The staff at Dunelm Reading decided this year to give up their secret Santa gifts to the people who live at River View. We would like to say a huge thank you to all the staff. We have been blown away by all the gifts donated and can't wait for Christmas Day to see all the unwrapping and smiling faces.

We are blessed to have local businesses supporting us.

Christmas has arrived at Westbourne and we a fully in the festive swing.

So far, we have had Elf Day which was a huge success, our staff and manager went all out dressing up as Elves for the day which our residents loved. We will also have our domestic Karen, singing amazingly for us on Thursday which we are looking forward to as she has a wonderful voice, we also had a staff Christmas sing along, it was lovely to see our residents engaging with the music and to see smiles on their faces.

We were very excited to receive our new bowling kit, along with training from the Just Bowl team recently.

Our first bowling session was a real success, as everyone who participated felt the benefits of some gentle physical exercise and the friendly and fun competition. The afternoon was followed by a bit of homemade Christmas cheer.

The staff of Clarendon Court are all getting into the festive spirit, entertaining our residents with their own, very unique take on the traditional Nativity play.

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.

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 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.