Last year, when the doctors told us that Dad might not make it till the end of the year, we decided to Christmas up the place. Daddy loved Christmas, and since it is such a cheery holiday, we decided, why not make every day Christmas? Katie and I dragged out as much Christmas from upstairs as we could (oh, boy, it is a lot), and we put it everywhere. At that point, Daddy was in his hospital bed in Mom and Dad's room, and it faced into the living room. My mom has an umbrella tree--an upside down Christmas tree that is fuller at the top than at the bottom (good to keep the cats out of it) that she keeps up year round, decorated accordingly for each season. We put up tinsel and tons of lights on the tree and lots and lots of blue Christmas ball ornaments. Daddy said he loved the blue on the tree most of all. Even if he couldn't focus on much, he could see the blue of the tree. That made me happy. I only wish that he had been around longer to see more Christmas, but he just left too soon.
One thing he always said was that he didn't want to linger. And once he was on hospice, he was only around for 2 and a half more weeks. I am so glad we were all there with him.
A funny anecdote--although my Dad was one of the hugest movie buffs I've ever met, the last movie he watched was Bad(der) Santa! Bad Santa?! Hilarious. What makes it all the sweeter is that he knew how much Mom loves the movie and he wanted to watch something that made her laugh. That was my Dad for you.
