Ahhh... It's Festival Time

This year's Big Grandpa tree. Every year my mom buys a small tree to take to the Snowbird Condo (where we spend Christmas). It is bought in memory of my dad, or my kid's Big Grandpa.

A collaborative effort between my sister and I.
This is the quilt we made for the Festival.

My mom and a somewhat overall view of the festival. The picture definitely doesn't do it justice.

This was the third year that my mom was involved in the Festival of Trees in Utah. For many, many Utahns Christmas is not complete without the festival. I remember going as a kid and LOVING to see all the unique trees. Most of them are decorated in memory of a loved one that has passed away. It is so touching to hear the stories behind the trees. They are lovingly decorated by friends and family members, usually with a theme that the departed would have loved. The trees (both large and small), wreaths, gingerbread houses, and centerpieces are auctioned off on the first night. 100% of the proceeds from the festival go to benefit Primary Children's Hospital.
As I said in the previous post, I flew up on Saturday afternoon to "help" my mom with her duties as a festival board member. I say "help" because it is really just an excuse to get up there and see all the trees get decorated and talk to some of the families that decorate them. I did help take price tags off of about 500 little ceramic personalized pigs for the small fry shop (they had been donated). That was oodles of fun.
So, Saturday was setup day. My mom's job is to help in Santa Land, when the kids come to get their pictures taken with Santa. When I showed up on Saturday they had gotten the set up and were working on getting the computers to work right. But, mom had to get to her temple shift in Bountiful so we left shortly after I arrived.
I dropped mom off at the temple and headed to the quilt shop where my sister works. It's called Piper's Quilts and Comforts and it's in Sugarhouse. Such a cute little shop with amazing quilts hanging on the walls. I surprised Jessie, then bought a new pattern and fabric (of course), then left to go get a pedicure. Once I felt sufficiently pampered I went to Jessie's house to wait for her to get off work. Steve (Jessie's husband) reluctantly let me in the door. Saturday is Steve's "boxer day", so he doesn't typically like house guests. No worries though... he made sure I was comfortable and headed back upstairs to do his own thing. I fell asleep on the couch. Jessie is helping me perfect my quilt binding technique, so when she got home we spent the next couple hours binding a quilt I made to match my mom's Nemo room (for the grandkids). Then I was off to pick up my mom at the temple.
Sunday was "family meeting" day. My mom is filling out her mission papers, so we needed to talk about how some of the family affairs will be handled while she's gone. I am proud to say that I only broke down one time. The thought of her leaving and me not seeing my family as often is really hard for me. I am fearing the "orphan" feelings that I know will come along with her leaving. But I want her to do what makes her happy and I know this is right for her. We completed the day by attending the Utah Symphony's Messiah Sing-In. It's a family tradition.
On to Monday... or DECORATING DAY! This is the funnest day of all. This is the day that everyone brings in their trees and most of them still need to be decorated. The people start coming early in the morning and have until 7 pm to get the trees done. It is kind of like a big tailgate party, with craft tables replacing the tailgates. It's so fun to watch the trees take shape.
Mom and I spent Tuesday working, again, on getting the computers up and running for the Santa pictures. We finally got it right when it was time to get dressed in our fancy duds for the big opening of Auction Night. Jessie and Steve came to work in an aisle, which means they tell people about the trees and help with the auction process. Chris and Andrea came to help in invoicing. I was the "bidder" for my mom and Jessie, which meant a lot of walking for me... curse my pointy toed, high-heeled boots.
After the auction was over I went over to help in invoicing and to take off my wretched boots. Everything was running very smoothly and we finished quickly. We even got home before midnight.
I had to leave on Wednesday morning to get back to my mom duties, but I cherished the time that I was able to spend with my mom... just the two of us. I know she'll be leaving soon and that I probably won't make it up for festival next year. But I'll certainly be thinking that there is something missing during that week after Thanksgiving.

Brandon flew up on Friday to help with the tree delivery so he got to see the trees actually go into the homes of those that purchased them. I'll try to convince him to write his own blog entry about his experience.

The "MORMON METEOR". Don't ask me what it is, because we never quite figured it out, but the good news is that it raised a good amount of money for the kids at Primary Children's.


One of Brandon's favorite trees. Decorated completely with Star Wars figures.

These are the two family favorites for the year. The Elmo tree was SO adorable, and the upside-down tree was beautiful. Again, the pictures don't do it justice.