4th Annual Reliant Gingerbread House Competition

It’s become tradition. Every December, I eagerly await the invitation from Reliant Energy to participate in their media showdown for Gingerbread House decorating. It’s feeds my inner desire to be on Cake Wars, Cupcake Wars, Halloween Wars, Great British Bake Off, (fill in the blank of every baking competition you can find on TV) Wars… but what’s even better about it, is that Reliant donates $1,000 to my charity partner just for participating. So just for showing up, they win.

This year, I was paired with Ronald McDonald House of Dallas. They provide services to families of terminally-ill and severely-ill children who are receiving treatment in the Dallas area. They have 52 private bedrooms and 6 transplant apartments. In addition, the 60,000 square foot facility has multiple playrooms for kids of all ages and interests, a library, media room, craft room, chapel, meditation garden, and outdoor play areas. Two large communal kitchens and dining room provide opportunities for the families to share the evening meal, which is provided 3 times a day by community volunteers, or to prepare their own food if they choose. It takes hundreds of volunteers and massive donations to keep the house running. While they ask for a meager $15 per family per night, no one is ever turned away. Since they opened, RMHD has served 37,000 families.

And here’s how YOU can help. You see our yellow and red gingerbread house? Yep. It’s up for People’s Choice award. By doing something as simple as a TEXT message (c’mon, you send those ALL THE DAY LONG), you can help bump us up. The winner with the most text votes gets an additional $2,000 donation and I’d love for the MommyUpgrade tribe to wrap our arms around these families in need. Please take just a second to text: FAVHOUSE TRISTA to 27126.

Thank you!