Taking very elderly MIL with dementia to an unfamiliar, busy house on Christmas Day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mom is 100 and is in a similar mental state to your MIL. My mom likes being around people and enjoys the good food I make. She likes being part of the party. She doesn’t say much and she gets tired. So what I do is have her for short periods of time - like 2 hours maximum so she can participate in the holiday and see her grandchildren when they are visiting from out of town. She doesn’t necessarily remember the event or always know who her grandchildren are. But she is happy in the moment and that’s good enough for me.

This is how my mom was at Thanksgiving (she is 81 with mid-stage Alzheimer's). We brought her over to our place Thanksgiving morning. She helped with small tasks in the kitchen like peeling potatoes and such, and enjoyed being around us and my brother's family. In the early evening she became tired and started asking to go back to her assisted living apartment. We took her home around 7pm, helped her get ready for bed, and tucked her in. The next day she couldn't really remember being at our place on Thanksgiving, but I showed her pictures of her with the grandkids and that made her smile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How did it go, OP?

OP here. It went well, apparently.
MIL did go to BIL's relatives on Christmas and she enjoyed it, according to texts from SIL.