"Bits and Pieces" Posted by Mot at TNT- While We Wait

TNT:

Mot:   my kids begged for ice cream. Begged. Cried real tears. All the drama.

So I have $20 to my name right now. Bills are paid and food is bought, but there just wasn’t much leftover this week. That’s okay. Then on the way home from grocery shopping today, my kids begged for ice cream. Begged. Cried real tears. All the drama.

I said no. I’m short on money and I might need that $20 before payday. We have plenty of good food at home; we don’t need to stop at the ice cream store.
I heard little sighs from the back seat, and then, “God, we’d really love some ice cream. Is there any way you can give mommy some money so we can get some ice cream tonight? We know you can. Thank you.”

Oh good grief. “Guys,” I said, “God isn’t going to drop money on our door step so you two can get ice cream. He’s BUSY right now with natural disasters.”

 “Nope,” Josh said. “God said you’ll have plenty of money for ice cream and to give some to the natural disaster people.”

“Josh…it doesn’t work that way,” I started, and then gave up. And then we got home.
And on my doorstep was the mail.

In the mail was an envelope.

In the envelope was a check for $123. From an overpayment on a student loan I paid off…in 2007.

The kids were not surprised. God was not surprised. They got ice cream. The Red Cross got a donation.

And Mom remembered, yet again, what it means to have the faith of a child.
Credit: Sara Moore Gruver

***********

Mot:  .. Do You KNow Why Farm Trucks Never get Stolen!!???

Mot:... Now Ya Knows Where From!! ~~

Mot: I was thinking about going out to see if any daffodils had popped up … then I changed my mind, & thought a cup of tea might be better… & I don’t like tea.

Mot:  . To Clarify just Which Season We are In !! ~~~

Mot:  ... Who Came Up with this Wind Chill Thingy anyways!!! ~~

Mot:  .. A Reminder as I sit here Completely Snowed IN!! 

"Advice From An Old Farmer" Posted by Mot at TNT

TNT:

Mot:  Advice from An Old Farmer

Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.

Keep skunks and bankers at a distance.

Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.

A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.

Words that soak into your ears are whispered… not yelled.

Meanness don’t jes’ happen overnight.

Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads.

Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.

It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge.

You cannot unsay a cruel word.

Every path has a few puddles.

When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.

The best sermons are lived, not preached.

Most of the stuff people worry about ain’t never gonna happen anyway.

Don’t judge folks by their relatives.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

Live a good, honorable life… Then when you get older and think back, you’ll enjoy it a second time.

Don‘t interfere with somethin’ that ain’t bothering you none.

Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin’.

Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.

The biggest troublemaker you’ll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin’.

Always drink upstream from the herd.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.

Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in.

If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.

Most times, it just gets down to common sense.

Information Briefing #183 by whitehatauxiliaries

Information Briefing #183   by whitehatauxiliaries

February 15, 2023 

To Empower The Bold – To Explore Truth – To Accurately Inform About The World Global Settlements

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

As Europe and the world was ever more divided, millions were dying in cruel, hostile conditions. None knowing why, and the mustard gas was yet to follow.

Like now, it needed a new season for reason and for the Souls of Humanity to stop this profanity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KHoVBK2EVE&embeds_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwhitehatauxiliaries.com%2F&feature=emb_imp_woyt

As Germany, Sweden and Europe are being overrun by these mass-ignorant, crime-ridden, raping hoards, it’s time to unite and lead a common fight for each other. To keep our own nation’s humanities and hope alive. To work as one, to keep our homelands and motherlands.

Political incompetence has failed us all, and will. Truly evil forces manipulate us all behind the scenes, with a vested agenda to divide all, mass cross-breed chaos, and rule. Having bought our political orders and ruling all banking, they now seek to create their own mutant, subservient and dependent race under their own NWO false flag, where their elites take and rule all, as nations fall and bankers sequester. Never more did we, and the world, need a new Munich Agreement to save the souls of our nations, our heritage and our RIGHTS to be free.

Man, and we, need to unite and fight for good. We have no worthwhile leaders, just manipulative publicly funded suited bottom feeders. Munich II, it now needs you. We are at war for survival of our own kind. Mankind.

As ALL will go West to a multi-polar new world, have YOU yourself even thought it through? What it means for you long-term? It’s coming – enormous seismic changes towards the pending and complicated Global Settlements outcome. Most of the West are sadly just brain dead; clueless.

