Between forgetting the sellotape,

trying to squeeze eight people around a six-seater table

and the cat taking down the tree.

Again!

Christmas can be tricky.

At least with Royal Mail, sending parcels is easy.

You can save time and money when you buy your postage online

and will collect from your door for zero pounds.

Whether you have one, two or twenty to send,

just click, save and will collect.

Visit RoyalMail.com forward slash send.

Simple. Offer end 31st of December full details online.

To some degree, characters in these stories are empowered by overcoming trauma,

but you could also see the trauma as creating or inspiring the empowerment.

That's from Noah Burlatsky of the Chicago reader.

He's talking about Encanto.

Yes, we do need to talk about Bruno.

Also, parallel mothers, a new film from Pedro Amo de Varr,

which finally completes my epic mission to see all the Oscar nominees

in the major categories.

More on that, the second is from Melpy Cruz,

was nominated for Best Actress.

...