Vacation mode - overriding normal events

I'm trying to set up a vacation mode/scene, and eventually other scenes. For starters, I'd like to control the thermostat events. Eventually I'd like to run light schedules, etc.

I've figured out how a create a virtual device, along with different status and graphics (home, away, vacation, nighttime).

for my thermostat, I set up events for it to change it's settings at different times of the day. one event for each change. For instance:
- 6a weekdays, set to 69
- 7a set to 66
- 5p set to 69
- 10p set to 67
etc.
All of these are in one group.

I now need to know the best way to have the virtual device, when set to vacation, set a hold on the Thermostat to 60, overriding the other events. I think I see how I could do a group condition, set that to Device has a value equal to "Vacation." Then choose each event to "group conditions are false." And an event manually triggering new thermostat values, say 60.

But if I manually set my occupancy device to "Home" and it happens to be 6:21p, the Thermostat would be set to 60 until the 10p event ran.

Suggestions please. thanks.