LeFevre Family: Festival of Trees

As anyone who has ever had a child spend time at Primary Children's Hospital knows, it is an amazing place. James and I have been shown such love and kindness every time Enzo has been there, both from the doctors, nurses, and staff, as well as total strangers. After all of the time we have spent up there, we wanted to "Pay it Forward" when we were able to. So this year, we decided to purchase a Christmas tree from the Festival of Trees. Last year we went to opening night, but didn't end up buying a tree. This year, with no hospital bills to pay off, we came with a budget and set out to find ourselves a Christmas tree. We found a tree in our budget and placed our bid. At the last minute, someone out-bid us - and then they disappeared when it was time to close the auction. So we were able to purchase our first tree from the Festival, one entitled "A Fire Fighter's Christmas."

This year, I tried not to learn about the stories behind the trees, because sometimes even the title of a tree would make me cry. And if there was a picture of a poor baby with tubes and wires, I was definitely done in. So we were safe with "A Firefighter's Christmas." The info about the tree just told us that the tree was dedicated to a retired Fire Marshall from Ogden, UT. However, while we were waiting to close our bid, we met a lady who knew the families who had donated the tree. It was really neat to talk to her, and we found out that the Fire Marshall had recently been diagnosed with cancer and had passed away just a few weeks before - and his family had donated this tree in his memory.

The tree stayed at the festival for the rest of the week and was delivered to our house Sunday morning. The volunteers who delivered the tree had instructions to set it up exactly as it was in the picture. However, we snatched up a few of the toys before Enzo saw them so that he could get them for Christmas. Here is the tree as it looked once it was set up at our house.

It was definitely nice to not have to set up a tree this year, especially since ours and all of our Christmas stuff was buried in the mess of our under-construction basement. But my favorite part about the tree was how much fun my boys had with the stuff that came with the tree. Most of the toys were hidden away until Christmas, but James was so excited about the complete, real-life fireman's uniform that came with it. It also included a toddler-sized fireman's costume as well - guess what Enzo and Daddy are going to be for Halloween next year? Even though Enzo's costume was a little big,