My Christmas holiday began on Thursday the 21st of December and today was my first day back in the office. Take a page from this book. I actually had a longer vacation than my son (by two days).

One year in the States, I actually received e-mail from my boss ON Christmas Day. Typically I would work the week between Christmas and New Years since I had taken up my vacation (typically two weeks) at another time of the year. The time between Christmas and New Years doesn’t even count against the five weeks holiday I get.

A mentor of mine summed it up once by saying “happy people make money” and I feel well rested, balanced and refreshed coming back to work. This is life in proper proportion with work. I can only see upside in this equation and can’t comprehend what benefit the Centre would have gained by having us work through the holidays. We will still make a sizable impact on an entire country without sacrificing our lives in the process.