Well, remember when I said that unless something happened I would be a happy Christmas gift-giver this year? Something happened. We were about 5 minutes from home Saturday night when our Jeep began a gradual shut-down. First, the speedometer stopped working, then the radio shut off, and then the lights began getting dimmer and dimmer and dimmer, until there were no lights. I told Jonathan, "I bet God is just gonna get us home before this vehicle stops working." I was absolutely right. As soon as we turned into our driveway - she completely stopped. The altenator. One Hundred and Twenty Nine Dollars. It seems more dramatic when I write the numbers out. So, I asked myself, is God trying to tell me something about Christmas gifts? No, He's not. He's just blessing me.

1. I will get my Christmas bonus on Tuesday, just enough to cover the altenator. Just enough. Which means, we can actually drive home for Christmas, and we don't have to go into any more debt to get it repaired.

2. It went out now, before I spent the money on Christmas gifts, and not while we were hurtling down an interstate somewhere in the wee hours of the morning. It went out just as we got home.

3. My dear husband, with a ton of homework for finals week hanging over his head, repaired our jeep. He worked on it for hours and hours. He looked at his manual, and he did it. I am so proud of my little city boy. He's learned so much about mechanics through this jeep. I am so impressed with him for even trying, much more so for actually doing it! I would have taken one look at those impossible diagrams and that greasy engine and said, forget it! But he stuck with it and what was broken is now in complete working order.

So, I am grateful. Very, very grateful. Merry Christmas.