This was written during my last semester of my PhD work on campus. I had been asked if I would play a couple of songs at the departmental Christmas party and I really didn't have a repertoire of that type of song. So I wrote this the night before. I had been very homesick these last few weeks, and the song is sort of a promise to Peggy, who had been waiting for me for over two years.

Three winters in Champaign, Illinois....I long to be home for good.

Where do you want to go?

The snow falls soft around me
out here in the midwest
I'm 1800 miles away from home
I still miss the rivers
and the mountains I love best
but most of all a woman in Idaho

yes it's seven days til Christmas
and I fight to find a smile
I close my eyes, imagine and pretend
that the spirit here within us
can somehow span the miles
and you're laying here within my arms again

It's the last time I'll spend christmas
in champaign illinois
It's the last time I'll promise that it's true
It's the last time I'll spend christmas
in champaign illinois
It's the last time I'll spend christmas
without you