I spent from before Thanksgiving to two days before Christmas across the country with my MIL to care for her after her hip replacement. I'm the only female in our very small family and there are some things that would have been very embarrassing for her to have done by her other son. I flew home after 4+ weeks to spend Christmas day with my family and was planning on going back the next day, for another 4 weeks, but MIL had recovered so well that she didn't want me to come back. I was really grateful to be able to have a last family Christmas Day together with my little family unit before our only goes off to college next year.