Jubilee of Trees

There's nothing like a good Christmas tree festival to start the season off right. We have a few outings that we like to do as a family during Christmas time that have become tradition in our home and the Jubilee of Trees is one of them. This fundraiser is put on by our local hospital and helps raise money, by the sale of the auctioned trees, to help fill the needs of the hospital. This year the hospital was looking to add their own life-flight helicopter. A much needed addition that will help benefit our area.

The festival also has auctions for decorated gingerbread houses, wreaths, miniature trees and takes pride in their Sweets Shoppe. All of the baked goods are donated on a daily basis and are sold according to what the baker feels is appropriate for their items. This was my 2nd year donating my large, frosted sugar cookies to the Sweets Shoppe and I've been told they sell out everytime.

There's also entertainment going throughout the day, but obviously the highlight of the festival is the trees. We decided this tree was our "funnest" tree for apparent reasons. You can't see from this picture (which was swipped from a friend's blog) but the tree was actually curved upwards in a whimsical kind of way. It looked like he had a hard time removing it from a home in Whoville.

I really liked the color scheme of this tree:This was Jaynee's favorite tree, but all of us girls thought it was pretty cute too:Jaynee's kindergarten teacher put together this tree and donated it on behalf of their school. It was done in a Wizard of Oz theme. See the witch being crushed by the house at the base of the tree? And the good witch Glenda on top?The color scheme of this tree was our inspiration for our own tree this year. However, our tree never turned out like this one. Both Kaylee and I loved the blue and silver together.This tree was put together by a local dance studio who puts on the The Nutcracker ballet every year here in town. Kerry's cousin Lisa, who used to be a ballet dancer, who's now a seamstress, made the tutu used on the tree. It was so pretty and we thought she did a wonderful job!Last, but not least, our most favorite tree of the festival was the one that featured Jesus Christ as it's theme. It just so happened to win our "People's Choice" vote that evening too. Not to mention, we loved the sage green and brown color scheme.These next 3 pictures were taken by my cousin's wife, Lora. She attended the Festival of Trees in Salt Lake City just recently and posted these pictures to her blog. I just had to share them on mine because I've got lots of Twilight fans for friends. (Okay, I'm a fan too!) Notice on the tree that whoever donated the tree used the items on each of the bookcovers as her decorations. I like the silver bulbs with each of their names on them and the black plate that says, "Dear Santa, vampires believe." There weren't only Twilight trees there...there were even Twilight gingerbread houses. Notice Edward in the tree watching Bella through the window? Haha...love it!In case you were wondering....vampires don't believe in Christmas! Yoo-hoo, reality check...but it sure is fun to think that maybe they could if they could open presents Christmas eve instead of Christmas morning. Ha ha...love it!