You cannot build a value-based democratic democracy based on greasy pole, non-achieving, inept political mediocrities. Just eight key Zionist Jewish families own the Federal Reserve, BIS, US Treasury and BOTH Houses for political control. Do you understand the battles coming?

The world you think you are in is just an illusion. Left to them, you will own nothing but just be owned by them. A Goyim Chattel. Believe it. Their way, you lose it all. Serfs! Taxation and Zios are taking it all.

The Zios are driving you all towards their melting pot of racial cross-breeding mud-people drones flooding Europe until it blows, to serve only their order. Borgs! They own America and the Governments. They own and manipulate both Houses stolen by stealth and fraud while you blindly did nothing.

You next? Will the public all only care when it’s too late. Thank the gods for the coming global split, and our chances to unite, rethink as independent human beings together, and stop what is unfolding. Rallying the nation’s carers and raising the bar!

Thank God for WHA, all of you worldwide united, and the radical unity we need when the GS comes. If we can stop the Rotts and Zio DC Cabal stealing the lot, all can rebuild. We need to swerve the US CBDC version. It’s a skunks chain for all to be taken at will. BRICS will help smash the global and WEF Zio plans. This they fear and with reason.

BRICS is our New World Order battleground, political as hell, but the basis for global change to suit a new emerging Human species. We will not become Zionist or WEF feces.

People, worldwide, given a chance, are good. Most of our problems are because of Zionist usury, global chicanery, political avarice, or Agency manipulation – the cause of most wars feeding the gross military industrial cabal. No NWO and no WEF. Feed need. Educate.

When will we learn, it’s all about nurturing souls. No one is “special”. Just be a good and humane being.  Not Goyim as slaves to the truly evil doctrinaire Zionist species scavenging the planet.

 To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://whitehatauxiliaries.com/2023/02/15/information-briefing-183/

United States Gold Bullion Depository Fort Knox Kentucky

United States Gold Bullion Depository Fort Knox Kentucky

By Doug Whiteman  Jan. 05, 2023

America's golden parachute: Fort Knox securely stores billions of dollars of gold 'just in case we need it.' But the vault is home to other priceless treasures — and secrets  America's gold stockpile has fueled curiosity and conspiracy theories. How much do we know? We adhere to strict standards of editorial integrity to help you make decisions with confidence. Please be aware that some (or all) products and services linked in this article are from our sponsors.

You may be aware of Fort Knox from the James Bond movie Goldfinger, or from the old cartoon where Bugs Bunny tricks Yosemite Sam into digging up some of the gold bars and getting arrested.

But what do you really know about the U.S. bullion bunker in Kentucky?

United States Gold Bullion Depository Fort Knox Kentucky Michael Vadon / Flickr

The Fort Knox gold vault is one of the most secure and secret places in America. Because few people have ever gotten inside, the gold depository is a subject of fascination and speculation.

Here are 10 things we know — and maybe don't know.

1. It holds tons of gold — literally

Fort Knox currently houses 147.3 million ounces of gold. The government says the bullion has a "book value" of $6.22 billion.

However, that's based on a fixed price that officials set in 1973. Based on the current market value of gold, the reserves at Fort Knox are worth a far more impressive $273.7 billion, roughly speaking.

Much of the gold in the vault is in the form of 27-pound bars, while a percentage is in gold coins.

At one time, the point of having all of that gold was to provide backing for U.S. currency — but the dollar was taken off the gold standard in 1971.

MORE: How to invest in gold

Are you confident in your retirement savings? Get advice on your investment portfolio from a certified professional through Datalign. It only takes 3 minutes to connect with an advisor who puts you first.

2. Is the gold really in there?

So why does the U.S. hang onto its gold stash?

"Just in case we need it," is the explanation a former Federal Reserve Board chairman reportedly gave.

Conspiracy theorists have insisted that the government secretly sold off the gold and that the gold bars are actually tungsten bricks painted to look like the precious metal.

There's no way for outsiders to say with absolute certainty if there's really bullion — or if it's all bull. Over the years, there have been few audits to test the gold, or inventories to count it.

3. Outsiders rarely get inside

In 2017, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin led a rare visit by outsiders to peek at the gold reserves inside the Fort Knox vault.

He was accompanied by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the two of them were photographed holding gold bars.

Afterward, Mnuchin had an answer for the conspiracy mongers. "Glad gold is safe!" he tweeted.

The last time Fort Knox had opened its vault to civilians was more than 40 years earlier.

