This isn't the first time that Bones has been switched around the schedule.
As for the gaps, FOX has baseball playoffs every year, there's the holiday break, and of course, this year there was Emily's pregnancy.
Besides all signs point to a season 8 at this point.
I had no problem going into this season knowing that 1) this would bea shortened season and 2) we would basically be getting two halves of a season very far apart.
What was annoying was FOX deciding not to air the 6th episode we should have gotten as the last episode of the Fall half of this season and holding it to air in January to lead into the premiere of the Finder.
So instead of ending the fall half with the introduction of the new serial killer Pelant, it's sorta of stuck out there on its own in January.
It could have been much simpler, possibly,for fans to accept a Fall half season of 6 episodes and then a Spring half season of 7 episodes, which is a pattern that cable shows follow.
I get the feeling from stuff I read that networks may be trending that way, i.e. shorter seasons split into halves like cable.