Pete,

23 days sounds like a nice break to spend with family and the hobby. I've had to celebrate Xmas in the new year a few times myself. Typically it felt well deserved.

Once I recall, back when I was a graduate student, I had a stack of 150 exams to grade and mark from my Oceanography 101 class. It was December 22nd and I had to decide whether to lug the 3 boxes with me to the West coast where family was back then, celebrate Xmas with them but have to spend Xmas day going through the papers or stay back in town and get it done. I opted for the latter and was one of only two people to sign in to the closed University. It's not that the work was so bad but somehow being almost the only soul on campus made it somewhat somber... it was so quiet you could hear the sound of the pencil going over the papers. It took me two days; the 24th and 25th. Instant soup was had for dinner...

Not on par with say, being in the forces, but I little anecdote nonetheless.

Have a good and safe flight back.

David.