During her tenure as Director of the U.S. Mint, Mary Brooks led a tour of the vault for members of Congress and the news media in 1974. U.S Treasury Secretary William E. Simon allowed the visit in an effort to quell rumors that all the gold had been removed from the vaults.

4. Only one US president ever got inside

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://moneywise.com/life/lifestyle/fort-knox-secrets

What's Really Inside Fort Knox?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-NRbPKwvxA

The Truth Behind Why Fort Knox Is Among The Most Heavily Guarded And Secretive Places In The World

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znpPn2oNuig

16 Super Bowl Financial Facts To Amaze Friends And Bar Mates

16 Super Bowl Financial Facts To Amaze Friends And Bar Mates

The big game is big money. Get a load of the numbers.

By Emma Johnston-Wheeler  Feb. 07, 2023

Super Bowl LVII is BIG business. Ticket prices, commercial rates, player pay, souvenir costs and more are all super-sized for the year's most massive sports and entertainment event.

We've got some of the huge numbers behind the big game.

Super Bowl LVII stadium in Arizona

Before the coin toss and kickoff at Arizona’s State Farm Stadium, be sure to check out these 16 financial facts about the Super Bowl that will floor your friends and the guy on the next barstool.

1. Super Bowl ticket prices now

Unless you know an NFL player or senior management employee, you’ll have to rely on the secondary market or purchase ticket packages from the NFL’s licensed hospitality partner, On Location Experiences.

According to TickPick co-founder Brett Goldberg, the face value of Super Bowl LVII tickets have increased drastically. The average ticket costs between $3,000 and $6,000.

In 2022, the most expensive seats on record went for more than $70,000 according to entertainment site Rarest.org while the cheapest cost at least four grand.

Typically, the best time to purchase is three to five days prior to the game because prices tend to come down just before the big day.

2. ...And then

Seats cost as little as $6 for the very first Super Bowl, played in 1967 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. That's about the same as $53 in today's dollars.

But the actual vintage tickets are worth a whole lot more than that: A ticket for Super Bowl I sold at auction in 2015 for more than $26,000.

Btw, the Green Bay Packers demolished the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in that first championship game.

3. Super Bowl ad rates: Insane today…

The Super Bowl is one of the main events of the year for advertisers, and they pay mountains of money to get in the game.

As reported by Front Office Sports, Fox Sports sold 30-second commercials costing more than $7 million each for the 2023 Super Bowl. This is the most expensive Super Bowl ad price in NFL history.

Those ad rates have nearly doubled over the last 10 years.

4. ...A bargain yesterday

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://moneywise.com/life/lifestyle/super-bowl-financial-facts?utm_source=email&utm_medium=mwd&utm_campaign=mon_mwd&utm_term=mon_mwd_2_9&utm_content=mon_mwd_821

Rest In Peace Nick Fleming

Dinar Recaps Note:  Thank you Salty Toes for letting us all know.  Prayers and condolences to all Nick’s family and friends….. May he rest in peace~ The Dinar Recaps Team

Dinar Recaps Note #2 : We also received this information from Desert Tigger and CK- NICK Flemings admin of well over 10 yrs.and who was his administrator of his telegram channels. Thank you very much to all of you for informing us all.

Sent by Salty Toes & Seeds of Wisdom Team

RE: Nick Fleming Obituary

Late last night I finally caught up with Nick's attorney, Mr John Kremer Esq. He gives me authority to inform you of the following.

It is with the heaviest of hearts I quote

"Nick Fleming passed away from pancreatic cancer at approx. 10:45 a.m., local Mountain time, on Sunday, February 5, 2023, at a hospice facility in El Paso.  He is survived by his son Bo, Bo’s wife, and their three daughters.

Nick had been hospitalized in El Paso since approx. December 12th or 13th 2022, after suffering a debilitating stroke immediately outside his New Mexico home."

Just the saddest news....RIP

Ten Words for 2023

Ten Words for 2023

Jonathan Clements  Humble Dollar   Dec 31, 2022

MOST OF US ARE forever striving to be better versions of ourselves—usually with mixed success. Still, the changing of the calendar often prompts renewed efforts. But what should we focus on? Let me offer 10 words that I try to live by.

1. Pause. Throughout the day, we make snap decisions, and they usually work out just fine—except when it comes to spending and investment choices. Got an overwhelming urge to buy an expensive bauble or make a portfolio change? Try waiting a few days, so your feverish desire has a chance to cool and you can ponder the decision with a clearer head.

