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Rihanna is keeping her loyal navy fed this holiday season. Last month, she shared two new songs on the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack, as well as her annual Savage X Fenty fashion show, which showcased new additions to her collection of intimates.

Now, it appears the musically-elusive pop star and multihyphenate has joined TikTok. Today (December 17), she shared her first video on the platform — an adorable video of her son.

Rihanna and ASAP Rocky welcomed their son back in May, however, neither party had shared a video or image of the boy until today.

In the video, the boy is seen sitting in a car seat, smiling and cooing.

“You tryna get Mommy’s phone,” Rihanna says as she records the video.

In the following clip, the baby yawns as he looks out of a car window.

Rihanna and Rocky have not yet revealed their son’s name, however, Rocky expressed his elation over being a father in a recent interview with Complex.

“It’s beautiful,” said Rocky. “Honestly, I think fatherhood gives me more time to do exactly what I want. I don’t have time for anything that isn’t priorities. It helps you prioritize, honestly. I love it. Everything is just based around my newfound love for being a dad and a family man.”

Check out the precious clip above.

South Carolina mom Darryl Prendergast’s hilarious TikTok PSA has become an anthem for parents everywhere who find themselves in the throes of chaos right before school lets out for the holidays.

In her video, Prendergast rattles off:

“I don’t know who needs to hear this, but your kid has some kind of pajama-wearing, winter fest, book swap, Secret Santa, cookie-sharing, Twelve Days of Christmas, Spirit Week-something happening at school tomorrow that you need to get ready for.”

“And P.S.,” she added in her comments section, “there’s a sign-up genius somewhere out there with your name on it. Go get your item.”

Let’s just say that parents knew this year-end struggle all too well, and were quick to commiserate.

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“Pj day and book swap today two different kids,” one person wrote.

Another added, “Just saw this..and sure enough, tomorrow is a holiday party that I signed up to bring the cookies for. Good thing it’s going to be a snow day!”

@d_prend40 #momlife #momsindecember #momsatchristmas #momsover35 #oldmillenialmoms #momsover40club #momhumor ♬ original sound – Darryl Prendergast

Some parents admitted that perhaps some of this last-minuteness could be blamed on the kiddos.

“And my kid won’t mention it until about 9 pm the night before…” one person commented.

Prendergast shared in an interview with TODAY what prompted her to make a video in the first place. “I had just gotten an email from my child’s middle school about a Holiday Spirit Week that entailed various outfit changes,” she said. “There is an ice cream truck one day — don’t forget to send money — Wednesday is ‘Red and White’ Day, Thursday is ‘White Out Day’ and Friday is ‘Pajama Day.’ Oh, and there’s a teacher’s luncheon.”

She also shared that as an educator, she previously only knew the other side of end-of-year anxiety. “Before I had kids, I was the one emailing parents to send donations to build gingerbread houses, not realizing how busy parents are,” she admitted.

Ultimately, Prendergast hopes that her relatable post encourages other parents to “stop and laugh” even during the craziness, “and appreciate that one day we’re going to miss this.”

So, to all the parents out there scrambling to make magic happen for their little ones … Merry Christmas. And Godspeed.

Preschoolers make the best philosophers, especially when they surprise us by simplifying something in a truly profound way.

Take, for example, little Emi, who managed to sum up the meaning of friendship perfectly at just 3 years old.

Katy-Robin Garton was riding Emi home on her bike during her first week of preschool when they started talking about Emi’s day. Garton is a documentary filmmaker in Missoula, Montana, and she had a GoPro attached to the bike for something else she was filming. She also had Emi mic’d up because she likes to be able to hear her talking while they ride together.

“I’ve always had really lovely conversations with the kids on the ride home on the bike or in the car,” Garton tells Upworthy. She has learned through interviewing people for documentaries that how you ask questions makes all the difference. Rather than asking her kids “How was your day?” or “What did you do today?” she asks them specific questions to trigger their memories about the day, which helps to get them to open up.

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On this ride, Garton asked Emi who she had sat next to at her table at school that day. That got Emi talking about her friend Frankie, and the conversation evolved into a beautiful testimony of friendship that people of all ages can appreciate.

