Christmas is nigh and I’m hoping that snowflakes will be falling this evening, gracing every streetlight with a soft orange halo and transforming the ordinary into the magical.

I continue to believe that the phrase “White Christmas” is among the most poignant in our language.

The close of the year is the traditional time to reflect on the past, of course, and the Herald has rather more to reflect on this year than is typical.

Most notably, we moved.

In late May the Herald went from the First Street building that was the newspaper’s home for more than half a century, to our new office at 1668 Resort St.

The transition wasn’t seamless — no move is, I’d wager — but we continued, without interruption, to deliver news to our readers.

It’s what we do.

And it’s what we’ve been doing for almost a century and a half. Since 1870, to be specific.

This is no small matter, no small commitment that we’ve made to the residents of Baker City and Baker County.

But we think this community deserves nothing less than a newspaper that you can rely on, come what may. A newspaper that not only informs you but one that makes you laugh and perhaps even cry, one that prompts you to exclaim in agreement and to mutter in disagreement, and above all a newspaper that enriches your feelings about this place we share.

That’s what we’ve done, what we do today on Christmas Eve, and what we’ll continue to do.

— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor