[Homestead] The gift of a goat changed her world
paxamicus at earthlink.net
paxamicus at earthlink.net
Thu Jul 3 08:40:31 EDT 2008
I did Heifer International one year for the holidays. I am the lone
hold out in a family full of serious consumers..every year I'd be the
horrible one who trucked out books and art supplies and photos and the
like. Not the flash stuff. *sigh*
One year, there was a small ground swell of movement that we only do
the kids in the family, which I loved but one certain over achiever
(that would be my mother) bought presents anyway so the whole idea
went away because the other aunties felt it made them look cheap. The
next year I thought I might be able to capitalize on the guilt of the
year before by getting people to do something like Heifer
International so about a month before Christmas I did it, so people
would know BEFORE Christmas, and then I could still bring the homemade
presents/books/etc to the holidays.
My father rang me and asked if he was actually getting a goat. He was
not a happy man, except that he thought his dobermans would have fun
with it. : (
Christmas with my (extended family) is no longer a good thing.
Heh. We do a Solstice pizza and a Yule log/bonfire and a Christmas
tree and a lot of cooking, with a few nice small pressies tucked in
there. Lots of Christmas carols because that's my personal soundtrack
for the holidays even if they are no longer my spiritual soundtrack.
I've caved and just send my family gift cards from electronics stores,
with a token handmade scarves or preserves or whatever. I do like to
make stuff for my Dad because he's diabetic, and little sweet treats
that have been made just for him with stevia or splenda make me feel
nice...but the truth is he'd rather eat junk food so I expect most of
my crunchy granola-ess probably gets fed to same Dobermans. ; p
On the other hand, I do have to say, I love getting Christmas presents
from my Dad. Roy and I are to the point that we kind of get excited
about going to my Dad's for Christmas. We don't even buy each other
Christmas presents really, because whatever we get from my Dad is
going to be too much. One year he took all of us, my sisters, our
husbands and kids...all on a cruise. I was all about it until I
actually got ON the cruise, and then once I realized how really awful
I felt about the waste...really, those things are nothing but
cesspools of waste and excess and orgy. I wouldn't do it again.
Although I had great fun at the piano bar. :-D
I'm sorry. I've gone off on a complete tangent.
Yes, I really like HI.
On Jul 3, 2008, at 8:11 AM, Lisa K.V. Perry wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 3, 2008 at 7:23 AM, Gene GeRue <genegerue at ruralize.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Should anyone want a feel-good story to lift their day, this is a
>> good
>> one:
>>
>> The Luckiest Girl
>>
>> Heifer International is one of my very favorite charities. We have
>> the book
> *Beatrice's Goat*. So nice to get an update on her life. It made
> tears well
> up -- and it's an article I'll have my 18 year old son read (who
> sadly has
> little interest in college though he's a brainiac). Thank you for
> posting.
>
> Lisa
> _______________________________________________
More information about the Homestead
mailing list