All our staff and residents had a fabulous Christmas and New Year at Arlington House.

Our popular Activities Co-ordinator – Sharon Palfreman – experienced her first Christmas in her new role and she didn’t disappoint! Many of the daily activities were geared around the festive period and the start of the month saw many residents making home-made mince pies and hand-made decorations for our Christmas trees. While the staff requested to wear Christmas outfits rather than their usual uniforms.

We enjoyed two Christmas parties, one of which included a visit from our residents’ favourite singer – John Dee – who belted out all the classics, plus a few festive songs to help everyone get into the Christmas spirit. On the big day itself, we have a tradition of sending round a drinks trolley for any residents who fancy a pre-lunch tipple. It’s fair to say that there were many takers this year and we even broke our world record for serving the first drink – it was timed at 10.45am!

Christmas lunch went down a treat – a massive thanks to Michelle Potter for all her hard work. And to cap-off an excellent lunch, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house when our very own Harry Roe gave the most wonderful after-dinner speech, thanking all our staff for their care and efforts throughout the year. Cheers Harry!

We also had great fun on New Year’s Eve. Sharon had arranged a small party which got very lively, very quickly, when the residents decided to do the hokey-cokey and the conga! As many of our residents like to get to bed at a sensible hour, Sharon came up with a great idea to have a countdown at 4pm in the afternoon. This worked really well as all residents managed to celebrate the new year with a few party poppers and a nice glass of fizz – and best of all, they didn’t need to interrupt their sleep!

We wish everyone a happy and healthy 2020.