Emily went back to New Zealand for Christmas. Chris is in Yorkshire. One of them is surrounded by summer sunshine and Middle-Earth mountains. One of them ... isn't. Emily reports from the final day of her observing run on what it's like being an actual, real-life astronomer, before descending from the peak to enjoy the silly season in the antipodes. Whatever your flavour of December celebrations, we at Syzygy wish you a happy one — and a great start to 2019, another year full of astronomical awesomeness.