It's here! It's finally here!

Michael is addicted to the BBC show Top Gear. He watches clips of the show on YouTube. He buys episodes on iTunes and watches them over and over and over again. He regularly checks Comcast’s OnDemand BBC channel to see if any new episodes have been added (there haven’t been lately, much to his chagrin). And any time we’re in a bookstore he scours the magazine racks looking for the Top Gear magazine. Most bookstores don’t carry the magazine – why we’re really not sure, but usually Michael leaves the periodical section depressed.

But he won’t miss another issue because my parents gave him a subscription to the magazine as his Christmas present. And every day since Christmas Michael has excitedly run to the mailbox at the first sign of the blue and white mail truck. He has returned empty-handed after each trip. But his attitude's been so positive: “Mom, it’s coming from overseas. Of course it’s going to take a while.”

His patience was rewarded today. Following his routine check of the mail he came in the house walking on air. “It’s here! It’s here! It finally came!” And there it was: the February issue of Top Gear, wrapped in plastic, a thing of beauty. Michael was lost in its pages for the next several hours.

Thank goodness the school day was over.

My boys now receive six car-related magazines: Autoweek, Motor Trend, Car and Driver, Ward’s Auto, Automobile and Top Gear. Amy gets Horse Illustrated and Rebecca gets Highlights. And Sean takes Pipe Organ Digest. I’m fairly certain our mailman thinks I live with several teenage boys, two young ladies and a 90 year old former church music director.

Here's a Top Gear clip with Michael's favorite Top Gear host, Jeremy Clarkson:

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