The VNA Annual Christmas wishes 2019

[Andrew35]

This man, retired from the military, always decorates his yard this much and is continually adding to it. He said that he hoped he added some happiness from all the anger out there.

[hotjulie]

Wow it's almost Christmas, every year my nieces and I deliver gifts for Santa's anonymous in Edmonton.

One year when my niece Gail was 3 I told her we should go to toys r us and she can pick out a few toys for kids that won't get any gifts. We got there and I was trying to put things away that she looked at, finally after about 1 hour she picked out a few things. We went to the till and as the girl was putting through our order she asked Gail if these were for her. She was getting teary and said, they were for kids she didn't know.

We grabbed the bags and went to the bin, I said to her "Just drop them in" and the tears started, crying and screaming No! Lots of people were looking and wondering what was going on. I was talking to her, doing my best to explain, but she kept crying, I was going to put them in, but didn't as I wanted her to do it, finally she let them go, with more crying. I bought her a gun ball from the machine, that kinda helped, on the way home I was thinking that I fucked up, she's to young to understand what we were doing.

Later that night after she brushed her teeth, said her prayers and I read her a story, as I was about to close her bedroom door, she said, "So other kids can have a Christmas too, right Auntie J?" I said "yes Gail, so other kids have a Christmas." I closed her door, sat down on the floor, tears rolling down my face, thinking maybe I'm not such an idiot

Since then Gail and I still buy gifts together and leave with a gum ball.

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and thank you so much Vicky and Dave, without the love and support of the VNA, I have no idea where I'd be today, your all so special.

[CGYMike]

Wow it's almost Christmas, every year my nieces and I deliver gifts for Santa's anonymous in Edmonton.

One year when my niece Gail was 3 I told her we should go to toys r us and she can pick out a few toys for kids that won't get any gifts. We got there and I was trying to put things away that she looked at, finally after about 1 hour she picked out a few things. We went to the till and as the girl was putting through our order she asked Gail if these were for her. She was getting teary and said, they were for kids she didn't know.

We grabbed the bags and went to the bin, I said to her "Just drop them in" and the tears started, crying and screaming No! Lots of people were looking and wondering what was going on. I was talking to her, doing my best to explain, but she kept crying, I was going to put them in, but didn't as I wanted her to do it, finally she let them go, with more crying. I bought her a gun ball from the machine, that kinda helped, on the way home I was thinking that I fucked up, she's to young to understand what we were doing.

Later that night after she brushed her teeth, said her prayers and I read her a story, as I was about to close her bedroom door, she said, "So other kids can have a Christmas too, right Auntie J?" I said "yes Gail, so other kids have a Christmas." I closed her door, sat down on the floor, tears rolling down my face, thinking maybe I'm not such an idiot

Since then Gail and I still buy gifts together and leave with a gum ball.

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and thank you so much Vicky and Dave, without the love and support of the VNA, I have no idea where I'd be today, your all so special.

I was going to write some heartfelt blah blah about Christmas spirit and other such stuff, but I'm not going to ...I think the posts of Walt and Julie, Andrew, and the other members of this site have pretty much summed it up. You can't mess with perfection. This place is pretty special. With that being said, I'll just say 'Merry Christmas' to all of you.

[Glenn2164]

Walter, interesting essay, you wrote on Santa Claus. However, as there is a topic on Christmas, I thought, I would it say it here, to wish all in the VNA and the world, a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year. Glenn

[WalterB]

Haha, Thanks, Glenn. I didn't write it, just copied it from wherever. But I thought it was funny. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours, as well.

Julie, you're always such a special person. I love your annual stories, as well. You keep spreading all that love and cheer. You do that all year long, and and no one can top that.

Thank you, Mike, my friend. Merry Christmas to Connie as well. Hi, Connie. Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas, Andrew. Thanks for your posts.

[stickyvicky]

Yeah whatever.....

[WalterB]

Well, another trip around the sun, another year of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I've pretty much enjoyed it, and hope you have, too. I can honestly say that I am better off now than last January. And, that, of course, is a good thing.

There have been a lot of difficulties this year, not only in America, but everywhere. The anger and hatred that persists throughout the world is truly pathetic. I remember again the words from "Oh, God!" with George Burns and John Denver.

George played "God" who appeared to mild-mannered store manager John Denver. Naturally, this caused quite a turmoil, with no one believing him. A group of theologians gave Denver 6 or 8 questions for him to ask God. The answers would supposedly let the Theologians know whether this person was really God.

One of the questions asked was, (I'm paraphrasing) "If you are God, why do you let all of the strife and hatred and anger persist in the world?" The answer he gave was "Why do I let it go on? I don't let it go on. You do. I gave you the intelligence to figure out difficult problems and work together with others. If you can't do that, it's your problem, not mine."

Well, that's basically it. There's a lot if hurt and anger in the world, but there's a lot of love and happiness, too. And, that's the part I wish for you, I wish for each and every one of you the warmest and happiest time ever. I want you to have a warm, happy and wonderful Christmas. Even if things aren't the best for you, stop for a moment and remember, no matter how bad you've got it, there is someone who has it worse. Take a little time, and wish happy days, smiles and warm hugs to everyone who needs them. And, be thankful for what you DO have, whatever it might be.

