The end of 2009 approaches, but with a rather different feel. For once, we managed to schedule our ebook releases so we weren't quite so crazed over the last few weeks (but don't miss our 50-percent-off sale!). Plus, for the first time in memory, early January won't be taken up by Macworld Expo (now taking place in the middle of February).

But one thing that is the same is that I'm reminded as always of how lucky Tonya and I are to have the highly capable and amiable assistance of Glenn, Jeff, Joe, Matt, Mark, Rich, and Doug, along with the many Take Control authors and editors. We're also indebted to digital.forest for hosting our Internet servers, and to our TidBITS corporate sponsors for helping us keep the lights on. And, of course, we owe huge thanks to the writers who have contributed articles to TidBITS throughout the year, to the volunteer translators who make TidBITS available in other languages, to the individuals who leave comments on articles and participate in TidBITS Talk, and to everyone who carves out precious time to read what we write.

Thank you, one and all, and may all your holiday wishes come true.

We're taking the final two weeks of the year off from the email issue, so we and the rest of the TidBITS staff can spend time with our families, reflect on the past year, rest up a bit for 2010, and, in my case, recuperate from my second hernia surgery of the year last week (the first one in January didn't take, apparently, but recovery so far from this one has been much easier).

Be sure to stop by the TidBITS Web site or subscribe to our RSS or Twitter feeds for news, ExtraBITS links, Watchlist items, and other articles we can't resist posting. We'll continue to moderate TidBITS Talk discussions as well, though undoubtedly at a more relaxed pace. The next email issue of TidBITS will come out on 4 January 2010.