If you're trying to finish up some of your Winter Veil achievements (which are all mandatory if you want to get the Violet Proto-Drake one day), remember that you don't have much time left. Today is the last full day of the holiday. It ends tomorrow (the 2nd) at 6 AM according to the in-game calendar. You have less than 24 hours to get your fill of fruitcake and stock up on Holiday Spices.

If you're trying to finish up your work toward the Merrymaker title, don't forget to check out Amanda Miller's guide to the Winter Veil achievements. The quickest piece of advice, though? If you still need Let It Snow or Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho's, start hitting the revelers every hour on the hour, because your achievements are now in the hands of fate, not your own. Good luck.

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft.

In today's episode of The Queue, I give our Facebook page another shameless plug. Have you seen it? Yes? Good! Let's move on, then.

Jonny Dale asked...

I seem to remember a post on where to find all the +hit rating gear for casters, but I can't find this anywhere on WoWInsider search or Google. Anyone care to help?

Hello? Guys? Anyone home? If you were to knock WoW Insider's office door, you probably wouldn't get an answer this weekend, as most of the WoW Insider team seems to be /afk for the holidays. At least we're pretty sure we actually have more writers than are listed here -- and at least two of those only responded to our WRUP call-out by cell phone. Whether you're in game or out this weekend, we hope you're having a happy Winter Veil!

Alex Ziebart: I'm not really playing at all until the new computer parts I ordered gets to my house. The most I can do is fish in the back of Ironforge or my video card overheats. I play vicariously through my guildmates in guild chat when I'm not leveling a random alt's fishing. Someone narrating Wintergrasp to me is totally the same as being there, right?
Amanda Miller: I have been gathering presents for all of my alts, as well as working on the Merrymaker title. I've also been leveling my Death Knight through Northrend, although right now I'm trying to catch up on her Blacksmithing.

For the rest of the team, read on!

So, for those lucky enough to have today off, I'm sort of wondering if anyone's awake yet to read this topic. After all, I'm sure a good portion of us drank so much eggnog and ate so much roast beef, turkey, or your other meat or non-meat of choice, that we're all sort of wishing we could just hibernate for the rest of the winter.

But regardless, life goes on, and here it is the morning after. I'm sort of wondering, then, how many people made time to get a few winter veil traditions in as well. I admit, for my part, first thing in the morning I logged onto WoW, ran to Ironforge, and checked out what Greatfather Winter bought for me. Then I proceeded to run around with my crashing thrashing racer until I got 25 crashes and the Merrymaker title. Which I am not using because my character is a Death Knight. Death Knights do not... make merry. We're dark. And angsty. But we also like Violet Proto-Drakes, so what can we do?

Did anyone else make time to log on and get a little Merrymaking going? Did you just stick to more achievement gathering, or are you making your own WoW Winter Veil traditions?

Merry Christmas Happy Winter Veil, everyone! In this season of giving, it's probably appropriate to ask everyone what their wish is for the season and, heck, the next year. To keep things in line, we'll ask for what everyone is wishing for in the game so there probably won't be any wishes for World Peace (although Dalaran and Shattrath pretty much killed all that inter-faction hate). I know my brother-in-law is wishing to get the Merrymaker Achievement as his first step towards the Violet Proto-drake. As much as I love it, I'd like to see Wintergrasp get some improvements soon, with more incentive to actually play it aside from being insanely fun.

What about you guys? Anything you're wishing for or wished for that you already got? Phat loot? Achievements? Acceptance into that high-end raiding guild you've been working on for months? What's the sweetest in-game thing you want for Winter Veil? We can't guarantee you'll get it, but here at WoW Insider, we're certainly wishing you the best!

Winter Veil is here. The cities are decorated, snowballs are flying, and everyone will be waking up early in a few days to see what Great Father Winter has left under the Christmas tree. We recognize the holidays as a time to share with family and friends.

Outside of services, parties, and shopping you're probably still spending a considerable amount of time with your cohorts online. I'd like to know if anyone is planning on sending gifts to their guildies and other WoW buddies. It's unnecessary but still thoughtful to recognize these folks we spend so much time with. I think it might be fun, but I'm not sure what to get.

Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player with limited playtime.

Nothing says Winter Veil like a skanky santa outfit. Ho ho ho, indeed. The winter holidays in Azeroth have enough sex and violence (mostly violence) to counteract all of the feel-good, family-friendly holiday cheer going on in the real world. It's exactly what you need after going anywhere near a mall parking lot at this time of year.

In-game holidays are always good for those of us with limited playtime because the quests give good experience, fun loot and there are often entertaining stories and activities to go along with it. The Feast of Winter Veil is no exception. While it doesn't have the ridiculous xp of the Midsummer Fire Festival or Hallows End, it does have some great Achievements, virtual toys and enough xp to make it worth your while. Following is a casual player's guide to the festivities.

I have to admit, there were one idea brought up in the comments yesterday that I'm completely in support of: Kael'thas returning as a Lich. Hell. Yes. Not aligned with the Scourge, but self-fueled and up to his own machinations again. Kael'thas has been one of my favorite villains, watching his fall into desperation through WCIII and The Burning Crusade. Lich Kael would own so hard.

That's enough of that, though. On with the questions!

Leprakahn asked...

I remember reading during Wrath beta that at the end of inscription scribes were going to get a 7th glyph slot, what happened to that? Did it get scrapped completely or will it come with a later patch?

Fresh from the forums, a note of a nice holiday event planned by the players of Deeprun Pest Control on the European Aggramar server. They're planning a costume party, a gift giveaway (for the whole server!) and even invite the Horde to come join the festivities on level 1 alts. Now, I'm an infamous Scrooge... ask anyone who knows me, or even people who don't... and even I think this sounds like fun, so kudos to the folks at DPC for putting it together.

