Heifer International

I wrote a post last year about Heifer International and the work that they do. My girls and I have been part of their support system through our church for several years now. Last year the girls made a field trip to the local Heifer Int'l farm to select the animals they had purchased by donating their nickels, dimes and quarters.

So, I'm putting the word out once again for your information. In addition, Blogging Baby has its own post today with a link to a Heifer International Blogging Campaign.

I can't put in that much time this year, but I'm letting you know if you'd like to add it to your sidebar.

We've begun our cooking and other countdowns to Christmas. The girls are shaking packages but not too hard. The breakable ones will not go under the tree until they're asleep on Christmas Eve.

I've already taken a few pictures and there will be more to come. I may post them all as a set the day after Christmas.

Two of my friends here belong to a sports group. Instead of giving each other presents, they choose a family and play Santa. My friend asked if I'd be offended. No, I wouldn't be - I've had better years in many ways.

(Pause while I go peel and devil many eggs; some for the church, some for here.)

I'm back. Anyhow, I expected maybe a couple packages each for the girls. Wrong. They unloaded something that looked like Santa's sleigh converted to the back of a van with the seats out. I took a picture of the tree with the presents under it and will add it here if Blogger will cooperate. . Since I wrote that, the girls decided to sort and count so we have one picture of the tree as the presents were originally placed and three showing three separate stacks. I thought their next step would be to find a tape measure and check the heights of the piles. Aagh!! I had to reinstall Kodak which took a while but it's finally behaving properly, at least for now.

We see so much evil on the front pages that sometimes we forget that most people are kind, decent, and loving. I was just blown away and could hardly hold back the tears as I hugged those 3 wonderful women.

I saw Carol this morning. She'll be in the hospital until at least Tuesday and then back to the care facility. The hospital may be a better place to spend Christmas. I took Rebecca this trip (with some Christmas gifts) and next time will take Elcie.

We straightened out most of the confusion surrounding her surgery and treatment. Basically it resulted from all the care providers failing to talk to each other and none of them talking to me. No harm done and nothing has changed either for better or worse.

On the way back we stopped at Barnes & Noble and ran into my son Jim in the parking lot just as we were leaving. He'd just made it in from El Centro on a 4 day pass. Don't know how he swung it but I'm so happy he did. He'll have to drive back the day after Christmas but at least he's here now.

While I was out, Ray made the pumpkin pies. I'll do the pecan early tomorrow morning and then prepare the double batches of the other dishes. Bake one set for the church, refrigerate the other until Monday morning. I'll take a tray of deviled eggs and at least one pie as well. We'll have a fair size crowd so we're bringing a lot of food.

And now I'm sitting with Ray watching the Brigham Young University Christmas program. They have their very own t.v. channel. We currently have some Hebrides (New Hebrides?) I'm not sure which it said but it's very Scot sounding and appearing with kilts and all.

I started this as just some info about Heifer International and look how it ended up. Typical Ann - never knowing how to end a post.

Take care everyone and have a great holiday.