OK, it took me past the new year (Happy New Year!!!), but not too far past — and I even posted something myself! :-)

I figured no one else was clamoring to post, but if someone did have something to add, just let me know and I can open it again.

So... now it's all over but for the hand-over, which I have honestly not been thinking at all about, but which I will ponder and probably email about over the next few days. :-)

It's been wonderful — and horrible, sometimes, not gonna lie :-) — to do this event for you all for so long.  I think we've all learned things, sometimes because I forced us to, sometimes not :-), and evolved over the years but always stood for inclusivity and positivity, and I'm proud of that.

I started this after the first attempt wasn't continued... I'm not even sure why I volunteered, but I know why I kept at it (and it's not just because I'm a control freak who can't ever let anything go ;-)) — it's because December is hard for a lot of people in a lot of different ways, and it's seemed like this has made people's Decembers better.  (And not just Patt, even if she's been the most vocal about it. ;-))

Though it's time for me to step back, I'm hoping that this event, in whatever form it takes in the future, will continue to make December better for years to come.

Thank you all!
~ ainm ~

Wow... Merry Christmas, Thrilling Thursday, and/or whatever applies to you! :-)  Lucky for you I am much too busy tonight to get all maudlin over the end of an era, and will instead just say that it's the end of the Exchange and the Drabble Days for 2025 but the start of the Extravaganza!  

Thanks so much to everyone who contributed — every item, from a long Exchange story to clicking the Kudos button, is very much appreciated, and important to making this adventure a success!

The Exchange & Drabble Days are now revealed and de-anonymized (I hope — comment here if I missed any, since they are still showing as "Anonymous" in the list of subcollections even though when you open them they are not — makes it hard to check!), and the Extravaganza is revealed.  If inspiration strikes you — or if you haven't had the time to finish the ideas that you've had but have a little downtime coming up — feel free to add your work to the Extravaganza over the coming week.  It will be immediately viewable but willl stay anonymous until I de-anonymize it all closer to New Year's.

Title: Bear the Crown
Rating: General Audiences
Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Categories: M/M
Characters: Jim Ellison/Blair Sandburg
Additional Tags: The Sentinel Secret Santa, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst
Words: 1,222
Summary: Solstice wreaths and epiphanies.

Best wishes from your Secret Santa & your mod!

(And I just have to note that this post is a bittersweet one for me for sure — not only the last Exchange story of 2025 but of my tenure as your mod!  Then tomorrow night is the last Drabble Day — which means wow, I really better get back to wrapping presents! ;-))

Title: Unofficial Notes from One of Those Weeks… or More
Rating: General Audiences
Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Categories: Gen
Characters: Blair Sandburg, Jim Ellison
Additional Tags: Humor, Friendship
Words: 1,973
Summary: If Blair wrote notes - just for himself - on daily life with a Sentinel, this sentinel, what would an average week or more sound like?

Best wishes from your Secret Santa & your mod!