Happy final hour of 2025, my dear conspirators. I’m back in your inbox on this wet ’n’ wild New Year’s Evening with a special year-end housecleaning edition of The Healdsburg Newsletter, where I’ll be letting you in on all the most important and/or interesting stuff that I never got around to telling you about this year. In other words… the deeply satisfying exercise of airing out the gargantuan iPhone note where I keep a mile-long bullet list of everything happening in Healdsburg. Or, my attempt to tie up 2025 with a tidy bow and start fresh for 2026. I hope it’s as cathartic a ritual for you as it is for me! Here’s some of what we’ll sort through tonight:

But first, a pressing update on our plaza Christmas tree. A few days ago I reported that a large chunk of the tree lights had gone out — but it looks like they’ve since blinked back on, thus restoring our tree to a total state of perfection for its last week on Earth. Phew! (See below.) Healdsburg’s new city spokesman, Ray Holley, tells me he doesn’t know why some of the lights were out last weekend — or why all of the lights were out the weekend prior, even before that whole chaotic storm incident on Christmas Eve. So I guess we’ll have to rest in the unknowing, and perhaps even find some delight in our very own small-town holiday mystery. 🌟

Oh, and in case you somehow still don’t have plans for your midnight toast, FYI, there’s one more local New Year’s Eve party that I didn’t mention in my most recent event log: a festive pajama party at the Lo & Behold restaurant and bar near the roundabout. Tickets are $10 at the door. Best of luck out there tonight. 🫡

Quick PSA before we begin: If you’ve been lurking ’round these parts but waffling over whether to throw down the $4-$5 per month for a paid subscription, thus gaining full access to The Healdsburg Newsletter in all its abundance, consider this your official nudge from the universe — er, me — to upgrade now. That way, I can keep this community resource alive for years to come. (Oh and if a friend forwarded you this email, you can set up your own subscription here.) Thanks for all of your support in many forms this year — I’m so heartwarmed and humbled that I now get to run my own independent local “poop sheet,” as one reader called it recently, for a living. With no one to answer to but you, the public! Here’s to another year of figuring out the world together. 🥂

Every time I walk into CraftWork, the co-working space on Center Street just a few blocks north of the plaza, I feel a small spark of excitement. Perhaps it's the thrill of entering a place created specifically for dreaming and doing — and the promise that something truly epic might come together here. For a local entrepreneur with plenty of ideas but not always enough uninterrupted time and space where I can get down to work, CraftWork feels like a sanctuary for creation. And all around me, others are doing the same: turning ideas into something real. Built inside a historic Healdsburg bank vault and reimagined as a shared workspace circa 2020, it’s now a place where getting things done feels natural. (Like much of the writing you receive from me… including the newsletter you’re currently reading!)

For those curious to test out the space, CraftWork offers a free first day. After that, day passes are $35, with monthly memberships starting at $149. Access is available from 6am through midnight, so both the night owls and early birds can flourish. See the CraftWork website for more details.

Also: In recent months, this co-working emporium has also begun to expand beyond coffee, desks and deadlines, and is now hosting lots of fun events that the whole community can enjoy. One big standup comedy night in November drew a crowd of 80! So in 2026, the CraftWork team will be launching a full-blown in-house comedy series in collaboration with comedian Steve Ausburne, who will host the inaugural show of CraftWork’s comedy club on Feb. 27, 2026. Tickets, we’re told, will go on sale soon. And other upcoming events include an encore "Crafted Conversations" chat with photographer Andy Katz on Jan. 21, as well as a Fred Astaire-inspired Valentine’s Day party on Feb. 13. Big things happening at 445 Center St...

In case you missed it, I ran a full recap in last week’s event log of the biblical storm procession we experienced over Christmas. Now, after a short stretch of chilly winter sunshine, it looks like we’re in for another week of storms, just in time to ring in the new year. This one is “fueled by an atmospheric river system approaching from the southern Pacific Ocean,” according to the Press Democrat. Precise storm predictions are all over the place right now — much like they were before the last go-around — but pretty much everyone involved in weather forecasting seems to agree that the rain will be coming down steady through at least Tuesday, and that we could get quite a few inches by the time our skies clear next week. We might see some thunder and lightning, too, for added drama. Meteorologists tell the PD that they expect wind gusts to be weaker than last week — but like I said, forecasting can change by the day, so it’s probably best to batten down the hatches. Healdsburg city officials are also warning us that “nuisance flooding, downed trees and power outages are possible” during the storm, of course. Here’s the full forecast from the National Weather Service: