Tina: Poor kid. I can’t help but to feel sorry for her. You think that they would have at least let her in on the changes that were going on in her home. You know, it’s her home too.

Bette: Well, we need to do something nice for her for Christmas. I think we should give her some spending money for the holidays so she can maybe get some gifts for her family, and not have any problems returning to Yale when the holidays are over?

Tina: Yeah, I think that would be a good idea. I think we should send her family a big gift basket as well – some fruit, some sweets, some cheese and crackers and maybe a large ham with it.

Bette: Yeah, I think that is a good idea. Maybe it will help their holiday a bit.

Tina: Okay, let’s put these groceries up. Don’t put tomorrow night’s meat into the freezer. I want to make sure this is a special dinner for James and Lisa. I hope she is over her morning sickness.

Bette: I think she was still experiencing that in August. Surely that over with.

Tina: Once we have finished this, we will have our dinner.  Sushi!

Bette: So, our date will begin?

Tina:  Yes. We have an empty house and all our chores are done. So, our date will begin.

Bette and Tina then went and set up their dining area and chose a gliding sofa to sit on and eat their food and chat. Tina was pleased with her progress on her paintings and the ones which would be hung in the dining room were ready. She would contact Jim and have them brought over and hung. She would also have the portrait of Peggy Peabody brought over and placed in the study. They discussed that they would give the portrait to Helena and Dylan on Thanksgiving morning while the others were socializing.  Bette loved the plan.

They then talked about their life and how each felt they were doing. They talked about Daniel and how they perceived his life going. They talked about how much Mary and Margaret were really becoming best buds. Bette had arranged for the car service to pick up Daniel, John David and Joey in the afternoons, therefore Margaret may have a couple more hours in the afternoon to be home. Bette talked about school and how she expected to have to take Monday and read her undergraduate term papers. Her students promised to have them done by Tuesday after Thanksgiving at noon. And then she would have until Monday to get them read and graded. There would be approximately 75 of them and they would be up to 10 pages long.  It would take from 16 to 20 hours to grade those.