Today was my special day to go shopping for my grand prize from the radio contest that you all helped me win! We were picked up at 9:30 in a stretch limo and taken up to Bellevue where we were met by a photographer and Matt Case from the radio video taping us! We got to meet another winner and her husband and looked around a bit. We then were introduced to Rex, Marci's owner and he provided us with a small welcome gift: a pair of sterling silver hoop earrings in a little pouch. Matt said a quick prayer and then the 
caterer welcomed us to enjoy the delicacies. And they were wonderful! Cheese souffle, mini goat cheese tarts, chocolate mousse and chocolate covered strawberries, smoked salmon tarts and fruit parfaits. All accompanied by parkling apple cider!We each got a personal assistant to help us look around and that's what we did! Rex, the owner, encouraged us to take our time looking but to consider a significant piece, versus a few lesser items. He acknowledged that most things in his store were on the more expensive side so that we should enjoy our prize and choose something that we would treasure for years to come and that would remind of us our love stories.
I had thought at first to get a watch but then decided that I wanted something I wouldn't be worried to wear. I didn't think I'd be wearing a $500 watch to the park!! So I then thought of an earring/necklace set. But as I looked, nothing really struck me as "meaningful" and technically I had already been given the earrings! I had a hard time not thinking of quantity over quality, wanting to stretch my prize as best I could, not sure if I wanted to spend my whole certificate on one item. Until......I went and looked at some of the displays in the window cases and saw the only pearl pendant they had in the whole store.
I was interested in something pearl, but not a strand of pearls. It reminded me of Kristen's Christmas ornament and I knew that was it. It is a single pearl on a sterling silver base edged in diamonds. I looked at the price tag and it was 1/2 again more expense than what I had to spend, priced at $1,450. Lori (my personal assistant!) said "let me go check on something" and went to ask Rex what he thought. He came over and said "I can do this two ways, I can change your gift certificate to $1,450 or I can change the price of the necklace to $1,000. How does that sound?" As you can guess, I agreed! The more I looked at it, the more I liked it. I had thought I wanted a pearl pendant, but this one makes me think the pearl is being held, not just dangling there by itself. And if I really wanted to get into "significance", the shape holding it is a triangle, which could represent the Trinity!
As we all had our packages wrapped up we were given a gift from Spirit 105.3 of a T-shirt, a Third Day CD, the DVD "Fireproof" and our Chris Tomlin tickets. Wow! The gifts just kept coming! We all gathered outside for a few photos with our limos and then we were off once again! The three of us winners agreed we should get together before the Chris Tomlin concert which would be fun!
Needless to say it was a very fun day with lots of treats and surprises! Thank you Spirit 105.3 for the opportunity! Thank you Marci Jewelers for the experience and the wonderful gift! Thank you Salon and Spa Dolche for the fun, new hair style! And thank you everyone who voted for our story. It was an honor to honor Kristen in such a way!
