Nov. 30, 2008 at 3:30pm

This has been a great holiday weekend

....aaaand that's why I'm behind on my email replies

I spent Thanksgiving with friends instead of family this year. It was a tough decision but I feel like it was the right one. Since my mother passed away a couple of years ago, my daughter and I have been going to my brother Randy's house to spend it with his family and my other brother David's family. David decided to break with tradition and spend the holiday with his wife's family just this one year so I thought maybe I could break with tradition this once too.

I spent Thanksgiving at my friend Linda's house with a few of my favorite people: my daughter Jesse, Linda, Desiree, Bill, Mary K, Elizabeth, Rob, Andras, Toy and some of their relatives. As I looked around the table I saw two movie stars, several artists, a couple of musicians, a couple of writers and lots of smiling faces and yummy food. I felt right at home.

We had so much food there that I even got to take home some turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie! Now THAT is something to be thankful for.

You'd think that would hard to top as the best part of the weekend, wouldn't you? But Saturday I went down to the Foss Waterway Seaport and helped several of the best artists in Tacoma to paint a 180 foot mural for Tacoma Winterfest and it was a lot of fun. It turned out amazing too!

The artists who painted the mural are: Desiree Flerchinger, Bill Silvey, Linda Lapping, Teddy Haggarty, Houston Wimberly III, Maureen McHugh, Lynn Di Nino, Dawn Fortner, Cara Jennings, Jesse Jossy, Marie Charette, two SOTA students and at least three others who's names I can't remember.

Our film crew (Sway Productions) did a time lapse photography recording of the mural painting process which will soon be available to Click! Cable TV customers on the GoLocal on demand channel.

They also did some on the spot interviews with the artists and volunteers. I'm pretty sure my interview will look something like that girl on Blair Witch movie - me in my furry black winter hat in extreme close-up, very little makeup and even less idea what I was saying.  

Besides that though, it was a lot of fun to spend the day with such creative genius's.

Tacoma Winterfest is really shaping up now. We had so many vendor applications that we had to redesign our layout to make more space! The TV commercial turned out really cute and we had a lot of fun shooting it last Wednesday. The radio ads should be completed soon too. Hopefully you've already seen some of our posters, fliers and ads around town. Broadway Center passed out 800 Tacoma Winterfest fliers at the Tree Lighting Ceremony yesterday.

Right now I'm working on the last few spots on the entertainment schedule. I'd really like to have a well-rounded line up that reflects many cultures and winter celebrations. I'm looking for a local African-American Gospel choir so if you know a good one, email me at angela.jossy@gmail.com.

If you are interested in being a vendor, contact Claudia Riedener at TacomaWinterfest@live.com. We are almost full but she might be able to squeeze a couple more in if you turn in your application right away. Applications are available online at www.fosswaterwayseaport.org.