Our mid-morning yuletide update...

Those more perceptive of you will note that the fellow who volunteered us for this (admittedly delightful) task, the one who decreed by personal fiat that we'd all be working on Christmas Day, has so far posted the least of us.

     To really rub it in on poor Bill (the other Bill), I've taken it upon myself to invite an outside contributor, a Christmas guest if you will on this day of days where the halls of hosting are opened wide, to contribute to our Yule Day prose fest.

     Brad Thomte, a friend to both of us Bills couldn't resist the opportunity to dash off this wintery tale (which will be posted next -- therefore, in a blog's read it bottom-to-top if you want to read it chronologically, it has been posted above, rather than below this note) to further tweak (the other) Bill's so far embarrassing word count.

     And since this is Christmas Day, and he's not a member of the Clockwork Cryptera, Brad can be forgiven, just this once, for not knowing about our secret ban on stories featuring characters of a certain exhaustively-covered stripe.