A Very Odd Thanksgiving!

This past week - a week containing our American Thanksgiving holiday - has been a wild one and one very different from past Thanksgivings!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it seems to be the one most unaffected by blatant commercialism.  (I won't even comment on starting "Black Friday" on Thanksgiving Day this year!)  This year the kids (we have a son and a daughter) had other plans and I didn't have to cook a conventional Thanksgiving dinner.

This ended up being a good thing because the Saturday evening/night before Thanksgiving I kept violently up-chucking and ended up in the ER at our local hospital for several hours on Sunday morning.  It was some sort of bug and some IV fluids and anti-nausea meds got me back on track.  But, it took several days to get to the point where I could do much more than sleep and cooking a big dinner would have been nearly impossible!

So, we decided to get together this past Saturday (the Saturday after Thanksgiving Day) for a "Build Your Own Pizza" party.  I made my "famous" homemade pizza dough & sauce, set out every topping that anyone even mentioned and let everyone make their own pizza.

The top photo is one of the pizzas and the bottom photo is of three of our four grandchildren - aren't they all beautiful?  Our oldest granddaughter is just as gorgeous and is married and now lives in Maine.  It would have been perfect if she'd been able to join us also.

We may have had a very unconventional holiday but it was a fun time and maybe something we'll do again in the future!

We're so very thankful for our wonderful family and I'm very thankful to those of you who visit my blog and have become my online family!

Egads!

I didn't realize how much time has flown since I posted last!  I finished up some extra cards and other odds and ends for my last customers then attended an open house at the gallery (Raleigh Street Gallery) where some of my art is displayed.

The open house was very quiet with very few people but several sales were made.  I didn't see any original art sold but cards, prints and decorative items seemed to do well so it wasn't a complete wash-out.  I ended up working on a pear still life set up by a designer who displays at the gallery also.  The set up wasn't really to my liking so I changed some things around (on paper) and it still didn't ring any bells for me.  Of course, most still life set ups don't inspire me much as painting subjects,  but I feel that I ought to paint some if only for practice.  Anyway, never did finish the painting and probably won't. 

Now I'm trying to get ready for Thanksgiving!  I've done several dishes ahead of time and will do more today but it's still time-consuming to prepare a large meal like that! 

That's my excuse for not posting and I'm sticking to it!  My dear husband will be home for four days and it's so hard to do much when your schedule is disrupted so I probably won't post much until next week.  I'll do better after everything settles down though - I promise!

Hope everyone in the US has a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I'm very thankful for all of you!