Unfortunately, my extended holiday vacation is drawing to a close. The last day I worked was Dec 6 and I have been on vacation since. This is the longest vacation in my career that I have taken from work. I will be back in the office on Monday.
My company has a “use it or lose it” policy on its vacation time given to employees. We can carry a maximum of five days of personal time off to the next year. Business conditions made it hard for me to take any time off the last third of the year, so I had a bunch of time to burn or lose. I normally plan to take off three weeks around the end of the year. This year it was four. I had originally been thinking about going back this past Wednesday and ensuring the maximum carry over time off, but the kids were off school so I extended.
I cannot count the number of board games and video games that we as a family have played over the last month. We have also caught up a bunch movies. I was also able to give Cruise Talk Central a new face lift and put in some serious hours on developing the next version of an internet forum application that I contribute to.
All in all, it has been a wonderful vacation. The time with Suzanne and the kids has been well spent. They have also had some time off from the dance studio. I think they were a bit burnt out on that and needed the time off. Next week, we all get back in the swing of it as the kids also start back at school.
The upcoming year will also be a busy one for us. it starts with Showstopper Regional Dance competition in February. In March, we head off to the San Antonio area of Texas for a Pechuls family reunion. June has us traveling to Michigan for a Klasen family reunion. When July rolls around, its off to Anaheim or the Showstopper National Dance competition. Currently, the rest of the year is clear for us from a travel standpoint. Just might have to consider booking a cruise to fill that gap.
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