A Few Catch Up Christmas Photos

I know this is out of order, but I just got around to processing these photos. The day before I had my surgery, the sun was actually out, and I could use the natural light in my house to take a few photos of things that really defined my feelings of this first Christmas without my Joe. It was snowing outside and so I thought I would start out with the easy stuff…. easy on my heart anyhow. I wanted to take some photos of Tallinn outside with the snow gently falling. Well, that nut of a dog decided that he wanted to try and catch the snowflakes in the air. He just couldn’t help himself. He is a fruitcake, but I love him. Then I decided to test my dog lover’s patience even further and see if I could get a santa hat on him and take a picture of him in front of our Christmas tree. That is a two-person job. I am only one person. He enjoyed carrying around the Santa hat, but definitely not wearing it. I did manage to get some reindeer antlers on him that we have tortured many family dogs over the years with. He was not happy. So, I gave up on cute Tallinn Christmas photos and went to take some photos that were more for me…and how I was feeling without my Joe this year. I set everything up and Tallinn, who had unrequited love for Joe, just curled up around my items I had laid out and wouldn’t move. Joe wasn’t really fond of Tallinn, although I think when he was able to spend time with him when his two dogs weren’t there, he realized Tallinn was tolerable. But Tallinn really liked Joe…and he absolutely loves Tim. We joke that it is because he recognizes the ginger hair on them as being one of “his people”. Anyhow, I am guessing some of you will be thinking these photos are weird. They come from my heart though. I have been journaling letters to my Joe since right after his Celebration of Life. It allows me to talk to him and it is also a record or how far I have come in this grief journey….and how much further I have yet to go. This is my blog…so it is a no judgement area. This was me using my form of art to grieve my son this first Christmas. I was only going to keep these for myself but decided last minute to share them.