When I was a kid, I was, shall we say, sports challenged. You name the sport, I was bad at it. Soccer was about the only one I felt remotely confident playing. It’s a straightforward game — get the ball into the opponent’s goal. And it didn’t require the ability to keep the ball in the air or get it through a hoop.

Perhaps that’s why soccer is considered the world’s sport. People around the globe love to play soccer.

Seven years ago, soccer enthusiasts Tom Michler, Tim Tettambel, and Tom McCarthy started New Dimensions, a non-profit organization to help kids play. Many of the kids who participate are refugees from other countries, but everyone is welcome. The organization is 100 percent volunteer and participation is free or low-cost.

This weekend my daughter and I heated up the oven and made some yummy holiday treats. When it was all over the damage tallied up to one shower, two outfit changes and several rooms covered in icing. Not too bad for less than an hour of baking. While we had a great time together, maybe next time I’ll let Kitchen Conservatory clean up the mess. During their Cookies for the Hearth class, kids will create mouth-watering sweets that even Santa can’t pass up.

While your kids will be ecstatic to be off of school during winter break, the combination of holiday overload and cabin fever can quickly turn a week of fun into a week you’d like to forget. Do yourself a favor and head out to the Missouri History Museum’s Winter Getaway. This event is guaranteed to bring a smile to even the crabbiest of faces.

Every year on Thanksgiving, my gym opens for a few hours in the morning for a last-chance workout before you pork out. I’m hoping to burn off a few extra calories on the elliptical machine so I can indulge in an extra piece of pecan pie without causing too much damage. But I know how fortunate I am to have a pantry full of food. Thousands of St. Louisians go to bed every night with an empty stomach. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving will be no exception.

Growing up is not exactly a pleasant experience for any of us. Except when it is. Mo Willems Knuffle Bunny Free: An Unexpected Diversion, the last installment of his beloved Knuffle Bunny series, captures this double-sided reality perfectly. While comic in a way that is signature Willems, the story is also a touch sad and maybe best read sometime other than bedtime.

Knuffle Bunny Free opens on Trixie’s ever-expanding world. She, her parents and Knuffle Bunny are taking a trip to Holland to visit Trixie’s grandparents. As usual, Knuffle Bunny gets lost – only this time, he winds up much farther away than another neighborhood. He winds up in China.

I don’t know about you, but “quiet time” at our house is often a challenge to bring about. One last chase through the house fills the hallways with our daughter’s delighted screams, and everything with wheels seems to call to our toddler son, “Come play with me!” Bath time oscillates between relaxing and splashy, as the last bits of the day’s energy wiggle their way out of their bodies. The rituals of the evening help move things along, but bedtime stories are what finally get our wee ones to settle.

Enter the best bedtime story for young children I have come across in a long time.