The Silvers' Scoop

What a great weekend! Busy...long...but a lot of fun!

SATURDAY - We had tickets to Dixie Stampede - Christmas show in Branson. We've wanted to go for the past couple years, but have never found time. What a lot of fun! You start out with a 30-40 minute pre-show of magic tricks, juggling and singing. Then you head into the auditorium for the main event. This show included dinner...and boy was it huge! The 3 course meal included creamy vegetable soup, a cheddar biscuit, a whole rotisserie cornish hen, slice of pork loin, buttered corn-on-the-cob, 1/2 herb basted potato and a HUGE apple turnover for dessert. YUMMY! The girls' meals were the same size as ours (they don't have kid-sized portions), so needless to say, we had plenty of leftovers.

The show consisted of a variety of short events such as pig races, barrel races, various tricks on horseback, carriage races, a short ice-skating routine (it was pretty awesome! A real ice-skating rink descended from the ceiling and a professional skating couple performed a short routine) and of course the live nativity story. It was a lot of fun! After the show we were able to see all the horses in their stalls.

We ended our stay in Branson by looking at the christmas lights in a drive-thru display. Dan & I have been several times, but the kids have never been with us. I was a little disappointed as they changed locations and it was about half the size and twice the cost. But it was still pretty neat!

Continuing our lovely spell of bad weather, we drove home in a nice little snowstorm. The roads were very slick, but luckily we arrived home safe & sound (although the 3 hour trip took about an hour longer. Not bad, except that 3 hours is a long drive...another hour just stinks! Not sure what I'm gonna do on a 13 hour plane ride)

SUNDAY - The girls woke up to about 3-4 inches of snow to play in. Not a ton, but enough to make snow angels and play around a bit. Dan wasn't too happy. He's still trying to clean up from the ice storm damage last week. He was hoping to get everything all gathered into a pile, but the snow pretty well covered everything. Maybe tomorrow!

Every year the Christian Church in town puts on a "Journey to Bethlehem". It is an awesome re-enactment, complete with actors/actresses in full costume, live animals (sheep, donkey, camels, goats, etc...). It pretty much tells the complete story from the time the Jews left their home and traveled to Bethlehem to pay taxes, to stopping at the town to gather food & supplies for their journey, being robbed and attacked by beggars, stopping to talk with others on the same journey including some shepherds where an angel speaks to us about Jesus being born, arriving in Bethlehem and paying our taxes and, of course, traveling to the stable to see Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. It is a fun & creative way to tell the Christmas story. And the best part is you're a part of the whole act. We try to do this every year, weather permitting. Last year we got 18 inches of snow a few days before and they ended up cancelling it. With the storm that came through yesterday, I was a little worried we would miss it again this year. So glad they were able to keep it open.

Hope you all had a great weekend! Only 9 more days until Christmas!