At the beginning of December, my boss (I work remotely) told my department we had to be at work for the rest of the month as it is obviously the year end. He did not mention anything about vacation time or the fact that if we don't use it, it won't roll over into 2023.
Since the end of November/beginning of December, multiple people in my department have had vacation days and others have logged into work for a little bit and then declared that they were logging out early (claims about feeling sick, needing to take care of children, run errands for children, etc.).
I discovered today that I have 70 hours of vacation time built up. I messaged my boss and asked him if I could, in theory, ask for 8 days (I work 8 hrs/day, I would have just under 9 days of vacation time) off between now and the end of the year. He said yes. I submitted my time-off request for December 21st-December 30th but haven't heard anything from this boss regarding it being approved or denied.
My question is: can my boss deny my time-off? I know he obviously can, but I mean, would I have a case to take to HR/escalate it if he were to deny it? He's willing to let other people in the department take days off or show up for unplanned half-days, but my (last-minute) request for time-off is unacceptable and I should lose 70 hours of paid vacation time? Please help!