In my entire professional life, my favorite week of the year has always been the seven days between Christmas and New Years. Work life collectively slows down, and I have permission to take a deep breath and gather my thoughts. It’s the one time each year that the world collectively checks out of the office. Holiday celebrations, vacations, and trips take over our calendars from meetings, deadlines, and projects. The interruptions slow to a trickle as urgent deadlines are pushed into the next calendar year. I can do some planning, thinking, and gain perspective.

I don’t spend the week setting professional goals for the next year. Instead, I use it as a strategic reset, preparing myself and my space for what’s coming in the new year.

I love this feeling of calm; it’s the best week of the year.

My first day of work in my fully unpacked office.

I never thought this day would come.

‘New Year, New You’ Doesn’t Work. Here’s How You Can Actually Improve Your Life. - WSJ

We want to rid ourselves of the feeling, so vividly described by the English novelist Arnold Bennett, that “the years slip by, and slip by, and slip by, and that [we] have not yet been able to get [our] lives into proper working order.”

Sixteen days later, the final box has been opened.

📦

‘Ok, Who Got Me The MAGA Hat?’ Asks Kamala Harris As Jill Biden Stifles Laughter - Babylon Bee

“Merry Christmas, Kamala! Hope that gift brings you joy!”

… the mood at the party had grown even more uncomfortable after Jill Biden opened her present to find a Fisher Price Doctor’s Kit from the vice president’s office.

Civilization VII To Include ‘Bidenomics’ Tech Tree Upgrade Where Inflation Ruins Everything And Eggs Go Up To $12 - Babylon Bee

But now you can intentionally destroy your civilization from within, adding a new element of strategy as you fight yourself for no reason. … When playing as Joe Biden you can dispatch Hunter to other settlements to secure illicit deals, all while your people slowly starve to death.

Newly Discovered Scroll Reveals Fourth Wise Man Who Brought Baby Jesus A Priceless Lego Millennium Falcon - Babylon Bee

“The writer of the scroll, whom we have yet to identify, makes mention of the fact that the Lego Millennium Falcon was worth at least a year’s wages for an average Judean man. Anyone who possessed such a treasure was wealthy indeed.”

At publishing time, scholars disclosed that the scroll went on to tell of how the young Jesus showed early signs of His divinity by putting together the thousands of pieces of the Millennium Falcon by Himself without even looking at the instructions.