Christmas spirit is hard to come by.

Being so far from home has been hard on us, but it's even harder during the holidays. We've been so bummed out since we decided we weren't going home after Christmas and now, since we don't have jobs yet, we can't even afford a Christmas tree. I did my Christmas shopping early this year so we have presents for most of our loved ones and Carter and Dave are covered, but I won't be getting anything this year. It's fine, I'm actually more a fan of the giving, but I just wish we could afford even a small fake tree for Carter's first Christmas. It just feels like any other time of year to me. It's funny, in past years I haven't even wanted a tree and now that's all I think about. We've decided that we are nothing if not creative people and we are going to make a tree by stringing our Christmas lights on the wall in the shape of a Christmas tree and hanging our ornaments off of them. It will just have to do this year. We decided to try and bring the Christmas spirit in our home so I put out my Nativity and tonight after Carter went to bed we made hot chocolate and watched Home Alone. It was nice, but it still doesn't feel like Christmas is right around the bend.

PS Just to clarify this is not a post to make people feel sorry for us. Just me venting. We are very grateful for what we do have and will make this a good first Christmas for Carter.