Silver Dollar City @ Christmas

Every year for the past several years, BJ and I have discussed our desire to go to Silver Dollar City during Christmas to see the lights.  We just can never find the $ in our budget to justify it.  This year I asked my Facebook friends if anyone had free friend passes--and someone did and they let us have them!!  It was VERY generous of them and we were ELATED to get to go!! 

We went up on Wednesday--headed up around 11 or so.  By the time we got there we were busting at the seams.  Jordan was so excited--and Hayden, well he was just happy to go somewhere, ha!  They both did great in the car on the way there, though Jordan did not sleep a wink!

So we get there, we pack the stroller with everything we need, we head over to the "bus stop," get on the bus and about 10 seconds later as we're driving, I look at BJ and yell "the tickets!!"  I had left them in the car--which doesn't sound that horrible, but there was no way to get off the train at this point, so we had to ride it all the way up to the park and then BJ tried to ride it back, but he waited forever for one (the park was not busy at all when we got there) and finally gave up and walked back to the car to get them (and then walked back to the park-I felt HORRIBLE!)  So that ate up some of our time, still kicking myself!

But once we were in the park, we had a great time!!

The first thing we did was see a show--The Frosty Show.  SUCH a cute show for kids--very interactive-they let all the kids come up on stage for most of the show, while they sang songs and had fun! Both the kids went up, to my surprise and did really well!! It was a funny show too, enough humor to keep the grown ups interested :)

I did not take as many pictures and I would have liked, but keeping up with 2 kiddos in a large park packed with people is a full time job, but I got a few :)




on our way into town, we saw Santa & one of his reindeer! We didnt get out but I had to snap this pic from the car :)



We're HERE!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

About to see Frosty!

getting excited!!!!

amusing Mama

again.

FROSTY!! The kids are on stage, hard to see though.

IT'S SNOWING!!!

H was obsessed with this little snowman, I think he thought it was going to start talking and moving like the one in the show!

He was "honking" his nose! :)

After the Frosty show we stopped in at the Live Nativity Show--it was good but it was in a HUGE theatre and we were wwaaaaayyyy at the back, and it wasn't that interesting for the kids--but I enjoyed it.

Then we hit a few rides!

We all rode the tea cups--they were fun!

The kids rode the elephants with daddy :)

Jordan & Daddy on the elephants!

J and I had a little photo session while Daddy & H were on the elephants :)

I love it when she gets goofy!! This MIGHT be my new fav pic of her!!!

could she be more beautiful!?! Gosh I love her!

beauty.

shes so good to amuse me taking all these pictures of her all the time.

I did get some pics of H and Daddy on the elephants too :)

Trying to be like daddy :)

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!

WEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Next we headed over to the "choo choo."  We had been hearing it for a while and every time Hayden would get SOO excited when he heard the whistle blow!  By the time we got over there and got up to our turn to ride, it had gotten dark--and I'm so glad we went when it was dark--the lights were spectacular!!

waiting in line for the train :)  By the time it had started to get REALLY cold!

The Christmas train!!

As we made our way into the wooded areas surrounding the park, Christmas light displays took the place of the normal scenes – a scene of Santa hanging stockings by the fireplace, kids building a snowman, sledding, etc. There were two stand-up light tunnels on the ride which I thought was really fun!

The real gem of the train ride, though, was the Christmas story, told by “grandpa”. Where the train is normally held up during the warmer months, there is a huge light-up Nativity, with an old grey-headed man sitting in a rocking chair. The use of light here is amazing and I highly recommend going at dusk dark or later – it just wouldn’t be the same in the daytime.

The old man in the rocking chair recites the story of Christmas, as told by a grandfather to his grandkids. Like, the REAL Christmas story, he calls Jesus Christ by name, speaks of the journey of the wise men to Bethlehem, and even says that He was sent here to bring everlasting life to those who believe.  It was refreshing!



the Christmas story being told by "grandpa."

Here are some pictures of the magnificent lights around the park--truly wonderful!! I think I read something that said there are like 4 MILLION lights! WOW!!!

seriously stunning!!

this was HUGE in person, really amazing!

the tree was amazing!

the parade!

the light show!

The tree is complete light show at night.  Divided into dozens of panels, the tree lit up with vibrant, swirling colors choreographed to Christmas music throughout the program. The colors chased each other around the tree, oscillated in a corkscrew pattern, and flashed both vertically and horizontally.  It was worth coming to see!!

I should add that about this time, the kids were FROZEN.  It had gotten REALLY cold--and they were about done!! Hayden REFUSED to wear gloves or a hat, so he was in pain I'm sure--because it was really really cold--but luckily there wasn't much time left and as soon as the parade was over we left (along with about 500 other people)-and headed straight to McD's to get HOT chocolate!

We then drove through the famous light display in Branson and that was also very enjoyable, from our warm car!

We had a GREAT time and hope to visit again soon!
Merry Christmas eve!!