Yes, I am a bit late with my update today.  I’m having something of a difficult time getting back into my routine.  For the past four days all I’ve done is eat and play video games;  Switching straight from that to work is not a smooth transistion.

So, as mentioned last week, we made our third and final trip to Branson for the holiday.  We drove down there on Wednesday, along with approximately three million other holiday travelers, judging from the traffic.  When we finally got there, we spent the rest of the day unpacking our “truck” and getting settled into the digs.  (Which were quite nice, incidentally.)  Thursday was kind of a blur of cooking, eating, and subsequent suffering.  We had a nice meal for sure, if way too big.  Oh well, it’s traditionally a holiday of gluttony, so we were just doing our part.  The bird came out pretty well;  We used Alton’s recipe with the exception of the candied ginger (what the heck is that?) and we didn’t do the initial 1/2 hour at 500 degrees because we had it in an electric roaster instead of an oven.  In addition to that we had the semi-traditional host of side dishes;  Buttered corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, noodles, salads and relishes, homemade bread, broccoli-rice casserole…  I’m starting to feel over-indulged again just thinking about it.

Friday was a down day for me.  We had a photographer come over for a big family picture, and then a lot of the crowd went to the Outlet Malls for the big after-Thankgiving sales.  I figured there wasn’t going to be anything there I wanted so I hung back.  (No Microcenter???  Puh-leeze, don’t waste my time.)  I enjoyed a rather relaxing day outside on the deck reading a few books and enjoying the fine view of Table Rock lake.  I also spent a rather inordinate amount of time watching these mutated woodpeckers that were pretty common in the trees behind the house.  They looked like red headed woodpeckers on steroids;  They were HUGE.  After a short consultation with Wikipedia, I’ve decided they were Pileated Woodpeckers.  Had I only noticed them on Thursday, we could have saved the turkey for another holiday.

Saturday, in what would mark the only time I left the house all weekend, we all went to Silver Dollar City.  Naturally, this outing coincided with a 20-degree drop from the beautiful weather we’d enjoyed the previous few days.  The park was… Well… It was Silver Dollar City.  Being season ticket holders as we are, we pretty much know what to expect by now.  There is some premium people-watching to be had, particularly if you are an appreciator of mullets, camouflage, blaze orange, and unique headgear.   On the downside though, most of the rides were closed, all of the shows had ridiculous lines, and the crowd was in general just way too large for me.  Here’s a little fact for you, which I wasn’t aware of, should you ever make your way to the Ozarks for Thankgiving:  That weekend is considered the single largest crowd of the year at Silver Dollar City.  Plan accordingly.