Tomorrow, Monday the 2nd of January, is my last day off from teaching before returning from winter break.

I am oh-so-very ready to return. Not because I look forward to rising at 5:15 AM, or even to having responsibilities to students and administrators in three different schools. Rather, I am looking forward to having some structure to my day.

The last ten days of Christmas break have been days of sloth for me. True, I completely produced two half-hour podcasts and recorded five others. But I’ve also spent the whole time sitting on my bottom, causing the discs in my lower back to compress further. I should have exercised–instead, I took too many naps. My wife and daughter and I all have acid indigestion this evening from all the junk food we’ve eaten the last several days. And above all, my motivation level has dropped to zero or below.

There are plenty of things I should have done during the break. I have checkbook registers to balance, bills to pay, midterm exams to write, tax records to prepare, and general cleaning, filing and straightening to do. Yet I’ve watched old movies on TV and slept very late every day.

Ah well. I should let it go. I think the worst thing about the break, really, is the guilt I feel now for not being “productive.”

As it happens, there’s a good piece in today’s Washington Post about the history of the Christmas celebration, particularly in the U.S.

I know I’m not the first one to complain about all the panic and consumerism around this season–I’ve been hearing this all my life, in fact. But Penne L. Restad’s piece gives me a nice, clear perspective on this history of my own anxiety.

(I think you have to register to read the Post online; sorry. But it is free.)