Post-Holidaze

I haven't taken down any of our holiday stuff yet, (and I'm not planning on it any time soon) so I thought I'd share a few pictures here. First, here's what our front door wreath looks like. I make one of these every year out of trimmings from our trees and bushes. Redwood, fir, madrone, bay laurel, rosemary. I wish you could smell it, it's still so fragrant. This year I had a bunch of bright orange rose hips so I stuck those on for some color and added a new ribbon that has red LED lights embedded in it to tie the whole thing all together.

 Here's our tree, he was named Paolo. When you buy a tree at our local Feed Store/Nursery they ask you to name a tree that's replacing the one you just chose. Because your tree has a label with a name, it's kinda cute. This one was lopsided on the bottom, but it fit the space pretty well.

This is one of my favorite ornaments, it's vintage, either from my grandma or my mom, I forget. I love the shape, the color, the shiny, and that it's still in one piece after all these years.

 I started buying ornaments that either said PEACE or were peace-related way back when our country first went to war in 2001.

 And I've been buying them every year since then. Unfortunately I have a whole lot of them now.

 They really stand out on the tree.

 The word PEACE repeated over and over again.

 Broken up by a few stars here and there of course.

 It's not just about war/peace of course, but also a wish I always concentrate on especially during the holidays. for all sorts of peace, finding some level of peace of mind, finding peace with what you have vs. what you don't, peace and quiet, the stillness of peace, all forms of peace.
Wishing and hoping for peace for the whole wide world and my teeny tiny corner of it too.

For all beings, Peace.

 This is a dragon we usually have up somewhere in the house or on the front door. I thought he wouldn't mind carrying a load of Peace for us for the season.

 I'm looking forward to the year when I don't feel the need to add to my collection and can just search out silly plastic dragons, candy and tangerines to put in my family's stockings. Someday....