This year I attended a holiday fundraiser
event for the University of Tennessee Children's Hospital. It's called
Fantasy of Trees, and one of our friends from church is heavily involved
in planning it. Businesses, organizations, and individuals decorate and
donate trees to be purchased by the community. There must have been
over 1,000 trees displayed at the convention center, plus live music and
entertainment, rides for kids, face painting, craft tables, and one of
the highlights for me, a gingerbread house contest. Each gingerbread
house seemed more impressive than the last, and just when I thought I'd
picked my favorite, another one blew me away. I did not envy the judges.
Here are just a few of the entries:
As you can see from the ribbon below, this was a first place winner (though I cannot remember the exact category). The detail on this house is hard to capture on camera. Just as an example, the "stone" walkway up to the front door is almond slices.
And here is the inside. The tiny little paintings on the wall were just fantastic. I'm actually not sure how they were done.
Here are some others.
I loved this one for its "modern" flare. Very unique.
And lastly, another first place winner. I could not believe this was really gingerbread and cannot imagine what went into making it.
Between this and the cake bake off I attended last March, I'm convinced Knoxville has some real talent when it comes to sweets!
