$50 from the wife as a combined b-day and Christmas gift, to be spent on a knife or a fountain pen (already spoken for with the Boss Streets), a gift certificate to lee valley hardware that was used to order some woodworking and chip carving tools, and the Bible on DVD.

The 'big gift' was hotel expenses paid for by my in-laws so we could spend some time with them and four other units of the wife's family in San Antonio over New Years. It was nice to seem my nine month old only son finally meet some of his relatives. One of his uncles is active army and has done two tours in Iraq and one in Germany. We last saw him at our wedding a number of years ago.