Friday After Thanksgiving: Getting Ready for Christmas

#3 daughter and our son spent much of this morning, practicing for a play they're planning to do with cousins at the Christmas get-together. While they doing their rehearsal, #1 daughter and my wife had a good talk on the phone.

#2 daughter is with my father today, and will be tomorrow, too. She called in and talked with #3 and my wife later in the day. I'm glad about two things: the communications technology that makes talks like these possible; and my wife's budget sense and diligence that makes marathon chats like those affordable.

While all that was going on, I was doing something of a technologically frustrating sort, not getting something to work for a website I maintain.

Normally, we'd have been going up, sometime around Thanksgiving, to see my father. As it is, the part of the family that lives in Sauk Centre is either ill, or recovering, or getting sick. I'm in one of the last two conditions: I'm not sure which.

Since my father is in his upper eighties, needs a moderately portable oxygen unit, and is dealing with deteriorating health, bringing bugs into his household didn't seem prudent.

What happened today made me particularly glad that we have a modest collection of kids.

• #3 daughter helped keep our son, the youngest of the lot, productively occupied for much of the day
• #2 daughter both represented the family at my dad's place, and helped him with housekeeping
• #1 daughter wasn't so obviously useful, but we don't need to working at something all the time

I almost forgot: #3 daughter and son have the (artificial) Christmas tree up, and decorated, strung lights on a railing, and got other decorations up. This may be the earliest that the house has been Christmasized.

That tree is new-to-us. It's previous home had been with my father.