Decisions

Jeremy still hasn't found a job he wants yet. He's turned down one offer, and he's been turned down by another, and while he's got several other possibilities and interviews, it's becoming unlikely that he'll be employed before the end of the year. This puts us at a crossroads for Christmas. We stayed here for Thanksgiving because frankly, 4 days in Dallas couldn't justify the $800 a ticket price tag. Christmas would be different though because I'd try to get the time between Christmas and New Years off as well. Without a job, he wouldn't have to worry about time off. It makes it harder to justify the cost of traveling though with only one income. We have a bunch of money saved up just for this occasion, but I wonder if it's more prudent to be frugal now in case he doesn't find a job for an extended period of time.

Home

It's been a long time since I actually required airfare to go home for the holidays, and I'd forgotten just how crazy prices are. Since we don't know if Jeremy will have a job yet, we're limited by several factors when planning trips home. We both very much want to go to Dallas for Thanksgiving and Memphis for Christmas. However, as we approach those holidays, it seems like we'll be in Pittsburgh for both. If Jeremy doesn't find a job, we'll likely not be able to afford to go home for either holiday. If Jeremy does get a job, we may not have the vacation days to go home. This sucks because I've found inexpensive tickets to Dallas but the return date is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. We'd be able to afford the tickets but Jeremy probably won't be able to get two extra days off work. Ideally, we'd got to Dallas for just 4 days, but the cheapest ticket then would run us about 1k apiece. Not exactly financially feasible even if Jeremy did get a job.

As for Christmas, if can't go back to Memphis, we'll miss the entire basketball season. There's a good possibility that with a job, he'll only get Christmas Eve/Day and New Year's Day off. This means that there's no way we'd be able to go to Memphis.

It was so much easier when we both worked for Universities so we got all holidays off similar to the students. Additionally, when we could just hop in a car and drive to Dallas or down the street to his family's we didn't have to weigh the costs. The plus side I suppose is that Jeremy's mom and stepdad will probably visit us in the spring. My brother may come up to visit the schools and go skiing this winter. It will be hard not spending the holidays with family though.