day 2

I took a sleeping pill, but I was still up at 4 am. I am cursed. Doomed to wake way too early in the morning.

I tossed and turned and managed to get a little more sleep before we got up somewhere between 6 and 7 am. Our original plan for this morning was to walk down the street to Golden Corral and have a nice, big breakfast buffet. Dan didn’t much feel like walking this morning, so we took the van.

And a good thing, too, because Golden Corral didn’t open until 11 am. Dan was totally flummoxed by this, while I suggested we just head over the hill to IHOP. IHOP was dead. Apparently not many people eating a nice breakfast on Thanksgiving morning at 7:30 am. We were one of four groups in the restaurant, and the only people under 50. Which isn’t a bad thing, just something I noticed.

We ordered our breakfasts (that's Mykiah's Rooty Jr in the photo), they came quickly and we were all full before 8:30 am. With a whole morning stretching in front of us. I’m hazy on the details (even though it was only 24 hours ago), but I think we came back to the hotel. Dan took the kids down to the pool -- too cold for him to swim and I have yet to put on a bathing suit this trip -- and let them play for an hour or so.

Earlier, we had decided that Dan would take the kids across the street to the Imax to see Flushed Away. I had no urge to see the movie, so I planned to stay at the hotel. Except that I was kinda feeling like a loser for having sat in the hotel while they swam, so I then felt guilted into going to see the movie. Which wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad either. I would have preferred to sit in the room and read and save the $7 or so, but it wasn’t awful. It was time with the kids and that’s what vacation is about, right?

I have no idea what we did after the movie is over. Again, it’s only been 24 hours and my memory is blank. At some point, we went to pick up our tickets for the rest of the shows we’re seeing this trip. How scary is it that I had our Haygoods confirmation number memorized? I am a sick, sick woman.

After picking up our tickets, we headed on over to Dixie Stampede, which was to be our Thanksgiving Dinner. We love the Stampede; this was our 4th show there, but 1st Christmas show. After being a little late for the preshow once and having to sit in the balcony, we now try to arrive early so we can sit on the main floor. I am so afraid of heights that the balcony almost did me in. So we’re early, we get our picture taken, which I have no intention of buying because we are not dressed in color coordinating clothes, and are sent into the gift shop. So convenient.

Actually, Chesney loves the Dixie Stampeded gift shop. Three years ago, on our first visit to Dixie Stampede, Ches had a hard time sitting through the show. I promised her that if she would settle down, we’d buy her a horse on the way out of the theater. That horse was Nico, and on every subsequent trip, she’s gotten another stuffed horse. We now have Morgan, Lindsey and yesterday we added Bullet. She sleeps with those horses every night. Nico even went to Walt Disney World with us in 2004.

So we saw the preshow, while drinking non-alcoholic beverages out of boot mugs. I was smart this time and sat close to the restrooms, which are close to the entrance to the main theater. Last time I thought I was smart getting there early so we could be on the main floor, but then I sat us in the opposite corner from where we needed to be. Not so smart after all. This time, I’m smart.

When the theater opened, we went in to find our seats. By far, our best seats yet. We were near the restrooms (always essential when Brady’s in the group) and at the far end of the arena, 3rd row. As always, the food was delicious; an excellent substitute for a thanksgiving dinner. I ordered Brady a vegetarian meal because he won’t eat the Cornish hen or pork, but it turns out he won’t eat the vegetarian selection either. On the website, it said the vegetarian substitute was a fruit salad. Instead, he got a huge plate of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and oranges. All mixed together. I thought the oranges were an odd choice, but he ate the oranges and some carrots, as well as the potato/soup/corn on the cob that comes with the regular meal.

I have to say that I really loved the Dixie Stampede Christmas show. The Living Nativity was truly a joyful spot in the day. And hey, our side finally won the competition. Dan had been convinced that the Dixie Stampede competitions were rigged in favor of the North, so when we went this Spring, I requested the North side. Of course, we lost. So this time, I didn’t request anything, but we got the North AND we won. Very fun time and something I’d love to do every Thanksgiving.

Now it’s 4:30 pm and we have nothing to do until our 8 pm show. Literally nothing. I read my book. The kids played a game with a ball which drove me crazy. Dan watched football. We all watched Carrie Underwood’s halftime performance. Just wasting time however we could.

At 7, we left the hotel and started walking to the Hamner-Barber theater. I had chosen this show because it had decent reviews at 1Branson.com and it was also close to our hotel. Close enough that we could walk, evidently. Wouldn’t have been my first choice, but it wasn’t a bad walk and we were there in 10 minutes. There was a magician in the lobby doing card tricks, etc. and Dan and the kids stood and watched that for quite a while. I was dying of heat so I just kept trying to cool off. Finally, we went in and sat down because I was told there was a 7:45 preshow. We must have missed it. Or it was the video presentation they ran. I wouldn’t have called it a preshow, but maybe that was it.

It was a good show, but not one I’m putting on my list of shows I’d like to see again next year. We had seen the two main performers in one of the very first Branson shows we ever attended, the Jimmy Osmond American Jukebox show.  I have a pretty good memory, and for most of the tricks and ventriloquist skits, I could remember huge pieces of them from the show we had seen 3 years ago. The second half of the show was Christmas themed, but I think everyone in my family preferred the first half. Again, not a bad show, not a bad way to spend Thanksgiving night, just not a great fit for our family I guess.

The show was over a little after 10 pm. We walked back to the hotel, where I discovered that it was more uphill on the way home, even though it looked downhill. Got back to the hotel, Dan celebrated that Kansas City had beat the Broncos and the rest of us crawled into bed. A very full Thanksgiving day was over.

Comments

[sondie]

Wow! And I thought dinner with the in-laws was a good Thanksgiving! Never thought of taking a trip over Thanksgiving holiday! Hmmmmm......