We Fairfax Senior Citizens Are So Very Very Fortunate

Well, again this year I was able to go down to The Fairfax Fire Station and participate in our Friendly Citizens Christmas Party. The party starts off with a wonderful meal prepared by Marion Eastman & Alberta Clokey:

This year Marion & Alberta cooked a spiral ham, scalloped potatoes, squash plus a Waldorf Salad. For desert there was apple pie, blueberry pie and strawberry rhubarb pie. The tables were decorated with little handmade Christmas Ornaments that the Seniors were able to bring home with them:

Shirley Farnsworth, one of our Senior Citizens makes hundreds of jars of pickles each year and provides the pickles for the twice monthly meals. Shirley is shown in the photo below:

I would also be very remiss if I didn't mention Maryann Zeno - Now Maryann is in her 80s, but you would never know it. At each Senior Luncheon, you will see Maryann helping Marion & Alberta in whatever way she can - Maryann is always so busy, I usually have to stop her for just a second so I can get a picture of her. Also shown in the background in the photo below is Jeanne Gregoire, who also helps Marion and Alberta getting the tables ready for the meal:

We only had about 40 seniors in attendance there yesterday and in order to break even, we need to have about 50 Senior Citizens present & paying the $4 for the meal. We have been very fortunate as some of our Seniors, when they pass on, leave a request that donations be made to the group. Recently, there was a donation from Evelyn Horr. In addition to that, some of our members will do some crafts and tickets will be sold. Last year, Rita Bessette raffled off a lot of her homemade items and over the past few meetings, Carol Bessette has been selling tickets on a quilt and a couple of shawls she made. The tickets sold on these items amounted to $120, which was all donated to The Fairfax Friendly Senior Citizens group which helps keep us from losing too much money.

Below is a photo of Carol Bessette and Orman Ovitt - Orman was the lucky ticket winner of the quilt:

Norma Young won one of the shawls:

And Nancy Ladd was the winner of the second shawl:

After the drawings, Mildred Warren, who truly had been a busy little Elf, passed out some of the Christmas Goodies she had prepared which included a big batch of Peanut Butter Fudge, a big batch of Chocolate Fudge and a big batch of Rice Crispy Treats:

Of course no Christmas Party would be complete without the appearance of The Jolly Old Elf, Santa. Santa went around and greeted each Senior personally including our guests from both The United Church and St. Luke's, Rev. Elizabeth and Father Julian:

Finally the moment the Seniors had all been waiting for - The Gifts. Each Senior was asked to bring a gift not to exceed $5. Men were to bring a gift for a man and Women were to bring a gift for a woman. Everyone seemed happy with their gifts as the festivities continued:

By the way, Santa was going to make sure that Marion & Alberta remembered him when he goes to their house on Christmas Eve:

A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL FROM THE FAIRFAX SENIOR CITIZENS

There are a total of 40 photos I took with captions if you would like to see a slide show of them at:

http://www.vtgrandpa.com/photos/slideshow.php?set_albumName=seniors_081216