Defeated and Triumphant in a matter of minutes.

Another year come and gone for The Festival of Trees. A yearly tradition for my sister and I. One that we truly love to share. People spend hours and hours working on trees, quilts, centerpieces and wreaths to donate for others to bid on at the festival. All of the proceeds go to Primary Children's Medical Center for charity care. I have a friend whose son was in need of such funds when he was first born and spent the first six months of his life needing surgeries and extensive hospitalization. They had no money to pay for all of the hospital bills and relied on the charitable funds that fundraisers such as the Festival of Trees provide.

Last year I was disappointed that I didn't bid on a certain bikini-clad porcelain frog for my sister. I had missed a golden opportunity. I was NOT going to let that happen again this year. Down the first aisle of centerpieces I found just the thing...

or maybe...

or this one...

perhaps this...

I couldn't get her this one because it was already taken.

No. Definitely the pigs. But how was I going to get away from her long enough to write down a bid so she wouldn't know? Time ticked down and still I couldn't get away.

And then opportunity struck!

While April chatted I gave some excuse about checking a bid on a picture I had seen and slipped away to make a bid.

Sadly, however I lost later to a pig-lover who purchased them for a whopping $121.00!

Unbelievable!

I'm still nursing my wounds today. Next year I will win for sure!

Thankfully I did NOT lose my gingerbread house bid (sigh).

Heat Miser vs. Snow Miser will be coming home with us on Saturday.

Yeah! (if I can only keep the kids away from it until Christmas Eve)

Anyways...we love going to the festival because we see such diversity in the entries that people submit. Everyone has different tastes. For example, we found a tree decorated entirely with frogs...

I really like the show White Collar and was surprised to actually find a "White Collar" tree.

There was an "Up" tree and even an "Up" gingerbread house.

My boys would have loved the Legomaniac tree. It included a lego table and a ton of lego sets as well as 8 passes to Legoland in California. That tree started at $4500.00 - just a little out of my pricerange. (gulp)

One of the trees that scared me from afar (because I saw a human leg sticking out) but then had me laughing out loud when I got up close, was this tree...

Of course the festival would not be complete if it didn't have at least one sock monkey tree right?

The gingerbread houses that were out of my league but beautiful were...

Tangled (the last bid we saw had it at $1000.00 and that was way before the closing bid)

The Weasley's burrow:

A Madagascar Christmas:

I was tempted to buy these... (just kidding)

April was tempted to buy this...

but I talked her out of it and convinced her to get a scarf instead. She left the hat for a kid with a really big head to buy.

Needless to say, we had a fantastic time, our feet hurt, our heads hurt and my stomach hurts from laughing at all the things April said to me during the evening. She can be really naughty sometimes. Does she know about Santa's list?