I had to share this - the lady who hand-reared my Bodie-cat from a three-week kitten until I adopted him has been nominated for a Pride of Australia award. She would be a deserving winner!
Pic and story here.

Proslib email yesterday delivered a heart-wrenching, beautiful fic which left me with tears streaming down my face. As Far As Is Appropriate by Jane Mailander is beautifully-written and extremely emotional without ever crossing the border into soppiness. I don't normally like the sad ones but I am so very glad I read this. As far as I can tell it's not archived anywhere except for Proslib - and you need to be a member of the group to access it, but membership is usually approved fairly quickly. Link to As Far As Is Appropriate here.

On a totally different note, over on The Avengers kinkmeme we have an awesome fill to this prompt:
Part of Tony is actually glad that Bruce has the other guy because that makes him virtually invincible and after Yinsen and nearly losing Coulson Tony's biggest fear is to lose someone close to him....
Fill - Worse Without

And finally - yes! Holidays officially started! Let the partying begin!