, bake, and frost all kinds of Christmas cookies. The year was 1962, and I was just 10 years old - Grandma said she needed a little “Christmas elf helper” in her farmhouse kitchen. Oh, the memories come flooding back of a cozy, warm, yellow farmhouse kitchen with the logs crackling in the fireplace. Grandma in her apron with her big mixing bowl in her lap, and the Wisconsin snow swirling outside - adding to the already 3 feet of snow on the ground and the temperature hovering around 10 degrees above zero! The house smelled so wonderful and was filled inside with cedar boughs over all of the windows and doors and our 10-foot blue spruce Christmas tree, all decorated with the family ornaments handed down through the generations - many of which I still have on my tree to this very day.

That Christmas of 1962, I learned how to make Grandma’s famous sugar cookie dough, how to bake them without burning the bottom, and how to frost them and decorate them with multi-colored sprinkles, red hot dots, and colored crystal sugar dust to make each cookie a work of art. Grandma also taught me to make Coconut Logs with figs and Rice Krispies, date-filled cookies, Sunbuckles (a pure sugar and farm butter cookie – part of our Norwegian/Swiss heritage), rosette cookies - deep fried and then dusted with powdered sugar - spritz cookies, and about 12 other different kinds of festive cookies for the season. You see, Grandma loved a variety of cookies at any holiday event, and she also made extra for company. She said, “You never know when a friend or two will just drop by for a visit and a cup of coffee and a cookie.”

Needless to say, that Christmas I think I gained 13 pounds from eating all the broken cookies, licking my fingers, the spoons, and the bowls after each new batch of cookies, and of course taste testing each “first batch” to see if Grandma and I had it “just right.”

We hope you enjoy Merrill Gardens at First Hill’s December Monthly Calendar of Events. We guarantee that you won’t gain 13 pounds for opening up our Calendar of Events and checking out all of our “goodies!” We invite you to take a look at all of the events we have planned for our residents.

Perhaps you wish to select an activity or two for fun, enjoyment, and for making new friends. Pick out a game of Bingo, Bridge, Chair Yoga, Wii Bowling, going on a scenic drive with Patrick or Charlie, swimming, or join in one of our exercise classes - bring along one or two of your friends to enjoy an afternoon with us and stay for dinner as our guests! We have over 150 activities on the calendar and lots of extra holiday cookies to go around.

Merrill Gardens at First Hill is well known for its fantastic food (our Chef Thomas is a better cook than my Grandma - and believe me that is saying a lot!), so you may just have to stay for breakfast, lunch, and dinner as our guests. The coffee is hot, the cookies are homemade, and the banana splits are so big they have to be loaded onto a plate! Now, when was the last time you had a banana split? Come on, be “naughty” and splurge a little – we promise we won’t tell Santa! The diet can wait for the New Year’s resolution - which is just around the corner.

Just pick up your phone and call us at (206) 624-7637 and let us know when you and one or two of your friends wish to come into Merrill Gardens at First Hill for some good old-fashioned fun.

Make a resolution this New Year to break up your routine, get ready for a new adventure, and come in to meet and make some new friends at First Hill! Like my Grandmother always said, “Never be afraid of a new adventure - life is supposed to be lived with joy.” (She told me that after teaching me new things: the “joy” of learning how to milk the goats without getting kicked in the shins, and the “joy” of learning how to gather the eggs in the henhouse without getting pecked to death by the hens!)

Our staff is as friendly as our residents, and we promise you a good time and a great meal with lots of extra cookies, hot chocolate, and hot coffee.

Have a happy holiday season!

Sincerely,

Craig & your friends at Merrill Gardens at First Hill