Festival of Trees
This is one of my favorite nights of the year. My mom's birthday is December 2nd and for the past 5 or 6 years (since my parents moved to Utah) we have been carrying on this fabulous tradition to celebrate. My mom and all of the girls go to the opening night of the Festival of Trees.
Every year people donate trees, wreaths, center pieces and other things that they have made. Then on the opening night people come and bid on the different decorations. There is a starting bid on a card in front of the display. If you want it you put your bidding number down and how much you are bidding. They are significantly overpriced because all the proceeds go to the Primary Children's Hospital. So people that come are fully expecting to drop a couple thousand or more. Because it's for a good cause and it helps that it's a tax write off.
Last year I missed it, and it happened to be the year that my mom bid on and bought a tree for something like 7,000 or so. So this year it wasn't in the plans to buy another tree which was kind of depressing because that's part of the fun of it. My dad said to my mom, before we left, "You're not going to buy another tree are you?" My mom just laughed. So instead of a tree she found a nice little display she liked. The starting bid was 1,800. We asked her if she was going to bid on it and she said, "Dad only said he didn't want me to buy a tree" By the time she went to bid on it, it was up to 3500. When more than one person is interested you need to be at the display at the time the auction ends so you can participate in a silent bid. This one had about 4 or 5 different people participating in it. You basically get a piece of paper and you write down your bid and hope you bid more than everyone else. This is the super exciting part.
This is the huddle as we were trying to help my mom decide how much to bid. You have to be pretty discreet so people won't find out your bid. At first we didn't know if she was that into it. But she wrote down 5500. Then she got nervous and upped it to 5800 and then all of us were trying to figure out just how much she wanted it so we would ask her how much she liked it, and she'd say, "well, I really like it now", and then we would ask her what she didn't like about it (to make sure it was worth it) and she'd say, "Well..umm..nothing" I think it was partly the display and partly the excitement of wanting to win the bid. With that established we encouraged her to bid 6000. (it's much easier to throw around numbers like that when it's not your money) All the while my sister is saying "four thousand" and "forty five hundred" quite audibly to throw the other groups off. (I know, we're playin' dirty now) In the end the 6 grand got it. It was so exciting.
This isn't the best picture but this is what all the fuss was about. And even though it was about as much as she spent last year on a tree, she can certainly say she didn't buy a tree. I'm pretty sure my dad was more concerned with the price and not the dilema of where they would put another tree. Apparently he needs to be a little more specific next year on his instructions.
Then we went to Mimi's to finish the night off with dinner. My mom's 2 sisters were able to be with us this year too. Such a fun, fun night with some of my favorite people.
Every year people donate trees, wreaths, center pieces and other things that they have made. Then on the opening night people come and bid on the different decorations. There is a starting bid on a card in front of the display. If you want it you put your bidding number down and how much you are bidding. They are significantly overpriced because all the proceeds go to the Primary Children's Hospital. So people that come are fully expecting to drop a couple thousand or more. Because it's for a good cause and it helps that it's a tax write off.
Last year I missed it, and it happened to be the year that my mom bid on and bought a tree for something like 7,000 or so. So this year it wasn't in the plans to buy another tree which was kind of depressing because that's part of the fun of it. My dad said to my mom, before we left, "You're not going to buy another tree are you?" My mom just laughed. So instead of a tree she found a nice little display she liked. The starting bid was 1,800. We asked her if she was going to bid on it and she said, "Dad only said he didn't want me to buy a tree" By the time she went to bid on it, it was up to 3500. When more than one person is interested you need to be at the display at the time the auction ends so you can participate in a silent bid. This one had about 4 or 5 different people participating in it. You basically get a piece of paper and you write down your bid and hope you bid more than everyone else. This is the super exciting part.
This is the huddle as we were trying to help my mom decide how much to bid. You have to be pretty discreet so people won't find out your bid. At first we didn't know if she was that into it. But she wrote down 5500. Then she got nervous and upped it to 5800 and then all of us were trying to figure out just how much she wanted it so we would ask her how much she liked it, and she'd say, "well, I really like it now", and then we would ask her what she didn't like about it (to make sure it was worth it) and she'd say, "Well..umm..nothing" I think it was partly the display and partly the excitement of wanting to win the bid. With that established we encouraged her to bid 6000. (it's much easier to throw around numbers like that when it's not your money) All the while my sister is saying "four thousand" and "forty five hundred" quite audibly to throw the other groups off. (I know, we're playin' dirty now) In the end the 6 grand got it. It was so exciting.
This isn't the best picture but this is what all the fuss was about. And even though it was about as much as she spent last year on a tree, she can certainly say she didn't buy a tree. I'm pretty sure my dad was more concerned with the price and not the dilema of where they would put another tree. Apparently he needs to be a little more specific next year on his instructions.
Then we went to Mimi's to finish the night off with dinner. My mom's 2 sisters were able to be with us this year too. Such a fun, fun night with some of my favorite people.
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