2. Reflect. Feeling down? Take a minute to think about your good fortune—the friends and family who surround you, the home you live in, the wonderful experiences you’ve enjoyed, the wealth you’ve accumulated. With gratitude comes happiness.

3. Move. Exercise has all kinds of benefits—physical, emotional and cognitive. If possible, try to get your exercise outside, so you can delight in nature, see your fellow humans at play and feel the sun upon your face.

4. Give. This doesn’t have to be money. You can also give of your time by, say, volunteering for your favorite charity or helping out at your place of worship. I see this every day: HumbleDollar’s writers get paid little—and some decline payment—and yet they pour countless hours into their articles. Trust me, they’re a wonderful bunch of folks to work with.

5. Sleep. This is one of my greatest struggles. I know I sleep better when I’ve been active during the day, eat earlier in the evening and have addressed any major worries. What if these things don’t happen? You’ll find me answering emails at 4 a.m.

6. Simplify. Over the past few years, I’ve been shedding both possessions and financial accounts. I highly recommend it. It’s liberating to be less encumbered by both financial complexity and household items you no longer care about. Afraid you’ll dispose of something and later regret it? I’ve shed countless items and, thus far, I haven’t had a single pang of regret.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://humbledollar.com/2022/12/ten-words-for-2023/

Merry Christmas from The Dinar Recaps Team

Please scroll down for new posts.

All of us at Dinar Recaps would like to wish all our Readers a Very Merry Christmas. 

We wish that all your dreams and wishes come true this coming year. 

Due to the holiday, we plan to have new posts off and on all day Sunday. Please check our  BLOG PAGE  for all new posts. 

On Christmas Day we plan to have 11am and 6pm (ET) email Newsletters. 

Have a happy and safe holiday.  The Dinar Recaps Team

Picture from Viktor Hanacek at Picjumbo.com

Rod's Ingle's annual FREE a cappella Christmas gift!

Warm holiday greetings everyone!

It’s that time of year again, time for some more a cappella Christmas cheer! 

I'm so honored to be able to spread some Christmas love via music with my friends!

If you’ve already received this gift through social media or other means, I apologize. Just trying to be sure no one gets left out! So, warm up those ear buds or bluetooth speakers and spike the eggnog!

Click Read More for the Youtube for this year’s present.

Or you can travel back in time and listen to Christmas arrangements from the past.

They are all here on my youtube channel. Feel free to subscribe or just drop by for a listen.

https://www.youtube.com/@musicology47/playlists

Enjoy and have a very Merry Christmas!!

God Bless!

~Rod

Santa Claus Images History

Santa Claus Images History

Lorraine Boissoneault   December 19, 2018

A Civil War Cartoonist Created the Modern Image of Santa Claus as Union Propaganda

Thomas Nast is legendary for his political cartoons, but he’s also responsible for the jolly St. Nick we know today

You could call it the face that launched a thousand Christmas letters. Appearing on January 3, 1863, in the illustrated magazine Harper’s Weekly, two images cemented the nation’s obsession with a jolly old elf. The first drawing shows Santa distributing presents in a Union Army camp.

Lest any reader question Santa’s allegiance in the Civil War, he wears a jacket patterned with stars and pants colored in stripes. In his hands, he holds a puppet toy with a rope around its neck, its features like those of Confederate president Jefferson Davis.

A second illustration features Santa in his sleigh, then going down a chimney, all in the periphery. At the center, divided into separate circles, are a woman praying on her knees and a soldier leaning against a tree. “

In these two drawings, Christmas became a Union holiday and Santa a Union local deity,” writes Adam Gopnik in a 1997 issue of the New Yorker. “It gave Christmas to the North—gave to the Union cause an aura of domestic sentiment, and even sentimentality.”

The artist responsible for this coup? A Bavarian immigrant named Thomas Nast, political cartoonist extraordinaire and the person who “did as much as any one man to preserve the Union and bring the war to an end,” according to General Ulysses Grant. But like so many inventors, Nast benefitted from the work of his fellow visionaries in creating the rotund, resplendent figure of Santa Claus. He was a man with the right talents in the right place at the perfect time.

Prior to the early 1800s, Christmas was a religious holiday, plain and simple. Several forces in conjunction transformed it into the commercial fête that we celebrate today. The wealth generated by the Industrial Revolution created a middle class that could afford to buy presents, and factories meant mass-produced goods.

