I would like to know how you guys are using the time between Christmas and NewYear.
Do you spend it with your family? Or was Christmas already to much family overload?
Are you using the time to try out new technology/frameworks? Or are you working on side project? Or whatever?
I already had a good 4 day weekend with family for Christmas. For New Year, I have another long weekend starting now and planning to do extensive coding on one of my ideas/ project.
For a second, I looked at your reply and thought I typed it! I've been practicing my node.js and MongoDB skills, so I'm working on a little weekend project as a showcase.
I am sorry that you don't have family left anymore. Yes that can be annoying. But you could use the time for activities where you don't need consultants.
I am using the time to do SEO for my Start-Up. And I am pre writing blog posts and saving them as drafts. I will post them somewhere in January.