I had the questionable pleasure of working through Christmas this year - as did my better half - and in all probability if I had ever been detained on one of her Majesty's compulsary hotels I'd have probably had more fun.

Every cloud, however.  I finally replaced my beat-up PC with a new quad-core monster that no longer even allows me time to pick up my book when opening a program or checking e-mail! 
Talk about a productivity boost, I have had to change my whole way of working - not least because my keyboard now thinks in English so the " and @ have swapped places as have £ and $ with isn't a major boost as over here we use € anyway.  (Hold down "alt" and hit 0128 on the keypad and you should be OK  :-)  )

So - no, it wasn't all bad, I guess nothing ever really is - forgive the typos, I'll get there in the end and DAMN this thing is fast!

Oh yes - re the upcoming year, have a good one - or even a great one if you like, it's all to play for.