What Does a Gearhead Girl do for Christmas?

A gearhead girl is like any other woman, most of our holiday activities happen well before the actual day of Christmas. There are decorations to put up, both indoor and outdoor. Presents to buy (thoughtfully of course), to wrap, then if the person is not local, the gift needs to be boxed and shipped to the person. Then there are holiday things to do with the kids, food to prepare and cook. And we have to do all this stuff while somehow working in a full schedule in the shop. In the custom car and motorcycle business, winter is our busy season. What gets done from Dec to March, determines how the rest of the year will go, if I'll be able to pay our bills or want to throw myself in front of a bus.
For this gearhead chick decorations is putting up my two little Christmas trees inside and blue led lights outside in the trees. And as not much of my friends and family are local, most of the presents had to get shipped, so there I was trying to ship it all, and not spend a fortune. Continually checking the Post Office website to see if the gifts had arrived in time. They all did but Josh, my 23 yr old stepson in Las Vegas, thought the $50 Target Gift Card Code he recieved on his Iphone was spam so he deleted it. Now I have to get target to resend it and that is NOT as easy as it should be.
The doing things with the kids part involved Chase, my 7 yr old godson. We looked at lights in our little town, Waxhaw. There was this wicked cool t bucket parked by a tree that covered in lights. So I pulled out my camera and luckily had the tripod in my truck. Everyone in town is gawking at all the holiday lights and I'm going insane over this t bucket (see the picture at the front of the post.) Chase and I also spent several days baking a Christmas tree cake and cookies. And this kid should have been a girl, cos he loves to shop. And not just in the toy dept. He digs picking out clothes for me, his mom, family and of course, himself.

As usual money was tight, but the gearhead gods were smiling, and an last minute emergency job came in, painting 4 Brembo brake calipers yellow and doing a RUF logo on them. Sounded easy enough. It quickly turned into a nightmare as the little $2 tool I needed was completely out of stock in the state of North Carolina. A 10 hour job turned into 24 hours. But somehow these things get done in the nick of time, just like on tv, that is, most of the time. Like childbirth, it always feels like hell when happening, and it awesome after its over.

Usually I try to ride one of my motorcycles on Christmas day. But The BoyToy and I had not yet winterized our shack at the lake and temps had already dipped below freezing. So after spending the Christmas morning with my godson's family, we hopped into my trusty Ford Explorer along with the tools and gifts and drove up to Lake Norman. BoyToy put my boat in the water and proceeded to winterize the pile of boards we call a cabin. And actually my one wish for this day was to do my favorite thing in the world. To row. Ok, confession time, rowing is my hobby. Not really what comes to mind for a gearhead girl. Its been a lifelong dream. But its a $$$ hobby and there were always car and bike stuff to buy. So at age 50, I said screw it and bought a used rowing scull. Besides the oars look cool in my shop.
And a gearhead chick has to stay in shape and this is how I do it. I feel so free when I'm rowing. No sound, no motor (gasp!!), just me, the water and God. It is here that I truly feel at peace. Its my church. A hour on the water, an hour away from the frantic pace in the shop, an hour away from the reality of paying bills, dealing with customers, struggling with schedules, with housework, with all the things that overwhelm us, THAT was all I wanted for Christmas.

And I got it!!! So what did you get for Christmas? Please feel free to post a comment!