Nursing "home"

What do you think of when you think of a nursing home? A massive cafeteria with uninteresting food? Drab walls and long fluorescently lighted hallways? Well, there is a project that hopes to change all that - Here is an article from the Washington Post today that I found very hopeful - because after visiting my great-grandmother for years as a child in a very conventional nursing home, even I knew something didn't seem quite fair about her "home."
The project - the Green House Project - is an initiative that started in 2003 in Mississippi and is spreading across the nation as it succeeds. It aims to "de-institutionalize" care for the elderly and focus more on one-on-one care and letting seniors be in control of their days. Instead of a hospital-like setting, a nursing home could become a home-like setting. However, it also could be implemented to just help improve existing institutions. Check out the article for all the details on the project.
And here is one more article to check out - this one from U.S. News and World Report on holiday spending! This particular story focuses on retirees who will be spending less on their grandchildren this holiday season...will you be spending less?