Where is Christmas?

Where is Christmas. The feelings of Christmas have just not come this year. All our memories of the season are in Ohio, and it is just not the same here. When we think of former memories we picture the early December snow, trips to campus while listening to carols, family, lights, shopping, and a mirade of other related thoughts. This Christmas we are still waiting for a snow to stick and it is only two weeks till the day. We don't travel much and when we do instead of seeing lights and decorations we see business advertisements and shopping centers. As the radio is still broken in our car we can not listen to our usual CDs that heighten the spirit of the season. Our family is across the country, we have no money for shopping, and all in all when we think of our feelings of the season it feels more like a cold September. They say Utah has the greatest snow on earth, but so far they have had about two inches, both of which were melted within 12 hours. If you make a special trip to a suburb community you can find lights, but not unless will you be so fortunate. With the economy we are not the only people with shopping trouble and when we do take an evening to window shop the stores are not at all like the hustle bustle of our Ohio home. to make my point in one sentence, it just dose not feel like Christmas, and we spend more time trying to create it and longing for our trip home then enjoying what is actually here.
On a different note, we are doing OK with the financial survival and we are looking forward to a couple good options for jobs in January. There is a company that I interviewed with a week ago that said that they are almost positive that they can get me in in January for an inbound sales position that averages $17 an hour. Then if my knees (which I blew out last week and have been wearing braces and fighting for several minutes just to make it down a flight of stairs) get better I am 1/2 way finished with an application process for a job at the county jail that is very stable and starts just under $16 an hour. Both of which I will likely be able to get by the end of January if things keep going as they have. They both have their good and bad parts, but both would pay all our bills with no help from Becky's job so we could pull out of this rut and have a comfortable savings in less then 6 months. We are working hard and I have started doing some personal computer consulting on the side that could take off into a profitable small business. I have made a small amount of money but nothing major yet. However I am handing out business cards and working as much as I can in the mean time to get word out to the ward and local community. I had several people tell me that I was good enough to start a small consulting company but did not act on it until Becky's company said that they would pay me if I went in and fixed a problem for them. I did what I could do, made some money, and decided that it was worth a try, especially being out of work for the time being.
Well, that is the happy and sad news from the Allreds and we are very much looking forward to our Christmas vacation to Ohio. We both believe that the 18th of December, when we step off that plane, is when our Christmas will really begin.