It's beginning to look a lot like a Relay Christmas!

Hey Everyone!!! We are well!! Life has been crazy busy and that is a good thing! I have a folder full of pictures to share with you in post format. I am hoping to get a few posts done tomorrow! I miss you! How is everyone? I hope you are well!!!

I believe I mentioned (and if I didn't, I'm sorry) awhile back that I am now on the leadership committee for our local Relay For Life event.  I am the "online chair." This is part of the reason I haven't been around. I work in front of a computer all day, I come home and catch up on email, news, Facebook for myself and then do some Relay stuff.  I have to walk away from the computer and that generally happens before I make it to Blogger. Don't worry. We are still taking pictures of our projects and I am still pinning ideas on Pinterest. In the three or so weeks since my last post, there has been a lot going on. My Aunt and Uncle came in from Florida, so we decorated for Christmas... a little early :). The house is beautiful and we had a lovely time (despite the reason for their visit not being an upbeat one) So there are Christmas photos to come. There are also some recipes coming. I had even taken pictures of us cleaning out the gutters and downspouts as Sandy approached. I did delete those pictures off the camera, I don't feel those need to be shared this far after the event, but I did think about you as we were in the rain. I had a great post planned, it just didn't happen. I do apologize.  Alright, back to Relay.

One of the churches downtown hosts a Festival Of Trees. That festival of trees started Thursday night. Wednesday night, Jim and I went to this church downtown to set up the Christmas tree. I will admit that I think it turned out quite lovely! Before I get to the decorated tree though, we have to make ornaments.

Having never decorated a Christmas tree for Relay For Life before, I bonded with Google and Pinterest.
I found this picture and it started as some inspiration.

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I contacted our Staff Partner with the American Cancer Society and asked her if she had some "printables" we could use for decorations. She did and I picked those up at our last meeting. Our Event Chair had some miscellaneous purple and silver ornaments/decorations/etc that she gave to me to use as well. We were moving along. I liked the tree top on this one but wasn't sure how I was going to copy it. I showed the picture to Jim and he disappeared. A little while later he comes up stairs with what you see in the picture below. My tree top problems had been solved!!!

The Relay crescent moon and star! Now all it needs is a coat of purple paint and we will be good to go!

Somewhere along the line we had a tree donated to us.

Christmas tree -- check

Tree top -- check

Purple and silver decorations -- check

Relay themed ornaments -- at the drawing board

In the box of stuff I received from our ACS Staff partner there was more than just printables.

She had given me event specific stuff, American Cancer Society stuff, Relay stuff...in many forms.

Some of that "stuff" came in the form of pins.

I had gone shopping and found a small tub of snowflakes. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the snowflakes, but I was pretty sure we could incorporate them into a Relay ornament....somehow!

I thought  these pins would make GREAT centers for the snowflakes.

I got out the Martha  Stewart craft glue out and went to town.

There were different kinds of pins and trinkets in the box.

There were some other pieces that were adhered to the snowflakes using hot glue. 

The snow flakes and the other trinkets and Martha Stewart craft glue didn't work together.

Once the ornaments had been put together and other pieces had been adapted to work for us...

I put everything on the wreath over our mantel. (Good thing I hadn't decorated this wreath for us yet!)

I posted this picture on our Relay Facebook page. The snowflakes all have a Relay trinket or pin attached!

WE NOW HAVE RELAY THEMED ORNAMENTS!

This was the picture I posted our Relay Facebook page Wednesday morning, the morning of the day everything would be moving to the church. The tree was donated so I hadn't seen it before. Yep! We acquired and made ornaments/decorations for a tree that had never been seen before. The lights were some we had picked up on clearance on year or two ago. We were pretty sure it wasn't going to be enough, but decided we would get the tree up first and go from there.

The tree is up and the lights are on!!!! 

Yep! We ran out of lights.

We left the church to come home and make some dinner and then on our way back to the church we picked up some more lights!

THE TREE IS DECORATED!!

YAY!!!

It looks pretty good for not knowing anything about it!!!

Our Relay event is in July. We wanted our tree to be a "save the date" sort of tree.

Here is the tree top with a coat of purple paint!

Pretty cool huh?

A daffodil bear and a purple ribbon help trim off the top of the tree!

THRILLED! Yes, I am THRILLED with how our Relay tree turned out.

Hopefully someone will tell us they are joining our event because of this Christmas tree.

If you are near us, the Relay Tree, along with many other trees decorated by the community, are on display at the First United Methodist Church in downtown Sharon, PA. The Festival of Trees will be available for viewing through Christmas.

Our Relay Facebook page is HERE

Our Relay page through the American Cancer Society is www.relayforlife.org/pashenangovalley

Do you Relay in your community?

Do you decorate trees for organizations in your community?

Thanks so much for stopping in!!! 

(I will do my very best to make sure it isn't three weeks between posts)

Partying here: