The holiday did not last long as preparations had to be made to redock with the unmanned Russian resupply vehicle Progress on 26 December. Progress was undocked on 1 December and placed in a parking orbit to make way for the space shuttle Endeavour. Initially there had been doubts as to whether the redocking should go ahead as the automatic guidance system failed during the first docking on 18 November. Russian engineers identified a problem in the computer control software and earlier this month a software patch was uplinked to the Progress. Testing the patch to ensure that future Progress vehicles can dock safely was the main objective of the redocking.
Progress provides extra storage space for rubbish and contains the extra fuel needed for manoeuvres.
The crew have now been on board the ISS, which is a joint undertaking of the United States, Russia, Japan and 10 Member States of ESA, for 56 days. The crew s return flight, scheduled for launch on 15 February has now been delayed to the beginning of March due to technical problems. So I think the comparison, having to be on a space station for an extra couple of weeks, is a pretty minor thing.