I Bought 4 Ducks and a Goat for Christmas

I spent a lot of money this Christmas.  I normally don't so maybe I'm making up for it.  For my family, I made purchases on stuff that's cool but they really don't need.  I'm not going to spoil the surprise, but I bought an entertainment item, a house cleaning item, and a security item.  The entertainment item's a luxury thing.  The house cleaning item makes life alot more easy.  The security item should give a certain peace of mind.  I'm hoping these things will last long enough to be considered a reasonable future investment with long term use.  I'm not an impulse buyer and do have some misery habits.  I often spend a ton of time reading any reviews and researching for the best price.

I also wanted to give to charity for Christmas.  This too hasn't been something normal for me until the past two years or so.  But my religious beliefs have convicted me to make being more generous a tradition.  So when my church passed out a " Gift Catalog" for charitable purposes, I was glad to browse it.  Originally I was going to give to the Salvation Army, but I already gave for Thanksgiving.  The organization that put out this charitable catalog is World Vision.  Most these gifts are for impoverished citizens of third world countries.  I'm someone who values practicality, so I wanted these donations to be for stuff that's essential for survival.  That meant placing things such as food/water/farming/loan business above other things like education/toys/clothes/health etc...  It's kind of difficult deciding what would make the best gift.  Lots of things are interconnected, like needing water/tools for agriculture.  I thought about giving 10 fruit trees or seeds.  But I got more attracted towards farm animals.  I like animals; buying those would be cool.  The goat + 2 chickens combo seems like a popular gift.  Milk and eggs are practical.  I would've liked to have gotten a sheep instead but they cost too much.  Budget matters too; my budget that is.  I then realized ducks cost like half the price of chickens.  So 4 ducks and a goat is what I got (children not included). 

I also felt guilty for not buying something for people in the USA (we're suffering too!) so I also added in "Provide $350 worth of necessities" for $25 (how do they DO it?).

Merry Christmas.

http://donate.worldvision.org/OA_HTML/xxwv2ibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=10389