Holes in the Floor of Heaven

Ray Nichols 

Want to lose weight and feel great for 2015?

Want to lose weight for 2015? Here are a few tips I picked up along the journey.

Fighting the battle of the bulge is difficult and stressful. Seems like every time we lose it, it comes back bigger. Starvation or temporary dieting can cause you more misery than glee. Here are a few simple tips that just might help.

Ginseng for energy and drink more WATER. it fills you up and has no calories. Ice cold water is the best, but if you need to, add a little flavor. I like the Mio Energy additives myself. 

 NO SODAS they are very high in calories and especially NO DIET SODAS or artificial sweeteners. 

PROTEIN when you get hungry and try to go for a walk even if its just parking further away from the door. 

Artificial sweeteners will give you more calories than sugar; also meats have steroids to make the cows, pigs and chickens fat. Those steroids make us fat too so cut back. Fish is usually safer. 

Some foods burn calories like apples for instance, and a high fiber diet is helpful. 

When we hit middle age our metabolism slows dowwwwnnnn, and so you need to take vitamins and eat foods that increase your metabolism. L-arginine and vitamin B-12 will increase your metabolism. You should also do a multi-vitamin to help your body function better.   

Hot sauce burns calories and ginger. 

Substitute cinnamon for sugar when you can, and increase your fiber intake with the occasional salad. I like mine with lots of dressing and bacon bits. 

Tapping your feet can burn calories too. 

Water should be ice cold BTW and B-12 supplements will improve your metabolism. 

As for exercise, the wife can help burn calories too, if you know what I mean.   

Take deep breaths to give your body more oxygen and energy so you can move more and burn more calories. 

Temporary diets do not work because they are temporary. A life change is required in our eating habits to lose weight. 

Happy New Year and may all your resolutions come true.  

A VISIT FROM SAINT NICK

A Visit from St. Nicholas

1822 BY CLEMENT CLARKE MOORE   

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds;

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,

Gave a lustre of midday to objects below,

When what to my wondering eyes did appear,

But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein-deer,

With a little old driver so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment he must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:

"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donner and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;

So up to the housetop the coursers they flew

With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too—

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my head, and was turning around,

Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;

A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.

His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly

That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight—

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171924   

http://www.blackdog.net/holiday/christmas/twas.html  

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

"Is There a Santa Claus?" reprinted from the September 21, 1897, EDITION of The New York Sun. 

http://www.nysun.com/editorials/yes-virginia/68502/

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor—
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O'Hanlon
115 West Ninety Fifth Street

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.

We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

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NICK'S PICKS 2014

NICK'S PICKS

2014

and so as the year winds down to a close and the little baby new year prepares to take the throne, a lot of people are looking back over the year and making lists and giving out awards. Well, here are a few of my picks for 2014... AND a nifty little gif I made for them...

BEST GIF MAKER
My new favorite website is the place to go when you need to make a cool .gif for a post or website or AWARD like the one above that I made at http://MEMEGENERATOR.NET. Thanks MEME GENERATOR!

BEST BLOG
I really think a lot of Genealogy Bloggers will agree with this pick, as this blog inspired so many of us to new heights of accomplishment. With the 52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS CHALLENGE over at www.nostorytoosmall.com, Amy Johnson Crow was a leader in the Genealogy Blogosphere this year, and by the way you can find a lot of good reads there if you are into reading by any chance.

BEST ACTRESS
Acting isnt the hardest way to make a living of course, but playing four characters simultaneously and pulling it off is certainly not easy either. I and a lot of other fans were particularly impressed with the mad skills of NINA DOBREV this year as we have been for many years in the past. As she pulled us into her world of pain and heartaches as the beautiful but often damsel-in-distress, Elena Gilbert, and the evil but almost too cute to hate Katherine Petrova in the Vampire Diaries and its spin-off The Originals. Excellent work Nina.

BEST SINGER
With her amazing vocal range and her hip hop beats, ARIANA GRANDE is absolutely addictive, and those legs arent bad either. Loving her a little harder every day, er, more every day. Keep belting em out and we will keep buying Ari.  

BEST SONGWRITER
If you are looking for a song that tells a good story and sounds great you can probably find something you like on a TAYLOR SWIFT album. I know I can. Songs arent just about a drum machine and a snappy hook. They should tell a story and my favorite storytelling songwriter this year was Taylor.

BEST TV SHOW
OK , so its a new show, but it follows the MO of the awesome movie by Keanu Reeves, and the TV show is every bit as entertaining and thrilling. So my new favorite TV show this year is CONSTANTINE over at NBC.

BEST ACTOR
If anyone can pull off a nerdy, anal, OCD- driven, immature scientist who seems to have been born on Vulcan and keep us laughing all the way to the comics shop, it is BIG BANG THEORY's Doctor Sheldon Cooper, who seems to be only one yellow ring away from becoming a Super Villain of global proportions. Some pretty impressive acting by JIM PARSONS.

Don't judge a book by its cover

Touching life story.....

A young man was getting ready to graduate college. For
many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer's
showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told
him that was all he wanted.

As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited
signs that his father had purchased the car. Finally, on the
morning of his graduation his father called him into his private
study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine
son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son
a beautiful wrapped gift box.

Curious, but somewhat disappointed the young man
opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible. Angrily,
he raised his voice at his father and said, "With all your money you
give me a Bible?" and stormed out of the house, leaving the holy
book.

Many years passed and the young man was very successful in
business.
He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his
father was very old, and thought perhaps he should go to him. He
had not seen him since that graduation day. Before he could make
arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had
passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He
needed to come home immediately and take care of things.
When he arrived at his father's house, sudden sadness and
regret filled his heart.

He began to search his father's important papers and
saw the still new Bible, just as he had left it years ago. With
tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages. As he
read those words, a car key dropped from an envelope
taped behind the Bible.
It had a tag with the dealer's name, the same dealer who had the
sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation,
and the words...PAID IN FULL.

How many times do we miss God's blessings because they are not
packaged as we expected?

http://www.indianchild.com/inspiring_stories.htm