Garton asked Emi what she loves about Frankie, and Emi said she was funny, which led to a revelation about how friends can bring out our funny sides.

“When she laughs, that makes me that I’m funny,” said Emi. “When she puts some of her funniness into myness, she makes me even funnier, and she still has that funniness.” Maybe a 3-year-old way of saying it, but it makes perfect sense.

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Then she hit at the heart of what friendship is as she described how Frankie makes her feel better when she’s not OK.

“When I get super scared and new teachers are with me, I just run over to Frankie. And I’m still crying, and then she laughs, and then I laugh, and then we just get better and better and better and better.

“She’s my best friend in the whole entire world. I wish she could be with us because she is the special-est.”

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So. Darn. Sweet. And honestly, so profound in such a simple way. Friends are the people we can run to when we’re upset and who help us feel better just by being themselves.

Garton is raising three young children—two 3-year-olds and a 6-year-old—and she’s conscientious about talking through feelings with her kids. However, Emi’s deep thoughts on this bike ride still took her by surprise.

“I hadn’t talked to her about how friends make us feel,” says Garton. “I mean maybe I did over time, because we’re always having mindful conscious conversations—we try to—with our kids about ‘How does someone make you feel? Do you like being around them?’ Those kinds of thoughts. But she’s kind of put it together on her own.”

Garton says the response to her and Emi’s conversation made it clear that Emi’s musings on her friendship with Frankie are what we all need to hear.

“We forget to check in, like, ‘What do I need in a friendship? How should a friendship make me feel?’ as adults, and here was my 3-year-old talking about it in such a simple way,” says Garton. “And the response that I saw from people was so heartwarming, just thousands of people tagging their besties, saying ‘You’re my Frankie!’ It was just beautiful. Like it wasn’t just for parents, it was for everyone.”

If you have a Frankie in your life, be sure to let them know they’re the special-est. For more of Emi’s adorable wisdom, follow @katyrobinbird on Instagram.

For families that celebrate Christmas, December can be a whirlwind of preparation, excitement, busyness and, frankly, stress. It’s all in the name of good things—festivity, family gatherings, generosity—but phew, it can be a lot.

Perhaps that’s one reason why the Icelandic tradition of Jólabókaflóð (approximately pronounced Yo-lah-boke-ah-flode) has grabbed people’s attention. What if, instead of hustling and bustling, families spent the night before Christmas quietly reading?

Literally translating as “Christmas book flood,” Jólabókaflóð is the tradition of not just gifting books, but actually reading them together on Christmas Eve. Imagine the whole family cozied up in front of the fire, hot cocoa in one hand and a book in the other, quietly enjoying some calm reading time together. Quite a contrast to the sensory overload that can often mark the holiday, and a decidedly introvert-friendly tradition.

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“The culture of giving books as presents is very deeply rooted in how families perceive Christmas as a holiday,” Kristjan B. Jonasson, president of the Iceland Publishers Association, told NPR in 2012. “Normally, we give the presents on the night of the 24th and people spend the night reading.”

How did this Christmas book giving and reading tradition get started? According to jolabokaflod.org, it began during World War II after Iceland gained its independence from Denmark in 1944. Since paper was one of the few things not rationed during the war, Icelanders gifted one another books.

Every year since, a book catalog—the “Book Bulletin”—has been published by the Icelandic book trade and sent to every household in mid-November. People order books from the catalog to give as gifts for Christmas.

The hot cocoa is part of the tradition, as well as a Christmas ale called jolabland, which is a uniquely Icelandic orangey-malty fizzy drink.

The Jólabókaflóð tradition has a decidedly hygge feel to it, which makes sense considering Iceland’s long, cold winters and cultural connection with Denmark. (Hygge = the Danish word that essentially means a warm and cozy atmosphere and sense of well-being.) Even if we don’t have Scandinavian roots ourselves, we can all appreciate creating a space of comfort and warmth in the darkest, coldest time of the year (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway).

And books are excellent gifts. They don’t take up a lot of space, they can be enjoyed again and again and they can be regifted easily. A good book can teach us things, change our mindset and make us more empathetic. And all things considered, they’re inexpensive—especially if you buy them secondhand.

