Treva Lind

Americans typically bring out their nutcracker dolls for Christmas, then pack them away. But it's a holiday wonderland all year long in the house of Hayden Lake resident C.J. Davis, who keeps her collection of about 2,800 nutcrackers on display in an upstairs room. There's a lot of history, and dusting, among those artifacts tucked neatly on shelves. 

Spokane's Riverfront Park gets the spotlight in a new children's book with a magical tale bringing to life the Looff Carrousel ponies along with the venue's many sculptures for one night of adventure. "Ponies in the Park" is a collaboration by author Mary Carpenter and illustrator Mary Pat Kanaley. The Spokane women won a 2021 Spokane Arts Grant Award and self-published the book. Part of the $10,000 grant will be used to distribute the book to Spokane County second-grade classes and elementary school libraries to help kids learn about local history and art in the downtown park.

Festive holiday decor fills the Paulsen Center's second-floor foyer as people stroll by its restaurant, offices or nearby skywalk. The downtown nook also plays host to an almost hidden treasure for a midday boost – live Christmas music. Each December, the space gains a piano and a player for about 10 days near the staircase, where visitors will find longtime Spokane musician Michelina Tyrie, 83. She's booked there to play holiday music for three hours during work days, ending this week.

Gary Girod can't pass a red kettle without placing at least a couple dollars inside. When the retired firefighter sees a Salvation Army volunteer with a bell, it also takes him back more than 60 years. That's when the charity showed up in the most unlikely of places, while stranded on a mountain.

Claretha Caldwell thought a pancreatic cancer diagnosis in 2020 was a death sentence, as a disease that quickly killed her uncle and has a low survival rate. Today, Caldwell can call herself a survivor after early detection, cancer treatments and surgery. Caldwell has since had clear scans indicating her pancreatic cancer is gone. This fall, her surgeon came to her 60th birthday party celebration.

This holiday season marks Christmas Tree Elegance's 40th year when it returns Tuesday through Dec. 11, still benefitting the symphony. Volunteers have prepped 500,000 raffle tickets – many in bundles of 25 – for a chance to win one of 15 trees with gifts or a Father Christmas sculpture, said Peggy Springer, a volunteer since 1987 and chair of ticket sales the past 20 years.

Providence and MultiCare hospitals have renewed their call for registered pet therapy volunteers, after animal-assisted programs were halted during the pandemic. Both hospital systems plan to expand therapy dog visits if enough people sign up. The volunteers must meet requirements of Pet Partners, which screens and registers therapy animal handlers and their pets to visit hospitals and other sites.

A new fitness trend called DrumFit challenges the brain and body, as members stay seated before a stability ball kept on a base. Each person beats on the balls using drumsticks fashioned from PVC piping. Fitness specialist Dawn Olson led a group at Touchmark on South Hill by announcing moves and some complex patterns, that ranged from forceful and fast to sideway moves across the ball. "You're using the drumming as patterning so it helps with cognition, memory and you're also using your body movement," Olson said. 

Sunset Hill commuters call her the running girl. Kendra Allen-Grant, 37, runs the route almost daily but her uphill climbs aren't just about exercise. It's more like a marathon. In October, Allen-Grant marked three years' sobriety following a long climb out of drug and alcohol addiction that escalated in 2016. By May 2017, she resigned as a Spokane County public defender. Since 2019, she's climbed back to routine and normalcy in her life.

One More Time is a Post Falls nonprofit that grants wishes to adults who face a limited time to live. Founder Tiffinay Vargas said the group has fulfilled bucket-list dreams for people as young as 25 and as old as 107. Those wishes range from simply a huckleberry milkshake and cruising to a 26-year-old mother with cancer who wanted a trip to Disneyland with her daughter, 5, and family. This group holds its Deck The Halls fundraiser Thursday at Garden Plaza in Post Falls.

At Second Harvest’s warehouse in Spokane last week, Eric Williams walked by areas with empty shelves that are normally filled with shelf-stable products.

Tricia Hughes worked five years to create a Spokane medical facility to provide care for drug-exposed newborns, and when possible, support and training for the mom or adult caregiver. Maddie's Place, a name inspired by Hughes' care of an adopted child, opened here Oct. 3 as one of four pediatric transitional care facilities in the U.S.

By the late 1960s, international folk dancing and music held wide popularity on college campuses. That wave echoes today in a variety of cultural performers returning to the Spokane Fall Folk Festival this weekend.

Spokane County residents seem to be getting flu shots this year at a typical rate, said a regional health immunization coordinator. But it's a different outlook regarding low numbers for COVID-19 booster shots.

Halloween tends to have all eyes on costumes and candy, at least among the children. Families can add in some last-minute holiday activities to reduce sugar overload and tone down excitement. For a list of favorite Halloween books and shows, The Spokesman-Review turned to librarians, bookworms and movie fans.

As explorers and fur traders entered the Pacific Northwest by the 1700s, so did smallpox. Today, experts describe the infectious disease’s blow to regional tribes as devastating, sometimes wiping out entire villages.

Dark nights, old mansions and ghostly history get weaved against a backdrop of Spokane's oldest neighborhood – Browne's Addition – for a series of Halloween weekend walking tours. SpookWalk, a fundraiser to benefit the neighborhood's Coeur d’Alene Park, is akin to telling campfire ghost stories but using the tales of Spokane's settlers and where they once lived, said tour guide MaryLou Sproul. The guides spin together facts, stories and sightings from modern residents, who have shared with them what seems like ghostly or mysterious events.

Research led by a Providence Spokane physician found "concerningly" high rates of chronic kidney disease occur in people with diabetes – and are most evident in racial and ethnic minority groups – findings published this past week in the New England Journal of Medicine. The five-year study with more than 654,000 diabetes patients is a call for action among health providers to seek early intervention and treatments for kidney disease if someone has diabetes, including regular testing and awareness about high-risk populations, said Dr. Katherine Tuttle, regionally Providence's executive director for research.

Using a few tricks closer to Halloween, families can get past those triangle eyes when carving a Jack o'Lantern. Start by searching for patterns online or in kits, and try to find the kits' tiny hand-held saws for more flexibility to create shapes beyond straight lines, among other tips from Eric Frickle, co-owner of the Kitchen Engine, who has hundreds of festive carves under his belt from more than a decade of a festive family tradition growing up.

After 45 years farming in the Newman Lake area, Marv and Jo Carver have decided they're done with harvests at Carver Farms and officially retired in June. However, the farm still will continue to sell Christmas trees, a venture started in 2002 by son Scott Carver and his wife, Tamryn.

Afghan refugees who live in Spokane talk regularly with relatives in their former country, so news hit hard about a Sept. 30 attack at a West Kabul learning center. A bomb there killed up to 53 people from the Hazara community – most of them girls and young women.

Claudia Bjorklund will keep her stride Saturday – walking again as she has done for a decade to support a Spokane Alzheimer's Association fundraiser. She'll also wear a cape that tells a story, in step with the memory of her husband, Randy, who had younger-onset Alzheimer's disease.