boston area folks -- dogsitters?

So we're headed to Chicago for the holidays without the dogs. I'm looking for someone who can either stay at our place, or take the kids, or at minimum come by for a few hours a day and hang out. I'd prefer swapping services (I'll knit you a hat! I'll watch your non-human kids! I'll make Tim brew you beer!), but I could be willing to pay cash as well. Anyone out there free from 12/24-12/27, or know of reliable people who are? The dogs are 6 and 7, fairly well-behaved, mid-sized black and white shedding creatures.

insurance, check

We seem to have secured insurance, or at least filled out all of the paperwork and provided a nice, hefty check, to the insurance people. We had to sign a dog waiver of sorts, with yes/no questions about the dogs, and other things that had obvious better/worse answers (like "Has your dog ever bitten someone?") -- so, now I guess we start trying to hunt up some contractors to fix stuff.