Happy almost end of 2014, folks. It's the most wonderful time of the year. It's the end of the (calendar) as we know it. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. (Well, OK, we're a little ways past that one.) Please exercise caution in all of your festivitizing. Drive with both hands on the wheel. Go easy on the garlic-and-onion cheese ball. Remember to put out a fruitcake and some candy canes for Santa.

It's been a pleasure to serve you this year, and we're excited about the coming 12 months. Because we take vacations, too, you may notice a hitch in the flow of our content over the next two weeks. Here's what to expect. For the rest of December and the first few days of January, we'll have new content on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, instead of the four-days-a-week Monday-Tuesday-Thursday-Friday schedule that we hope you've become accustomed to. Our normal stream of content will pick back up on Monday, Jan. 5

For today, we're looking back across all of 2014 to bring you a recap of our most popular content. It's the Best of CertMag 2014. If you're new (or relatively new) to CertMag and Certification Magazine, then we hope you'll enjoy discovering some of what we do. If you're an old hand, then we hope you'll enjoy revisiting CertMag's Greatest Hits of 2014.

1. Seven security certifications to set your sights on — We know there's a lot of excitement about the future of cybersecurity certification, but the response to this article still knocked our socks off. Security expert Mike Chapple crafted this list of the seven most impactful security certs, and we certainly felts its impact. This was our most heavily trafficked feature of the year.

2. Seeking career guidance and certification advice from strangers — It didn't show up here until November, but Oracle guru Matthew Morris' savvy assessment of what to expect when you're expecting strangers to make up your mind for you struck a chord. Didn't your mother tell you not to talk to strangers? Sure, you can ask a stranger for directions to the library. Just think twice before letting free advice determine the next phase of your IT career.

3. Dear CertMag: I'm ready to go pro — How do I get a sports IT job? — All-purpose IT advice guy Wayne Anderson tackles the tough questions and plowed through some doozies this year. This one captured a particularly impressive amount of attention, however, perhaps because, even in the IT world, there are a lot of people who wouldn't mind getting a glimpse of the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

4. You may now connect to the internet: The case for open-resource testing in certification — Speaking of the tough questions, testmakers Isaku Tateishi and Daniel Allen of TestOut Corporation might give Jonathan Swift a run for his money with their own modest proposal. Is it time to let certification candidates keep their reference guides open when being tested?

5. People in Certification — Mr. Carrera's Opus — The centerpiece feature for the relaunch of Certification Magazine in print last February could almost be the script of a Hollywood movie. If you enjoy stories about teachers who inspire their students, then you'll get a kick out of meeting Johnny Carrera of Holmes High School in San Antonio.

6. Digital badges may help bridge certification credibility gaps — There's no concrete and widely agreed-upon mechanism for certification verification, but there could (and should?) be. This handy primer on the basics of digital badging from GoCertify founder Anne Martinez turned a lot of heads. If you're certified and you know it ... shouldn't everyone else?