I'm not working today, and I'm just home hanging out and doing some other work. This is definitely a good use of my vacation time. I picked up the kid from his dad's, we had breakfast together (which included pumpkin bread baked this morning and still warm from the oven), opened presents, and he's now snoozing on the sofa. I don't get many days any more where I get to watch the kid sleep; I'm glad to have this one.

I also take time off to do things other than hang around, though; my last vacation was to present a poster session at a conference in Paris, and my next one is to present a poster session at a conference in Austin, these conferences in a field completely unrelated to what I do for a living. (I'm having a blast with this!)

So I use vacation time both ways: to do something special away, and also to do something special (hang out around the house!) at home.