But the reading books together part is where Jólabókaflóð really shines. So many holiday traditions are centered around the extroverts among us—the idea that introverts get to have their preferences not just tolerated, but honored, and on a major holiday no less, is just beautiful.

So get the family on board, gift a book, grab a cocoa and a good read, and spend Christmas Eve in cozy silence, reading with your loved ones. Sounds like the perfect way to spend a holiday.

The Minnesota Vikings entered Saturday’s game with the Indianapolis Colts needing one win to clinch the NFC North division and move to 11-3 on the season. After one of the worst halves of football you will ever see, the dream of a division title seemed like it would have to wait a week as they trailed 33-0 thanks to a pick-six, fumble, blocked punt for a TD, failed 4th and inches run, and a failed fake punt that gifted the Colts some tremendous field position all half.

Teams leading by 30+ were 1,548-1-1 all-time in the NFL, with the Bills 32-point comeback over the Oilers in the 1992 Playoffs as the only such comeback in league history. The Vikings accepted that challenge (with some help from the Colts) to storm their way back into the game. A 14-3 third quarter pulled them to within 22 points, and then Justin Jefferson ran a gorgeous route to get free early in the fourth to make it a 15-point game.

The Colts would stop the bleeding briefly with an interception on a woefully overthrown ball by Kirk Cousins, but again couldn’t do anything with it offensively.

The Vikings marched down the field once more, with Cousins finding Adam Thielen for a touchdown to make it 36-28 with just over five minutes to play.

Another three-and-out by the Colts gave the ball back to the Vikings, but Cousins got taken down near midfield on 4th and 15, seemingly putting an end to the comeback bid.

On their ensuing drive, the Colts looked to put the game to rest with a QB sneak on 4th and 1 from the Vikings 36, passing on a 53-yard field goal to go up 11. Naturally, that backfired as Matt Ryan got stopped on the initial push and the whistle blew before a second push maybe got him to the sticks, and the Vikings took over on downs. On the very first play of the next drive, Dalvin Cook caught a screen pass that completely fooled the Colts defense, as he followed a convoy to open space and then darted to the end zone for a 64-yard TD.

TJ Hockenson got free in the middle of the end zone on the all-important two-point conversion, and the game was tied with just over two minutes to go.

Neither team could find the game-winner in regulation and we went to overtime, where the Vikings moved it across midfield but chose to punt from the Colts’ 40 on 4th down rather than kicking a 56-yarder on the opening possession — because that would not have ended the game and a miss would’ve put the Colts very close to field goal range to win it themselves.

Indianapolis couldn’t move the ball very far on their next drive but did chew up some clock, leaving Minnesota with a minute to get into field goal range themselves after a punt. They got a big chunk on a dart from Cousins to the Indy 40 with 30 seconds to go.

With 19 seconds to play, they threw a screen to Jefferson who weaved for a first down, but with no timeouts they needed to spike the ball and set up the game-winning kick attempt. The Colts tried their best to waste time but were too egregious in their attempts to hold the Vikings players down and keep them from getting set up and got a delay of game penalty called on them, which stopped the clock and let Minnesota calmly trot Greg Joseph out for the game-winner to complete the largest comeback in NFL history with a 39-36 win.

It was an unbelievable turnaround, even considering the Colts are not a good team. Minnesota had nearly 350 yards of offense in the second half and overtime after 83 in the first half, while the Colts had 128 total yards of offense after halftime. As it turns out, not shooting yourself in the foot constantly helps tremendously, and the Vikings got themselves away from the fraud allegations for at least one more week and locked up a playoff berth by winning the division.

In the pre-streaming age, those wanting to watch movies and TV show (or even rent video games) had to leave their homes. One place they would go to was Blockbuster. There weren’t many other options. After all, Blockbuster killed practically all the mom-and-pop video stores. But the chain got its just desserts: It itself was eventually killed by Netflix. Not content to kill Blockbuster the store, they’ve now also killed Blockbuster the TV show.

