Been down the road twice with our two sons. Older DS is now doing his teaching internship for his master's in education. Younger DS is a freshman in college (and yes, I miss them both a lot!) The search was interesting, and of course I had MY favorite choices. Older DS ended up at my favorite for him (and got a full-tuition scholarship) for his undergrad degree in music. It was the size of school he wanted (6000 kids) , in the Midwest as he wanted, and offered the high level of educational experience he desired, plus a great program for education majors. But it also meant meant we weren't able to make all his concerts (he is a violist) because the school is about 6.5 hours away by car, just over 4 by train. That distance was the real downside. Younger DS surprised us by putting that same school on his short list (because I kind of thought he might reject it since it was his brother's experience, and he always wants to be his own person). I was kind of hoping he would choose a different one, which was only about 2 hours from home - 4 years of the long drive or train ride and having to miss things was always in my head. He was awarded a presidential scholarship to that school, an amazing opportunity, and he had loved the place since we had looked at it 4 years earlier for older DS, and they have an outstanding history department (his major). I was stoked, because I was sure that would be his choice. And then, we made the" mistake" of making another visit to his brother's school, and giving him a chance to talk in depth with several people in his major, and in the master's in education program. He had already been awarded a full-tuition scholarship there. Well, as he told me later, up to that point he had been pretty well decided on the other school, but those final conversations made him realize that he would get an even better history education AND have the master's program, if he went to the same place older DS was going. And so he did, and he is happy with his choice. I guess my point in all this is that while distance is a downside, what matters most is that they are at the school that feels right, and offers them the best educational experience in their chosen field. Once they make their decision, the pressure is off. Just don't be surprised if they wait until close to the national decision date, and you get to worry about it for as long as possible !

I am a vet student, so have also been through the process very recently. Definitely start with the FAFSA. You'll most likely get all loans, unless you're very very poor. You will also be shocked at the amount of money they expect you to pay towards education. The first year I applied, out of the $60k we both made that year, they expected we could afford $26k family contribution, even though we'd be losing my measly $20 salary. Nobody I know has actually been able to afford the expected family contribution. The good news is that you can ask for loans also to cover living expenses, and they are a bit more generous for that. I take out about $26k per year, even though my tuition is only $9k, because we really couldn't afford to lose my income. My bro is also an auto technician, and he went with loans to pay for college too. He searched and searched but didn't find any scholarships either. BS and BA money seems really easy to come by, but if you're a grad/professional/technical student you're left on your own for the most part. That said, by bro did just a general auto tech at a community college and started as a lube tech at a dealership that paid for Ford school. Many dealerships offer training for their make, but be sure your son talks to the employees. My bro found out the hard way that just because a dealership says they pay for school doesn't mean they ever find the time to actually send you. He quit his first job because of that. Second place actually did pay for school, so he learned a lot, but they weren't busy enough for him to work so he only got paid for 15 flat-rate hours a week. Now he's working on boats and loving it. Turns out a lot of boat motors are Ford, plus he also can repair AC which a lot of trained boat mechanics cannot. So he's loving life now.

Huh? Ashley who said your DH uses his German heritage, I missed it. I never heard of any job privileges for Germans in the US, there are advantages of being German in Germany but not in the US, so i don't see how being German is any advantage? One does not put in on job application (no box for that), "Hispanic" is on job application. By the way racial terms are very confusing in the US. Spanish people in Europe are Whites, yet in the US people of the same decent are Hispanics as a separate race. They are not separate race but separate ethnicity, different thing. lonepiper, of course everyone has rights to post whatever and ashley has rights to reply to their "whatever" with her "whatever". And it is cool, let's all say "whatever", but there are some things that are crossing boundaries here like saying that "n" word is harmless and is embraced by blacks. No need to do that. And we have African-Americans on this forum too.

If you don't have xmas collections of your own, I hope you have a christmas tree shoppe near by or some other low cost high selection tchotchke store near you. Or hit up family and friends to share theirs. The holiday houses I've been in are crammed with xmas stuff....something in every room, and I agree with alex that more is more. For the table, a nice grouping of something ... anything...will be great, provided you have height with it. So a row of cone-shaped white or gold trees of various heights....or a passel of candles in various candle holders of matching material like all silver or all glass ... or a tall xmas decoration on a cake plate to get some height. Typically there are xmas type place settings as well with red glasses or whatever....ribbons around the wine glass stems, christmasy napkin rings.... Rather than put a bow on the upholstered chairs, I would put a bow on the top backs of each of the wooden chairs. Take a fat ribbon and start on the top left of the chair back...ribbon goes down and under, across the slats on the backside of the chair and up the other side in the front. Criss cross both ends and staple to the center back of the ribbon on the back and let the tails hang...that gives you a base to attach a large bow to. And of course all this needs to be color coordinated so it gives an even larger impression for your large room.