December 2019 Chisholm Trail newsletter

Cornerstone Senior Living 513 s old Betsy Rd Keene, TX 76059 817-556-9100

Spinning into the Season

As the holiday season approaches, children gravitate to toy store windows to stare longingly at the wonders on display. Rarely do spinning tops make children’s wish lists anymore, yet these toys are some of the oldest known to human civilization.

A clay top discovered by archaeologists in Iraq’s ancient December Activities!! city of Ur dates back to the 35th BC—that’s th 5 2:00 kicking off the nearly 6,000 years ago! A wooden top dated to 1300 BC Holidays with Residents was found in King Tut’s tomb. During the medieval era Christmas in , parish tops measuring eight inches high and Party!! weighing two pounds were kept in town squares for play, 6th 11:00 to 3:00 S & S exercise, and competition. Cultures all over the world have fashioned tops from whatever materials they have Jewelry Show on hand, including fruits, nuts, seeds, and seashells. th 7 4:15 Los Harmonicas What makes these toys so fascinating and enduring? 9th 10:00am Keene High It’s not just their simplicity, but the way they seem to School defy gravity as if by magic. Singing, 2:00 Movie th Every spinning top is an experiment in physics. The toys 10 8:30am Keene High remain upright thanks to angular momentum. In fact, School singing. precision balanced tops spun perfectly upright would 12th Family Night spin forever if there were no friction between their points 13th 11:00 Alvarado High and the surface. However, this hasn’t stopped engineers school singing. from trying to build a top that could conquer the laws 16th 2:00 Movie of physics. th 17 11:30 out to lunch Traditional tops are still hand-built using a lathe and Go see Christmas light a discerning eye. The best of these handmade tops 19th 6:45 Plaza Theater can spin for several minutes and even hours. New White Christmas technologies now allow precise and perfectly balanced 20th 1:30 Health Food Store tops to be made on computerized machines using top- of-the-line materials. These tops cost thousands of Cleburne dollars and may spin for hours. One top called LIMBO rd 23 2:00 Movie recently broke the world record by spinning for 27 hours, Go see Christmas lights. 9 minutes, and 24 seconds. How was this feat achieved? 25th MERRY CHRISTMAS Hidden inside the top was a battery, flywheel motor, 31st 4:30 Supper Club motion sensor, and a computer chip designed to monitor the top’s stability and correct the motion of the spin. While LIMBO is not technically a top but a gyroscope,

it is a demonstration of how far engineers will go to

perfect this simple toy in an attempt to defy gravity.

December 2019

The Season of Sugar and Spice Don’t forget Meal Times December is chock full of holidays celebrating cookies. The first week of December is Cookie Cutter Week. The week of December 16–20 is Breakfast @ 7:00 Cookie Exchange Week. The 4th is Cookie Day, the 12th is Gingerbread House Day, and the Lunch @12:00 14th is Gingerbread Decorating Day. No wonder Supper @4:30 December is heralded as “the most wonderful time of the year”! Baking and exchanging sweets have been winter solstice traditions for hundreds Walmart every wed @ 9:30 of years. Exercise Mon – Fri @ 10:30 Walking Club every Tue @ 2:00 The winter solstice has long been celebrated around the world by many cultures, and food has Movie every Mon @ 2:00 always been associated with these traditions. It was Bingo ever Sun, Wed, Fri @ 3:00 during the Middle Ages that dessert became Sewing Club ever Mon, Wed, and Fri an important part of winter solstice feasts. This was due to an influx of new and exotic ingredients, @ 1:00 including spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and black Vespers every Fri night @ 6:00 pepper, and sweet fruits like dates and apricots. Sabbath School every Sat @ 9:30 Wealthy families added these fine new ingredients to their pantries, and their cooks created new and Coffee Club every Day @ 4:00 wonderful pastries and cookies. It became a sign of Sing a long every Sat night @ 6:00 great wealth to send friends and rivals gifts of 42 Players every night after Supper. baked sweets. Crafts every Thurs @ 2:00 One of the oldest and most popular cookies was springerle, the anise-flavored cookie that originated in the German province of Swabia in the . Anise was prized as a spice and a medicine, often grown in the cloistered gardens of monasteries. Springerle is easily recognized by We have a walking club we meet every the elaborate bas-relief pictures pressed into the cookies thanks to detailed Tuesday at 2:00 in the Front lobby. We molds carved into wood or clay. These cookies were track our steps all week long then we not only delicious, but their pictures told important add them up to see how many steps we historical and religious stories. Like anise, ginger was considered both an exotic spice taken then mark it on our map. We are and a medicine. Recipes existed in China walking across America come see as early as the and finally made where we’ve been and see where were it to Europe during the Middle Ages, but it wasn’t until the that the gingerbread going. We would love for you to join . house became popular. This was thanks to the Brothers Grimm and their story of Hansel and Gretel discovering a house made entirely of candy. These traditions have endured for because they are so delicious.

December 2019

December Birthdays !! SEASONS GREETINGS Harold McMahan 13th Bradford Lee 14th Norman Bradford 15th Joaquin Escalante 15th James Drewry 24th Arlene Wiist 30th May your Christmas Be filled with love and Laughter

Why do the bells of Christmas ring ?

Why do little children sing?

Once a lovely shining star,seen by shepherds from afar,

Gently moved until its light,made a manger’s cradle bright.

There a darling baby lay, pillowed soft up on the hay;

and its mother sung and smiled This Christ, the holy Child!

There fore bells for Christmas ring, Therefore little childern sing.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEARS !!