Christmas at Hilltop Part 2

So I got this idea to do a Christmas video. It started when I was taking pictures as Shelly and the residents started to decorate. I was taking photos of ornaments still in boxes, stars yet to be placed, lights not yet strung. I knew how pretty the trees, especially, would be once they were decorated.

Yet, I was strapped for time and couldn’t stick around to photograph every aspect of the tree decorating.

But I still wanted to share our finished work with you.

So, I spent a little time taking videos of some of our trees and entrance. Then I supplemented with photos of ornaments and decorations.

I try to keep most of our videos to 2 minutes or less. In this fast-paced, want-it-now society, no one wants to watch a long video. And yes, 4 minutes is long. But, this video felt like it would be rushed at 2 minutes. Aren’t the holidays meant to be a time to slow down and enjoy?

So, I found a 4-plus minute song and set about editing the video to match it.

The music was a bit of a challenge. I have some royalty-free music I use for a lot of our videos. But I didn’t have Christmas music. I did an online search, but when you search “royalty-free music,” it’s not necessarily no cost. Then I remembered I’d used a song in the past for a video, and it only required attribution in the video in order to use it.

I went back to our video to find the information, went to the website and found a bunch of royalty-free free music, including holiday music. Yes! I found a pretty version of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.” Many thanks to Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com. He and Creative Commons get the credit in the video for the use of the music.

The trouble with a 4-minute video is its size. While not a big deal on a computer, on my iPhone, it’s a pretty big file. Too big to email, apparently. And I didn’t have my cord to connect to my laptop to drag it directly. But, I was able to use the cloud to transfer it. A few minutes later, it was uploaded on YouTube, watch it here. It also will be on our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/HilltopAffiliates.

So, take a few minutes and go watch our “long” video. Merry Christmas from all of us at Hilltop!

Christmas at Hilltop

Since the end of November, Shelly Anderson, our activities coordinator, has been decorating for the holidays at Hilltop. She and her helper elves – the residents – have set up multiple trees, strung garland and put up decorations to make our common areas festive.

We have some beautiful decorations on our trees. Each one is themed by color and ornament. We have white trees with gold decorations and blue decorations, green trees decked in red and green and plenty of Santas, snowmen and angels.

We’ve planned parties for residents and their family members. We had our first recently, complete with a visit from Santa, music with the accordion ladies and treats from our cook Becky. Shelly found cute cardboard props to do photos with the residents. They include a snowman nose, reindeer antlers, a Santa beard and more. We got some really cute photos with them. It’s neat how everyone enjoys doing fun photos for the camera!

Shelly and Minnette have fun with holiday props.

Christmas also means cards and presents. Those jobs have fallen to me.

I ordered bright lime green mugs for our residents as gifts. We encourage them to drink a lot of water, and this will help to each have a dedicated, no-spill mug with an easy-to-hold handle that fits every cup holder imaginable. I bought printed cellophane sheets and ribbon and packaged a mug and hot cocoa mix for each resident. Well, technically I’ve wrapped 31 and have another nine to go!

I also thought it would be a good idea to send Christmas cards to residents’ families and some of our business contacts. I should have thought of it in October or November when I could have had some cards printed with a special message. Instead, I had this thought in December, so I was relegated to buying cards and writing them all out by hand. Fifty-some cards later, I think I’m nearly done. Hopefully, it’s the thought that counts, right?

The downside to all this wrapping and card writing is that I really don’t want to go home and do my own. The gifts I have yet to buy won’t need to be wrapped until right before Christmas, so I’ve got time. I do enjoy wrapping.

And maybe I’ll get around to cards next week. Maybe. If you don’t get a Christmas card from me this year, you’ll know why.