As we enter the holiday season, several reports indicate continuing improvement in the economic picture. It is expected that more people will be traveling throughout the end of the year than in the recent past, and some retailers who are currently hiring additional workers for the holiday crush say they may keep on some of those individuals permanently. As Black Friday approaches, we’ve been bombarded with advance sales and tons of ads and catalogs as surveys indicate that consumers on average plan on spending more on gifts this year than last year. All of this is good news, although the comeback lags behind much of the rest of the country here in Oregon. Unemployment is still over ten percent, and it’s even higher here in the southern part of the state. Personally, though, I’ve experienced a few things that give me optimism about the future. First, my younger daughter, who graduated from Loyola University Chicago in May with a 4.0 GPA and a Bachelor’s in Nursing, has just snagged her first job in her chosen profession. Four years ago when she started college, all we heard about were big signing bonuses and new nurses having their pick of jobs. The reality has shifted over the past few years, however, and Jenny has found it difficult to even find positions that accepted applications from new grads. The buzz now is that over the next six months, hospitals which had frozen their hiring will once again be adding to their payrolls. Second, in the past month we’ve watched as construction has begun on three new houses on our street (one, right next door). While I have enjoyed the privacy the surrounding open lots have afforded our property, I am glad to see this most obvious sign of local economic improvement and experience the bustle of growth. Here’s to things continuing to look up as we enter 2011! — Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor