The sight of my living room and hallway filled with friends and the sound of Christmas carols remains with me after the group of Southport carolers visited me several days before Christmas. I am sure others on the island enjoyed a similar treat delivered by about 25 people of all ages gathering to bring such Christmas cheer to those of us perhaps a bit too old or otherwise needing extra Christmas pleasure. Many thanks to the Southport Island Association and all those who organized and participated in the delightful event.

Those of you reading from afar may know by this time that Southport and the general area was treated to the best of a white Christmas. Enough snow to decorate the trees and cover the ground, but not so much that travel was a problem. I suspect may be the plow folks had a slightly different feeling as the white stuff fell, but most of us were delighted.

News from Ashley Tibbetts, the administrative assistant to the selectmen, is that she will be leaving soon to take a new job with the Community Resource Council. Christmas activities probably wiped out the writing of the email she was going to send me with more details, so perhaps next week we can all learn more. We will miss her at the town office, but she will still be doing good work for our community.

On a practical level, be sure your car or cars have the 2025 stickers on the license plates. I needed a note from Donna to be reminded that I needed to register my car.

Our cold weather has enabled skating on the artificial rink on the school grounds. I think the rink is open to all as long as school is not in session.

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and wish everyone a happy New Year. Our holiday time is enlivened with two birthdays, son Andy’s on Dec. 28 and grandson, Peter’s on Jan. 1, adding cakes to the cookies and candies of the holidays. A sugar overload for sure!