Going Once...Twice...Sold!

On Saturday night, Shawn and I went to a fundraising dinner/auction. It was to raise money for a local crisis pregnancy center, and we weren't planning on going until Thursday night. A friend of a friend had actually bought two full tables for the dinner, and he still had some open spots on Thursday. So Shawn and I were invited and we decided to go (especially since dinner would be free!).

Once we got to the auction, we decided to go ahead and bid on a few smaller items that were in the silent auction. Unfortunately, we didn't win anything. We also bought a ticket for the "case of cash" ($1000 in cash), but we didn't win that either. Once dinner was over, the live auction began. I thought it was actually pretty interesting that the live auction began with bidding for dessert! It's amazing how much someone will pay for a cheesecake (over $500) when they know the money is going to a good cause. :) Those of us who didn't bid on or win a "special" dessert got slices of cake.

During dinner, Shawn and I had looked through the catalog of items that would be up for bid during the live auction, and we agreed to bid on a few things. However, we absolutely assumed that we would be outbid on everything we were interested in. For example, there were a pair of Mariners tickets that I said I'd be willing to pay $150 for. The opening bid was $200.

However...Shawn decided to bid on a "date night" package, and he actually won it! He did spend a good chunk of money, but A) it went to a good cause, and B) it was actually less than what the entire package was worth. Here's what we won:

• a gift basket that included 4 bottles of wine (from a local winery), 2 wine glasses, a corkscrew, and chocolates
• Gift certificates to four different restaurants (they're different amounts, but each certificate is plenty to cover dinner for two adults)
• Two lower level tickets to a Mariners game towards the end of the season
• Gift certificate to a really cool bowling alley
• Certificate good for two tickets to any show in the 2009-2010 season at the Seattle Public Theater
• Gift card for Regal Cinemas (enough for two tickets and some popcorn)

We're really excited to start using this stuff! I know that the idea behind the package is that we can have four separate date nights...but honestly, I'm thinking we can easily stretch it out to more than that! For example, I don't need to go out to dinner the night we go to the Mariners game. I'm happy just eating hot dogs at the stadium.

I really loved that Shawn decided to bid on this. We actually bid on and won another item later in the evening, but I'll have to post about that later. :) I wanted to make sure that this awesome gift from my husband got its own post! I'll have to write about our experiences when we start using the certificates.