Ah, vacation

The 12 days of Christmas. Well, that's how it has felt anyway. I've been back in New York for nearly two weeks now, and each day has been a new present filled with food, friends, and family.

I've been from home early in the morning and late at night, but the in-between hours have been positively packed with backyard barbecues, flying Frisbees, extreme bocce matches, ice cream and iced coffees, water balloons, bagels and cakes, foreign films, bookstores and cafés, and reading Watership Down on the porch while real rabbits romp nearby.

In short, it has been a welcomed change of pace from life in Guatemala.

And the best is yet to come! Tomorrow is my last day updating the Incidencia Democratica website and compiling the International News section.

Today's brutal news from London was yet another reminder of how heartbreaking it can be to wake up in the morning and immerse yourself in the daily pain and suffering that makes up much of the world's headlines.

But for the next two weeks I'll be basking in the blissful ignorance of the unplugged life. I'm hoping that these news-free days will be to my mental health, what these tree-filled days have been to my physical health.

And I'll get to sleep in, too. And that may end up being the greatest gift of all!