Peter

Peter is a senior this year and needed some 'casual' shots for the school yearbook. We went down by the creek where he did his best to look casual and I did my best to catch him off guard. I don't think this is the picture he chose, but I like it...

There was a picture in the paper this morning of a sign painted on a piece of metal leaning against a burned chimney. It said, Santa, use the front door....It was painted by two young sisters last year after their parents had had the fireplace replaced with a gas fire. The metal was the cap for the old chimney. The girls were worried that Santa wouldn't be able to find his way in without the chimney and since the metal chimney cap could only be seen from above the girls' dad said they could paint a message on it.

After the fires the family was combing through the remains of their home looking for anything worth saving when they came across the sign the girls had painted and some paint to repaint it with. In an empty lot next door there is a decorated Christmas tree. 

A woman in Forestville has started a program whereby people can buy a live Christmas tree in a pot, decorate it for Christmas and return it to participating nurseries who will distribute them for planting to people whose homes and all the surrounding trees burned. 

A spot of green amid all the wreckage is both cheering and poignant....and people here are continuing to come up with unique ways to raise money for fire survivors. A jewelry maker from Oregon who used to live in Santa Rosa is making some beautiful pendants and bracelets and will donate all the profits to the fire relief fund.

I'm getting terribly behind in comments but I will catch up, I promise.