Christmas Sheep and a CONTEST

Dan and I have been really keen on finding new Christmas traditions to share with our family, especially now that Jackson is with us this year. We're already pretty lean on the whole gift-giving thing - Jackson will get a few gifts from Mom & Dad, and Santa has agreed to bring a little something too- but we really want to give something more, something from our family to another family, something...bigger than just us.

Not only do we have a lot of stuff (food, clothing, toys...), but we also have a lot of opportunity. There are a lot of people in the world who can't say the same...

We decided to help change that a little bit this year by participating in Heifer International's community fundraising campaign.

We're raising money to buy a sheep for a family in need.

Heifer International will provide an animal to the family along with training. The family will then be able to sell its wool to earn money for themselves and the lambs will stay within the community, empowering other family members to walk their way right out of poverty too.

I love sheep. I'm a Knitter, how could I not? So I felt a special connection to this little idea of giving "shear joy" to a family for Christmas. I hope they raise a healthy animal with a big, thick fleece, spin some awesome yarn out of it and sell it for a ton of money. We all know there's a market for it!

We started out the campaign by cleaning out our coin cup in the kitchen. We hope that you will do the same - dig down in your pockets for some change - and click on the button to the left to donate to our campaign. We're halfway there, but still need another $60 in the next five days to make this a Christmas Sheep.

Can we do this? Of course we can, don't be silly. It's just sixty bucks. That's a morning of coffees for a dozen of us. But it won't work until you click. (Do you think I should go into fundraising? I'm starting to sound like the dreaded MPR pledge drive people...) But seriously, this site had 100 hits this morning alone and if each of those hits had given $10, think of how many animals we could buy!

And to make it even more fun than just the good feeling you get from giving to others in need, I present a contest:

Click on our fundraising page, give whatever you can (minimum is $5) and then you are automatically entered in the yogurt & granola prize drawing for a really awesome skein of yarn*.

Easy as pie and it will make you feel good too. "Wool" you help us buy a sheep for Christmas?
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*The winner will be chosen at random (not based on amount donated) on December 26th.

If you are not a Knitter or don't care for wool (what?!) and happen to win, just tell me and I'll add the cost of the yarn on to the total donation.

If we happen to exceed the (small and totally attainable) goal of $120, then we will simply give more sheep! Can we give a flock?