Eastbound Trans-Mongolian, December 27-January 7

Hello hello.
I've got a fistful of plane tickets that should get me to Moscow on the afternoon of December 27. And I'm booked to fly out of Beijing on the afternoon of January 7.

This schedule means I won't be taking the #4 train (although if it ran on time, I could barely catch my Monday Beijing flight...)

Following many of the links from Thorntree posts, I've put together the obvious options...
This information is collected from poezda.net for December 27-29:

poezda.net schedule for 27-12-2007
poezda.net schedule for 28-12-2007
poezda.net schedule for 29-12-2007
http://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian-timetable.html</a><BR><a href="http://www.legendtour.ru/eng/mongolia/train-schedule.shtml">http://www.legendtour.ru/eng/mongolia/train-schedule.shtml</a><BR><BR>Note, this link at seat61 is sorta busted:
http://www.chinahighlights.com/china-trains/index.html</a><BR>this URL works, but the page is messed up so that if you click you go to some other non-place.

12.27 (002) leaves Moscow 21:25
............(006) leaves Moscow 21:35
12.28 (010) leaves Moscow 23:25
............(020) leaves Moscow 23:55
==========================
12.31 (006) arrives/leaves Irkutsk 00:41
............(002) arrives Irkutsk 2:33
............(264A) leaves Irkutsk 19:35
1.1 (020) arrives Irkutsk 3:44
..........(010) arrives Irkutsk 4:30
.......................................(006) arrives Ulan Bator 7:35
..........(264B) leaves Irkutsk 19:35
1.2..................................(264A) arrives Ulan Bator 7:19
..........(264C) leaves Irkutsk 19:35
1.3..................................(264B) arrives Ulan Bator 7:19
.......................................(024) leaves Ulan Bator 7:50
1.4..................................(264C) arrives Ulan Bator 7:19
................(024) arrives Beijing 14:31
.......................................(034) leaves Ulan Bator 20:25
1.5----------------(034) arrives Hohot 20:49
1.6....................daily trains from Hohot/Jining Nan to Beijing
1.7...........fly out of beijing, 5pm

IDEA #1:
12.27 in Moscow
12.28 get on the Baikal (010)
1. 1 morning arrive in Irkutsk
evening train to UB (264)
1. 3 arrive in UB
1. 4 evening train to Hohot (034)
1. 5 arrive in Hohot
1. 6 evening train to Beijing

This gives me a night in Moscow, a very long overnight in Ulan Bator, about a half day in Irkutsk, a night in Hohot (?), and a night in Beijing.

Other than the fact that every one of these places deserves more time, any comments? Is it possible and semi-reasonable? Some strange guy I met thought that I'd really miss out on Lake Baikal. But my options are pretty limited. If I take more time in the Lake Baikal area, I have to give up my night in Moscow or Ulan Bator.

I figure I'll start trying to book tickets soon. I'm not confident about trying to buy at the stations with my time constraints...