Festival of Trees entry...

I've been working on a little project since last December. Well... maybe not working on it all year, but definitely thinking about it and planning. This year I am doing a tree for Festival of Trees. I started purchasing and gathering everything up at the end of last year's Christmas season.

My mom and dad are the donors of everything and I am the one putting it together and decorating it. It's the first time I've done this and it's a lot more complex and involved than I thought it was. I figured you just decorated a tree and donated it. Wrong. There are a lot of rules and regulations the festival has to assemble and decorate the tree. I had to attend a class in October to see how it all works.

The tree is in honor of my dad's older brother, Wesley. He passed away just over 13 years ago from colon cancer. He was just 62 years old when he died. He was a HUGE outdoors man. He loved the mountains! He was an avid horseback rider and hunter. Because of that, I chose to do the tree in an outdoorsy/woodsy theme.

Since his passing, my aunt has volunteered every Christmas at the Festival. My mom and I decided to do a tree to surprise my aunt. I got nervous in September and thought maybe it wouldn't be a good surprise or that maybe she would want to help with it. I just didn't want to upset my aunt with the tree. She has a difficult time talking about my uncle and his passing. I called her and told her about our plan for the tree. She seemed okay with it.

A few weeks ago, I took a day off of work so my dad and I could get the tree assembles and reinforced - one of the rules. I was able to get a beautiful tree last year for 80% off at an after Christmas sale. My friend Kim and I stood in line to get into the store - I had it picked out before the sale.

The Festival requires you to purchase and use their Christmas tree stand. It's welded together and allows the tree to permanently be attached to it. It's a lot heavier and more stable the the tree stand the tree comes with.

Here's the man to help do the job! My wonderful dad!!

He let me set up in one of the warehouse buildings he owns but isn't using. It's even heated so that makes it a lot nicer.

It's not fancy but I'm not complaining!

My dad was having a hard time getting something to fit together. Anthony, one of his employees, wandered over and saved the day.

The tree is up and ready for the next step.

We left the tree and went to Home Depot to get rebar and hose clamps - both required for the tree. After we got them, we decided to grab some lunch.

We went back to finish up reinforcing the tree.

My dad was pretty shaky the day we worked on the tree. It was hard for him but he was a trooper! He never complained about it once. It took quite a while to get everything done but we finished.

Each tree entry has to have PVC pipe inserted up the middle of the tree trunk. Every joint has to be drilled and bolted. After that, two posts of rebar have to be ran down the middle of the tree and hose clamped on - that was hardest part. Basically, once the tree is up it is never coming apart. It has to be super duper reinforced so that it can't come apart or break during the delivery of whoever buys it.

Finally done... and ready for decorating.

 Here are about half of the decorations for the tree. Ken brought them up from the basement and I loaded them up to take them down to the warehouse.

I'm not going to lie. The tree is not decorated yet. It has to be finished by Monday at 7:00 p.m. Monday is decorating day at the venue. I am going to get most of it done ahead of time... as in the next few days. My brother and my dad are going to transport the tree up to the South Town Expo Center on Monday. I'll spend a few hours there on Monday (I'm taking the day off of work) and then it's done. Ken and I will go to the bidding on Tuesday - I hope my mom and dad come too. I want to see how it all works. It should be really exciting. I'll take a lot of pictures along the way. I just hope someone sees my tree and buys it.