Thanksgiving at the Vattman Picnic

For 95 years, this little Texas church has been serving Thanksgiving dinner to whoever wants to come. Ninety-five years. The church (Our Lady of Consolation) is 100+ years old, so I guess they began the Thanksgiving tradition when the church was about 5 years old.

This is in South Texas, about 15 miles south of Kingsville (or 45 miles south of Corpus Christi). The extremely small community known as "Vattmanville", nearby Rivera. The Thanksgiving dinner is their annual fundraiser. They have a huge party - which includes serving all-you-can-eat turkey dinners to about 1500 people. The public is invited, and they come in hordes, well at least in large groups. They serve about 1500 dinners.

You have to wait in line to get in, but nobody minds this - while you're in line, there are still plenty of things to occupy you ... someone stays in line of course, but the women like to shop in an ancient parsonage house that is full of Christmas Arts & crafts & baked goods for sale, there is a beer tent for the men (so they're happy to be the ones waiting in the line), skeet shooting practice at the edge of the field, moon walks and other games and fun things for the kids.


The entire congregation participates. The ladies cook the food, the men organize the parking and selling the tickets and managing the seating (as people leave, they just find a spot with enough seats for your party and everyone is seated at long long tables in a huge fellowship hall) The teenagers serve the food, and they continually walk through the tables bringing second helpings or drink refills etc. Later, when you're full of turkey, they start bringing you the dessert trays and coffee. It's impossible to leave the place hungry. It's well worth the cost, which this year is about $11 I think - and well worth it!

While the serving is going on, there are several other activities - there's bingo ongoing through the day, there are raffle items and a silent auction. It's such a well-organized operation, you hardly notice how much is happening. It's really the most fun way to have Thanksgiving Dinner. It's perfect that they call it the Thanksgiving Picnic, because that's exactly the attitude! We aren't even Catholics, nor are most of the people who show up every year. Everyone is welcome.

So we ate and ate, and laughed and then I think we ate some more. Now we're relaxing, but there are no dishes to be washed etc. Best wishes to all for a Happy Thanksgiving.

Beware of too many craft projects

Ah, yes, the holidays are coming around again...and I already have too many cutesy project ideas. Cute little Thanksgiving cards and Christmas doo-dads are NOT satisfactory as actual ART MAKING.

On the other hand, this weekend is the annual East Austin Studio Tours, and I'm quite sure I'll get a head full of inspiration!

Thinking about Art is not the same as Making Art

Have had lots of Mental Meanderings about how to proceed (what I really want to make, or what I might do in the meantime) and, other than buying more supplies that I don't really need, haven't managed to actually accomplish anything. The artists' equivalent to writers block. Or maybe I'm just whiney today because it's housecleaning day here. Tomorrow will be better!

Well, it's been a nice weekend. Got lots of yardwork done, and a few chores, and bought some wonderful fresh fish (opah and escolar) at the local Central Market store, and then cooked it this evening along with a pan of roasted vegetables.. it was a really great dinner. And basically something that we couldn't have bought in a restaurant, or if we could it would have been outrageously expensive.

And now it's raining, and has been for the past couple of hours. I don't mind the rain, except that we intended to cook on the grill, and had to change the plan at the last minute and do all that cooking indoors. It worked out fine - we roasted the veggies in the oven, and then kept them hot in their pan while we broiled the fish in that same oven. The veggies stayed plenty hot in their pan with a lid on. Delicious.

But I had a craft project that I intended to work on and didn't get that done, so I know I better get busy on that this week.

What is it about Book Signings?

Last weekend I went to the Texas Book Festival, which was really quite wonderful, I heard several thought-provoking panel discussions and one hilarious "Literary Death Match" (Amelia Gray, an Austin writer, was the winner and was terrifically outrageous, everyone loved her!). All-in-all it was two really intellectually stimulating days. But, what I don't get is the fascination we (Americans?) seem to have with getting an author to autograph our copies of their books. After each Author talk, there would be a book-signing table and many, many people standing in line for the authors' signature. I guess I get a little star-struck by my favorite celebrity just like anyone else, but really, what's the point in the book signing?

It's not as if that signature is going to make your book any more valuable, and really, you don't actually intend to resell the book to cash in on their signature anyway, right? But, we will stand in some really long lines, apparently for quite a long time, in order to smile sweetly and say something about how we just love their writing, recipes, tv show, whatever. And - you have to know that these things are a real drag for the authors - to sit there for hours, trying to look happy, just signing and signing and signing. Clearly it helps to sell books, so I understand why the publishers push it and the authors do it, but I do not understand how this makes any of the readers feel special.