Festival of Trees

Another Festival of Trees has come and gone, and I think that, especially considering my complete lack of organization, it was a total success! I think that I'd mentioned before that this was the first year that I kind of started from scratch. This was also first year that I didn't start or get registered until October. I barely made it. After getting registered, I got a lot of my shopping done and created my tree in my mind pretty immediately. I didn't have much of a choice. I really only had less than two months to do everything. Unfortunately, my mind creation required much literal creation, and I didn't have any mind instructions for execution.

Thanks to my mom for all of her ideas and efforts. We've spent so much time at my parents house these past couple of months that I'm sure that my children think that we have two homes. Since we don't live super close and had so much to do, we'd usually go in and spend the night, so I'd have full days of my mother's assistance. We went into Sandy for a Christmas party on Sunday, and I "moved out" once and for all. I didn't realize how much crap I'd accumulated there over the past couple of months. It all barely fit in my trunk.

Decorating day was Monday, November 29th. We were really scrambling the weekend before to get things done. The biggest challenge was Cookie Monster himself. I had wanted to make (or have Adele make) a life-sized Cookie Monster from the beginning. I didn't have any idea how we'd do it but always just assumed that something would come together. As of the night before, we still didn't know what we were going to do. I had the fabric, that hadn't taken the dye, and was now a silver color. I'd settled on some paper mache balls for eyes because giant round googly eyes just don't exist anymore. I'd bought a couple of concrete forms, thinking that we could use them for a frame, but I didn't know how. That night, my mom sewed a big empty Cookie Monster. We'd figure the rest out in the morning.

Monday morning brought a lot of stress. We loaded everything up, ran a few errands, and it was off to the Expo Center to put something together. Honestly, I didn't think that the set up would take terribly long. There wasn't a ton to the tree. We'd even gotten all of our tree support supplies beforehand, a major hold up last year. Cookie Monster was the only thing that I really thought would take much time. We used the entire day though. We barely made it out by closing at 7:00. Cookie Monster did take some serious experimentation, but I think that he turned out pretty great. I just hope that he kept some shape after delivery (he definitely wasn't the most stable).

Despite having two strikes against us, non-Christmas color and non-Christmas theme, "C is for Christmas" sold. I wasn't able to make it to opening night, so I can't say for certain that it sold at auction, but I do know that it was never seen with a price on it, so I can only assume that it did. I understand why they don't disclose sale prices, but I would love to know how much it sold for. In my 13 year history, I've only found out once (because someone on the executive board was naughty and sneaked a peak). All in all, I am so happy with the way that the tree turned out. It was definitely an eye-catcher. I haven't talked to anyone who went to Festival this year that didn't remember my tree. My sisters both told me that there were big crowds around my tree when they went to see it. I would have thought they were just being nice, but when I went, there really was a crowd. Marinda, my sister in Michigan posted a picture of my tree on her blog. There were all sorts of comments from people who had gone to Festival and seen it. There was even one from someone who wasn't able to make it but had heard about my tree without knowing it was mine. It's all made me feel really great.

I only hope that the response to the tree reflects the price that it sold for. I love and appreciate Primary Children's Medical Center so much and love to do what I can to help them (and patients that aren't lucky enough to have our awesome insurance) out. I feel so thankful for everything that PCMC has done for my family and for the family's of so many people that I care for. I'm glad that I am able to do something small, that I enjoy so much, to give back. If ever anyone wants to get involved with Festival of Trees, I'd be happy to point you in the right direction, or you can visit http://www.festivaloftreesutah.com/ (or it might be .org).

I'm starting on next year early to avoid unnecessary stress. I know what I'm doing, and I'm super excited about it. If all turns out, it will even be cuter than this year. It's a surprise though, so stay tuned!