It’s been a busy few weeks since we last delved into the Archives at LDV Towers, so here’s a little snapshot of what’s been happening here since we last rounded up.

You can’t have failed to miss our 12 Op-Eds of Christmas, a round-up of all your favourite writing from the blog throughout 2008. You can find all twelve at this tag link.  There are still a few more to come, taking us up to when we at LDV towers take the tree out for recyling, take our Christmas cards to Smiths or Marks, and carefully wrap up the baubles and trinkets with their memories for next year.

Before Christmas, we were still desperately hawking our year-end anthology as an additional way to help ends meet. Slightly after last posting date, news fluttered in of two broadly favourable reviews from fellow bloggers Matt Wardman and Alex Wilcock. And it’s still not too late to buy a copy for yourself.  Go on, buy it – we need the money!

Events at Christmas certainly coloured our postings considerably. Firstly, there were those warm words of tolerance and acceptance from the leader of the Catholic Church, forthrightly condemned for LDV by Colin Lloyd.  Then those paragons of humility and gentleness, the Israeli Defense Force stepped up with a much-needed and proportionate response to amateur rocketeering, and Darrell Goodliffe stepped up to the LDV plate, closely followed by our Shadow Foreign Secretary Ed Davey MP.

On a lighter note, Alix compiled a list of people she really, really wanted as LD voters, Lord Tyler responded to complaints of taking things a little seriously when it comes to Strictly Come Dancing and Parliamentary reform, Mark proved William Gladstone wrong, John Thurso won Parliamentary Beard of the Year, Stephen made some startling suggestions for the next Doctor Who and Helen linked to some really off-the-wall political billboard pitches.

You’ll have seen our end-of-year awards coverage – we asked you to nominate your favourite people in numerous categories, then we asked you to vote on them, and finally we told you what you said.  After serious number crunching, Stephen wrestled the STV numbers to the ground and posted results in three four tension-mounting posts: Lib Dem Politician of the Year and By-election of the year; Political Journalist/Broadcaster and Political Programme of the Year; Campaigner of the Year and Most Desperate Press Release; and finally Liberal Voice and Defining Moment of the Year.  Thanks to the hundreds of you who voted, and congratulations to all the winners.

Our new Party President Baroness Ros Scott shared her New Year message with us, as did Nick Clegg. “Letterman” (pseudonymised for good reason) made some predictions about reshuffles. The Liberator Collective told us about their latest edition. Hywel Morgan critiqued Labour’s volte face on the Social Fund. John Ward had another word about stimulation and welfare.

And the Tories came in for special criticism this Christmas: with shadow cabinet members who refused to focus on politics; £1m wasted on unproductive online activity; accusations of sexism; strange spats about executive pay and a peer breaking his tax promise.

Mark dished the dirt on why MPs use Facebook.  Helen let us know what Whitehall got us for Christmas.   And Stephen reviewed last year’s predictions and posed ten vital questions for this 2009.

Finally, if you’ve not yet made your New Year’s Resolutions, we’ve some excellent suggestions here.