A Happy New Year?

2005 began very quietly compared to other years. Dave and I were apart for the celebrations; he to a friend's cottage (which I felt was a bit too far for me to travel since I had to be back home for a family dinner on New Year's Day) and I to my cousins house to watch movies. I find that New Year's is over-rated in general and always seems to cost a lot of money if you want to go out somewhere. I am not that interested in blowing money on admission to a club which is usually free or only a few dollars to get into too. The new year also seems to have gotten off to quite a grim start with all the tragedy in Asia. My parents have donated some money to World Vision through which they also have adopted children and at some point I will donate some money too. Most of the phonelines to the charities are still jammed and I suspect that financial aid will be requested for months yet. In Canada, I have heard that the government will match each privately donated dollar given to the Red Cross or World Vision (probably several other charities as well) which is encouraging and should have us all at least donating a few dollars.
You can find out how to donate from Canada through:

World Vision - www.worldvision.ca - 1-800-268-5528
Canadian Red Cross - https://www.paypaq.com/redcross/en/ - 1-800-418-1111
UNICEF Canada - https://secure.unicef.ca/forms/emergency_page.html - 1-800-567-4483
Oxfam Canada - https://www.strategicprofitsinc.com/hosted/oxfam/ - 1-800-466-9326
CARE Canada - http://www.care.ca/ - 1-800-267-5232
Médecins Sans Frontières - www.msf.ca - 1-800-982-7903

Other information and charities can be found at this CBC website: http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/asia_earthquake/helping.html