Is the dread of going back to work starting to creep in yet?

I'm always in two minds about working over christmas but I don't think I've had more than 1 day outside the bank holidays since 2020. It always goes the same way - \- 2-3 weeks before people catch wind that you're working over the xmas period and 'helpfully' start thinking of things you can do during the period so you're 'not just sitting around' - you end up with a to-do list 3x longer than at any other point in the year. \- The actual period comes around and those task-setters toddle off on their paid time off. Something randomly breaks which takes up half the time to fix, and the rest of the time is spent bouncing random enquiries from people who figured 'they'd ask now as it's the quiet period and you're probably not doing anything anyway' \- Christmas, the days between and new years all come and go in a moment \- The micro-week after new years eve comes around and about half the people who were off come back and say 'oh, was it surprisingly busy after all?' \- The actual first day back for everyone comes around and the entire of the first two days are them 'catching up on emails' (who's been emailing you? everyone has been off and those who weren't were dealing with the random stuff that came up that didn't involve you anyway) \- Work begins properly again around the Wednesday. Now that I'm sort of used to it, I think I prefer it vs. the so-called 'dread' of the first day back, but I wouldn't worry about having to do any 'proper' work until at least Tuesday afternoon.