Christmas had always been a time for me to get things. Right from my first memories of toy trucks under the tree, it was that way. I remember the Christmas when I decided to do it differently. . . .

In Canada we have Kijiji (it's like Craigslist), where I posted an ad, "Free Boosting. Anytime, Anywhere around Calgary. Just call me! Merry Christmas!" I added a picture of some booster cables, gassed up the old Jeep 4x4, and started to field the calls that came in.

It was really cold and snowy when I started (about the 10th of December). Some days there'd be only one call, but some days there'd b...