You may recall I wrote here a few weeks ago about a train set Ellen and I hoped to set up this Christmas at her sister Ann’s house. The trains, and the houses and other accessories were bought by her dad in Germany when the family was stationed there in the 1950s. The trains are made by Fleishmann, and it’s HO gauge, so quite small, but very well made. After Ellen had this idea at Thanksgiving, we got the trains out of their box (they’ve been in it for about 40 years) and tried them out at our house. They needed oiling, but we ascertained they did work, so we brought them up to Ann’s and here they are. Dave set up a plywood board on saw horses, Zach painted it white, and Ann, Ellen and I set things up last night and this morning.

Ann and Ellen enjoyed this trip down memory lane, their father set them up every Christmas for many years.

This is the large steam engine.

Here’s the diesel engine, which runs, but we weren’t able to get it well lubricated, so it squeaks a lot. We’re keeping it on a siding.

The small steam engine is a real work horse and both pulls the best and runs the fastest.

Here’s Ellen enjoying running the trains. Later I managed to hook up some street lights, we’ll see how they look this evening. It’s a fine train set, probably worth a good deal of money, but worth more in memories to Ann and Ellen.

If you’re on Facebook, you can see the trains running HERE.

At least once in the Christmas season Ellen likes to get out for an evening’s entertainment with an appropriate holiday theme. Yesterday we drove down to Cape May, where the season is very much in evidence. Here we are in a shot taken by a friendly stranger in front of the town’s Christmas tree.

You never know what you might see in Cape May, and in the small park where the tree was, we found a group of riders enjoying the warm, foggy evening and attired for the season. “Why can’t I do that? I want to do that!” said Ellen.

Even the horses were in holiday gear.

After dinner at the Jackson Mountain Cafe, we walked around the historic area a little, enjoying the decorated mansions and bed and breakfasts like The Queen Victoria, seen here.

Just outside we enjoyed hearing a group of very professional carolers entertaining the crowd.

As far as decorations go, Columbia House was the most gaudy one we saw.

The main reason we were in town was to attend this performance, which Ellen had seen listed in the paper. We both like Alcott’s “Little Women” which was part of this performance (the Christmas section), as well as two short stories about Christmas. We weren’t sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a one-woman show by Gayle Stahlhuth, the director of this small local theater company. She was excellent, doing narration and all the speaking parts from little girls to men to several characters with ethnic accents, very lively and entertaining, filling the small church’s stage area with her enthusiasm. Afterward my first comment to Ellen was, “I couldn’t even TALK that long!” There’s another performance at 8 PM on Dec. 14th if you’re able to catch it.

We enjoyed our evening out with a Christmas theme, and it’s put us in the right mood for wrapping gifts today.

I’ve never been very religious, but I do have a fondness of some of the traditions of Christmas. I think I began sending cards to friends and family in 1972, the first Christmas I was not living at home with my parents. Above is the cover of the hand-made card I sent that year, or actually a recreation of it from a black and white photocopy. It was made from two layers of colored paper, a light color cut to show the white interior, and a dark color cut more extensively. Pretty crude, but lots of work. For years the recipients asked if I was going to do more like that, but I was never that ambitious (or had the time) to do hand-made cards again. Thereafter they were store-bought cards.

I’ve send cards out every year since, with a list that fluctuates but is usually around 30 recipients, and since we’ve been married (1989) Ellen and I have both sent cards, adding another 20 or so for her friends and family. Some years I had time for lengthy personal notes in each one, but I think that was only in the early years. Generally I write a short note, a sentence or two. Ellen likes lengthy notes, and most years is still writing cards the week of Christmas. A few times we tried the “printed group letter insert” method of telling everyone what we were up to in the past year, but most years there isn’t a lot to write about. Our lives are fairly similar from year to year, except perhaps for a vacation trip and a few events like weddings or funerals attended, which do not make for gripping reading.

