While most of you were enjoying the holiday break, spending time with family and friends, perhaps catching up on movies you’d missed, voting members of the Recording Academy were hunkering down with the Grammy nominations list to make thoughtful, carefully considered choices.

At least that’s what Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. fervently hopes. In any event, final-round Grammy voting, which opened on Dec. 12, closes Monday (Jan. 5) at 6 p.m. PT – no exceptions, no extensions, no excuses.

We’ll find out what the voters decided across 95 categories on Sunday Feb. 1 when the 68th annual Grammy Awards are presented at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

Here’s a preview of 12 categories that we’re watching with particular interest. But first, if you’re still in an eggnog-induced holiday fog, we’ll get you back into a Grammy frame of mind by reminding you about last year’s results. Kendrick Lamar was the top winner with five awards, including record and song of the year for the scathing “Not Like Us.” Beyoncé took album of the year (at long last) for Cowboy Carter. Chappell Roan won best new artist, beating Sabrina Carpenter, but Carpenter edged out Roan in two key pop categories. (We’ll call that a split decision.)

Here are 12 key categories on this year’s ballot. We show the three presumed front-runners in each category (in alphabetical order by artist), the rest of the nominees in the category (also in alphabetical order by artist), offer a few thoughts, and cap it with our best guess of who will win. Several of these races appear to be very close, so if you’re a voting member and you haven’t voted yet, be sure to do so. (But finish reading this first!)