Hand Massages and sampling a range of 'spa' products was a lovely way to spend a cooler autumn day at Hope Green. We made ourselves cosy and warm, enjoyed relaxing music, and sampled everything from rose hand cream to coconut facial spray. There was lots of discussion about our favourites too and a variety of preferences. Gentle hand massages were very much enjoyed and a real 'treat'.

Residents made homemade mince pies today, they started off with the pastry and filled them with luscious mincemeat they were baked off in the kitchen and then served with Baileys Irish cream.

Our notice activity notice board has been updated with Christmas cheer all around.

It is looking very festive and is getting our residents in the Christmas spirit.

Hope Green are absolutely delighted with their Christmas trees this year and have enjoyed helping out with directing which trees should go into which rooms, what colour decorations to choose and whether it should be a star or a fairy on the top. It was lovely to chat together whilst sipping warm drinks and discuss our favourite things of Christmas time, memories of Christmas mornings and how the weather is often not as cold and snowy as we'd expect.

The residents have been busy getting the Home ready for Christmas by helping decorate the Christmas Trees. They have also created a magnificent Christmas Display using lots of textures, some glitter (of course!) and a real scarf for the snowman knitted by one of the residents.

We have been so fortunate here at The Hawthorns to receive some beautiful Christmas Cards from the Notre Dame Prep School. They have been hand made for our residents with some brilliant drawings and lovely hand writing. The residents read these over and over again today and truly appreciated the school thinking of us. Thank you the children and teachers of Notre Dame Prep School.

We have kick started off our Christmas activities by decorating some yummy gingerbreads followed by our first Carmel choir carol practice. It was lots of fun and really got us in the Christmas spirit.

We enjoyed a Christmas special concert earlier this month by one of our favourite singers Dean Sinclair, he sang classic songs and definitely bought in some Christmas cheer as residents sung and danced along.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at The Hawthorns. The residents helped decorate the trees for inside the home. Picking and choosing which baubles they wanted and which colours they preferred. We will be putting up decorations all week so that at the end of the week it will look like a Winter Wonderland here.

As requested by the residents in this weeks Cooking Club we made a Chocolate Yule Log. We all had a go at whisking and sifting the icing sugar. We rolled the cake out to make the yule log and the residents helped to make the topping look like a log affect. Yummy pudding for these lovely people tonight!