Property owners who place their pad on the home-tour circuit provide a profound service by taking part in an event that benefits our neighborhood and its schools. It’s not easy, after all, preparing a home for the Lake Highland Women’s League Holiday in the Highlands Home Tour, which annually showcases four or five of the area’s most brag-worthy properties. Neighbor Amelia Natanson doesn’t have a home on the tour, but she has contributed her fair share of painstaking work — it’s her way of letting the participants know they are appreciated. For the past two years, Natanson has meticulously sketched each home on the tour as a gift to its owner. “I love doing this for the Women’s League because I have seen the effect the organization has had on the lives of students through the scholarships they give each year. That’s why I do it,” says Natanson, the art teacher at Stults Road Elementary School in Lake Highlands. Her service also comes with other, unexpected little rewards. Last year, she remembers, one of the tour homes had works by some of her favorite artists, such as David Bates, hanging on the walls. The idea that the homeowner might possibly hang her sketch alongside those greats made her smile, she says. A painting of one home may take as long as 17-20 hours, but Natanson says it’s worth every minute.

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Holiday In the Highlands
when/ Friday, Dec. 4 from 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. The Holiday Market runs from 9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. luncheon will be from 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
where/ Highland Oaks Church of Christ (Plano and Walnut Hill)
tickets/ Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the tour homes or at the church
for info/ lhwl.org