Happy Holidays to All!

I just received a wonderful gift from parents. 20K in stock. This is for a down payment for a house. If I choose, is it a good idea to take 10K from my retirement fund to add to this....making my down payment larger (30K) and my mortgage less? This will be my first house and I know it is ok to use 10K of this money for this reason. I am not sure if this is the way I should be thinking since this is retirement money. (so confusing in my mind).

Also, if I buy this house in the year of 2000, do I pay large taxes on capital gains if I don't hold this stock for 1 yr. and a day?? If the answer is yes, I should be looking to buy in 2001 to avoid the huge tax? OR if I sell the stock and buy a house in the same year, wouldn't the house OFFSET (sorta) the capital gains???

If this is the case, the stock MAY do well (I could only hope), and then I won't have to touch MY IRA at all.

Can someone share the Pros and Cons on this subject? I have a bit of time to think about which way would be the best for me.

Thanks in Advance,
A Happy and Healthy Y2K,
Randi