Holly Ball 2012

Our friends and backyard neighbors Brian and Julie own and operate a valet company.  They offer valet services for the hospital here in our town, and so they also take part in valeting for an annual hospice fundraiser called Holly Ball.  For the past two years now they have asked us to go as guests, as they receive enough tickets for a table full. 

It is such a fun opportunity to get dressed up and enjoy a night of great food, conversation, music, and dancing! 

This year I decided to wear the bridesmaid dress that I wore for my cousin Ann’s wedding this past August.  Might as well get another night out of it!  We arrived at around 4:30 and sat down to an elegant dinner.

We were serenaded throughout dinner by an a cappella men’s group.  I loved it!

Also during dinner they showed this powerful video. 

After the video was shown there were touch pads on our tables. We were all given an auction bidding number before the evening began. We were able to enter our number on to the touch pad along with the number of recordable books we wanted to purchase, and right before us on a large screen was a running total of the number of books that were being purchased at $30 each. It was amazing to see the generosity of the people in that room just come pouring out. They raised far beyond what they were hoping to that evening, and in fact the total evening brought in $502,000! It is great to be a part of something that isn’t just a fun night out, but also a fundraiser for such a truly worthy cause!

Far left is Amanda who works as a fellow manager with Chris.  Julie is in the middle.  The amazing story here is that Amanda and Julie have been close friends for over seven years.  I believe that God played a pretty large role in us purchasing a home that is directly behind Brian and Julie’s.  Of all the homes in this city!  We have since grown in friendship with both couples and have a fun time together.  All of us have young children so that creates a bond of understanding right off the bat!

I love this man (and his tie!)

As the dinner was winding to a close the entire wall on one side of the room was pushed aside and this was revealed…

Every set of hanging umbrellas indicated where the food stations were.  We had just finished a full meal, but yet in this room there was a dessert station, vegetable station, shrimp station, fruit station, meat carving station, oriental station, and mashed potato station (with every type of mashed potato concoction possible!).  It is not a night to count calories, that is for sure!

They had two bands playing.  One is a well known local band called the Fabulous Armadillos. The other band was from Minneapolis and was called Sell Out Stereo.  The two bands just took turns playing a set all evening, so the music never stopped!

We got home around midnight and crashed in to bed.  Thanks again Brian and Julie for a great time!