As per Variety, just over a month after dropping its first season, the streamer has axed the workplace comedy, which starred Randall Park, Melissa Fumero and more as employees of the world’s last Blockbuster brick-and-mortar, located in Grandville, Michigan. (In reality, the final Blockbuster was located in Bend, Oregon, which closed in 2019.) It lasted all of 10 episodes.

When it premiered in early November, Blockbuster received terrible reviews and never cracked the streamer’s Top 10. (At least it achieved this feat in two countries: Canada and Australia.) News of the cancellation comes at a bleak time for TV shows, not so much at Netflix as at HBO Max, where massive re-tooling has led to bad news even for well-liked shows like Minx, which was axed as shooting for Season 2 was near completion, forcing the showrunners to look for a new home.

Anyway, pour one out for Blockbuster, a chain that did so much damage to its competition that Netflix had to snuff it out not once but twice.

(Via Variety)

Remember when Kari Lake lost her gubernatorial bid? It was quite some time ago. As of this writing, it’s been nearly a month and a half since Arizona voters chose Democrat Katie Hobbs over one of Trump’s many failed hand-picked candidates. Some say Lake lost because she was more obsessed with parroting the former president’s voter fraud lies than with issues that mattered to voters. Lake claims it’s because there was voter fraud. She, of course, has offered no proof of such. What she has done, though, is go ever increasingly off the deep end.

Speaking at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, the anti-Trump news anchor-turned-losing MAGA candidate took her kooky claims of malfeasance next-level. “We just had such a huge movement going into election day, so to watch these people – these evil bastards,” Lake said to inevitable applause. “Can I say that here, is that alright?”

It was alright, so she tried another, slightly more PG-13 cuss word. “To watch them steal this in broad daylight, and if they think they are going to get away with it, they messed with the wrong bitch, ok?” she crowed.

What could she mean by that? If she’s still going by the Trump playbook, then she’s helping foment some kind of insurrection. Perhaps she can just skip ahead to where he is now, which is having a long streak of bad luck involving dining with bigots, having her business found guilty on several counts of fraud, and being mocked for NFTs even QAnon types think stink on hot ice.

(Via Mediaite)

The Vikings hosted the Colts on Saturday afternoon with a chance to win the NFC North with a win. Facing an Indianapolis team that had lost three straight, most recently getting demolished by the Cowboys in a 54-19 loss, it seemed like a great opportunity for the 10-3 Vikings to make a statement and try to fight back against the fraud allegations chasing them as a 10-win team with a -2 point differential on the season.

Unfortunately for Minnesota, they would do the opposite, playing one of the worst halves of football any team has played all season in the NFL to fall behind 33-0 to a Colts team averaging 16.1 points per game entering Saturday.

The game started with the Colts marching down the field, but having to settle for a short field goal in the red zone to take a 3-0 lead. That defensive stand to only give up three points would prove to be the high point of the half, as Minnesota’s first offensive possession was a three-and-out that ended with a blocked punt that got returned for a touchdown.

Minnesota would manage to create their first (and only) big play of the first half on the next possession, with a 44-yard scamper by Dalvin Cook that would immediately be negated by a fumble by Cook on the very next play — their only play run in Indianapolis territory.

The Colts would cash that turnover in for a touchdown on another absolute march down the field, with Matt Ryan finding Deon Jackson to make it 17-0 in the first quarter.

Minnesota’s next drive would again see them failing to pick up a first down, facing 4th and inches where they were stuffed on an inside run play to Cook.

The Colts would kick a field goal off of that to make it 20-0, making the next drive an absolute must score situation for the Vikings. Instead, they again found themselves in a 4th down situation at their 30 and this time tried a fake punt pass that failed in rather hilarious fashion as the punter’s pass sailed high and incomplete.

Another Colts field goal followed, and the two teams would trade successful punts from there, as Minnesota finally got its first stop of the game. However, that would be the best sequence of the half for the Vikings, who had a hold on the punt return that backed them up to the five, and on third down, Kirk Cousins rifled a pass right to a Colts defender for a pick-six to make it 30-0.