Today I asked Ellen, “Do you want to send Christmas cards this year?” and she answered, “Not really.” So I think we’re giving up the tradition. We may be late to that trend, the cards we receive have dwindled. Ellen’s sister Ann hasn’t sent any out for at least 10 years. Older relations are dwindling, too. We get some cards from our generation, but most everyone we get them from has our phone number and emails, and that goes for people we work with as well. My blog covers most of the more interesting things we do with pictures and commentary (at least interesting to us). So I guess my plan going forward is, if I receive a card from someone with a personal note, I’ll reply in kind, but explaining we’re not sending cards anymore. Cards with just signatures or printed names will probably not be replied to, except perhaps for an email thanks. I’m not a fan of e-cards, so I don’t plan to go that route.

It’s not easy giving up a 40-year tradition, but as you get older, you yearn to simplify your life, and this is one small way to do it. If you’re reading this, and you usually get a card from us, be sure we wish you the happiest of holidays!

My 61st yesterday, and it was the best birthday I’ve had in years. For lunch we had cupcakes from Chocolate Face, just down the road. We only finished four of these, but then that’s two for today! The weather was sunny and cold, but not terribly so. At 2 PM we drove to Atlantic City for a walk on the boardwalk there, just catching the end of the Chinese New Year parade.

Then we went to the Apple Store were I got my present, a new iPad! I’m still setting it up today, but I’m sure I’ll enjoy it. Since we already have iPhones and Apple desktop and laptop computers, we now have, as they told me in the store, “the entire ecosystem.”

Then we walked short distance to Souzai on the third level of The Pier, overlooking the sunset on the beach, and had a delicious sushi dinner. Life is good!

Yesterday evening Ellen and I enjoyed a variety of live music in Ocean City at their First Night celebration. We arrived in town about 4:30 PM and began with a pretty good dinner at the High School Cafeteria. Then we caught the Barbershop Quartets show also in the High School. There were two quartets, above is Sea Chord. Both groups were good, singing not only traditional Barbershop songs like Rosie, but also newer material from the fifties, sixties and seventies in pretty good arrangements.

Next we walked a few blocks to the Tabernacle church where the Harmony Show Choir put on a fine show. This was “Glee” with real high-school age kids. There were some shaky moments, a few performers were visibly nervous, but on the whole the group was quite good, and a few of the soloists were excellent and seemed ready for the big time. All the numbers included some dancing, and that was often quite good as well. The repertoire was mostly from the 1960s and 70s, with a few broadway numbers. One favorite of ours was a charming arrangement of “Feelin’ Groovy” by Simon and Garfunkel, where the word “groovy,” perhaps considered too corny for today, was omitted until the very last word. It worked.

Another short walk to St. Peter’s church brought us to “Broadway by Request,” where the audience were given numbered tickets and a program with a list of about 100 Broadway songs from about 50 different shows. The performers drew numbers, and the audience member with the matching ticket got to choose the song. A nice idea, but each singer was assigned certain songs, and in this performance, one guy was chosen about six times while others not at all. The singing was great, the piano accompaniment was also excellent.

Next we took a longer walk to the Music Pier on the boardwalk to hear “Peter Tork and Shoe Suede Blues.” This was a crowded venue, and we were pretty far back, so my pictures were blurrier than usual, but Ellen and I both thought we would not have recognized Peter from his “Monkees” days anyway. As a blues band, the four were pretty good. Peter and another guitarist switched off playing lead and rhythm, and there was a drummer and bassist. They did some fifties and sixties pop songs, as well as more traditional blues like “Wild About My Lovin’.” Peter was mildly entertaining as a speaker between numbers, and no doubt to satisfy his audience, they did two Monkees songs, “I’m a Believer,” and “Daydream Believer,” and Tork played keyboard on both of those.

That show ended around 10 PM, and we oldsters decided it was time to go home, and we were asleep before midnight. More acts we might have caught included Jim Albertson storytelling, Doo Wop, a Gospel Choir, Carl Howell folk music, a String Band, several magic shows, Zydeco, songs from “Annie”, “Trout Fishing in America,” rock bands, and the Ocean City Pops Orchestra, among others. And fireworks at midnight. Pretty good event, it was our first time there, but I’d certainly go again.