The first Christmas without your spouse is coming and you are probably wondering how to handle it.
Here is what I ended up doing – by accident.
Early Decorating
My local Hallmark store happened to be selling stuffed reindeer about September 2008 and I bought both the male and female. They were cute and I intended to put them away until after Thanksgiving.
However upon arriving home, I felt they needed to be on top of the grandfather clock. They served as a reminder that Christmas was coming and I had better face that fact starting now.
The first Christmas without Joe, was not easy but it was a little easier due to decorating early, even though it was only two stuffed reindeer.
Sentimental Journey
The sentimental decorations stayed in their boxes because looking at them would overload my emotional fuse box. While I accepted Christmas would be here, I did want to make the journey any more emotional than necessary. It would have been too much seeing all those decorations throughout the house.
In fact those sentimental items, like a hand-made ceramic nativity set given to his Mom, have not seen the light of day since Joe passed. There is no holiday entertaining at my house, so there is no reason to do a lot of decorating.
Just a Christmas tree my Grandmother crocheted and a few small items are enough.
Christmas Day 2008
Christmas Day came and went and while it was difficult, it was not as difficult as I expected, in part because of dealing with Christmas earlier than normal.
Don’t under estimate the power of a little early decorating.
JoyReturns 