November 30, 2021 - Branson Day 2 - Time to Party!

 The basic program was 3 or 4 shows a day - this really packs a lot into each day and would be impossible to do if you were on your own and had to get from venue to venue on you own, park, etc.  But our group leaders George Dyer and his son Garrett did a great job of putting this together and Karosene Holtz (a cousin of Lou Holtz the coach) did a fantastic job of shuttling us around on our blue bus.

Show One:  George Dyer Christmas Show (Yes our tour guide is a local performer.)  George moved to Branson several years ago and settled in.  He is an award winner of several different awards for his shows here in Branson.  He is a tenor and has the most fantastic voice.   He does all kinds of music and it all sound wonderful.  This is a don't miss show.

Show Two:  In the afternoon - #1 Hits of the 60's (and 59's)  Super program with 100 toons that we grew up with all performed by the 4 person group backed up by a couple of guitars and the drums.  This was a great 2 hour sing along.

This is a picture of the whole cast.  The old guy in the middle is a real character.

Show 3 - Dolly Parton's Stampede and Dinner Show (but no Dolly).  In any case a fun time with dozens of animals and good food.

The venue is huge as you have to have room for a large ring in the middle of the theater for all the animals acts.  You sit around the ring like at Midevil Times.  The dinner featured a cornish game hen.

This is pretty close to what we had - instead of toast we had a roll and there was an apple turnover for dessert.

They had two parts to the program - a regular stampede show and a Christmas theme portion with Biblical and Santa/Toys portions.

Stock photo to show the manger portion of the show.

The Santa's toyland portion of the show was cute too.

November 29, 2021 - Branson Trip Day 1

 Today was mainly a travel day - left Salt Lake on the 8:00 AM flight to Dallas/Fort Worth. We got smart when we got to the SL airport - we ordered an assisted wheelchair to take Barbara to the plane.  This also gets us an early boarding too.   As usual it was quite a ways between gates for our flights but with a shuttle cart it wasn't hard to get to the plane plus we had a 2 1/2 hour layowver.  Got into Springfield about 4 and after an hour drive got to Branson about 5:30.  Dinner was on our own so we went next door to Dnnny's.

Grand Victorian Hotel - Our home in Branson.

Nov 28, 2021 - Branson Trip

 Pre-day - We flew out of Fresno in the late afternoon at 5:15 and got into Salt Lake City at 8:00 PM.  Then it was a huge treck to Baggage Claim (about a half mile) and then a 45 minute wait for a shuttle.  Didn't get into the motel until 9:30 and most food places were closed.  We ended up with cup of soup and snacks for dinner.  Then to bed as quick as possible as we had a 4 AM wake up to catch an 8:00 AM flight.

Christmas 2017

Christmas is a special time of the year.  At the center is the remembrance of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Yes, Christmas has become a commercialized holiday but in our case we try to remember the true meaning of Christmas in spite of the commercialization.

I was reminded of the words of a Christmas hymn last night as our granddaughter, Ali, paid us a little visit - "With wondering eyes the wise men saw" - as she walked around looking (and touching) many of our decorations.  They needed to leave to go home but she wanted to stay and see more.  So sweet!

Thank you for taking the time to visit our little winter wonderland.  May we all remember the true meaning of Christmas this Christmas season.

DNA Results

Here are my DNA results - overall not much different than expected:

From our genealogy you would expect somewhat more than a quarter German, around 10 to 15 percent Irish and the rest mainly English and Scottish.

Givens - My Y-DNA was a surprise - I am from ancient Southern Irish ancestry.  Ancient meaning that our Givens have been in Ireland from the earliest times. This blows away the theories of our ancestry being French or Scottish.

Ancestry Family Finder Test:
Overall - Europe 98% broken down as:
Europe West 53%
Ireland 37%
Trace regions:  Scandinavia 3%, Great Britian 1%, Italy/Greece, Iberian Peninusla, Europe East and Finland/Northwest Russia all under 1%
West Asia 2%
Trace regions: Caucasus 1%, Middle East under 1%

Same test done at FamilyTreeDNA (with a different group of test takers to compare to)
Overall - European 96%
British Isles 69%
Western and Central European 13%
Eastern Europe 12%
Southern Europe 2%
Central Asian (Afghanistan/Iran area) 3%

Thoughts - My Germans are an amalgum of many groups of who came through Europe and mixed (Huns, Maygars, etc.) and mixed with the native people.  My British Isles ancestors really are mainly of Norman (French) orgin and came over to the British Isles in 1066 with William the Conqueror and thus aren't really of British origins as FamilyTreeDNA.

Vacation Day 14 (Denver, CO to Grand Junction, CO)

Monday (August 5) – Trip Day 14  - (Denver, CO to Grand Junction, CO) – We wanted to get an early start today but Barbara got violently ill at breakfast.  I suspect she got food poisoning at breakfast as she was able to get over it rapidly and by 11 AM felt good enough to travel.  Because of that we didn’t do any sightseeing other than the drive on I-70 to Grand Junction.  That is a superb drive over the Rockies.  It has passes over 11,000 feet high, several tunnels (one that must be a couple of miles long), and rock formations that are out of sight.  For those that love scenery, this is a must drive.  The last part of the drive takes you down the valley of the Colorado River – which is already the green color that you see when it is in the Grand Canyon.  We got to Grand Junction about 4:30 PM and just took it easy for the evening.

I had to add a couple of pictures I got today from Rusty Givens.  Here is Barbara and how she spent the day while Rusty and I talked Givens.

 This is Rusty and I at the bar - with some of the computers.

 

Vacation Day 13 (Denver and Louisville, CO)

Sunday (August 4) – Trip Day 13 – (Denver and Louisville, CO) – We got up early and attended church in Louisville, CO, which is a suburb of Denver.  I chose that ward to attend as it is in the same town as where my “cousin” Rusty Givens lives. We spent a little over 12 hours at his house as he is a fabulous Givens research and though we are not actually related (as DNA tells us) he has a ton of information on my Givens line.  In fact he had a long table laid out with piles of research on my line and took most of the day to go through all this and indicate what I would like. 

 The bar with all our computers on it.

Rusty then scanned all of this (about a quarter of a gigabyte of data and put it on my flash drive.  I, in turn, taught him how to use familysearch.org for the first time.  I helped him put in his line until the pedigree began to appear, how to correct  and add information, and how to add photos and sources.  It was kind of fun as we spent most of the day sitting at the bar in his basement going over things.  His whole basement is devoted to genealogy.  He has made 12 trips to Ireland and may have found where my Givens line comes from – though we need DNA from someone there to verify it.
Rusty at the scanner.

 The Givens researchers - Bob and Rusty.

 Rusty had many relics from his early ancestors but this was the real treasure.  It is a quilt made about 1780 - one of only 15 or so that still exist.  It has been appraised at $30,000.

Anyway, after a long day we finally stumbled into our hotel room after 10:30 PM.  We were both pleased with this day though – I got tons of new information and Barbara spent most of the day working on her German genealogy.