Home for the Holidays
I am home for the holidays, trying (and not completely succeeding) to balance the desire to stay at my brother's (lovely place in the woods, lots of places to walk to, comfortable and easy) with the obligation to also spend as much time as possible at my mother's (40 minutes away by the car I don't have here, nobody else but her, not lots of places to walk to, large but still a little claustrophobic, at least psychologically, and can't easily get between them without bringing her along, which crowds my brother, SIL, and niece, who would rather keep the distance most of the time). And trying to keep from being a pain or a mooch anywhere. Tricky. Dealing with the guilties, which may be as much my own projections as anything, though that doesn't make them any less real. Just two more days, then back home on Friday (I do miss my kitties! hope they will still speak to me!).