I am starting with this bit from the pet blogging world. If you are one of those (few) people who reads both my pet blog and this one, I’m sorry for the repeat, but this is too important for me not to post on multiple times., and I know the personal finance blog world is full of generous people who love animals. So…

The wonderful family at Kissa-Bull lost their home and almost everything they own, including five of their seven dogs, to a terrible fire this last week. They are naturally devastated and recovery will take some time.

This is the family that sees the injured dog lying at the side of the road, or limping around the parking lot, and takes them home, gets them medical care, and provides them with love. They are good people in a tragic situation. If you have money left to give this year, please consider donating to the family here. And if by any chance you’re in the Houston area, contact Mayzie’s mom over at Mayzie’s Dog Blog for more you may be able to do.

And even if you’ve got nothing left to give financially, please head over to their blog and let them know that it’s not just the pet bloggers keeping the Kissa-Bull family in their hearts.

Once the tears dry, here are some of my favorite personal finance posts, in case you missed them.

This one if from more than a week ago, but since I love board games, I wanted to share Average Joe’s Financial Gift Guide to Board Games.

My good friend Jana at Daily Money $hot share her frustration about Birthday party etiquette (or lack thereof).

Niki over at Debt Free by Thirty turned 30 this week and gave us Thirty Things We Might Not Know About Her. (What I do know is that I wish I had been as financially together as she is back when I turned 30.)

Last Friday was the second annual Share Star Wars day and Jason over at Live Real, Now participated by showing how Yoda’s iconic advice “Do or do not. There is no try.” applies to the personal finance world.

Money Beagle got a new look, but also let us know why he says Bah Humbug to Secret Santa. For the record, my old department had a box of Jone’s Soda Holiday flavors that used to get passed around. It was the group gag gift, and we always made sure that new staff did not get stuck with it.

Finally, if you read my daily blog, you’ll know a little bit about how I feel about Tim Tebow. Squirrelers is able to take the Tebow-mania and apply a personal finance lesson to the phenomenon. Wow, that’s a lot longer than I want to spend with any member of the Broncos.

I think we’ll stop with 6 links, since later this week I’ll be 6². Arbitrary I know, but that’s what I love about blogging. I get to make all of my own (arbitrary or not) decisions. 🙂