Examples of the holiday began to appear in popular literature, from Clement Clarke Moore’s 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (more commonly known by its first verse, “Twas the night before Christmas”) to Charles Dickens’ book A Christmas Carol, published in 1843. By the mid-1800s, Christmas began to look much more as it does today.  

 To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/civil-war-cartoonist-created-modern-image-santa-claus-union-propaganda-180971074/

At a Gas Station on a Cold Christmas Eve...............

A NEW CHRISTMAS STORY . . .This story is better than any greeting card.

The old man sat in his gas station on a cold Christmas Eve. He hadn't been
anywhere in years since his wife had passed away. It was just another day to
him. He didn't hate Christmas, just couldn't find a reason to celebrate.

He was sitting there looking at the snow that had been falling for the last
hour and wondering what it was all about when the door opened and a homeless
man stepped through.

Instead of throwing the man out, Old George as he was known by his
customers, told the man to come and sit by the heater and warm up. "Thank
you, but I don't mean to intrude," said the stranger. "I see you're busy,
I'll just go."

"Not without something hot in your belly." George said.

He turned and opened a wide mouth Thermos and handed it to the stranger.
"It ain't much, but it's hot and tasty. Stew ... Made it myself. When you're
done, there's coffee and it's fresh."

Just at that moment he heard the "ding" of the driveway bell. "Excuse me,
be right back," George said. There in the driveway was an old '53 Chevy.
Steam was rolling out of the front. The driver was panicked. "Mister can you
help me!" said the driver, with a deep Spanish accent. "My wife is with
child and my car is broken." George opened the hood. It was bad. The block
looked cracked from the cold, the car was dead.

"You ain't going in this thing," George said as he turned away.

"But Mister, please help ..." The door of the office closed behind George
as he went inside. He went to the office wall and got the keys to his old
truck, and went back outside. He walked around the building, opened the
garage, started the truck and drove it around to where the couple was
waiting. "Here, take my truck," he said. "She ain't the best thing you ever
looked at, but she runs real good."

George helped put the woman in the truck and watched as it sped off into
the night. He turned and walked back inside the office. "Glad I gave 'em the
truck, their tires were shot too. That 'ol truck has brand new ." George
thought he was talking to the stranger, but the man had gone. The Thermos
was on the desk, empty, with a used coffee cup beside it. "Well, at least he
got something in his belly," George thought.

George went back outside to see if the old Chevy would start. It
cranked slowly, but it started. He pulled it into the garage where the
truck had been. He thought he would tinker with it for something to do.
Christmas Eve meant no customers. He discovered the the block hadn't
cracked, it was just the bottom hose on the radiator. "Well, shoot, I can
fix this," he said to himself. So he put a new one on.

"Those tires ain't gonna get 'em through the winter either." He took the
snow treads off of his wife's old Lincoln. They were like new and he wasn't
going to drive the car anyway.

As he was working, he heard shots being fired. He ran outside and beside a
police car an officer lay on the cold ground. Bleeding from the left
shoulder, the officer moaned, "Please help me."

George helped the officer inside as he remembered the training he had
received in the Army as a medic. He knew the wound needed attention.
"Pressure to stop the bleeding," he thought. The uniform company had been
there that morning and had left clean shop towels. He used those and duct
tape to bind the wound. "Hey, they say duct tape can fix anythin'," he said,
trying to make the policeman feel at ease.

"Something for pain," George thought. All he had was the pills he used for
his back. "These ought to work." He put some water in a cup and gave the
policeman the pills. "You hang in there, I'm going to get you an ambulance."

The phone was dead. "Maybe I can get one of your buddies on that there
talk box out in your car." He went out only to find that a bullet had gone
into the dashboard destroying the two way radio.

He went back in to find the policeman sitting up. "Thanks," said the
officer. "You could have left me there. The guy that shot me is still in the
area."

George sat down beside him, "I would never leave an injured man in the
Army and I ain't gonna leave you." George pulled back the bandage to check
for bleeding. "Looks worse than what it is. Bullet passed right through 'ya.
Good thing it missed the important stuff though. I think with time your
gonna be right as rain."

George got up and poured a cup of coffee. "How do you take it?" he asked.

"None for me," said the officer.

"Oh, yer gonna drink this. Best in the city. Too bad I ain't got no
donuts." The officer laughed and winced at the same time.

The front door of the office flew open. In burst a young man with a gun.
"Give me all your cash! Do it now!" the young man yelled. His hand was
shaking and George could tell that he had never done anything like this
before.

"That's the guy that shot me!" exclaimed the officer.

