Christmas Pictures

We had a good Christmas at the Peasant house. Church services were good, as was the special music. A relaxing afternoon opening presents. My wife and older daughter made a great dinner. Missed having Dad around, but got a little nap after the presents in his honor. :-)  A couple of pictures . . .

Family Picture

What do you get the Pastor who has everything??

A yard of Twix! How awesome is that!

Birthday

So my birthday was this week. To celebrate we went to Nationals Park, where they had a big holiday event called "Enchant." It had a light maze, skating rink, and Christmas market. It was a fun outing, though the food court was disappointing. Since we went on Tuesday night, some of the special food booths were not open. :-( But we still had a good time, even though it was cold and rainy. Some pictures (though they do not do the light justice) . . .

A view from the entrance, walking down to field level.

On the skating trail. I didn't skate too well this night. :-(

Looking up at the large tree in the center of the light maze.

(See first picture for some additional perspective how tall it was!)

Part of the light maze was to find all of Santa's reindeer. This is one of them. You can see Ma Peasant peeking from under the head, and daughter Peasant as the silhouette in front. They were quite large, as you can see!

Just another cool light picture, and to give you more perspective on the scale of it all!

Looking down at the field from the concourse level, where the Christmas market was.

Thanksgiving Day

We had a nice day. Good to have the family together. Missed having my Dad around this year. We toasted him at dinner. And I didn't overstuff myself - that's good! Yet I enjoyed our feast and ate lots. And while it's hard to get a selfie of everyone, I tried . . .

We also watched the dog show again this year, and guess who won! A bulldog named Thor! I was rooting for him among the finalists. Just look at that face - perfect. Couldn't care less if he won or not. He's confident. He's sure of himself. Perfect bulldog attitude. :-)

Hope you all had a great day too!

Happy Thanksgiving

$100,000!

A member family of my congregation owns a little family restaurant in town called Malek's Pizza Palace. On the Last Monday of each month, they give 25% of their sales that day to a charity. Over the years they have helped folks near and far, young and old, it good times and bad. And in November, they surpassed $100,000 given! So we had a special recognition for them. We presented them with a plaque and letters from both religious and civil dignitaries. It was a very nice night to commend some very nice and generous people. :-)

A couple of pictures:

I'm also told there is a cell phone video of the presentation. I haven't watched it yet, but click here if you're interested. :-)

Billy Goat Trail

Yesterday my daughter had off from school for the end of the quarter, so our family went to Great Falls National Park (Maryland side) and hiked the Billy Goat Trail. And yes, there's a reason it's called that! Lots of ups and downs and rocks to climb up, down, and over! But it was a beautiful day and good to get out. Here are some pictures. The first I did not take, but is from their web site, showing one of the rock crevices that yes, we climbed up! And rest are of us. :-)

I'm Back (I think)

I took some time off from blogging. After my Dad's funeral and a few days away, I had a lot to catch up on, the Fall schedule starting up, and just wanted to take some time off and process. I'm not sad but still going through the grieving process, being at times tired and lethargic. But I'm getting through it. :-)

I realized that I really had two Dads: one, the Dad of my youth and the Dad I would visit in Ridley Park; and two, the Dad who lived with me here, who needed me to take care of him. When I think of the first Dad, I have fond memories and enjoy looking back and remembering all that we did together and all that he taught me. However, it is the second Dad that I find myself missing. He was a lot of work and often frustrating, but that's the Dad that I am grieving. I guess it makes sense because he was here with me these past six years. But I still think it interesting.

In church a couple of Sundays ago, we sang the hymn that I believe was the last (or one of the last) hymns I ever sang to him. It was Sunday morning - the last time the sun would rise on him here on this earth - and before I left to help out at a church up near Harrisburg (which was supposed to be the first Sunday of my vacation), I had a devotion with him and sang "Entrust Your Days and Burdens" to him. That was tough. That hymn will also have special meaning for me now. This Sunday we will celebrate All Saints Day and Sing "For All the Saints" - that will be tough too, as we sang that at his funeral. Hopefully I'll be able to get through it. :-)

Click here for a taste of the hymn "Entrust Your Days and Burdens." Click here to read the lyrics.

Click here to hear "For All the Saints" sung at a Higher Things youth gathering we attended. Click here to read the lyrics.

One last thing . . .

Thursday was my youngest's birthday, so Happy Birthday to this beautiful young lady! (For some reason, I cannot add the picture, but will try again later . . .)