You can't miss the fact that it is Chanukah at Cedar Village! Not only do we have menorahs on display and the building decorated, we join together as a community each day to light Chanukah candles on the 2nd and 3rd floors in the Health Care Center and in the Garden Dining Room. A host of community rabbis have come in to lead the candle lighting and it is a wonderful time for all! Yesterday a number of residents made beautiful menorahs and next Wednesday morning we will be making latkes with the residents in Health Care. This is an annual treat and we make them all from scratch-no shortcuts (well maybe a little shortcut, we do use a food processor and not the box grater like my mother always used)! It is great fun and triggers some wonderful conversation and sharing of memories.

We also were delighted by a visit from the Sycamore High School choir this week. This large group of talented young people were a huge hit with the residents. In fact, two members of the choir were especially welcome here as one is the granddaughter of residents and the other the great granddaughter of one of our residents. The grandparents were all beaming!

I want to share a story that is a little different from our usual resident stories but seems a great one for this holiday season. Just after Labor Day, I was making rounds in the Health Care Center. I asked one of our wonderful nurses, Carrie, about her weekend and she told me she'd spent it working on her house. Then she said, "You probably don't know about my house," and when I confirmed that I didn't, she told me she was building a Habitat for Humanity house that would provide a home of their own for she and her three sons. I was excited for her and, after discussion with some of our management team, we called Habitat and volunteered to help. They asked for our assistance painting and we sent teams of volunteers out for two days, during which we primed and then painted the whole interior of the house. And we did it all in secret. The Habitat folks hid our sign-in pages and no one (amazingly!) breathed a word. When the house was dedicated just before Thanksgiving, we surprised Carrie with a scrapbook filled with photos of the Cedar Village volunteers at work. She could not believe it and when she spoke during the dedication ceremony, she talked about how much her career at Cedar Village means to her and how important it has been to helping her create a good life for herself and her children. Why am I sharing this story with you? Because at this season we talk about giving and sharing and we talk about families. At Cedar Village, we do believe that we are a family, both our residents and our staff, and this is one real example of just how we make those words a reality.

On behalf of all of us at Cedar Village, we wish you and your family a very happy Chanukah. If you are able we'd love to have you celebrate Chanukah with us at our annual party, this Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. in the Wilbur and Mary Jean Cohen Religious and Cultural Center. We'll have klezmer music and delicious treats. Don't miss it!