Christmas with the Family

Our Christmas is different then most. We get togther at a golf course and have a nice meal and get to spend quality time catching up on old times and current events in each other lives. Then we move from there to my brothers house and exchange gifts. My brother and his wife just moved into their new place right before Christmas. It worked out great because his new place is large enough that we can all fit. Our family keeps growing I thing we are well past 30 people and there is no end in sight.

Christmas Eve day

This is Chirstmas Eve day which is always kinda of rushed. We get up open gifts from the kids, and they open what we got them and then we take off for my husband side of the family which live 200 miles away. Then we spent the rest of the holiday with them. By the time we are all done it feels like weve had Christmas 4 times. The good think about that is that with it being spread out alittle its not over so fast.

Time goes fast

Cant believe we are already into December. Each day seems like it is going faster. I always get this panic feeling about now. Because Ive hardly got any shopping done. Ive been making sure that my mom gets her's done first. She has alot more to do then I do. Each wednesday between Thanksgiving & Christmas weve been going to different cities to get the stores that we dont have in our city. Thank goodness for gift cards. Its been fun spending the day with her knowing that it will reduce her stress. She also gets stressed about the winter driving

Silver Dollar City Christmas Lights

Well thinking back on yesterday I really liked how the day ended yesterday with the beautiful Christmas light display at Silver Dollar City. They even had entertainer on hand to play some Christmas music on the grand piano and he sang. What a way to end the day. We woke up this morning and kinda slept in, got a little later start but hey we are on a mini vacation so what if we are moving alittle slower today. We found right across the parking lot from where we were staying a large breakfest buffet. All you can eat for $4.99. Believe me it was a great buffet.

Silver Dollar Cave

This was a delightful surprise, little did we know that we actually got 2 attractions for the price of one. We didnt have a very long wait and our tour guide told us that the cave was over 500 feet deep. It had enough height that you could fit a hot air balloon inside. So now you know how far down we went.

Silver Dollar City Surprise

To my surprise this is a larger place then I thought it would be. I found this to be well organized place. You can tell quite a few vistors go thru their gates each year. The people are very friendly You enter thru there gift shop and the first attraction we found was the cave. Which I didnt even know was there. We found that to be one of the highlights

Silver Dollar City

Today is the day we get to use those free tickets and go to Silver Dollar City. How exciting this is for me. Ive waited for a long time to find out what this is like. We were told that this is the best time of year to visit because of the Christmas lights and decorations. The weather has been perfect while we have been here. Its been in the high 60 & 70 degrees every day. We arrived late morning and as the day wore on more and more people seemed to show up.

Here we are in Branson

Made it down to Branson on time for our appointment. We got to see a brand new development it was designed to resemble the New England cottages and were very charming. Our friends that we rode with have a time share there and we were not sure we wanted to invest in something like that. They gave us 2 sets of free tickets to two shows. Also got tickets for Silver dollar city.

Plans Changed

Got a late start this morning, Stayed at that cheap motel last night. Which turned out to be OK. Then ate breakfast at the Waffle house next door. We finished breakfast and decided to head over to Bass Pro Shop. Drove thru Springfield found it and drove into parking lot, and quess what our driver decided that we didnt have enough time to see it was because we had an appointment in Branson at noon. So my fears of getting that close and something coming up so we couldnt see the place came true

Branson Trip

We left right after the thanksgiving meal and knew we had quite a drive ahead. Our goal was to make it to Springfield for the first night. We had good roads and the drive went as planned. Our plan for the next day was to see the Brass Pro Shop store. A friend at work had suggested that we go see this. She said it was impressive.

Wonderful Turkey Dinner

This is another one of my sisters great turkey dinners. She out did herself again. We had way to much to eat and it was very nice getting together with my family. Even though we don't live that far apart we don't get to see each other that much so its a fun time together. Even the weather cooperated.