No Peeking? I'll open it early.

Look what Shad fit under our Christmas tree! And I got to open it early!

We closed the deal last night. We really did get a good deal on the car.   The dealership only had one color van with the DVD player in it, so we asked them to install one in a color that we wanted and only charge the amount of the unit. They agreed and it actually worked out better. The player they installed is a couple of inches bigger, it has video games on it, and it has a lifetime warranty.

After they printed the contract, Shad was looking it over before signing and caught that they were charging us more than they said they would.  It went to the next thousandth. I did the math and it was only $200 changing the payment $4/month, but we still made them take it off.

I feel Shad and I made a great team getting this deal done. He did all the research between Hondas and Toyotas and then sent out e-mail inquiries to which dealership was offering the better deal.  I found the car and got the DVD deal done. I then remembered that Shad gets a better tax rate because he is active duty military, so we didn't have to finance as many taxes making it so our monthly payment was where we wanted and we didn't have to put more down. 

The dealership we went to was really great not pushy at all, they gave their opinions and waited for us to make a decision. The salesman just laughed when I told him what colors I didn't want. It sounded like this "I definitely don't want burgandy, I don't blue, and silver, oh and black, and maybe not white, definitely not sand". What did that leave us with? Dark Grey, which they didn't have. Well the other color they had was called Green Slate, but it is more of a silver with green and blue undertones. I really like the color now, but am hesitant because I think it won't look as good in 10 years. Oh well 10 yr old cars are supposed to look old, right?

Anyway, thanks for all the opinions I felt encouraged knowing my friends thought it would be worth it too.

A Tribute to Linus

Linus was our VW Passat, oh how we loved him.

He took us all around the town, playing, shopping, erranding.

In 2005 he took us to Wyoming, Utah, Texas, North Carolina and then New Jersey.

Linus got us where we were going everytime, he always warned me when he needed his doctor

Linus was our beach trip car, our favorite place in the world to go

We were so excited to treat him with a garage in our new home

We really did love him, and I really am getting a little teary thinking of him left at the dealership  

Ella flat out bawled.  It was like we gave her a puppy and then ripped it out of her arms and drowned it in front of her.  She is so sensitive and gets so attached to things.  

Although, Linus was not just a thing he was our beloved car.

(I forgot our camera last night and the only picture we of Linus on the outside was lost when our computer crashed last year, so here is one of him on the safe inside)

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**I wanted to show off my Christmas tree. My dear friend Mary gave it to me for Christmas so we would have a tree to put up in Texas. She even bought tinsel and ornaments in the colors of my big tree at home. Thanks Mary it was very thoughtful, and the Hot Chocolate is yummy