A Delightful Weekend

Margaret and I just had a great weekend! Saturday night we, and our friend Ron Jones,
went to Stewart’s Brewing Company for dinner and to hear some good music.

Ron and Margaret

The food here is very good! I had crab cakes (bottom), Margaret had a steak (middle),
and Ron ordered the salmon (top)

We had also gone to Stewart’s to hear the Barrelhouse Blues Band whom we enjoy a great deal.
I tried to get a couple of pictures of the band playing but the pics didn’t turn out. Click on the link and
you can view their website. The group is led by Charlie “Choo Choo” Rickner who does
the lead vocals and plays harmonica. If you like Blues, you gotta’ hear these guys!

Sunday I preached at Pleasant Hill Wesleyan Church (PHWC), located about 5 miles NE of Elkton, MD

Our first introduction to PHWC was back in 2007 when we were invited to share our
missionary work at the TFC Chapel in Elkton. Since then I have preached there many
times. They are currently between Pastors and I am preaching some of the Sunday
morning services. It feels good to be preaching more frequently again!

Trip To The Delaware State Fair 7/25/11

I didn’t realize it had been nearly a year since I posted to this blog! I’ve gotten lazy just posting pictures and comments to Facebook. We’ll, I’m back, at least for now!

Yesterday Margaret and I made our annual trip to the Delaware State Fair. One thing about Delaware, nothing is very far away. It’s only about a 30 minute trip for us to get the the fair grounds. Yesterday was the day for us to go partly because it was Seniors’ Day—we got in for free. There are some good things about being a senior! :-)

We arrived about 11:30 and our first objective was lunch at the Grange

Margaret in front of the Grange dinning hall

Margaret had the fried chicken platter (right), and I had the ham platter. Good stuff!

Next we went though the wildlife exhibit and then on to Margaret’s favorite stop, the peeps in the fowl exhibit.

This farm girl was right at home!

Next we were off to the 4-H exhibit hall

This is about 1/2 of the Place Setting entrants

Our favorite Place Setting exhibit was a 1st place winner, the Blue Bunny Willow

We loved the rabbit ear napkins

Among the numerous science exhibits was this one about the affects
of various styles of music on plant growth

Apparently they didn’t include Southern Gospel music in the experiment

Just a small portion of the equipment on display.
The two items in the bottom right, with the chimneys, are outdoor wood/corn furnaces.

There are small garden plots throughout the grounds. This one includes a waterfall and pond.

We had to stop at the farm animal petting area which included this miniature horse
(included for our friend Elaine)

Next to the peeps, the baby pigs are Margaret’s favorites

This was one of the vendors in the Marketplace under the grandstand.
We had to get pictures of this for our daughter Sheri who LOVES all things purple!

The Purple products

Some of the craft exhibits in the Dover Building

More crafts

Our very own Smyrna Citizens Hose Company volunteer band parades through the grounds each evening at 7 PM

Our last stop of the day was the Ice Skating Club’s presentation of Peter Pan
(click the image to watch a video of the closing number)

Christmas at Macy’s in Philadelphia

This morning Margaret and I left early on a date.  We drove to Newark, DE and boarded a train to downtown Philadelphia to visit Macy’s store and see their Christmas displays.

Riding the train to/from is so much nicer than driving and paying to park.  We did not have to change trains and there is a train station only a block from the store.

We first checked out some of the window displays

This large display was just inside one of the store entrances

This picture is for our daughter Sheri, who loves all things purple

There is a light show every hour followed by a selection played on their pipe organ.  This is a brief excerpt.

One of the nicest Christmas displays was a tour of “Dickens’ London”, a series of animated figures and recordings in various scenes from the story A Christmas Carol.  This is the first scene which depicts Dickens introducing the tour.  Below are pictures of just a few of the scenes.

The young girl on the right was one of the visitors taking the tour.  These were large displays, not small dioramas.

The poulterer’s shop.

Tiny Tim

Margaret checking out Scrooge’s office

Marley’s ghost visiting Scrooge. Other ghosts and chains are suspended from the ceiling above where I am standing.

The entrance to Fezziwig’s. Note Mr. Fezziwig on the right ringing the bell to begin the festivities.

Young Scrooge and Belle

Dinner at the Cratchit home

Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas future.

We had a great date.  It was nice to relax riding the train home, especially when it began to rain during the ride.

Our Thanksgiving Dinner

Today Margaret and I had our Thanksgiving meal. I took her on a date. She is the love of my life and deserves to be spoiled much more often. We went to the DuPont Country Club outside of Wilmington, DE.

Main entrance to the club

Once inside the doors, we were met by a uniformed man who asked our names and escorted us to the dinning room.

About half of the tables were empty for our seating time. I made our reservations only a few days ago and the only seating available was an early one. That worked for us as we’re not much on being out late anyway.

The first course was a scrumptious pumpkin soup followed by salads.

Margaret’s entree was rack of lamb.

No way was I going to have turkey! I had a Filet Mignon and mashed potatoes.

Desert was two different small chocolate parfait, one white and one dark chocolate, plus a small wedge of pastry covered with fresh berries for each of us. It was a delicious meal and awesome service by the Club staff.

An ice sculpture located at the dinning room entrance.

Margaret wanted a picture of each of us while we were all dressed up. Doesn’t she look great?

And then there is this ugly guy! This jacket is actually too big for me now. I have another 90 pounds to lose.

I don’t think I was using wisdom when I scheduled my November weigh-in at the doctor’s. It is tomorrow morning! Oops. After the meal last Saturday and the one today I may only break even on weight loss this month.

In His name,
Chaplain Sam Houchins

2nd Annual Thanksgiving For Trucker Friends

Three of our truck driver friends live near us.  Last year Margaret invited them to join us for our Thanksgiving meal.  We repeated the invitations this year.  The past eight years we were always at the chapel on Thanksgiving day.  Also, the drivers and our family have other commitments on Thanksgiving day, so we have our meal the weekend before the holiday.

Our daughter Sheri and her two sons, Jonathan and Patrick Sean, came up from Virginia Friday night.  Sheri fixes a deep fat fried turkey for her family and agreed to bring her fryer with her this year.  Margaret had tasted one of Sheri’s fried turkeys before and loved it.

Sheri setup the fryer in the back yard.  It uses about 4 gallons of oil and has a propane burner.

When they thought the bird should be done, Jonathan lifted it out of the fryer so Sheri could check it’s temperature

It’s done!

Our three driver friends, left to right: Jay Jones, Tony Kong, and Ron Jones.  Jay and Tony are now retired from truck driving.
Lower right, Baby Girl was also spending the day visiting with us again.

I wanted a picture of the table before it got messed up!

Ready to begin the feast! Left to right: Ron Jones, Sandy Jones (neighbor and friend from church), Tony Kong, Jay Jones, Jonathan, Sheri, Patrick Sean, Margaret, and Baby Girl.  Even though we had three Jones’ with us, they are not related.

Margaret, Jonathan, and Sheri did an awesome job preparing the meal.  The fried turkey was delicious.  Sandy provided the desert—two pumpkin pies.  We have so many blessings to be thankful for!!!

In His name,
Chaplain Sam Houchins