Thanksgiving in Branson, Missouri

Even though we were tired, we had a very busy day ahead of us! After phone calls to family members, we went in search of Dick's 5 & 10, which was advertised as an old time toy store. Unfortunately it, along with most other stores, were closed.

If you look closely, you can see water shooting up by the tree. This was similar to the Bellagio water show. Except this one was playing "Kung Fu Fighting."

Our plan was to go mini golfing before our Dixie Stampede show but decided to make a quick stop at a souvenir shop before. Great idea. We walked into this small room where a woman is trying to sell a group of five adults a timeshare. They came to buy tickets to the Dixie Stampede show the next day for seven adults and the woman said that she could give them three free, saving them $150, if two of them would attend an hour and a half seminar the following morning. We might have been interested if requirements didn't require that you be married with the same last name and address that matched your credit card. After 30 minutes, in which the woman told them the requirements and other details a million times, we were finally able to purchase our six postcards and t-shirt.

After all that, we did not have time for mini golf so instead went straight to the show. If you've ever been to a Medieval Times show, you'll have a pretty good idea what Dixie Stampede is. Instead of cheering for one of four knights, you cheer for your side: North versus South. You can choose your side when you purchase your tickets and we chose the North. During the holiday season, however, it's North Pole versus South Pole. North Pole won, of course. We were both very surprised at how much we enjoyed the show and would actually do it again if we ever find ourselves back in Branson. For Medieval Times goers (you know who you are), this was much better food and entertainment. Just saying.

Dolly Parton's Dixie Sampede!

We were very excited for our next stop but it was not yet dark so we decided to go mini golfing. This was not just any mini golf course, though. This was 3D Glow-in-the-Dark Mini Golf. Thankfully the girl that rang us up informed us that the 3D glasses were just not worth it so it was just glow-in-the dark for us but it was still pretty cool. Surprise: Sarah won. But not by too much! We were going to leave but caught sight of two air hockey tables and just had to pay a few games. Halley scored the most points by a long shot but unfortunately for her, most of the goals were for Sarah.

We needed a card to play games but it's never that simple.

The World's Largest Banjo.

Onward to the Trail of Lights, a two and a half mile drive-thru animation display of Christmas lights. It was very pretty and definitely put us both in the holiday spirit. We went into the gift shop at the end of the trail, in Inspiration Tower, but did not stay long once we saw a a t-shirt that said, "My Lifeguard Walks on Water" and couldn't hold in the giggles. Sorry if that offended...

Halley's convinced that it's really 9 ladies dancing and 12 drummers drumming. Thoughts?

Let it snow!

Santa's barn.

Gingerbread playground.

Rams butting heads.

Why yes, it is just like Zoo Lights at the National Zoo in D.C. but better and less expensive.

Well why wouldn't the dinosaurs also be happy?

It was finally time for our own Thanksgiving dinner. We were very proud of ourselves as we turned this:

Into this:

We had mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, corn, stuffing, bread, sliced deli turkey and sliced Havarti cheese.

Halley even made gravy from "scratch" thanks to encouragement from The Honest Chef. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either.

And then we fell asleep before we got to the pumpkin pie.