Remember, Kharanos, Aggramar EU server, 21:00 hours server time (thats 9 pm for those of us like me who have to stop and count backwards when presented with a logical time system) the festivities begin. I don't know about you, but I'm inspired to blatantly steal this idea and am feverishly working on a plan to convince people on my server to go along with it.

The Feast of Winter Veil has officially started, and Wowhead is joining in the holiday spirit. The site logo has been made a bit more festive, and the icons for items and users on the forums are now sporting a cheery holly border. They're also running a contest titled (slightly threateningly) "12 Killer Days of Khristmas." Each day between now and December 24, they're giving away fabulous prizes:

• For phase one of the contest (12/13 to 12/18), winners get a Wowhead Prize Package, containing one of those nifty steins, a (slightly tacky, IMO) K-logo necklace by Killer, an Alienware cap, and a totally rad Wowhead t-shirt.

The Feast of Winter Veil is almost upon us. The festivities kick off on December 15th, and will run until January 2nd. There are plenty of achievements to be had, as well as the title "Merrymaker" for completing them all.

If you can complete every achievement from all of the holidays in a year, you will also be eligible for the achievement, What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been, which rewards you with a Violet Proto-Drake.

You can refer to this guide for information about completing each achievement for this holiday, including links to maps and our usual comments section that should not be passed over if you're looking for tips.

It's been a few weeks since we wrapped up our 12 Days of Winter Veil contest in cooperation with our friends at Ideazon, and though we're still trying to get in touch with some of our winners, there are a lot of WoW Insider readers who deserve congratulations! Winners of FragMat gamepads include: Melenor, Ragamuffin42, Mia, Wilkie, Ellyndia, SJPadbury, Nojj, Ed, Annai, Dachande, ceckjustin, Alu, Hostile, Stephen, Analogstd, pamoonbtc, Brian, TwhiT, Efigyuge, ArsenalFox, Rhiley, and ragecage. Winners of 60 day WoW game cards are Hostile, Stoney, and Vitasoy. Winners of GH-100 gaming headsets are Zoltargg and Jane. Winners of Zboard keyboards are Swarfy, Begonia, 1Adam12, and Chris. And, finally, G is taking home a class t-shirt and Leigh is taking home a Reaper gaming mouse.

Thanks to everyone for participating and a big congrats to all of our winners!

During the winter holiday season, Blizzard challenges us to get our bake on. While thousands hop into the kitchen and design elaborate WoW-themed sweets, only a handful or two will rise above the rest for recognition and lootz.

This year definitely did not disappoint. Blizzard chose the top fifteen designs, and is now displaying the winning submissions, many of which are not only creative, but display baffling skill. I wonder if they were all edible.

It was definitely difficult to pick out a personal favorite, but I think I'm going to have to choose Leyine's refreshment table. Although it likely was not the most complicated design, it struck me as the most fun.

Which dessert would be your pick? What criteria did you use when deciding; creativity, difficulty, overall appearance, or some other?

It's day number eleven of our Winter Veil countdown, which means we have just two more days of giveaways to go! There's still time to participate in Winter Veil events in game as well -- but you'd better hurry, because the holiday season wraps up today! Ideazon and WoW Insider have some great holiday gifts to pass along to you: Zboard Gaming Keyboards, Reaper & Reaper Edge gaming mice, GH-100 gaming headsets, FragMat gaming mousepads with World of Warcraft artwork, with some game time cards and t-shirts thrown into the mix. What do you have to do to win, you ask? Simply leave a comment on today's post (just one, please!) -- and check back every day for your chance to enter and win! (To be eligible to win, you must be age 18+ and a resident of the US, so before you enter, please take a look at the full official rules.)

For today's giveaway, we have three prizes lined up: a first-place winner walking away with a Reaper Edge gaming mouse, and two second place winners who will each receive a FragMat mousepad. And the best part? All you have to do to enter is leave a comment within the next 24 hours (that would be before 9:00 AM on Thursday, January 3rd). And if you don't win today (or even if you do!) check back tomorrow -- the prizes only get better as we count down the Twelve Days of Winter Veil!

Update: Though I said the in-game Winter Veil celebrations were wrapping up today, it looks like it's already over -- the holiday decorations vanished early this morning. Sorry, everyone!

Ironforge's Military Ward is decked out with garlands and wreaths, which can only mean one thing: it's time to celebrate Winter Veil! It's day number ten of our Winter Veil countdown, and we have just three more days of fun to go! There's still time to participate in Winter Veil events in and out of game -- but you'd better hurry, because the holiday season is nearly gone. (Winter Veil officially wraps up tomorrow!) Ideazon and WoW Insider have some great holiday gifts to pass along to you: Zboard Gaming Keyboards, Reaper & Reaper Edge gaming mice, GH-100 gaming headsets, FragMat gaming mousepads with World of Warcraft artwork, with some game time cards and t-shirts thrown into the mix. What do you have to do to win, you ask? Simply leave a comment on today's post (just one, please!) -- and check back every day for your chance to enter and win! (To be eligible to win, you must be age 18+ and a resident of the US, so before you enter, please take a look at the full official rules.)

For today's giveaway, we have three prizes lined up: a first-place winner walking away with a GH-100 gaming headset, and two second place winners who will each receive a FragMat mousepad. And the best part? All you have to do to enter is leave a comment within the next 24 hours (that would be before 9:00 AM on Wednesday, January 2nd). And if you don't win today (or even if you do!) check back tomorrow -- the prizes only get better as we count down the Twelve Days of Winter Veil!