December is rushing by us and we are in holiday mode at Cedar Village.  We have our Chanukah menorahs in place ready to begin our nightly candle lighting as a community.  We have various rabbis coming in to light candles with our residents and we are always delighted to celebrate the holiday as a Cedar Village family.  We kick off the Chanukah season with our annual party which will be held on Sunday, December 18 at 2 p.m. in the Wilbur and Mary Jean Cohen Religious and Cultural Center.  Our entertainment features the Cincinnati Klezmer Project as well as the premiere of Cedar Village's video Chanukah card!  Of course, latkes are on the menu!  Join us if you can!

We celebrated with our staff holiday party yesterday, a chance to thank the close to 400 people who work at Cedar Village and bring their all to the care of our residents every day.  We had music, food and fun both during the day and from 1-3 a.m. so everyone has a chance to participate.  We asked that staff bring a toy or can of food to donate and many did.  We also made centerpieces with toys.  All of the food will go the Warren County Food Bank and our friends from the Mason Fire Department picked up the toys and will deliver them to Toys for Tots.

The new sundial and brick garden that the Friends of Cedar Village are working on is moving along nicely. The contractor broke ground this week and the project is very exciting.  The sundial will be the centerpiece of a new area for placement of donated bricks, given in memory or in honor of someone.  It is a longstanding Friends project and the first brick garden area is completely full so we are exciting to be opening up a beautiful new space new the gazebo.

Chesed Corps took a different turn in the last week!  We got involved with sending legislative letters in support of the Creating Hope Act, being proposed by a nonprofit organization called Kids vs. Cancer.  You can learn more about them here www.facebook.com/kidsvcancer.  The Creating Hope Act encourages  the creation of new drugs for children who suffer from serious and rare medical conditions, including life-threatening cancers, by providing a voucher to pharmaceutical companies who develop such drugs. We wrote letters in support of this Act and were excited about the opportunity to take some social action on such an important cause for children in need.

All the best,