Category: Blogging

The Brown House

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. On Wednesday December 03RD 2025 me and my brother started our day at a popular deli in Far North Dallas – Deli-News. We’ve been there many times for lunch over the past 18 years. It’s actually located within a few miles of my brother’s first workplace in the Dallas Texas area – as well as his first home with his new wife at the time. I got the “New York Diner Classic” – “mounds of thinly sliced roast beef and topped with our special brown gravy and served open faced”. It was very good, and it should’ve been very good at $21.99. It was definitely high-quality roast beef. It came with a side. I chose their Potato Salad.

But that’s not what this post is about. After lunch we returned to Wylie Texas – specifically the historic downtown district along Ballard Avenue. We visited the “Thomas And Mattie Brown House Welcome Center” (known more commonly as “Welcome Center At Brown House”). It’s a historic Queen Anne Victorian house (built in 1905) that houses a museum, gift shop, and offices. It also serves as the official welcome center for the city of Wylie Texas. They are open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11 AM to 5 PM from November to March with extended hours from April to October. Admission is free.

The city of Wylie owns and operates the museum with part-time paid employees. Unlike our museum back home in Sebring Florida where we encourage (and hope for) financial support from visitors, members, and businesses – the museum in Wylie has its own allocated budget and can’t accept donations. But if you want to support them then you can buy something at their gift shop. All gift shop proceeds support the 501(c)(3) Wylie Historical Society non-profit organization.

Upon arrival – I immediately signed their guest book, and I also quickly revealed that I am also in the museum business. We got a nice tour of the museum – which occupies much of the bottom floor. (The top floor is for staff only.)

A dozen uniquely themed Christmas trees covered nearly every corner of the museum. I especially liked the patriotic tree that will likely stay in place as is until America’s 250TH birthday less than 6 months from now. I remarked to Tracy – a Guest Service Specialist at the museum – that I need to return on my next visit to Wylie in the summertime to check out what it looks like without all of the Christmas trees. Me and my brother had a very nice conversation with Tracy – maybe half of it as a visitor – and the other half of it as a fellow museum worker. I walked away with some great ideas (and dreams) for my own historic house museum back home.

Fun Facts: The Brown House was a private residence from 1905 to 1988. It was purchased by a local trust fund in 1989 to use as office space and create a library and historical museum. Their mission was to restore the house to the way it originally looked in 1905. Over a half-million dollars was spent to restore the house. The City Of Wylie purchased the house from the Trust in 2015. It was initially used for event rentals and special events. After several years of weather-related repairs (due to hail, snow, and ice storms) – it officially became the Welcome Center and Museum in August 2022.

On the next #TravelThursday – coffee, coffee, dessert, movie, cheesesteak, and cronuts. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Dallas, Texas, Thanksgiving, Victorian, Wylie

Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 464

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date January 5, 2026
No Comments on My Top 10 Hits – Week 464

Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from the previous week. It’s the continuation of a weekly hobby that goes back almost 50 years. Here’s this week’s chart – for the week ending Sunday January 04TH 2026 – the 464TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW	LW	WKS	SONG TITLE	ARTIST / SITE
1	1	12	How Good It Is [4TH week @ # 1]	Chris Tomlin
2	2	13	Dusty Bibles	Josiah Queen
3	4	9	World On Fire	for King + Country Ft. Taylor Hill
4	3	23	Can’t Steal My Joy	Josiah Queen X Brandon Lake
5	5	29	What An Awesome God	Phil Wickham
6	8	4	God Did !	Sons Of Sunday
7	7	6	I Need You	Jet Trouble
8	6	10	Lift Me Up	Blessing Offor
9	9	4	No Survivors	Jeremy Camp
10	–	1	Heaven On My Mind	TobyMac

# 1 This Week In:
2025 – “Do It Again” – Steven Curtis Chapman
2024 – “Hallelujah Feeling” – Caleb & John
2023 – “Who I Am” – Ben Fuller
2022 – “Weary Traveler” – Jordan St. Cyr
2021 – “Every Step Of The Way” – Cade Thompson
2020 – “Holy Water” – We The Kingdom
2019 – “Well Done” – The Afters
2018 – “Lions” – Skillet

CHRIS TOMLIN – He begins 2026 the same way he ended 2025 – atop my chart. “How Good It Is” spends its 4TH week at # 1. It’s also rebounding back up the chart nationally due to renewed airplay on those stations that played only Christmas music for 4 weeks from Thanksgiving to Christmas. It’s good to get back to normal on the radio. Incoming – new music from some of our favorite artists – and some emerging artists.

ONE-HIT WONDER – I can’t believe that Cade Thompson is still a one-hit wonder. He arrived on my chart on Thanksgiving Weekend of 2020. The following weekend – “Every Step Of The Way” ascended from # 8 to # 1 – and it stayed at # 1 for 12 weeks in a row. It spent a total of 26 weeks on my chart through May of 2021. It was my # 3 hit overall of 2021, and it’s my # 5 hit overall since my chart was rebooted almost 9 years ago.

