I can get used to this Christmas Break. In my old career, I often got two weeks off at Christmas, but this was usually a cost-cutting measure by my employer, who was simply trying to minimize the number of vacation hours on the books. With teaching, I get paid to take these weeks off… or do I? Technically, I get paid for “10 months,” which means that I do get paid for this Christmas break, but since I am also technically an hourly employee, I only get paid on the days I work, which is 186 days out of the year… which does not include this Christmas Break. Still, it’s all good – I love what I do and I like the pace of the year, especially as we get into this 2nd semester where the breaks are frequent. Because I love what I do, I treat my job like a salaried position – working as many hours as it takes to do a good job… which currently includes every weekend, part of my Christmas Break and a lot of my summers. Maybe in a couple of years I can simply work the hours I’m paid for, but not now! I’m still learning how to do this teaching thing. I’m still setting up my curriculum. Perhaps I’ll never “coast,” as I really like the curriculum-building part. In five days over this break, I have put together five awesome weeks of instruction (which will get me to the “ski week” break). I’m really looking forward to teaching this stuff.