The holiday season isn't just about shopping and gifts. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} However, holiday travel can be more expensive than the gifts. Fortunately, the following tips will help keep your travel spending under control.

● Plan ahead. The earlier you book your travel, from airfare to hotels, the easier it is to find good deals. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Your best prices on airfare come when you book three weeks before the plane leaves for domestic flights. For international flights, consider booking 30 days in advance. Many experts point out that you should book travel between  one month and three months out for high-traffic holidays.

● Book your air travel on cheaper days. Traveling by air on Tuesdays and Wednesdays often costs less than traveling on Fridays and Sundays. During the holidays, it is not just about a specific day of the week. You also need to consider the days surrounding the holiday but days immediately before and after a holiday can be expensive. One of the best ways to save is to plan your air travel on the Day of the holiday. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

● Consider traveling overnight. Red-eye flights and overnight flights often cost less than those at more convenient times. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Traveling overnight can help you avoid a night in the hotel, as well as save your money on travel to your destination.

●{#blank#}5{#/blank#} You can't bring liquids with you on the airline, but you can bring sandwiches and other snacks. When you are on the road, you can buy food at local groceries to make your own meals. If you are staying in a hotel long-term, consider cooking your own food, especially if you have access to a microwave.

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    A five-year-old dog named Kelsey has been praised as a hero for helping to save the life of her owner who slipped in the snow and broke his neck.

The man, Bob, was alone when he left his Michigan farmhouse on New Year's Eve to collect firewood. Expecting a journey of only several meters, Bob was wearing just long johns (秋裤), a shirt and slippers when he went outside, although the temperature was around -4℃.

    After the accident, he was unable to move in the snow. Fortunately, Kelsey came to his assistance.

    “I was shouting for help, but my nearest neighbor is about 400 meters away, and it was 10:30 p.m.,” Bob explained. “But my Kelsey came. By the next morning, my voice was gone and I couldn't yell for help, but Kelsey didn't stop barking.”

    Bob's companion kept him warm by lying on top of him. She licked his face and hands to keep him awake. “Kelsey kept barking but never left my side,” Bob recalled. “She kept me warm. I knew I couldn't give up and that it was my choice to stay alive.”

Bob spent 19 hours in the freezing cold. When he finally lost consciousness, his dog kept barking. Finally, hearing the barking, Bob's neighbor discovered him at 6:30 p.m. on New Year's Day and called the emergency services at once. When Bob arrived in hospital, his body temperature was below 21℃. However, doctors were surprised to find that he didn't have any frostbite (冻疮). They believed it was because of Kelsey's determination to keep him warm. Dr. Chaim Colen, the doctor who treated Bob, said, “Animals can help and his dog really saved him … he was very fortunate.”

    Bob said he was “enormously” grateful for both Dr. Colen and his Kelsey. “They saved my life. They are true heroes!”

    Amy Pankratz spent a few nights in the hospital with her daughter, Isabella, who caught a bad flu. “Lying in bed beside Isabella, I could hear the cries of children in pain, ”says Amy. “It completely broke my heart. ”

    When Isabella was getting well and could leave her room, she wore her prized possession—a “superhero cape(短斗篷)”Amy had sewn to encourage her—and walked into the hallway. The pink cape was an instant hit with the other young patients, who were doing exercise around the nursing station. “Then, all the kids were taking turns wearing the cape, giggling, ”Amy says. “These were some of the same children I had heard crying the night before, and here they were playing and having fun—kids just being kids! ”

    From that moment on, Amy began making Comfort Capes for little ones battling with serious illnesses. “I felt God presenting an opportunity, ”she says. “I hoped Comfort Capes can help these kids feel brave, to lift some of the fear away. ”

    Since then, Amy has made and donated more than 5, 000 capes in the United States. Amy usually pays for materials herself, although she accepts donations.

    The capes she makes for kids in treatment are different from those her own children have. Before Amy starts to sew she learns what image or character the little boy or girl connects with. “ I choose the pattern, color and theme specially for each child,” explains Amy.

    When she is not sewing, Amy is raising awareness of childhood cancers and looking into ways to get Comfort Capes to more kids who need them, “ If a cape can help a child, even only for a moment, forget his illness, it's worth the time spent sewing,” she says.

    One day a mime(哑剧演员) is visiting the zoo and tries to earn some money as a street performer. As soon as he starts to draw a crowd, a zookeeper pulls him into his office. The zookeeper explains that the zoo's most popular attraction, a gorilla(大猩猩), has died suddenly and the keeper fears that attendance(出席人数) at the zoo will fall off. He offers the mime a job to dress up as the gorilla. The mime accepts.