Adding injury to insult, all-world receiver Justin Jefferson left the game after an incompletion the play before that interception after landing hard on a hit over the middle. On their next drive, Minnesota would have a big pass play overturned on replay and once again went three-and-out, punting it back to the Colts, who matriculated the ball down the field to, again, set up another short field goal.

It was, truly, as bad a half of football as anything we’ve seen all season — with, ironically, the Colts’ 4th quarter collapse against Dallas in their last game as one of the top contenders for that title. Minnesota finished the half with 83 total yards (half of which came on that one Cook run prior to the fumble), went 0-of-6 on third downs, allowed three sacks, punted three times (one blocked for a TD), had two turnovers on downs, threw a pick-six, and only forced one punt by the Colts all half.

Vanna White has officially made letter-turning into an art form for four decades.

The model and performer famously bombed as a contestant on “The Price Is Right,” in the early ’80s, but it wouldn’t be long before her talents found a perfect home on another gameshow. And now, literally thousands of dresses later, White’s name is synonymous with “Wheel of Fortune.”

To celebrate the milestone, White posted a throwback picture to her Instagram, showing her next to host Pat Sajak during their early days on “Wheel of Fortune.”

She also included a recent picture of herself at 65 (as classically glamorous as always) alongside her longtime collaborator, doing her iconic gesture toward an elaborate “Wheel of Fortune” themed cake, complete with multiple Vanna White dolls.

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“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but 40 years ago today I taped my first episode of @wheeloffortune. It’s been a wonderful 40 years, too!” she wrote in her caption.

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“I’m so grateful to those of you who watch and everyone behind the scenes who make us look good. We wouldn’t still be here without all of you! (And the cake was delicious!).”

The show also posted a behind-the-scenes video of White’s 40th anniversary celebration.

In the clip, Sajak sweetly says, “Folks, it was 40 years ago on this very date that this young lady walked into the studio, trembling, and did her first ‘Wheel of Fortune.’ And here she is. Happy 40th, my dear.”

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Sajak and White have an undeniable chemistry. In an exclusive interview with People, White noted that it was their instant “brother-sister type relationship” that caught the eye of media mogul Merv Griffin. “He saw that we would be able to get along, and we do. We are like a brother and sister team.” Griffin was obviously spot-on in his assessment, because very few dynamic duos have as enduring a legacy.

The pair have become so close that as Sajak approaches retirement, White admits she laments thinking about replacing him. “I don’t even want to think about that. I mean, we’re a team,” she told People. Everybody relates ‘Wheel of Fortune’ to Pat and Vanna. We’re like Ken and Barbie, you know?” she explains. “We’ve been in everybody’s homes for 40 years, so it would be weird having somebody else turn my letters.”

Of course, Sajak will be missed, but White already held her own as the show’s temporary host back in 2019, pretty much saving the day after Sajak had an emergency surgery.

Tonight’s my first night of hosting Wheel! I’m excited and nervous! Stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/4Jsz3UePFp

— Vanna White (@TheVannaWhite) December 9, 2019

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that she nailed it after only half an hour of rehearsal, considering no one besides Sajak would know the show better than her. Yes, her talent goes far beyond letter turning. Though still, nobody does it quite like her.

Congrats, Vanna. You’ve graced our television screens for decades, bringing joy with a simple turn of the wrist. How many people can say that?

Raul Zarraga is clear about what he wants for basketball fans in Mexico, down to the divvying up of time: three hours a week, at least, of their attention dedicated to the NBA.

At first glance, it may sound severe or formally prescriptive, but Zarraga, NBA Mexico’s Vice President and Managing Director, is determined to get those hours to fans in whatever ways speak most strongly to them.

“If it is short form content, if it is the full game, if it is back of the house, if it is something different related with fashion,” Zarraga stresses over the phone. “We need to be adapting our offer to whatever the fans are looking for and the time that they have during the day to dedicate to the NBA, given all the other things they have in front of them.”

He’s also, at that very moment, surrounded by them — it’s halftime at the Mexico City Capitanes and Austin Spurs game, the prelude to the weekend’s main event between the Miami and San Antonio — and Zarraga has stolen a few minutes away from the high energy of the floor to discuss the growth of the game in Mexico.

