A great festive atmosphere was enjoyed by residents and staff with a wonderful Christmas Dinner prepared and served by the chef. It was great to see residents enjoying their presents too. The arrival of a special companion pet was a particular talking point for everyone. Now we need to name him!

Christmas this year is a little different for everyone but our fabulously creative, activities coordinator Ellen wanted to make sure the residents still had a Christmas tree they could see and designed one inside our Court yards so that we could all still see and feel the magic of Christmas. We have a Gold tree and silver tree.

Well done Ellen.

We are delighted with our visitors pod at Belmont House and how wonderful it is for our relatives and residents to enjoy a chat and cuppa together.

We have had a blast on 8th December for Elf yourself for Alzheimer's day raising money for an amazing charity which is close to the hearts of all of the staff at Barnes Court. All  of our staff and a  few of the residents dressed up as Elves and it was such a lovely atmosphere.  We then had cake in the afternoon which we enjoyed..

We really enjoyed a chilly afternoon wrapped up warm or just from our window listening to the lovely children and teachers sing for us from Barnes Junior School across the road from us,  It got us all in the Christmas spirit and the residents were overjoyed that the children at the school had remembered them.

Merry Christmas from Astor Court and Lodge

It's been a bit hectic at the home and despite the current restrictions we have still managed to inject a bit of Christmas fun

One of our sister homes' had a wonderful idea of creating resident Christmas pictures to be sent with cards from the residents using a festive backdrop.  It was such a wonderful idea and the residents loved getting into the Christmas spirit.  We took pictures of the residents next to the back drop and popped them in a card which activities organised.  We hope you enjoyed receiving them.

Here are two of our team members warming their hands over the log fire.

It's always sad when we lose a resident at the home but we received these beautiful flowers from a friend of the lady who passed away in December which really brightened our day.  The staff were thrilled to read the lovely card which was attached to the flowers thanking us for all of the care we had given to her friend over the time she had lived with us.

Normally we would have visits from our local schools over Christmas so we were so delighted to receive this handmade wreath made by the children of William Bellamy School in Dagenham.

We were so touched that they took the time to spread some Christmas Cheer and let us know that they were still thinking of us.

Our Christmas luncheon club came around so quickly. The menu this year was:

Duck and orange pate

prawn cocktail

roast turkey dinner with all the trimmings 

traditional Christmas pudding

cheese board