Spirit Mountain Retreat’s annual Winter Solstice Celebration is at 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 19, at St. Hugh’s Episcopal Church. The local women’s a cappella group Local Color will perform. All ages are welcome and bringing finger food is appreciated for after the celebration. Friends of the Idyllwild Library is sponsoring a holiday open house to…

Tom Nolan, Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist, is a frequent presenter as part of the laboratory’s speakers’ bureau. He is a lively and entertaining speaker who has learned from many presentations to K-12 students, as well as family and public talks, how to make science fascinating and easy to understand. “Bringing the ‘Wow! I didn’t know that!’ of NASA Earth and Space Science to both formal and informal education is my passion,” said Nolan.