“I mean, the energy, it’s amazing. I would say it’s an amazing vibe and energy and a glow with everything we’re seeing here. And I’m talking about the fans,” Zarraga answers instantly, when asked to answer a fairly ethereal question about what the energy is like at the Capitanes game, and around the city going into the weekend.

He mentions a fan he hadn’t seen since the last Mexico City game, in 2019, who staked out the media hotel lobby to get a sighting of Spurs alumni, the Iceman George Gervin. Zarraga did him one better, taking the fan’s trading card and getting him an autograph.

“And now I have to give it back,” Zarraga chuckles. “Those are the kinds of things that make me really happy. And that’s what I love about the NBA, because you find this kind of energy and the positivity of the people, any place you go.”

Zarraga says many of the fans have turned the weekend into a “double header” event, starting with the Capitanes game and carrying the excitement and energy over to the Heat-Spurs matchup — the 31st game in Mexico on the NBA’s 30th anniversary of the league’s first game in the country, in 1992.

While the NBA’s numbers when it comes to growth in Mexico have certainly added up over the years, the 30 million people in the country who count themselves as fans of the game (Source – YouGov, 2022) have largely been the result of grassroots efforts led by passionate people like Zarraga and his team. There are three pillars to the game’s growth: play, engagement, and education. Zarraga believes the number one reason why people become fans of the NBA in the first place is because they started to play basketball. In a country where soccer has long been the dominant sport, it makes sense. Anyone can take a soccer ball out and dribble it around, though the same is still possible with basketball, the game’s full mechanics are different, and even a quick game of pickup requires some semblance of a court or a hoop.

On NBA Mexico’s education efforts, Zarraga mentions the Coaching Academy, a Jr NBA initiative that allows free access to thorough and detailed lesson and game plans for educators, coaches, or people looking to become either.

“You can be a physical educator, or maybe you don’t know anything, and you want to start from scratch,” Zarraga says of the program which has seen 35,000 people subscribe to it and has a goal of reaching one hundred thousand physical educators.

The best of the program are given an opportunity to be brought into the NBA’s Latin America Academy, based in La Loma, and offered an in-person clinic alongside elite level coaches and talent. The Academy itself sits as the high-end culmination of these grassroots coaching efforts, with a developing Basketball Schools project aiming to get the game into more Mexican cities as a rung toward it on the education ladder. Zarraga knows he and the NBA can’t individually reach the country’s 40-million girls and boys, but the coaches they train can, so they want them to be the best.

It isn’t just basketball coaches and players that Zarraga would like to see developed in Mexico, he mentions referees and anyone who wants to work alongside the game.

“We need to discover the talent, but also we need to keep promoting and motivating them in any of its forms,” he stresses. “When you start a career like this and you decide that your life will depend on how good you are, and [consider] the opportunities that you could get outside, it’s not easy here in Mexico to really find an opportunity. So for that, you need to be the best. And that’s exactly what we are trying to build in different ways.”

The growth of basketball in Mexico isn’t only through the NBA. Zarraga mentions the importance of local leagues as well as having talented people around it, like Kaleb Canales, who left the NBA in 2021 after 13 years as a successful assistant coach to join the Mexican National team as associate head coach.

In terms of engagement — it also comes through entertainment. The arrival of the G League in Mexico City with the Capitanes has given local fans, already ranked top five outside the U.S. for League Pass subscriptions, an immediate and exciting team to root for.

Beyond the metrics that Zarraga and his team use to track growth of their collective education programs, and the TV and other ratings that track the uptick in viewership and engagement, the most undeniable proof of concept comes in the reception of the return of the NBA’s Mexico City game — Arena CDMX sold out in four days.

Excitement on the team side is high too. This will be the Spurs 8th game in Mexico, and earlier in the week the team’s trainers led a coaching clinic for 150 local physical educators and teachers. The Iceman himself helped lead a Jr. NBA youth clinic for 70 kids from schools across the city. But beyond all the numbers, as Zarraga sees it, the game strikes away, at least for a night, fans barriers to basketball, “putting in their hands, their ears, and then in their eyes, the real experience that they’re looking for with the NBA.”