It seems like The U.S. stops two and a half days a year. We're coming up on all of them in a 5 week period.

It always seems that the strangest time to travel, at least for me, has been at Thanksgiving. The first hour or two is spent in traffic, crawling about 10 miles every half hour at the most. Then after you finally hit the end of the exurbs -- nothing. Shops are closed up, a few drivers are headed the other way, gas stations are staffed with only one person (potentially a student home from college for the long weekend making some cash), and even the radio stations seem to have packed up for the weekend. On Thanksgiving in rural parts of the country little is open and even "Black Friday" is just an overhyped event happening over an hour away.

The other day is Christmas Eve, and my favorite experience of the season is leaving church that evening and driving through the near-silent city. The malls are closed and the streets are empty. To me, it's nice to see that even this country that doesn't slow down still knows how to take a break twice a year.