December 23, 2018-24 Hours in Branson Part 1

(click here for today's pictures)

• Even though we had a ton more things to do this morning before leaving for church, we still laid in bed until the last possible moment. I think that we work a bit better under pressure. Robby showered while I folded 3 loads of laundry and put the last few things in bags. Then he worked on the laundry while I showered, inspected the kids Sunday clothes choices and herded everyone back upstairs to brush their teeth.
• We only had worship this morning, so church seemed pretty short. They did sing Mary, Did you Know which is one of my favorite Christmas songs. Even though I feel like I haven't heard a sermon in 13 years, Whitman doesn't miss a word. He asked me what at least 3 words meant during the sermon. Most I can come up with an explanation, but sometimes I just have to tell him to ask me later and hope he forgets.
• As they were singing the last song, we scurried out of the church house so we could run to Grannymom's house to change our clothes. We did it quickly, and soon we were all loaded including Grannymom and Grandpa and heading to Branson.
• The ride up here didn't seem to bad. We had ham sandwich leftovers from Grannymom's Christmas. We only stopped once for a potty stop on the way here, so the crowd was getting a bit anxious when we arrived at Silver Dollar City.
• We were able to drop off Grannymom, Grandpa, Graham and Reagan. They had a short walk to the front and met us after we had parked the car. When we entered the parking lot, we started putting on coats and stuffing gloves and hats in my bag.
• The first thing we did was stop for all of the birthday people to get their treats-taffy, a mini ice cream cone and a popcorn. Campbell, Anderson and I were the birthday folks this trip. Graham and Whitman were the only ones who missed out on getting their birthday treats at Silver Dollar City, so I let him have my ice cream cone.
• We did ride Thunderation, Whitman's favorite ride. We also rode the swing and pirate ship rides. The crowds were crazier than any other time that we have ever been here. It was pretty wild to see. We made it over to Fire in the Hole and rode it twice before heading to see our show.
• We watched A Dicken's Christmas Carol. It was pretty magical and even snowed at the end of it. Whitman probably wouldn't call it magical since the ghosts scared the mess out of him. He was shaking at one point. Now, don't tell anyone, but since he was pressed up against me in my lap and Keaton was snuggled up to my arm, I might possibly have missed the second Christmas ghosts. Robby said that she was the funnies and he doesn't see how I missed it, but yep, don't remember a bit of it!
• It has been years since we have been here at Christmas time. I tell you, it was just magical. The lights were absolutely beautiful. When we walked out from the play, it was dark and the lights were shining. 
• The weather was cold, but not miserably cold. It helped that after we walked through the lights, we then headed out of the park to our car. We had planned on eating at Steak and Shake, but the line was long so we just grabbed our food to eat at the room.
• It was a bit of a haul to get to the hotel, but our food was still warm. We passed out the food and everyone gobbled it down. We were all starving since it was after 9. Graham and Campbell ended up in Grannymom's room. The rest of the crew is in our room. Whitman is between the beds and is actually kicking our bed right now. Anderson is trying out Grannymom's new inflatable mattress so he thinks that he is in heaven.
• It was a perfectly wonderful day! And a great start to our 24 hours in Branson.