Before Christmas, I held a wreath making class at the library with 4 students and we had a good time building our wreaths from local greens and berries. Once again the community members decorated downtown Portal, only this year, we didn't try to decorate the large trees, we simply adorned the Post Office and Library with garland, bows and wreaths. Simple is better. On Christmas Eve day, the community came together at the Post Office to sing Christmas carols. Another Portal tradition and though we were not always together or in tune, we had a good time.
We continue to get rain and snow and El Nino is keeping our temps low. It's good to see snow in the mountains, and it's good that the creek is running, but we are burning up our firewood a lot faster than we expected. We have permits for another half cord, so we might go out and get more wood if we get too low, but I don't think that will happen. We still have a half cord in the yard we haven't split yet.