We're going out east to Sierra Summit for some bed&breakfast lodging and skiing. I had to fix my Jeep first though. The thermostat on the damn thing was stuck open so it wasn't warming up in cold weather.. so I replaced it, put it all back together, and the t-stat housing started leaking.
Did this process two separate times.. couldn't figure out why, I scraped all the surfaces off, used new gaskets, plenty of RTV, etc... took it apart one more time and realized the cast alum. housing itself was now cracked. Which meant replacing the hoses attached to it too since they were old and mashed up.
So, replaced that stuff and now it works fine.
Looks like there will be a Christmas after all!