Family

Lorraine Council said anyone who met her daughter, Amber Wiseman, soon knew two things about her: She loved Jesus and she loved her husband, Curtis, and her son, Cameron. An avid athlete, Cameron had participated in wrestling, baseball and basketball – and his mom was always at his matches and games to root for him.

If you need to spark a little conversation with your family or friends this holiday weekend, and are brave enough to spur a bit of friendly competition, try your hand at Christmas trivia. Use these questions and make a few of your own if you like. Winner takes the presents.

I was only 7 years old when I realized that there was no Santa Claus. After I rattled off a list of cool presents – a new baseball glove, a bike and a little brother – to St. Nick, I followed my mother around the corner where she was paying a bill at the grand Lit Brothers department store in downtown Philadelphia.

Brightly decorated mittens brought an extra dose of holiday cheer when the judges at The Spokesman-Review gathered (masked, of course) last week. There were so many beautiful mittens to choose from, and here are the winners of this year's mitten coloring contest. In the ages 0-4 category, winners took advantage of a whole rainbow of colors.

"He's over it," a friend said of her son recently. "He doesn't like the cold. He doesn't want to play outside anymore." And so, she said, her remote-schooling 10-year-old will get through this mess as best he can even if that means more time playing video games with friends. After three seasons of this pandemic, we're staring down the next few months of winter.

The stars are aligned. Well, actually, it's the planets. On Monday, Jupiter and Saturn will be as close together – as seen from Earth – as they've been in centuries. "They'll be so close together, it'll be hard to tell them apart," said John Whitmer, astronomy instructor at Spokane Falls Community College.

Dr. Universe: Why does water in ponds not get soaked up by the dirt at the bottom? – Rocky, 11, California. Dear Rocky, That’s a great observation. If we investigated the bottom of a pond, we might find a few different things. Besides a few fishes and frogs swimming around, we might see mud, algae, rocks and soil at the bottom.

The Christmas of 1993 was one I was dreading. Two years before, my father had passed away from brain cancer at the young age of 44, leaving my mom, two brothers and me totally devastated. The first Christmas after he died, we flew to my grandmother’s house in Southern California so we wouldn’t have to face the holidays alone.

Some gifts keep giving long after you unwrap them on Christmas morning. That’s been true of a quilt Gannon Curran received from his mother, Bernadette Powers, some 40 years ago. Powers made the double-bed size quilt from jeans Curran had outgrown, mixed with some denim thrift store finds, and she’d backed it with cozy red flannel.

If your little ones find themselves in need of a break from playing in the snow – or time for their boots and gloves to dry out – here are some holiday season reads to keep them busy. “Santa Rex,” written by Molly Idle – Calling all dinosaur lovers. Discover how festive a T. Rex can really be.

I couldn't wait for a cup of coffee to jumpstart an idyllic summer late morning in Missoula in 2019. My children and I were about to visit the Missoula Art Museum, and we just ordered breakfast. However, I received a message just as the java arrived. While reading the shocking note, my hand knocked over the cup, and its contents spilled all over the table.

More than 50 new stuffed animals were donated for infants in MultiCare Deaconess Hospital's NICU. The gifts were collected by a Spokane Valley mom, Andrea Berndt, and her adult daughter, Stephanie Berndt, to honor Andrea Berndt's second child, Ashley, who died in 1989 at 8 weeks old from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

For some families, decorating the tree is a walk down memory lane. There are ornaments brought home from travels, made by little hands at school and purchased to commemorate occasions or accomplishments (baby's first Christmas or a new house). Maybe there's a shark or three because sharks are a child's favorite animal.

Dr. Universe: How many black holes are in the galaxy and the universe? – Krisha, 9, New Jersey Dear Krisha, While we can’t see black holes with our eyes, astronomers have figured out how to spot these objects in our universe. One astronomer who is really curious about understanding black holes is my friend Sukanta Bose, a researcher at WSU.

Move over, toilet paper. Christmas trees are the new commodity of choice. For all those who haven’t gotten theirs yet, all I can say is: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. Our high living room ceiling demands a tall Christmas tree, so we usually purchase ours from a u-cut farm that sells huge trees for a reasonable, flat rate.

The pandemic gave Steve Peck time to consider a project that seemed simple but turned out to require some ingenuity and innovation. “We have an odd lot that has made our landscaping and gardening a bit more complicated,” he explained. “Over the years, our outdoor storage was too far from where it needed to be. We needed a shed closer to the front.”

How old is the Christmas tree tradition, and where did it come from? Evergreen plants and trees have long been used in celebrations, even before the advent of Christmas. Their ability to remain green has always made them special during the winter, and many ancient peoples decorated their homes with evergreen boughs just like we do now.

Nothing prepares a mother for departure from the hospital after having her first child. All of the Dr. Spock books and material from other parenting experts slips out of your brain once you're smacked in the face by the welcome fresh air. Good luck after you're no longer tethered to labor and delivery.

Two Spokane Valley brothers are hoping a new dice game called Smirkle they created with their father will be a holiday gift hit. The fast-paced game developed amid COVID-19 shutdowns is something families can do together, say Gideon Noble, 16, and Gabe Noble, 13. They're selling Smirkle through the NoBull Game Co., a new family business.