How We Spent Thanksgiving at the Assisted Living Center

Every year for the past 25 years I have hosted Thanksgiving dinner here at my home. There have only been 2 times that I didn't and both of those times were while I was in the hospital recovering from illness or surgery. This year we decided to do something different for the holiday and here is how we spent it!

Back in May of 2012 we had to admit my beloved great auntie who is like my grandmother to me...to an assisted living facility. She is to the point that she can no longer live alone and it broke our hearts to force her into an assisted living facility. She doesn't like it there at all, but it is in her best interest to be there.

We go in often to visit with her and to see her. She was feeling down and blue lately, so we decided to spend Thanksgiving Day with her and the other residents at the facility. I baked up a slew of homemade quick breads, muffins and cookies and took them in for Thanksgiving breakfast. We served them to her lady friends with some coffee and tea.

Then around lunch time we joined her and the other residents in the dining room and enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with them. My husband and mother had the turkey dinner and auntie and I enjoy the ham dinner. I have to admit, the dinner that they served was absolutely delicious!After dinner, we took auntie back to her apartment and spent another 2 hours just chatting and enjoying each others company.

Just recently my auntie was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma (cancer) and will be undergoing surgery on December 10th. Her cancer is pretty far progressed and we won't know the total outcome of this until after her surgery. For now, we want to spend as much time with her that we can.

We had a great time doing this and perhaps we will do it again next year for Easter and Thanksgiving. The residents at the Assisted Living Center really enjoyed having us and you can tell that it really cheered them up to have us there. If you live near a center yourself, I highly recommend spending some time with the elders as it is a very rewarding experience!

Happy Holidays Everyone!