Christmas week off

The Silicon Valley tradition of giving people the week off between Christmas and New Year's Day started decades ago with the semiconductor companies. Nowadays many companies are officially closed that week, and at many more, lots of people take time off. This year, for the first time in many years, I took a big stay-at-home Christmas vacation: 11 days, from Dec. 23 through Jan. 2 -- three of those were vacation days, and the rest were weekends and company holidays.

I had big plans for the vacation: family outings and personal projects. The day before vacation, I listed what I wanted to do and planned out each day of the break. And how did that work out?

Hahahahaha.

We ended up doing only a fraction of the tasks and events we had planned. Most days ended up with lovely lazy unplanned gobs of quantity time with my wife and kids. We stayed up very late, and slept in the next day. We watched movies and TV shows. We celebrated Hanukkah and New Year's, and saw a few friends. We went to a couple of hockey games. We ate too much and exercised too little. We hunkered down and looked at the rain, of which there was plenty. I celebrated my 46th birthday. And yes, we accomplished a few tasks (set up Devi's new computer, installed a new backup system, reorganized my office, caught up on postal mail, changed that very hard-to-reach light bulb) and completed a few fun outings. Barbara's theory is that after months of highly programmed work, school, and puppy care, we just rebelled and let go. It was pretty sweet.

So, happy new year! How was your vacation (if any)?

Comments

[Dan Wood]

How can anybody in the Mac industry take time off right before Macworld Expo? :-)

[Sharon Berkson]

Scott,

Happy Birthday, Happy Chanukkah, and Happy New Year. Say hi to Barb for me. I did nothing for vacation.

[Leslie Irish Evans]

My hotel caught fire on my vacation.

Hey, Scott, you've been tagged:

http://www.theleslieshow.com/2006/01/5-weird-habits.html#links