Christmas Vacation

Whoo hoo, it's Christmas vacation with the kids! Or at least 2/3 of them.

Teen daughter elected to stay home with mom, but Southern Man and youngest daughter and teen son headed south to Big D yesterday for a two-night Christmas vacation - the best he could manage this year.

We arrived Thursday afternoon and just bummed around for the rest of the afternoon and evening. The main events were Friday. We spent the best part of the afternoon at the Dallas Galleria eating and shopping and ice-skating. Southern Man hadn't been on skates for thirty years but managed to get around the rink a few times. Make that a few dozen times. Youngest daughter was tireless on the ice and skated for close to two hours. The evening attraction (and the main reason we came to Dallas) was the dinner-and-show at Medieval Times, in which the audience are guests at a feast in a royal castle and witness a pretty amazing live tournament with live horses and jousting and swordplay and all sorts of fun stuff. We cheered for the Green Knight (who looked amazingly like Orlando Bloom) and he almost went the full distance and was bashing the crap out of his final opponent but was defeated at the last minute. This was eldest son's second visit to Medieval Times (the first was with a church teen group) and he appeared to have a great time. In Southern Man's opinion, it is a better show than the similar Dolly Parton Dixie Stampede, which the family once visited in Branson.

Tomorrow morning after breakfast we'll head back home for an early Christmas at Casa Southern Man, followed by a busy Christmas Eve beginning with church, lunch with Southern Man's girlfriend and her family, and a fun, fun evening at Southern Man's parents with pretty much the entire family.

Yeah, Southern Man has promised this before, but: this post will be updated after photos are developed.