One of my young niblings and I invented a thing we call Math Minute while we were together in Ontario last week.

Every night at 7:02 p.m. we’d do math. For a minute.

It was great fun.

Before we returned to our home provinces, I assured said nibling that they could call me at any time for a remote Math Minute.

On January 1, sure enough, at 6:02 p.m. I received the call (the nibling went as far as doing the proper time zone conversion, itself an exercise in math).

Except that, for some reason, my phone didn’t ring, and so a voicemail was left. It was one of best voicemails I’ve ever received.

Of course I called the nibling back, we had a (late) Math Minute (5+4 and 10-1), and the good times rolled again.

Small things mean a lot.