Wow, here it is well into December, and I’m just NOW posting about Thanksgiving week!! I’ve been so busy lately getting the house ready for a visit from my Mom and stepDad, Jack (that’s them at Philpott Dam)…and airbrushing, and updating the Eclectic Dawn Arts website…

I really miss visiting with my family during the holidays, so we were really excited when Mom and Jack decided to come down from Wisconsin for Thanksgiving. Whew, that sure set up a flurry of tasks in preparation of their visit. Meal planning, grocery shopping, getting out the Christmas decorations so we could trim the trees on Thanksgiving, cleaning, and planning how much fun we could cram into their short visit.

We had so much fun! We shopped, we ate, we went antiquing, I taught them how to hunt for Fairy Stones, we went to Philpott Dam and Visitor Center, we ate, we drank some Biltmore champagne, we built a puzzle, Mom kicked my butt in Upwords, we ate, we shopped, I gave them a little piano concert one night after dinner, and we shared lots of laughs. Oh, and we decorated TWO trees!

One of our trees is all beachy, with shells, dolphins, fish, bubbles and flamingos. Bella decided to help us decorate…I looked down at Bella while I was putting ornaments on the tree, she had come to sit next to me, and she had a starfish in her mouth, just waiting for me to take it from her! Usually, if she picks up something she’s not supposed to have, she will run and hide with it, so she really must have had good intentions to assist us.

The second tree is our biker tree, which is filled with toy motorcycles and orange and black pinstriped ornaments. My favorite ornament on the biker tree is a little stuffed pig who oinks “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”!

Mom and I cleaned out Hobby Lobby of their glass blocks – Mom showed me how she makes these pretty decorations by stuffing the glass blocks with Christmas lights, then tying a pretty bow on them. She gave me one for the mantle, and it is beautiful!
We also picked up craft supplies for me to make an angel for the biker tree, too. Sorry that picture is rather scary – for some reason the flash made her eyes look demonic – but she is actually very pretty and her eyes don’t like that in person. I made a little biker vest out of felt, and hot glued a triple layer black lace skirt on her. There are pretty black feathers as an “apron” and the burgundy and white flowers are leftovers from my wedding flowers.

Many of my favorite holiday memories are of crafting and baking with Mom – so it was wonderful to do some of our favorite holiday activities together. We even made the scrumptious and very rich crab dip that has been a tradition in our family for years. Mmmmmmmmm.

I feel very blessed. May you be blessed, too.
Eclectic Dawn