Woo hoo! Perhaps the best Christmas news I could have had: the February issue of Realms of Fantasy has two of my stories in it: Uncle Vernon's Lie and The Land of Reeds. I haven't actually seen this issue yet, but it's reviewed in Tangent Online, so it's got to be true. :) Thanks to Scott M. Sandridge for the review.

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Here's the seething male envy bit:

From The Guardian, the Average Christmas spending on each recipient in 2005:

Wife: £117
Husband: £89

Girlfriend: £102
Boyfriend: £102

Daughters: £101
Sons: £99

Mother: £38
Father: £32

Sister: £26
Brother: £24

Grandmother: £16
Grandfather: £14

Only at the boyfriend/girlfriend stage is there gender parity. Ah, fickle women.

And one final statistic: 1,000 people in the UK are admitted to hospital each year as a result of an accident with a Christmas tree. That's one dangerous Christmas tree.

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Steph posted this yesterday, but I'm going to post it again. Our Christmas tree:



It's our first Christmas tree and we're proud of it. It has lots of silver strands that glitter every possible colour at night and that keep getting pulled off by Nika's tail.

There are no known incidents of our Christmas tree causing any injuries. It is not the one.