211118 Sentinel, Early Christmas

Trimming the tree.

For some having the Christmas tree up and decorated this early is wrong. Well when Joyce was still alive the tree was always fully decorated the first week of November so she could enjoy it all the way through until after the first of the new year.
I wanted to take a picture of the tree in day and night to show the difference in its looks.

Saturday I got up early in the morning, practiced my yoga, had a beer (later) and started on the tree. I had to find and then drag out all the ornaments and garland that Joyce was fond of and used every year. Somehow I felt her beside me as I went through the motions. I had only done all the decorating on a tree once before in 2017 when Joyce was in the hospital. Joyce always had me put the lights on the tree and then she always did the decorating on the trees in past years. At one time on the farm she had 5 Christmas trees in the house that she did all the trimming on. This time I decorated the tree just for her.
The Cardinal ornament is our favorite bird species. The VW bus ornament was given to us by our daughter last year. She saw it and it reminded her of the one (same color scheme) that we had and used for camping trips.

One thing that seemed somewhat eerie to me was the lack of decorating supplies. After last Christmas Joyce had me toss a lot of deco and this past summer even more. Joyce spoke on several occasions that she thought she had one more Thanksgiving and one more Christmas in her ability to cook and entertain. Now I wonder if Joyce somehow knew she would not last longer than this upcoming Christmas? The ornament in the pictures below was as you can see from 1948. Joyce's aunt Betty gave it to her.

While Joyce is gone from this world now she will always be with me in spirit.