Dont bet your luck on getting a reply in december bah. Most HR departments are usually run by NSFs with a few DXOs at the top. Because they work the NSFs so hard during the year, alot of them still have quite alot of leave towards the end of the year. And if they dont clear the leave, the DXOs on top will get fked by somebody higher. So december is the time when everyone is clearing leave, so probably things will get much slower.