A trip coming up

How was your weekend?  Ours was pretty uneventful.  We did go to see my father-in-law who is in a nursing facility.   Then we stopped at a little place for a sandwich.  Hub had a burger and fries, I had a roast beef/mashed potato plate.  It was just okay.  Today was pretty lazy, I didn't get everything done this weekend I should have.  And I have to work Monday and Tuesday.   We are leaving Wednesday for my favorite place in Missouri.  This is where we'll be staying:

Our children will be with us again this year.  We always have a wonderful time.  We will see places like the following:

Forgive the blurry photo, but I've yet to master taking pix of Christmas lights that turn out really good.  The park we are in has over 4 million lights decorating the buildings and trees.  Absolutely beautiful and our favorite place to begin the Christmas season.   

 

 

This is the majestic musical tree you see when walking into Silver Dollar City.  It is five stories tall and it is one of the highlights of the park.  And for those who live in Missouri, you know that I'm talking about SDC in Branson.  The tree plays Christmas music with the lights flashing in different colors and patterns in time to the music. 

Another SDC photo.  Don't forget you can click on the pix to make them larger.

We can't go to SDC without riding the train.  Young and old alike enjoy the ride with a stop along the way to hear the Christmas story.  After dark is our preferred time to ride as you can see a lot of the fabulous lights of the park. 

This is a huge park and we like to go before dark to see where everything is and then after dark we kind of know which way to go.  It's easy to get turned around even with a map, at least for me, no matter how many years we've been going.  Oh, I don't have any pictures of the food!  Something we like to do is sample different foods around the park.  The apple dumplings with cinnamon ice cream, funnel cakes, chili in a bread bowl, the food they cook in huge skillets and so much more...yum, yum.  Oh, and in the winter you have to have their hot chocolate...delicious!  There are restaurants in the park, but I like to try different things so we just kind of  graze our way around at the food stands.  We're usually there several hours and all that walking gives you an appetite! 

This is another stop for us in Branson, the Grand Village on Hwy 76, otherwise known as the strip.  Just driving down the strip (with all the traffic) this time of year is an adventure.  At night all the music theaters and businesses are decked out in all their Christmas lights and are just beautiful.  Of course, we go down to the Landing and make a stop in the old downtown area and stop in at the famous Dick's Five and Ten.  The Grand Village pictured above has several shops and the well known Mel's Hard Luck Diner where all the waiters and waitresses sing.  They are really good and one of the waiters was on American Idol a few years ago.  There is much more to tell about Branson and I'm not a travel agent, but I just love this place!  In fact, I am trying to talk Hubs into moving here when he retires.  Well, just a few more days, and we're on our way! I'll tell you all about it when we get back and this time I'll try to remember to take some pics of the food, too! 

Until next time...