[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by travelguy

It is all what you make of it. I never did like the endless parade of people in and out of the house on Christmas Day; people/relatives we hardly saw at any other time of the year. Gifts that no one really needed, much less appreciated. Some in my family kept themselves busy on Christmas Day by volunteering at the local hospital; or serving meals at a soup kitchen. Maybe that is what it is really all about. Do something for others.

Excellent idea any time of the year......

I was just telling my husband that it would be worthwhile to visit an old mentor of his (now pushing 90) who has been living at the Veterans Home here in our town. Some of these oldtimers become lost and forgotten, once they are out of the mainstream.
Sad , but true.

We used to get a lot of warmth and good feelings from visiting not just my mom in the nursing home, but all of the other residents who had no weekly visitors at all. They could interact with us, when she no longer could speak. They were all starved for visitors, or just someone to push their wheelchairs out onto the patio (so they could hear the birds sing and smell the flowers and green grass). Nurses and aides are so busy, as well as the activity directors.

There are so many who are lonely and alone on Christmas, New Years and all through the year.........

For those of us who prefer a quiet celebration to ring in 2014, a good deed of visiting the confined veterans or elderly, would indeed warm everyone's heart.