Welcome to Edencrest at Siena Hills

Karen loves to share the cookbooks and recipes she brought with her. Edencrest has several staff members that also enjoy cooking, baking, and collecting recipes. Karen and these staff members talk about favorite recipes and share their cookbooks with each other. Karen keeps the Culinary Coordinator up-to-date on the food served each day. She tells the good as well as the not so favored meal items. Karen has kind of become the "Grumpy Gourmet" of Edencrest

At Christmas time Karen voiced her concern that she wasn't able to afford Christmas gifts for her "favorite" staff members. Karen was reminded that staff are not able to accept gifts from residents. Karen explained that she knew this but still wished she could do something special for the staff she has become close to since moving into Siena Hills. During the month of January staff approaches Karen with the possibility of doing a special activity to show her appreciation for the staff members she wanted to recognize at Christmas. Staff asked Karen to "save the date" on February 8 and to plan on spending the day with the Culinary Coordinator and the Life Enrichment Coordinator.

On February 8, Karen was invited to the activity room. Staff had used Karen's very own special recipe for cut-out sugar cookies to make heart cookies for Karen to decorate. Karen spent much of the day decorating heart cookies for the staff at Edencrest. Staff assisted Karen in bagging up the cookies in pretty Valentines bags with fun ribbons and a note of appreciation from Karen.

At lunchtime staff went to one of Karen's favorite local restaurant to get Karen her favorite sandwich. The meal was topped off with a chocolate covered cherry smoothie.

Karen enjoyed her day decorating cookies and eating her favorite lunch. She was happy that she could show her appreciation by giving staff homemade, hand-decorated cookies. Karen is still talking about that chocolate covered cherry smoothie!.

Liz and Howard met and became friend’s shorty after Howard joined us at Siena Hills. This friendship quickly grew and the next thing we all knew, there were wedding invitations being passed around the community.

You could feel the excitement leading up to this wedding day. There were shopping trips for the clothes, hair appointments, choosing flowers, songs and prayer readings. Liz and Howard called on the Culinary Coordinator to prepare food for the reception that followed the ceremony. The residents were busy preparing cards and presents. This wedding was all everyone was talking about.

It turned out to be a very fun wedding day. Everyone, staff and residents, were scurrying around making all the preparations for the afternoon ceremony. The couple wrote their own vows and shared these vows during a short ceremony. Everyone enjoyed the food and fellowship following the wedding celebration.

The happy couple opened cards and gifts and then were whisked off to enjoy a short honeymoon stay at a local hotel. It was a fun day for all involved and almost everyone was involved. The residents are still talking about the first wedding to be held at Edencrest at Siena Hills.