If you are traveling with a laptop over the holiday period then you should do your “Laptop Contingency Planning” before you head out the door.  For an excellent planning guide look at Mark Shead’s blog post at www.Productivity 501.com.  Laptops are lost, dropped, stolen, and simply fail at a very high rate.  If you need to get work done then you must be prepared for one of these events by ensuring data security, preventing damage, and having accessible data backups. 

Thanks to Rodney Dowell of LOMAP for the tip.