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Today's the day all the Shoemoney Hausmates have abandoned me for points north, leaving me alone in our palace for the next couple hours, until the arrival of

samdonne shortly followed by the arrival of

spycookies, and OH what fun we'll have!

Before that happens; some Yuletide what I read and liked (with apologies already to Punk for sentence construction, but there's jus' something in the air around Yuletide season that makes me go SQUEE!1ELEVEN) of the mess of random stories I powered through last night before getting into bed with my cat.

And so! In a

yuletide that gave us 1052 stories, including two Alton Brown RPFs, two Say Anything futurefics, six ways Darren Nichols might have dueled with Geoffrey Tennant, and absolutely no thirtysomething, you should read (in no particular order):

Angharad's Tale, Chronicles of Prydain, Taran/Eilonwy, and bringing the tale of the True Enchanter into the present. Killer Eilonwy voice and a story that could stand proudly next to the others in the Foundling no prob.

Al Detente, Food Network RPF, how Alton met W (and more!). Powerful Good Eats voice, and totally nothing squicky. Just good clean food fun and the giant dorky Alton we know and love.

The Exquisite Barometer, His Dark Materials-verse. Until I read this I had no idea how much I wanted to read a story about Will and Mary Malone and their daemons in our world. This is as Pullmanesque as the title suggests, full of wonder. CRAP, now I want more like this.

Cooking Lasts, Into The Woods. Too much would spoil it, and it's too short and bittersweet for that. Just a story with a fairy tale ending.

No King of England, my favorite from the Slings & Arrows bunch so far. Hot damn, Darren Nichols is looney. And desperate, and queer, and bitchy, and inferior, and with a yearning to get into Geoffrey's head, and pants. Duel and slash.

the hours between dawn and nothing. M*A*S*H, BJ and Peg back home, a sad reunion, and the general sort of emptiness that BJ feels along with what he left behind. And then there's Hawkeye. I had tears in my eyes at the end, but I'll blame it on allergies. Yeah, allergies.

More later, if I can steal some time away from my housepeople to read a thousand stories at some point. Peace and joy unto you, and to you your wassail too!