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  • From: paxamicus AT earthlink.net
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] The gift of a goat changed her world
  • Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2008 08:40:31 -0400

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
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