We began this radiant season by first remembering all of those in our community in need this year with our annual Food Bank! We invited everyone in the community to come in and share some of our abundance of food with others who have had a difficult year and we have been so very happy with the results of exceeding expectations with the generous donations from everyone. We then enjoyed a trip to the outdoor farms and orchards in our local area. The residents were treated to a most beautiful array of pumpkins, squash, mums and all the different fall plants of the season. It was a beautiful day with cinnamon, spice and everything nice!
Soon afterward we hosted a very special "Candlelight Vigil" along with Samaritan Healthcare & Hospice, where we celebrated the precious lives of all the loved ones that have passed away in this past year! It was a very thoughtful, emotional and precious night to share those beautiful memories with their families, friends and loved ones and we enjoyed the very soothing melodies of the beautiful harp artistry of Miss Kitty Jauregi.
As we progressed along in the month, we hosted a very meaningful Juniper Spirit Award Event to honor all of our Associates and Team Members for giving their very best in the care of our residents during this past year. Our very own President, Mrs. Lynne Katzman came out to personally presented the Juniper Spirit Spirit and Giraffe Awards to our Associates! It was beautiful to see Lynne personally thank each team member for an outstanding job well done as she and our Executive Director, Maria Ciocca presented the awards. Everyone was very touched at this very moving event. In addition we were entertained with the beautiful sounds of Mr. Jim Barber and we received a new resident within our community. You may see him lurking around... He is very tall, and really sticks his neck out...but always in a very good way! His name is "Awesome" the Giraffe! He was a gift that Lynne brought with her to commemorate this special occasion. Feel free to give him a hug, he loves it. People just can't stop hugging him.
We also enjoyed a wonderful Music Therapy program in Wellspring and the residents had a blast. They were full of joy and celebrated with instruments, voice and dance. We will be continuing this wonderful healing therapy of the arts each month.
In closing out the wonderful season, we hosted a beautiful Thanksgiving Family Dinner Event! We enjoyed a wonderful, traditional Thanksgiving Dinner with all the trimmings, turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and delicious pumpkin and pecan pies for dessert. It was a very special day for all families, friends and residents. We celebrated with beautiful classical piano and the wonderful sounds of Isof Mikolko; everyone is still talking about it! It was a day filled with gratitude for the wonderful abuandance we enjoy each day! We are very grateful for all that we have the privilege to enjoy such as family, friends, health, warmth, homes, food and clothing! We were so happy to be able to share this with the community and look forward to sharing much more in the coming seasons! We wish you all a very blessed and Happy Thanksgiving! See you soon!
Juniper Village of Williamstown, NJ has kicked off the Holiday Season with a bang!!!! We began the month of December with our Associate Holiday Party on December 2nd. It was a great time for all with a beautifully decorated location, great catered food and music by Odyssey Entertainment. The entire team and their loved ones celebrated with great food, great company, great music, singing and dancing and a warm and touching speech from our Executive Director, Maria Ciocca! We had gift bags for everyone and even Santa was in the House!!!!! Let me tell you our team knows how to have a party! And they know how to dance. We even heard a special rendition of "Grenade" by our very own Joe Canizzio! It was great! 
We followed this party with our Family Holiday Celebration for our residents and families...Of course we had a lot of work ahead of us in preparation for this celebration. We had decorations to purchase, we had food to prepare and we had lots of decorations to hang up! That's not all! We had to decorate our tree at our annual tree trimming party with our residents while sipping egg nog and listening to the great holiday classics! The residents loved this event and were very precise in how they decorated the tree!!! Even our family members kicked in along with our private duty aid, Manny to help solve a problem we encountered while stringing our lights on the tree. The tree looked beautiful and now I can't get the residents to leave that area as they love sitting amidst the beauty and holiday decorations! So we will be doing lots of holiday activities in front of our beautiful Christmas trees this month. Our families enjoyed a most joyous celebration this year with a beautiful dinner prepared by our Dining Services Director Ray Richardson and his team. They enjoyed sparkling wines, egg nog, and hot apple cider along with their meal. We had a Holiday gift shop on site providing gifts available to purchase and we were entertained by the wonderful David Dowell Orchestra in the Village and the wonderful Ron Bass in Wellspring. All families were treated to a visit by the Clause family! That would be (Santa) himself, Mrs. Clause and (doggie clause)! They were all dressed for the special occasion directly from their early trip from the North Pole! They even brought and distributed gifts to our residents and guests! It was a great, great time! As if this wasn't enough, we also treated our families to photos by the tree! We are in process now to distributing these great photos to our families and the wonderful memories to be treasured from this magical time with their loved ones, friends and all of us at Juniper Village! 
We have many festive holiday concerts and events scheduled throughout the month of December and throughout New Year's Day! Be sure to come out and enjoy some of these events with us this season! We wish everyone a truly Happy Holiday Season!!!!
