By Peggy Sue McRae

Journal contributor

As a general rule, I try not to drive at night. That can be a challenge when it gets dark at 4 p.m.in the afternoon. On overcast days at this latitude and climate, it can seem like darkness has fallen relentlessly upon us. A saving grace is that Friday Harbor does a pretty good job of adding holiday sparkle and twinkle to our long, dark nights. There is good reason to celebrate this time of year. Thanks to the reliability of the natural world on Sunday, Dec.21 at 7:03 a.m., our days will start to get longer. Light will return.

Thousands of years before the first Christmas, people celebrated the winter solstice. No one knows exactly why it was created, but the massive stone circle we call Stonehenge acts as a calendar laid out with precision to mark

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