Merry Christmas to you, one and all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoMHmsL2t3A
.
Welcome to my Christmas song, I'd like to thank you for the year.
So I'm sending you this Christmas card
To say it's nice to have you here.
I'd like to sing about all the things your eyes and mind can see.
So hop aboard the turntable, Oh step into Christmas with me.

Step into Christmas, let's join together.
We can watch the snow fall forever and ever.
Eat, drink and be merry, Come along with me
Step into Christmas, the admission's free

Take care in all you do next year and keep smiling through the days.
If we can help to entertain you, oh we will find the ways.
So merry Christmas one and all, there's no place I'd rather be
Than asking you if you'd oblige stepping into Christmas with me

Step into Christmas, let's join together
We can watch the snow fall forever and ever
Eat, drink and be merry, come along with me
Step into Christmas, the admission's free

Welcome to my Christmas song, I'd like to thank you for the year.
So I'm sending you this Christmas card, to say it's nice to have you here
I'd like to sing about all the things your eyes and mind can see
So hop aboard the turntable, oh step into Christmas with me

Step into Christmas, let's join together,
We can watch the snow fall forever and ever.
Eat, drink and be merry, Come along with me
Step into Christmas, The admission's free
Step into Christmas, let's join together
We can watch the snow fall forever and ever
Eat, drink and be merry, come along with me, yeah.
Step into Christmas, the admission's free

Step into Christmas, let's join together.
We can watch the snow fall forever and ever.
Eat, drink and be merry, come along with me, yeah,
Step into Christmas, the admission's free

Step, step into Christmas, oh forever and ever.
Yeah, come along with me, now step,
Step into Christmas, oh forever and ever
Yeah come along with me, now,
Step into Christmas, step into Christmas with me.

[WalterB]

Ok, that was nice, lol. Now, in case you get just too dang euphoric with giddiness over holiday happiness, here's your slap of reality, lol. Merry Christmas.

The Physics of Santa

No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.

There are two billion children (persons under 18) in the world. But since Santa doesn't appear to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total — 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each.

Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second.
This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75½ million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding and etc.

This means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second — a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.

If every one of the 91.8 million homes with good children were to put out a single chocolate chip cookie and an 8 ounce glass of 2% milk, the total calories (needless to say other vitamins and minerals) would be approximately 225 calories (100 for the cookie, give or take, and 125 for the milk, give or take). Multiplying the number of calories per house by the number of homes (225 x 91.8 x 1000000), we get the total number of calories Santa consumes that night, which is 20,655,000,000 calories. To break it down further, 1 pound is equal to 3500 calories. Dividing our total number of calories by the number of calories in a pound (20655000000/3500) and we get the number of pounds Santa gains, 5901428.6, which is 2950.7 tons.

The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized Lego set (two pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see above) could pull TEN TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload (not even counting the weight of the sleigh) to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison, this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth. 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance — this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each.

In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.

In conclusion: If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's dead now.

[lance_s]

I actually did a powerpoint presentation on this at work once. Even worked in the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy!!

[lance_s]

As Christmas eve is nigh and people may be starting to get busy, let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, a safe and happy holiday season, and hope for all us that 2020 is a big improvement over 2019.

As for myself, I'll be doing the full traditional turkey dinner on Christmas day for family. I do have days off, but since I'm self employed "days off" is sometimes just a figure of speech (~smile).

Seasons greetings and best wishes to all for the new year.

[WalterB]

Forgot to post my favorite Christmas song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bys-OE_C7lQ

[Glenn2164]

I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and to have a great Christmas Day !!

[Davest]

Merry Christmas, everyone!

[ScottyBe]

Merry Christmas Walt,Vicky,Rokker and all fellow VNA members!!

[ScottyBe]

Merry Christmas everyone!! and wishing you all a great New Year 2020 with much happiness and prosperity!!

[Andrew35]

Merry Christmas

[stickyvicky]

Hope everyone's not eating too much? I am! It sucks that I'm such a good cook! Lol... Hope everyone is having a great time with family and thank goodness it's only once a year!

[Andrew35]

didn't over eat, since it's just the three of us now, my mom, uncle and me, we went to breakfast at Dennys, went down to Horseshoe Casino buffet for lunch(not as good as Thanksgiving) then had a small meal tonight. Also ended up being 71 degrees here today for Xmas, heard that it's the first time in 65 years that Christmas for most of the US was warmer than Halloween and Thanksgiving.

[lance_s]

Merry Christmas Walt,Vicky,Rokker and all fellow VNA members!!

I hope everyone had a good and merry Christmas.

Me not so much. Feeling very poorly all of Christmas day, went to the doctor Boxing day (26 Dec) and came back with a diagnosis of pneumonia and a prescription for antibiotics. Hopefully they will start to clear up this infection in a few days. At least all the other family and guests had a nice time so the day was not a total waste. I just stayed out of the way and had the chills and shivers.

Here's wishing everyone a happy, joyous, prosperous and sexy 2020.

[lance_s]

Hey everyone, sorry I missed this thread. I posted my greetings somewhere, but I was not neglecting anyone.

Happy 2020.