"Son, why are you doing this?" asked George, "You need to put the cannon
away. Somebody else might get hurt."

The young man was confused. "Shut up old man, or I'll shoot you, too. Now
give me the cash!"

The cop was reaching for his gun. "Put that thing away," George said to
the cop, "we got one too many in here now."

He turned his attention to the young man. "Son, it's Christmas Eve. If you
need money, well then, here. It ain't much but it's all I got. Now put that
pea shooter away."

George pulled $150 out of his pocket and handed it to the young man,
reaching for the barrel of the gun at the same time. The young man released
his grip on the gun, fell to his knees and began to cry. "I'm not very good
at this am I? All I wanted was to buy something for my wife and son," he
went on. "I've lost my job, my rent is due, my car got repossessed last
week."

George handed the gun to the cop. "Son, we all get in a bit of squeeze now
and then. The road gets hard sometimes, but we make it through the best we
can."

He got the young man to his feet, and sat him down on a chair across from
the cop. "Sometimes we do stupid things." George handed the young man a cup
of coffee. "Bein' stupid is one of the things that makes us human. Comin' in
here with a gun ain't the answer. Now sit there and get warm and we'll sort
this thing out."

The young man had stopped crying. He looked over to the cop. "Sorry I shot
you. It just went off. I'm sorry officer."

"Shut up and drink your coffee " the cop said.

George could hear the sounds of sirens outside. A police car and an
ambulance skidded to a halt. Two cops came through the door, guns drawn.
"Chuck! You ok?" one of the cops asked the wounded officer.

"Not bad for a guy who took a bullet. How did you find me?"

"GPS locator in the car. Best thing since sliced bread. Who did this?" the
other cop asked as he approached the young man.

Chuck answered him, "I don't know. The guy ran off into the dark. Just
dropped his gun and ran."

George and the young man both looked puzzled at each other.
"That guy work here?" the wounded cop continued.

"Yep," George said, "just hired him this morning. Boy lost his job."

The paramedics came in and loaded Chuck onto the stretcher. The young man
leaned over the wounded cop and whispered, "Why?"

Chuck just said, "Merry Christmas boy ... and you too, George, and thanks
for everything."

"Well, looks like you got one doozy of a break there. That ought to solve
some of your problems."

George went into the back room and came out with a box. He pulled out a
ring box. "Here you go, something for the little woman. I don't think Martha
would mind. She said it would come in handy some day."

The young man looked inside to see the biggest diamond ring he ever saw.
"I can't take this," said the young man. "It means something to you."

"And now it means something to you," replied George. "I got my memories.
That's all I need."

George reached into the box again. An airplane, a car and a truck appeared
next. They were toys that the oil company had left for him to sell. "Here's
something for that little man of yours."

The young man began to cry again as he handed back the $150 that the old
man had handed him earlier.

"And what are you supposed to buy Christmas dinner with? You keep that
too," George said. "Now git home to your family."

The young man turned with tears streaming down his face. "I'll be here in
the morning for work, if that job offer is still good."

"Nope. I'm closed Christmas day," George said. "See ya the day after."

George turned around to find that the stranger had returned. "Where'd you
come from? I thought you left?"

"I have been here. I have always been here," said the stranger. "You say
you don't celebrate Christmas. Why?"

"Well, after my wife passed away, I just couldn't see what all the bother
was. Puttin' up a tree and all seemed a waste of a good pine tree. Bakin'
cookies like I used to with Martha just wasn't the same by myself and
besides I was gettin' a little chubby."

The stranger put his hand on George's shoulder. "But you do celebrate the
holiday, George. You gave me food and drink and warmed me when I was cold
and hungry. The woman with child will bear a son and he will become a great
doctor.

The policeman you helped will go on to save 19 people from being killed by
terrorists. The young man who tried to rob you will make you a rich man and
not take any for himself. "That is the spirit of the season and you keep it
as good as any man."

George was taken aback by all this stranger had said. "And how do you know
all this?" asked the old man.

"Trust me, George. I have the inside track on this sort of thing. And when
your days are done you will be with Martha again."

The stranger moved toward the door. "If you will excuse me, George, I have
to go now. I have to go home where there is a big celebration planned."

George watched as the old leather jacket and the torn pants that the
stranger was wearing turned into a white robe. A golden light began to fill
the room.

"You see, George ... it's My birthday. Merry Christmas."

George fell to his knees and replied, "Happy Birthday, Lord Jesus"

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND GOD BLESS!