First holiday season retired

[firewhen]

I normally take time off at year-end and typically about this time, with New Years fast approaching and the time off winding down, I feel that sinking feeling in my gut (i.e. next week at this time I will be back at w*rk). Especially with heading into busy season for me. I wished I could stop time and somehow savor it more. It feels amazing not to have to worry about that now and next week is just the start of a new year and nothing more!

 

[DrRoy]

Pretty much felt the same thing.

 

[Dtail]

I used to always work the last week of the year and have some managers take off, as the workload was clearly less and thus closer to a vacation like setting.

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

For 25 years I had to ask a small group of office staff to work over the Christmas-New Year's break (with compensation); but, as their manager, I always came in as well and did non-essential, end of year clean up work in my files, etc. It was for moral support. I got to know them better during this time because we had a lot of close interaction throughout the week and shared a nice feeling of being a bit like work warriors, holding down the fort, while everyone else was off.

Now that I'm retired (for 5 years) I enjoy the week but it doesn't feel much different from the rest of the 51 each year.
That said, my wife is happy that we finally get to spend that week together.

-BB

 

[Markola]

Good point, OP. It’s my first holiday season retired too. I’m already screwing up which day of the week it is, so I guess I’m getting the hang of this. Happy New Year and here’s to not checking the calendar to see what day of the week any holiday falls on!

 

[Koolau]

My company always shut down for the holidays so we had a minimum of 7 straight days off (usually, more like 9 or 10 depending how week-ends fell.) Only occasionally did I have to venture into the plant over the holidays. (I did go in one Christmas day as I KNEW no production was in progress and I could take background air-samples. It turned out to be a very good set of data for future comparison.)

I still recall the luxurious feeling of having that much time to myself and family. It made me long for FIRE which I diligently worked toward. YMMV

 

[Badger]

I know that feeling. It will eventually go away along with the anxious Monday mornings when you wake up.


Cheers!