Tender Tennessee Christmas

We were back into the Dollyverse today, a new term we just heard from a podcast we've been listening to.  It's a fun way to describe all things related to Dolly Parton, but the irony is that Madison was listening to this podcast which featured both Dolly and simultaneously a story of civil war in Lebanon.  It was an interesting podcast, but what made it ironic is that Madison did projects this semester on both Dolly Parton and Lebanon.  

Anyway, we got up later, as Daddy didn't sleep that well in this hotel - although we can blame some of that on still feeling a little sick.  Still, we got up, ate a bit, and were off to Dollywood, and you could hear the Christmas music in the background just setting up the atmosphere.  Occasionally we heard the song "Tender Tennessee Christmas," and that just said everything.  That's exactly what we were having.

We got into the park for Day Two, and it took us a while to navigate the parking tram crowds and so forth, plus getting into the park itself - so we cut things close.  Still, we made it in just in time to see the production of "It's a Wonderful Life."

We got there just in time to see this - it was a musical version of the classic story, and its in the theater right at that front entrance.  They did a great job with this!  It was over an hour long, and just sucked you into the story.  The song they gave Mr. Potter was hilarious, and although the story was actually shorter and had to cut a few things out, it was still engaging and the performances and songs were really well done.

Speaking of "well done," afterwards, we went over to the Front Porch, that restaurant we visited the first time we went to Dollywood.  There was a half-hour wait, but I'm not sure what happened here - a party of three didn't show up and we were right there, and less than five minutes later, we had favor and were in the restaurant.  It's a nice place!  There are gluten-free options there, and the other food there is delicious as well.  We all ate a very filling meal once more.

Afterwards, we went for a spin on the old 50's cars, listening to "Jingle Bell Rock" and older Christmas songs.  Mommy and Madison traditionally ride this one together, with Daddy trailing behind.  I managed to get this picture as we were looping by each other.  It's a fun ride.

We did the carousel after this, going for a spin on that ride.  Madison gets on a horse, while Mommy and Daddy have a seat on one of the thrones they have set up on either side.  It's basically a seat for two, where we sit together and go for a spin.  Here's Mommy just before the ride.

After that, things got a little sketchy for us.  Mommy wasn't feeling that well, and it was all due to the recent hospital visit.  It's normal stuff, which is unfortunate that we call it normal, but we had to head back there and leave Mommy at the hotel.  She had this lap top and she had Disney Plus, so she had somethings to do while there and while she recovered.  But the rest of the day was Madison and Daddy, and there were primarily two rides Madison had on her mind.  This was one of them:

The bumper cars.  I am not making this up.  We went on this ride five times again tonight.  It's like an I-285 simulator!

This one got hit a little too hard!  We had another funny moment where four cars got wedged together, completely blocking up the entire pathway, and causing the mother of all traffic jams.  It was this solid mass of immovable bumper cars, and that also shut things down for a bit.  But Madison loved every minute of it.

We got some drink cups, and we got some cotton candy too.  And then we were on the Scrambler a few times as well, the other ride that Madison wanted to go on.  Daddy more or less endures that spinning ride, but Madison loves going on it!

We headed back to the 50's area, pretty much on our way out of the park at that point.  Most people were doing the same thing, leaving the park for the day.  We knew we'd be back again tomorrow.

In the end, we went back to the other car ride over the track, and rode on through the night just before the closing hour of the park.  But as everyone was leaving the park for the night, Daddy handed the camera to Madison so she could take some photos herself.  These below are some of the ones she took!

And so we found ourselves at the entrance of the park again.  We looked up and there we saw Rudolph, wishing us all a good night!

At one point, Rudolph saw us both and waved goodbye.  As he was doing this, there was more snow falling on the ground from above.  It's snowing a lot up here in Pigeon Forge, but only in Dollywood for some reason...

Anyway, it was a pleasant night.  Mommy was doing much better when we got home.  We didn't have any trouble getting to the tram and getting to the hotel again, and Madison had a great time tonight, doing all the rides she wanted to do.  There's one ride she still wants to do left, and that one we'll conquer tomorrow.  But despite the setback today, it was still a pretty full day with lots of fun in the Dollyverse.