Being thankful is soooo good for you....

So ThanksGiving is upon us which means Christmas isn’t too far away eek! I know that now is probably not the time to be thinking about summer camps and all you can really think about is how much turkey you can safely consume, still of course allowing room for pie, before falling into a blissful tryptophan coma.

Being from the UK, we obviously don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, but from what I have gathered over the years, it’s a bit like Christmas day, minus the gifts. It’s a time where families and friends come together to be thankful for each other and where family feuds are brought to peace….or not!

I was listening to the radio last night and the radio host said something interesting. By being hospitable and gratuitous, it is actually beneficial to your health! Spending time with friends or loved ones makes us happy, relaxed and gives us a sense of well being, which in turn we bestow on others, making them feel good too. I kind of feel this way about Long Lake. Being at camp with so many old friends that feel just like family and seeing such excitement in the kids’ faces when they first get off that bus, it’s infectious… especially as that excitement spreads.

 The minute I arrive at camp after being away for the whole year, I immediately feel a sense of well being, that at last I’m home, back with family, and I’m thankful for what I am lucky to have. Let’s face it, anything that is good for my health, is worth doing over and over again.

Show tunes and sticky pudding………

Well let me firstly start by saying…wow was last week busy!!!

 We had a truck load of Show DVD’s delivered and piled up in the office creating quite the chaos as I had to meander through, ‘Once on this island’ and ‘West side story’ to get to my desk!, We then all went into the Elves and the shoe maker mode, to try and get them out to you all quickly before the Thank giving festivities begin. We hope you enjoy!!!

Therefore, I do apologize for not gracing you with my presence last week and hope you didn’t all miss me too much.

So, amongst the feverous label writing and DVD stuffing, we did manage to squeeze in a desert cook off, here in the office. Oh yes it was quite serious, with both Geoff and Lee taking  it all quite seriously, buying special pans and spending laborious hours after work, chopping, whipping and sifting. Obviously I was the busiest one out of all of us, as my contribution consisted of a box mix from Trader Joe’s due to lack of time and I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Being thrown together …quite closely I might add, as we stuffed envelopes, we had some how gotten onto the subject of deserts, and how fabulous it was that we have our very own chocolate fountain at camp. Long Lake camp really is a place to create, as numerous kids come in on their free periods to help make cakes and goodies for the evening meal, which are all snapped up in the first 10 minutes. It then went from “well if the kids can get so creative in such little time, then I wonder what we could come up with” well that and we all desperately needed a severe sugar rush to keep us going.

Lee was the first to create a delectable Banana cream pie filled with gooey, Banannary goodness, which we all of course devoured in about 10 seconds, and two days later ( we had to have time to digest) Geoff created an amazing lemon Tart, paired with …wait for it….Curry flavored Ice cream…I know!...who knew how delicious the combo would be!

It was tough to pick a winner….so we didn’t…it was ALL so good, so quite frankly we are all winners here…especially me, due to my small contribution….I WAS BUSY!

So to all of you out there who love to cook and create small yummy miracles on a plate and thought….”if only I could do that kind of thing at camp”….well you can! Chef mike is always delighted if you have desert ideas and would like to try them out…I know a lot of you like to decorate the hundreds of Birthday cakes that get presented over the summer, mine included, or if you just want to get creative with strawberries and a chocolate fountain then we have it all. So come join us for the summer and experience a little slice of heaven…but be prepared….it could get messy.

Happy cooking everyone….why not practice this Thanks giving!

Electing the right summer camp…

Electing the right summer camp....

In the wake of the Elections this week, I thought it was important to talk about choices and about making the right choices for you when it comes down to choosing a summer camp.

I remember when the idea first came to me all those years ago and how the decision to spend the summer in the USA working at a summer camp for children, became so unexpectedly influential to the path that my own life would eventually take. I had no idea what to expect, (considering we don’t have summer camps as such in the UK, due to high precipitation and the lack of blue skies) but I knew because of my background in the Arts and my personality of course, that I wanted to go to a place where I would be surrounded by creativity, yet experience the things that a traditional camp had to offer.

See… I had this idea about summer camp that had been influenced by American movies and teen novels growing up as a kid and I guess I had a romantic notion, and a completely fantasized idea about what summer camps were all about. So when choosing the right sort of camp for me, I really made it a point to learn everything about the candidates that I could, candidates being the many thousands of camps out there. It was important for me to see what each candidate had to offer and to hear each camps obligation to put forward a good representation and argument as to why they were the right place for me.

 Long lake stood out as ‘the one’, never stooping to negative campaigning, but just plain and simple promises;

*To create an environment where kids can explore their creativity, without judgment.

*A place to develop on going skills and develop new ones

*A place where kids can be Theatrical, Artistic, Musical and Energetic all in the same place.

*Somewhere kids can be themselves, develop some independence and meet friends for life.

*A place where kids can be kids and have the best summer of their lives.

 I wanted a place that had all of these qualities and believe me long lake delivers on its promises, hence why I have been here for 14 summers so far. I also didn’t realize at the time, that it was important to find a place that would benefit me in the long run, and Long Lake has certainly proven to be a significant part of my life and somewhere where I have grown to be the gal I am today.

So when electing the right camp for you or your kids, let your voice be heard. Ask a million questions, read all of the literature, talk to references, study the candidates at length, look out for negative campaigning, search for somewhere that will benefit you or your kids in the long run and the most important of all, make sure it’s a place that delivers whole heartedly on their promises. You are voting for the right choice, so….. ‘Make your vote count!’