UPDATE: Thanks everyone for coming to our Holiday-Birthday Party!

UPDATE: See photos from the Healdsburg Downtown Holiday Party and Healdsburg Patch Birthday Party by

It’s hard to believe that Healdsburg Patch is turning a year old.

The spirit of the Patch was, and still is, to create something from the ground up that with the community’s help would grow into a place on the Internet where people

We wanted to , cutting edge, while incorporating a lot of the technology that is available. We wanted to break the mold of the traditional, one-way communication that so many newspapers are stuck in.

We wanted you, the people of Healdsburg, to tell us what type of news you wanted to see on the site. , where dictating what the important topics are.

We wanted to create a site that was easy enough for the most technically challenged person to participate by commenting on stories, and announcements,

and we’vein the community and this is because of you.

To show our appreciation, we would like to invite you to join us as we host a birthday party for Healdsburg Patch from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 25, at the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce's Downtown Holiday Party at Healdsburg Plaza.

Join us for birthday cake and gifts as we enjoy the Plaza merchants' holiday decorations, the horse-drawn carriage rides, Santa, a brass quintet and other Chamber festivities.

By the way, the Healdsburg Plaza Holiday Tree Lighting, which Healdsburg Patch columnist and videographer Christian Kallen shot last year just as we were launching, is set this year for 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 27. What a year it's been since then!

RSVP for this birthday party by commenting below! What story affected you the most on Healdsburg Patch over the past year?