Christmas In Branson

Some of you who have been visiting for sometime know that our family loves going to Branson, Missouri.

AD and I had been planning a Christmas trip to Branson for sometime. This past weekend was the one weekend we would be able to make the trip.

Back in the summer G1 and his girlfriend made a trip to Branson with us. G2 wasn't able to go that time so he went with us this weekend.

Since it was just a short weekend trip we didn't take our 5th wheel. Like anyone else I want to stay in a nice, clean place but I just hate spending a lot of money on a hotel - especially since we're just there mainly to sleep.

There are quite a few nice, inexpensive places to stay in Branson but I was able to find a GREAT deal on a 2 night stay at one of the resorts in Branson. And it was cheaper than the place we usually stay when we don't take the trailer!

It had an exercise room which G2 

  

and AD tried out. Actually, I even tried one of the machines but there aren't any pictures as evidence.

They also had a game room with an air hockey table

a pool table and a Foosball table. (I'm not sure if I spelled that last one quite right.) Since we didn't arrive until later in the evening on Friday, we spent some time in the game room.

G2 was the big winner of the night. He beat AD at both air hockey and pool. I played him a game of pool too and of course, he easily won that too. Umm - in my defense, I haven't played pool in years and years and years.

one of the Dixie Stampede horses

Our original plans were to go to Silver Dollar City on Saturday morning but I really wanted to go to the Dixie Stampede too. They have a wonderful Christmas show with a live Nativity, including camels that the Wisemen ride in on!

Silver Dollar City was going to be open from noon to 9:30pm.

The weatherman predicted COLD weather on Saturday! I called the Dixie Stampede and there was a 12:30 performance and there were still seats available. So we I made the decision to get the tickets and go to the show and then we'd go to Silver Dollar City later. The main reason for me to go to Silver Dollar City was to see the lights anyway and arriving a bit later would be fine.

Photography of any kind is prohibited so there aren't any photos but of course the show was wonderful as always.

If you've been to the Dixie Stampede before you know there's always a friendly competition between the "North" and the "South". At Christmas it's between the "North Pole" and the "South Pole."

We like to sit with the "Southerners" but we had to go with the "Northerners" this time. They were the better seats - not that any of the seats are bad - but these were just closer to the action (on the second row).

(Note to Angela: I didn't notice any bad animal smells.)

Oh, and the North won that friendly competition. Early on it didn't look like we would but the North passed their candy canes quicker in the last competition and we won!

Tomorrow I'll tell you about Silver Dollar City.

Great Show!

Every year for the past several years the oil company that I retired from has a Christmas show for the employees.

Being retired, I don't qualify to get tickets for the Christmas show anymore. But AD, who also retired from the same company at the same time I did, went back to work for them part time. I'm not sure if that qualifies him to get tickets or not and he hasn't worked in a few weeks, but one of the guys he's worked with for years wasn't going to be able to use his tickets and offered them to AD.

It was a good show and we had a good time. Can you tell who the entertainment was? Probably not. We were sitting wa-a-a-a-y back in the auditorium. Well, not as far back as some folks, but far back enough that I wasn't able to get a good close shot of the guys.

One of the attributes of the Community Center is that the accoustics are excellent and the group sounded great.

Oh yeah - I haven't told you yet who the performers were. If you like country music you probably know the name Diamond Rio. Yep! Diamond Rio was the entertainment and they put on a fine show.

AD and I enjoyed a good evening!

So I Got Sidetracked

Yesterday I posted that our pre-lit tree had a couple of strings of lights go out and we had to buy a couple of short strings to take their place. AD thinks this is the last year for this particular tree but I just hate having to buy another one. Maybe if there are a bunch left over after Christmas and I can get one on the cheap then it won't be so bad.

Anyhow, I kind of got sidetracked from doing any decorating. I've been meaning to do a post about marshmallows for awhile now and I started playing with the ones I had in the pantry.

Mini marshmallows are great for hot chocolate or to top off a sweet potato casserole.

Regular sized marshmallows are great for roasting and making Smores. They also come in handy to disguise dog pills so the dog in question will take their medicine - unless of course you have a dog like our Smoke who can smell medicine a mile away and will turn his nose up at anything trying to harbor it.

Then there are the ginormous Giant Roasters that Campfire brand marshmallows are putting out. Have you seen them in the stores? If you toast them just right they get soft all the way to the middle - and the middle is a long way in on these puppies.

There seems to be an abundance of "flavored" marshmallows on the market now - chocolate, strawberry, caramel and these French Vanilla ones. Now maybe it's just me but other than the chocolate ones, I can't tell that any of them taste any different than regular marshmallows.

So this is what I did yesterday - well, not the whole day - but I sure had fun creating snowmen from the marshmallows. I like playing with my food.

Header Photos

You may have noticed that I finally changed the photos on the header making my blog a little more Christmas-y.

The first photo is of some Christmas decorations I bought a few years ago in an after-Christmas sale. They almost look like antique cut glass but that's not the case.

Last year I took some pictures of things on our tree. This little elf has been in the family since our kids were little - long before the Shelf Elf story came about.

Son built the little Nativity out of popsicle sticks when he was 5 or 6 years old. It was a project for his youth group.

The last photo is just a little decoration that sat on our chest of drawers last year.

As I type this AD has gone to WallyWorld to get a small string of light for our lighted Christmas tree. Seems a couple of the strings that came attached to the tree are now non-working. Then I'll begin decorating the tree.

More pictures to follow in the days to come.