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That reminded me of a story of a special Christmas. My grandma and I had been very close when I was growing up. Every year at Christmas she had the biggest and most lavishly decorated tree around and was a fantastic cook. We had lived far apart for a number of years. In 1984 she'd had a stroke around Thanksgiving. Beinig the independent woman that she was we knew she was having a terrible time being confined to the hospital but was not able to be at home, certainly not alone, so my husband (now ex), daughter (then 5) and I went to Virginia and sprung her from the hospital to take her home for Christmas.

Grandma hadn't even had a Christmas tree for probably close to 20 years nor had she had any children around at Christmas since I had grown up and moved away, so we wanted to make it really special for her. My husband and daughter went down in the woods out behind her house and cut a beautiful tree. We pulled out all her old Christmas decorations and made popcorn to string. She only had the use of one hand, but my daughter worked with her to string the popcorn. She and Dawn (my daughter) found equal delight in a musical Christmas card Grandma had received. On Christmas day Grandma sat in the kitchen coaching me on the finer points of baking a Christmas ham, and she never tired of watching out the window as Dawn pushed her new baby buggy and 2 new "babies" up and down the walkway.

In late January, Grandma had another massive stroke and passed away, but we all still cherish that Christmas as the best ever.

I hope that your plans for "Uncle" will be as richly rewarding as that Christmas with Grandma was for us.