Branson & Santa

The girls and I went to Branson, last weekend with all the ladies in my family. It has been an annual trip for as long as I can remember. The day after Thanksgiving, and sometimes Thanksgiving evening, all of the guys would pack up for the duck cabin and the girls would head out for shopping. Thanks to college, getting married, and moving far away, I have not been in several years! Actually, I did take G when she was 1 1/2 years old- we drove all the way from Indiana to Branson just the two of us to meet them!

So, I was super excited that we're closer to home and that a trip like this would be so much more manageable.

We managed to leave my mom's house at 7:30, with little room to spare in the car! Three hours later, we were shopping!
We hit up The Landings first. This is probably my favorite mall just because of the atmosphere. It's right on the river, and there's music, street vendors, fountains, a play ground, fresh air and even Santa! I just bundled MC up, and she did very well hanging out in her stroller for the afternoon.
There was a family band playing outside and G decided they needed a dancer. She danced through at least three of their songs before we tore her away.
Another little girl joined in, and I was shocked when she pulled out this dance move. G learned it a few weeks ago from watching the cheerleaders at the TU game, so when she saw that the other little girl knew the move, she decided to show hers off too!

After The Landings, we went to The Grand Village. TGV isn't really on my favorite list, but they do have this amazing Christmas store year round!
I let G pick out her very own ornament for our tree, and we picked out one for MC and had both of their names written on them.
And sometimes, Santa himself is hanging out at the Christmas store! G was excited to see him for the second time that day. (I missed the first time she saw him because I was off feeding MC, but for the first time in 3 years she happily crawled in his lap!)

All of a sudden, G has decided that she wants a four wheeler for Christmas, and she told each Santa we saw that that was what she wanted. A week later, I'm still explaining to her that Santa will not be bringing her a four wheeler because 1) it won't fit in his sleigh and 2) four wheeler's are expensive.
Santa was polite enough for me to get their picture together, and afterwards, he asked G, "What do princess' have, that you don't have?" G thought for a minute and said, "a tiara!" I think Santa was surprised that she knew the word tiara rather than crown, but he pulled out a sparkling blue pipe cleaner crown just for G.
I'm kind of thrilled I was at just the right angle to catch him placing the crown on her head!
She was so excited that he gave this to her. I'm pretty sure she thinks it's the most magical crown in the world.

We were starving after shopping all day, so we headed over to the Hard Luck Cafe for some dinner.
This was MCs first time in a real high chair. She made it just a few minutes before she decided that it was not very comfortable!

I will add, that The Hard Luck is always a must-go to restaurant for me in Branson. Not because of the food, but because the waiters and waitresses are very good at embarrassing their customers while they sing songs. It's just a fun atmosphere. Although, the food is just ok.

My mom and I always joke that we don't go to Branson to eat. We go there to shop. So, we never seem to have outstanding food experiences while we're there.

That evening we met all the girls back at the condo. There were so many of us, we had to get two condo's! And MC's Aunt Jan spent lots of time snuggling up with her.
I think by 8 pm we were all exhausted and ready for bed!