Happy Holidays!

In Ms. Austen's book Emma, the main character is a young, rich, slightly
spoiled young woman. She continually is attempting to matchmake among
the few single people in her small town. Clueless is a modern remake of
the book. Emma is mainly trying to set up her friend Harriet with the
local curate (like a pastor) Mr. Elton only to have Mr. Elton propose to
her instead. In one part of the book, she and Harriet take company and
food to a poor, sick family, and in another part of the book Emma is
taken to task for her behavior to the poor spinster Mrs. Bates. In
these scenes Jane is demonstrating the importance of giving to those
less fortunate.

This holiday season, if you're still looking for some last minute
giving, may I suggest the following amazing charities. You don't even
have to worry if you're giving a green gift, since money can always be
repurposed.

I received a Happy Holidays email the other day from Joinmyvillage.com,
a site which I've mentioned before. It is an initiative sponsored by CARE, a
wonderful nonprofit which helps women and girls around the world.
General Mills cereal has agreed to match donations to joinmyvillage.com
to assist women in 75 African towns to start and keep small businesses.
In the email, I noticed that there is a lot of money unlocked, but not a
lot of actual donations. I found 10.00 somewhere today to donate.
Hint.

If you knit or crochet, you can make an afghan square (just use your
scrap yarn) and mail it to Warm up America, who stitches together
squares from everywhere to make blankets for the homeless. Website
Warmupamerica.org.

The winners of Rachael Ray's Mutt Madness were announced on her show
today (though there were no actual losers). The two charities were
Angel's Gate Hospice (http://www.angelsgate.org/)and Last Chance Ranch (http://lastchanceranch.org/). Angel's Gate works like a human hospice, by taking in sick and handicapped animals and making sure they live comfortably for however long they have left. Last Chance Ranch takes in abused and neglected animals, and rehabilitates them so they can be adopted. These are incredible places and well worth the giving.

Please please adopt if you're getting a new pet. This is very important, as both of the animal charities have animals pictured who have spent their entire lives in cages being bred again and again. Please adopt, but if you're going to purchase, make sure that you meet both parents preferably and see the living conditions. This will stop any purchases of puppies bred at the infamous puppy mills.

And for now you can adopt Dominic the Italian Christmas Donkey, who helps Santa every year since the reindeer can't navigate the hills of Italy. Happy holidays!