1. Some of West Michigan's tiniest residents received a special visitor ahead of the holidays. Santa made a special stop at the NICU at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital to bring some holiday joy to premature babies and their families.
There are about 80 families who are going to be spending the holidays at the NICU, which of course, has extra visitor restrictions due to COVID.
The event was made possible with help from the hospital's Child Life Team and the March of Dimes.
2. There's still time to celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas with Downtown Holland.
From now until December 24, over 20 restaurants and businesses are offering multiple giveaways.
Customers can enter to win any of the daily prizes from participating establishments. Prizes include $25 gift cards or a gift valued at $25.
To enter, visit one of the participating stores and ask to enter the drawing.
Learn more about the giveaway at holland.org.
3. Remember the Rockefeller tree owl? He's now a featured character in a new kid's holiday-time story.
Rockefeller the Saw-whet owl, whose 75-foot-tall spruce tree home in Saugerties, New York, got cut down in November to become the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. He was still inside the tree but was rescued. The story has been retold in this new fictional tale, "Rockefeller, The Christmas Owl."
New author T. Troy Kolo spruced up Rockefeller's surprise trip to the overwhelming city, and had it make new friends, including Santa Clause, and experience the wonder of new journeys before making its way back home.
The 40-page story is available onAmazon Primein time for Christmas.
4. Pepsi is sneak-peeking a look at a hot cocoa-and-marshmallow flavor added in with the fizzy enjoyment of cola.
The concoction is being dubbed "cocoa-cola," not to be confused with the soda brand's competition.
Pepsi will release the new flavor after a tweet challenged followers to re-tweet its message, "What's sweeter than saying 'bye' to the worst year ever? Pepsi Cocoa Cola." The company aimed for 2021 retweets but got more than double since Friday.
5. Two friends take a dip into a frozen lake for a game of chess.
Ron Batuigas and Nick McNaught of Ontario, Canada wanted to ice-swim for five minutes, so they decided to play chess as a way to keep them preoccupied in the freezing cold water.
With their board laying on top of the lake, the players were able to social distance while having some frozen fun.
