Thursday, January 5, 2017

The Holidays at Kendal at Granville

The holidays are over, and yesterday (Wednesday), as if to observe the return of the regular rhythms of life, the residents of Kendal at Granville took down the large and lovely Christmas tree that had been standing in the lobby. With that action, performed annually, Kendal brought to its semi-formal end a holiday season that, begun back in mid-December,had been packed with sparkling lights, dancing decorations, savory foods, and memorable music.

As usual, the lights were the most eye-catching aspect of the holidays. Anyone driving onto the campus from dusk on noticed the Christmas lights shining through many of the the residents’ windows. Residents who gazed out upon the campus at night saw many of our lovely trees twinkling with reds and greens and blues and whites. Residents and guests who walked the campus admired the exuberant displays of holiday imagery and greenery that stood by apartment doorways and adorned the porches of cottages and villas.

It is important to note that Christmas is not the only seasonal holiday that Kendal celebrates. Each evening during Hanukkah residents gathered in the lobby to light the menorah candles and to hear readings from scripture. On a nearby lobby table sat a Kwanzaa candelabra, with its seven candles reminding observers of Kwanzaa’s seven principles.

At various times during the holidays musical performance groups took the stage in the Amelia Room to bring the enchantment of music to the residents. From “Switchback: An American Christmas” to the Vintage Voices, from Doug Moran’s Trombones to our very own chorus, the Kendaliers, happy tones rang out across many evenings during the holidays.

And our food, as usual, was wonderful. To the delight of residents and their guests alike, the imaginative Chef Robert prepared an exciting set of dining options for Christmas Day and New Years Eve. The Christmas dinner menu offered salmon lox (my choice), prime rib, grilled lamb chops, and eggs benedict for entrees; a variety of vegetables and fruits; and dessert choices that included coffee cake and a totally scrumptious bourbon maple bread pudding. The New Years Eve menu rivaled the Christmas choices with offerings of tender filets (my choice), seared scallop pasta, and oysters Rockefeller. One of the startlingly successful innovations of Chef Robert is his management of vegetables, and the holidays allowed him to offer such treats as sauteed green beans with madeira wine, and roasted winter squash with vanilla butter.

On the subject of New Years Eve, I should note that Kendal residents know how to celebrate this event too. It’s true that this year the Fiesta Bowl game between Ohio State and Clemson – a match about which nothing more will be said – competed with the annual party, but the opportunity for a cold buffet, warm conversation, and music by our favorite New Years Eve entertainers, Doc and the Perfessor, proved irresistible to many residents and their guests. In recognition that we aren’t as young as we once were – spry perhaps but not really agile – the party ended before midnight in New York. But as the saying goes, on New Years Eve it’s always midnight somewhere, and so residents were not without company elsewhere on the globe when heralding in the arrival of 2017.

There’s a final symbolic note that needs stressing – an act of continuity and hope and welcoming. For even as the old year goes out, the new one comes in, and this it was timely that at the very end of December the resident-directed Art Gallery opened a new exhibit, featuring splendid art works that come from around the country and the world and that are owned by residents and loaned for the occasion. Art is an expression of the new, of creativity, of liveliness of spirit. There could have been no finer way to attend the end of one year and the beginning of a new one than to celebrate the human spirit itself.

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