From February 2011 Tips & Tales- NEW YEAR'S EVE AT SUNNYSIDE 2010

--Shared by Pat Armstrong

There was so much intense concentration and then "I found it," meaning the piece of the puzzle for which five members of the Sunnyside family had been searching for at least five minutes. The time was 10:30 PM on December 31, 2010, and the location was the Sunnyside room. Sally Meeth, Jim Arrington, Russ Dulaney, Earl Spillman and Tom Biggs did their share in working towards completing the picture of the little white church in the country setting -- a 500-piece puzzle.

Leave it to Beverly Silver to share her CHALLENGING game of SCORE FOUR. Pat Armstrong started playing her husband, Rich, (under the tutorage of Beverly) but decided this game took too much brain power, so Beverly took Pat's place. She and Rich were a good match and Bill Dent observed closely to be ready when his turn came to challenge someone. While Bill was concentrating on SCORE FOUR, wife, Judy, was looking over the other games and visiting with friends.

Do you know about Chicken Foot? What fun! Peggy Reinhold was instructor for new students, Phyllis Robinson and Pat Wingo, in this less stressful but fun game. Dick Wingo observed closely. Who knows? In 2011, he may even decide to play. In the meantime, he and Jim Robinson had a lively (and expressions showed enjoyable) time sharing about Warrenton where they both had lived. Many names and places familiar to both were shared.

Speaking of sharing, Bill Young enjoyed himself as he mingled and chatted with most everyone present. Carol Way stopped by (never a dull moment with Carol around) after she and husband Frank had visited Red Lobster. Marilyn Spillman said she and Earl had also been to Red Lobster but still needed some of the chocolate kisses on the able.

It was such a joy for us to have Tom Biggs with us and he was looking great after having surgery. Tom had fun with the puzzle while wife, Ginny, played games. Barbara Stickley brought New Years' greetings from husband, Dan. She, Gretchen and Jim Arrington, and Hope and Bill Stoner were in the midst of the fellowship playing games and enjoying chatting.

Ed and Joanne Riedesel shared their popular game of SPINNER--similar to Chicken Foot except it has a Spinner symbol which serves like a wild card. Joanne says her 96-year-old mother just loves to play SPINNER. It was a treat to have Carolyn Arbuckle (member of the Sunnyside family for about 4 months) from the Highlands and Bob and Patsy Bales from the Massanetta Community (they are Sunnyside volunteers too) join us for the fun.

Greg and Edna Armstrong shared in the evening and enjoyed the games and time with friends. Betty Young seemed to be familiar with Chicken Foot and she and brother, Earl Spillman, shared about their mother having lived at Sunnyside. It was good having Bud and Betty Long to stop by on the way home from a party at daughter and son-in-law’s (Tim and Christy Long) home. Ed and Mary Yarnell joined us for a while and were full of their usual enthusiasm. It was a treat to have Don and Nancy Myers also share in our time of celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of another.

There were so many comments about how much fun the evening had been and how we had all become closer as a family by sharing this time. As all headed the short distances to homes, Happy New Year was heard over and over and folks commented they looked forward to another gathering like this next year. We would like to thank Paige Kauffman for her very helpful and enthusiastic support as we planned this event.

--Rich Armstrong reports that the New Year’s Eve gathering was started in 2008 and has been held every year since -- until this year, for obvious reasons. “It’s mainly a gathering for everyone to get together to play games, chat and bring something to share,” he said.