    The next morning the mime puts on the gorilla suit and enters the cage before the crowd comes. He soon discovers he can sleep, play and make fun of people and he draws bigger crowds than he ever did as a mime — the job he likes but loses.

    However, with days going by, he begins to notice that the people are paying more attention to the lion in the cage next to his. Not wanting to lose the attention of his audience, he climbs to the top of his cage, crawls across a partition(隔墙), and dangles(悬挂) from the top to the lion's cage. The lion gets angry at this. The scene is a fuel to the crowd.

    At the end of the day he is given a raise for being such a good attraction — well, this continues for some time. The crowds grow larger, and the mime's pay keeps going up.

    Then one day when he is dangling over the lion he slides and falls. The mime is terrified. He starts screaming “Help me!”, but the lion is quick. The mime soon finds himself flat on his back looking up at the angry lion and the lion says, “Shut up you fool! Do you want to get us both fired?”

    Eight years ago, Special Olympics Georgia Forsyth County was introduced to Britt Hall. Britt Hall is a Special Olympics Georgia athlete. "The first sport I started competing in with Special Olympics Georgia was softball. I was with the Forsyth Golden Gloves, and we were a pretty good team," said Britt as he looked back upon his first state game.

Since then, the athlete has competed in much more than softball. Britt has gone on to compete in bocce, basketball, athletics, table tennis, volleyball and flag football during his Special Olympics Georgia career (职业生涯). And he performed well in these games. "Athletics has always been one of his favorite sports to compete in," said Britt's father. "He likes the different competitions within athletics, especially the races (赛跑). "

    "I like athletics, but I am excited for flag football this year. We are going to play just as well as the Falcons," Britt said. This year, Britt and his teammates will be returning to Emory University as the Special Olympics Georgia Forsyth County Mean Machine, one of the two flag football teams from Special Olympics Georgia Forsyth County. Despite the word "mean" being in their name, Britt says that their aim is not to be mean to their competitors. "We want to win the gold, but we want to be nice to the other teams and encourage them. They are our friends and have worked just as hard as we have for the state competitions," Britt explained.

    While athletes are encouraged to try their very best and go for the gold, Special Olympics Georgia centers on sportsmanship and friendship during competitions. Britt has always been a good team player, but he is also very competitive. Special Olympics Georgia has helped him gain confidence as an athlete, which shows him how to cheer on his teammates and the opposing athletes.

    "I've learned a lot from being in Special Olympics Georgia. I think there is a lesson for everyone who competes," said Britt.

    You've heard the old advice that skipping meals is a sure-fire way to ruin a weight loss plan, but a new study presented this week at the annual Obesity Society Meeting in New Orleans suggests that perhaps we've overlooked the benefits of selective fasting. According to the research, eating during a smaller window of time each day and skipping your evening meal could have a positive health effect.

    The study concluded that overweight individuals who ate during the day and fasted during the evening reported fewer hunger swings and burned more fat at night, WebMD reported. However, although this diet plan results in more fat burned in the evenings, it did not seem to increase fat burning overall. Due to this, at this moment it's still unclear as to how this eating schedule can affect general weight loss.

    "At this point, we are not sure whether or not total fat burning is increased," study lead author Courtney Peterson told Medical Daily in a recent email." We will need to do a larger study to find out for certain whether or not time-restricted feeding improves fat burning."

    Still, although the results do not indicate a clear association between nighttime fasting and weight loss, they are still important for the world of nutrition. For example, Peterson told Medical Daily that she was surprised to find that participants did not report being hungrier than average, or have above-average swings in hunger levels, despite fasting daily for 18 hours.

    "So we overturned the belief that fasting for longer period each day when the same number of total calories are eaten makes a person hungrier, "wrote Peterson.

    While the effects of fasting and time-restricted feeding have been studied and proven to work in a rodent(贴齿动物)model, research on human subjects is still in its early stages. For this reason, Peterson explained that it is far too early to say, with factual evidence as backing, that time-restricted feeding will improve weight loss in humans. Still, Peterson explained that practicing this eating behavior does have obvious benefits, such as reducing overall food intake, and suggested that practicing time restricted eating a few times a week could be both practicable and healthy.

    "It could be used for short-term goals or longer-term goals，"concluded Peterson." As far as we know，it is safe for adults，although pregnant women and children should not try it."