Ha. I just disappointed our son's piano teacher by telling him that our son won't back for a couple more weeks, which will be about four weeks total of no lessons and zero practicing. We have these breaks a few times each year and they really do WONDERS for our son's attitude... and, by extension, his playing ability.
Our son started piano lessons (largely at his own prompting) right after he turned five and for the first few days he loved every minute of it. And then he made the grand discovery that he doesn't enjoy practicing. We've had more than our share of knock-down, drag-out "arguments" over practicing, but somehow got through these and he improved.
With him, it really is just the practice. He enjoys playing for others, volunteers each year to play at a couple of variety shows and doesn't get too worked up about the more formal recitals. He loves to play side-by-side with his mom, who's much more adept than I am -- and that definitely makes his practice time survivable. There have also been times where his entire practice is spent working on improvisation. He'll get started and then 20-25 minutes later he'll come up for air, realizing that he got a little side-tracked. Some of these excursions have been more aurally pleasant than others, but they almost always end with a happy kid (& a tickled dad), especially when I tell him to turn off the light & close the lid, allowing him to totally blow off the structured portions of his practice.
He's four years into his pie-anna larnin' (sorry, we watched Yosemite Sam & Bugs Bunny on pie-anna last night) and still going strong. He still plays waaaay too quickly most of the time, and practice sessions often run twice as long as needed because he won't slow down, preferring to use brute force at whatever breakneck speed he chooses.
Piano has been an interesting lesson for both of us -- complete with patience, persistence, yelling, etc -- and while I recognize that it's hard/impossible to force a love of something onto children, I suppose I am providing mandatory exposure.
Music has been one of the only real challenges in this kid's life, so despite his chronic protestations, he's stuck with it for now. Allowing him to quit because he couldn't/wouldn't master a given piece just wasn't an avenue I wished to explore.
The biggest challenge for me was allowing him a more relaxed practice schedule than what the teacher expected. Mr. Teacher wants 30 minutes, five times per week, plus the weekly lesson, which normally lasts 45 minutes. Our son, however, typically only gets in three decent practices of 20-25 minutes -- but continues to progress so I leave well enough alone.
Don't forget about the extended breaks... we both come back quite refreshed. If your son is as good as you say, the breaks shouldn't hurt him a bit!
