Christmas Eve!

The good news was that the weather was warming up each day!

Still pretty cold, but much more bearable. 

It was Christmas Eve and I was excited to head back to Branson
 and do what it is best known for, their shows!

I thought I had everything worked out perfectly.
When I was booking our cabin, the lady on the phone asked if I wanted

to book any shows through them as they get a discount. 

Yes, please! 

With her recommendations we figured out 2 different shows we could see.
The Hughes was at 12:30, and Reza would be at 3.
Two totally different types of performances. 

The Hughes is singing and dancing, Reza is a light illusionist. 
Supposably one of the most popular shows in Branson. 

I was excited because most all the shows were at the same time.

I was glad we could find 2 to work on the same day. 

We showed up to the Hughes theater.

People were walking in and gathering after checking in at the front desk. 
Seemed typical.
But they were setting up food on long tables.

We just assumed they signed up for a meal to go along with the show.

When a man who was helping set up made the announcement that food
 would be served for the next 2 hours
before the show started my heart dropped!

I was so confused.

I quickly asked the man what time the show started.

He said 2:30.
But our tickets say 12:30. There is no show at 12:30?
Man: No. Lunch is from 12:30-2, then the show at 2:30.
This poor man (who actually was one of the Hughes brothers)

had to answer all of my confused questions.
He probably thought I was so stupid. 

I guess this was something new they started that day.

The cabin lady on the phone probably just assumed the show was at 

12:30 AND 2:30. 

Crap!!
Now what do we do?

I explained to said Hughes brother (which I didn't know at the time of talking to him)

that we had Reza tickets at 3!
He looked at me and said, yes, Reza is good.

But I PROMISE you will want to stay for the whole show. 

It is a traditional family, feel good Christmas show. 
And you  wont regret for a second missing the other one.

I turned to the kids to see what they wanted to do.

We decided we would go to the first 30 minutes of the show and see if it was

something we wanted to stay at or leave early and head to Reza, which was just 

down the street.

Plan made.

Only, we didn't need to eat there for 2 hours.
In fact, nobody was even hungry.

I wanted to check out the Landing.

Its a big lakeside mall.

It has live shows, mainstream stores and a big water feature set to music.

In fact its the same company who did the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas.

It was fun driving around Branson and looking at what is there.

We came upon the historic downtown area.

So cute! 
It had the classic small-town nostalgia feel to it.

I would have loved to have seen it at night all lit up with its Christmas decorations!

We parked and walked up the street to Mr. B's homemade ice cream!

A little snack never hurt anybody. 

I popped into the quilt store on the way back to the truck.

Took this picture before I saw the bazillion ABSOLUTEY ZERO PICTURE warnings

taped on every square inch of the store.

Oops, how did I miss that? 
Glad I didn't get caught!

Those quilters are serious about not being knocked off!

On the way back to the Hughes I made Casey pull in to the Trump store!

Biggest MAGA town there ever was!

You really could feel the God and country fearing type of town Branson is. 

Time for the show!

Since our ticket included the food we grabbed a tray.
Even though we all were a little leery of the Swedish theme it had. 

We ate it in our chairs and listened to some of the Hughes Brothers talk
candidly about their Swedish ancestry. 

Hence the Swedish food. 

It actually was pretty good!

The meatballs, potatoes and gravy were delicious!

The carrot salad was tasty and I think the beet, apple concoction surprised us as well.
Never judge a book by its cover!

Then the show started!

Right off the bat we were all glued in our seats.

There are 5 Hughes brothers. 

Only 4 are currently performing together, along with their own wives and kids, making

it a huge family event!

They did a great job of intermixing their life story along with entertainment.

Their story is super impressive. 

They were raised by very musically talented parents in UT.

 I think there are 12 siblings all together?

The kids were heavily involved in music their whole lives.

After doing many performances and gigs
they decided to move the whole family to Branson Missouri and buy a family theater. 

The moment I realized the man I was talking with was Andy!
The youngest brother!

The wives and kids would take turns coming in with dancing and singing.

We were captivated!

The musical talent by young and old was mind blowing!!
They did a violin number with about 8 teenagers that had my eyes wide open!

I wish they could have played 10 more songs, so unbelievably amazing!!

During intermission they had the young kids pass out Swedish cookies.

Upstairs they had a parlor where you could purchase homemade shakes, 
Christmas "cocktails", and snacks.

I went up to grab a few things to share.

Back behind the counter were the teenagers and adults who were performing in the show!
From singing to scooping ice cream, they do it all!
I was so impressed how they all worked together to make this family business run.

I was thinking how fun it would be to show up to work with cousins, aunts and uncles everyday.

Attached to the cookies was an ornament to take home. 

Decision time.
Do we leave or stay?

Nobody wanted to leave!!!

Well, Rusty was curious about Reza.

I told him I would go with him to see it if he wanted.

I think he had fomo, and decided to stay.

Good! Because I didn't want to leave!

The last half of the show was UNBELIEVABLE. 
 I had goosebumps and tears in my eyes the whole time.

The spirit was strong and and once again we were blown away with the sheer talent.

When it was over Casey said trip made right there.
It really was the highlight!
Not one of us were sad that we missed the other show.

Andy was right after all!

I had been talking with a sweet lady who was helping in the background.

She was a family friend of the Hughes from UT.

Her husband and adult kids come for the winter and help run the theater.

I was asking her a ton of questions.
Like, what if they marry somebody who doesn't want to perform?

She said there is no pressure on anyone to do it if they don't want to.

Sometimes the young adults take time off to go to college or do something else.

A lot of them just work the concessions without performing.
It was all very interesting.

Then Casey remembered that church was the next day and that the Hughes
would probably be singing! 
The lady told us that they actually all live in the same ward, ha!

She told us which building, and our church plans were made!

Time for our Christmas Eve dinner!

Even more restaurants were closed now because it was Christmas Eve.

It was slim pickins'.

Cheddars was close by.
And luckily not terribly crowded. 

We gobbled it all up!
This monte cristo was just as good as Disneylands!

Luckily we have a Cheddars in AZ we need to visit more. 

On the way home we went through a different drive-thru light display. 

Watched Home Alone all snuggled together. 

Laid out our stocking I hauled from home. 

Santa gets fed cookies and milk no matter where you are!