This post is very late due to being on holiday for weeks, with limited access to the internet.
In December the NZ Expedition force arrived in Egypt. They've set up camp there, at least partly in response to Turkey joining the enemy. There doesn't seem to be much functional support for Turkish rule in Egypt, which is presumably at least partly because the British have been administering Egypt for a while now.
The Eastern front appears to have bogged down in Poland and Austria. Austria doesn't appear to be making much progress in the Balkans. Russia is possibly making some progress against Turkey through the Caucasus, but the place names are all foreign, so it's difficult to tell for sure.
Locally, the holiday season has started. I've decided to read the local papers for the areas of the South Island I visited (a little in retrospect) as this seems to make sense within the parameters of the project. New Year's Eve celebrations in Nelson focus on a regimental band playing the old year out and the new year in between 11 pm and 12 am.
The other seasonal detail worth mentioning is the number of schools which hand out monetary prizes to scholars at the end of the year. Most of these are being donated by the children to Relief Funds for Belgian children, which is pretty awesome really. Especially considering the disruption many Belgian children must have had to their education due to the war.