SPOTIFY – You can hear “My Top 10 Hits” anytime by accessing my CountUp playlist on Spotify. All 10 hits are there from top to bottom. You can hear them in order from # 1 to # 10, or you can shuffle them. My playlist will be updated every weekend (usually before the actual chart is presented here on Mondays). You can link to it here.

Your likes, follows, and comments are always appreciated. Thank You for being part of my online ministry to share God’s Good News and win souls for Christ through His music. God used loud music on the radio in South Florida to reach me in August of 2006. I’ve been testifying about Him ever since.

Be blessed my friends ! May our God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Tags Blog, Chart, Christian, christianity, faith, God, Jesus, KLOVE, Music, Radio, Spotify, TheJoyFM, WayFM, WGTS, Z883

Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday January 04TH 2026, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate this great new day of believing, following, trusting, loving, and being more like our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ. Let us love our neighbor as ourself.

This marks the start of my 9TH year of #SundayScripture here on my blog. I’m coming up on my 400TH edition in February. I never really thought that this would last this long, but it has. I still enjoy producing this weekly series, so it shall continue, and God will continue to get all of the glory.

A friend from afar recently asked me if I was leading my own church these days. The answer is no. I am not leading my own church; although, that was actually a plan of mine for a few years. I thought about it. I prayed about it. I wondered what it would be like if I planted a church in my eventual retirement location of Sebring Florida. I even thought about starting a church in the clubhouse of my own neighborhood once I settled on my current 55+ community in 2022. Those plans didn’t come to fruition. They were not God’s plans. His plans were for me to serve as part of an already established church body in Sebring. I picked the first church. That wasn’t the church that God planned for me. He picked the next church. I’ve been part of that church body for the past 28 months.

My takeaway is this. Go ahead and make plans for your future. Make big plans. Pray about them. Our God may find them amusing. He’s got His own plans for you. Go with His plans.

“For I know the plans I have for you” – says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster – to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11 NLT)

My testimony is featured each week here on #SundayScripture – whether it’s part of a sermon, a testimony, or just me writing about the events of the past week. Hopefully it encourages you and inspires you to seek the Lord – and get closer to Him with each new day.

If you wish to learn more about the God I know – then stay tuned to #SundayScripture. The best is yet to come !

Thank you for reading my blog for this day, and may:

The LORD bless you, and keep you.
The LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

Tags Bible, Blog, Christ, Christian, Church, Gaudete, God, Jesus, Message, Minister, Ministry, Pastor, Preacher, Reverend, Scripture, Sermon, Sunday

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A December To Remember

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. And Happy New Year 2026 ! I hope that this year is greater for you than last year. May you enjoy great travels in this new year.

I’m still looking back at my late-November / early-December trip to visit family in the Dallas Texas area. I’m up to the new month of December – Monday December 01ST 2025. This may be the first time ever that I’m in Texas in December. It was back-to-school time for my two nieces following the Thanksgiving Week break.

On that cold, dark, and dreary December day – stuck in the 30s with low clouds and mist all day long – me and my brother headed over to Starwood Cafe for brunch. He had breakfast, and I had lunch. I had their Monte Cristo with fries. I think I discovered the Monte Cristo at the old Bennigan’s during the 2000s. Nowadays whenever I can make it to a Cheddar’s (which is not very often) – I get it there. The Monte Cristo at Starwood is good. I’ve had it before. I enjoyed it via fork and knife. (It can get quite messy.)

After Starwood we went to a local coffeehouse called Armor Coffee. They have just 2 locations – the original one in Allen (where my family once lived and where my two nieces were born), and the newer one in Wylie (where my family currently lives – since 2019). Armor Coffee is owned by U.S. Army Veteran and West Point Graduate Mike Todryk and his wife – HGTV star Jenn Todryk (“No Demo Reno”).

After another Target run – we stayed in for the rest of the day.

There’s a diner in Wylie that I’ve always wanted to eat at ever since my family moved there. It’s known throughout Texas (with 45 locations) as Cotton Patch Cafe. I kind of relate it to Bob Evans serving Ohio comfort food. It serves Texas comfort food. My brother finally agreed to eat there, and we enjoyed a big lunch for $9.99 (not including drink and gratuity). I think we’ll return the next time I’m in town. My brother was impressed with the size portions for such a low price.

Later on that 2ND day of December – with the sun shining brightly and the temperature finally breaking-out of the 30s for the first time in almost 42 hours – we went back to the theatres to see our 3RD movie in 5 days. We saw “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” – the continuing story of the first two movies from 2013 and 2016 respectively.

After the movie and a Starbucks run we ventured over to my oldest niece’s high school. She’s a cheerleader in the 10TH grade, and their high school varsity basketball team was taking on a rival team from 38 miles away in the Denton Texas area. It was my first high school basketball game of my life, and it may have actually been my first basketball game overall of my life. (I don’t recall ever seeing the Washington Bullets growing up in the D.C. area, or the Miami Heat living down in South Florida.) Spoiler: The home team won in a come-from-behind victory !

On the next #TravelThursday I step inside a historic house that serves as the official museum and welcome center for Wylie Texas. Let’s keep traveling together.