for Peace

Hello everyone.  It's Christmas Eve.  Tomorrow Gilly and I go for a visit to the farm in the Great Central Valley.  We'll see the donkeys, the horses, the dogs and the cats (and the dear people!)  I'm taking presents for the cats because they are disrupted when Gilly is there.  Tonight I made special gluten free crackers and an apricot cream jello to take to the farm.

My son and his family are in Ohio so I haven't been too immersed in Christmas...my upbringing would have me be more into decorating for the holidays, but this year I've been trying to use what I have and I was despairing about a wreath for the front door, when suddenly it occurred to me that I have several hubcaps lying about:

It seems a little stark, as do the times, but I'll add to it little by little.  There's a volunteer holly tree out front under the persimmon and I think a little holly and maybe some ivy would be nice.

This next is something I have very mixed feelings about, so perhaps I shouldn't even post it, but it seems like I'm going to anyway.  There's a "Christmas fantasy" up by the merry-go-round in the park to the east.  One year there were real reindeer and I loved seeing them.  This year a friend and I visited the event, hoping to see the reindeer and this is what we saw.  A fake reindeer.  A pony with antlers.  People paid $5. for 4 minutes posing with the "reindeer".

I've not been playing much music for a very long time, but last night something shifted inside and my fiddle and I went to a party; a friend showed up with a guitar and we played carols from a 1940's hymnbook for a terrific sing-a-long.  I miss the feelings I used to have about Christmas, so I've been trying to re-invent them and downloaded some Lessons and Carols from the internet.  I don't want to go to church, but I do love the music.

Gilly's lessons are going so well.  She had her first romp off-leash in the dog park.  Here she is looking around at me from her post at the front window.

And lastly, here's the beginning of some work for a "peaceable kingdom" piece.

Thank you so much, dear readers, for visiting my blog, and I do wish you Peace...and may that peace radiate outwards into the places where it is so desperately wanted.