HOUSTON - Former President George H.W. Bush spent Christmas in Houston hospital where his wife, Barbara, and other relatives visited him.

Bush spokesman Jim McGrath said Tuesday that Bush's son, Neil, and Neil's wife also visited.

The 41st president has been in the hospital since Nov. 23 with a lingering, bronchitis-like cough. A hospital spokesman had said Bush was likely to be released to spend Christmas at home, but then the former president developed a fever.

McGrath says doctors remain "cautiously optimistic" that Bush will recover but they want to keep him in the hospital.