Oh I forgot to mention that we ended up getting a nice late Christmas present on New Year’s Day. My aunt spent Christmas with her fiance’s family, so we didn’t get to see her until New Year’s dinner. She surprised us both by giving us a super nice present. She gave us cash, but much more than we expected.

She included in our card exactly what she would like us to use our money for. She knows I’ve been looking at sturdier tv stands for our new tv, so she wanted us to get the one we want. Then with any cash we have left over she asked that we use it on something for the bike since she knows it’s still not completely back together. It’s ridable, but we still have a lot of cosmetic work to do. After picking out the stand we want we’ll have just enough left over to replace the trashed mirror and kickstand, but that’s two less things we have to buy ourselves.