santa. jenna: good evening and thank you for joining us tonight im jenna rehnstrom. tim is off. if you've ever been on the recieving end of a random act of kindness, however small... you know what a big impact that can make on your outlook. well, here at abc9, we had a secret santa come to us with an idea. he handed over $3,000 and wanted us to help him give it away to strangers. so, we enlisted the help of some christmas elves from the woodbury county sheriff's office, and what happened next is going to warm your heart this holiday season. take a look woman says, "holy buckets!" woman cries... says, "thank you so much!" woman shouts excitedly, "thank you!" armed with envelopes filled with $200 cash, each, we got to fufill an anonymous donor's christmas wish: give this money, and a little goodwill, to 15 unsuspecting siouxlanders. deputies from the woodbury county sheriff's office drove us around and helped spot some folks they could tell needed a little holiday cheer. deputy jim mccrystal says, "we're just looking for people that we want to approach, talk with them, and again, maybe things just arean't going their way at this point and time, financially, and we just want to help them out as much as we can, so it's great that our secret santa is in a position to donate this money." one man invited us into his home where he's caring for four children. he says it's been a tough year paying the bills, and the money, is a bit of a relief. man says, "absolutely, because this has been a slow year as far was work goes; you know, ready, willing, and able to work, but the ground was soft and, you know, so work just wasn't there this year, so this is awesome. jerry cruz, woodbury county transport officer, good to be able to share the holiday spirit with people that [you can] make it a little bit easier for them. it's a good feeling." everyone we met needed this money, especially this time of year... woman says, "i'm so overwhelmed, i can't believe it. it could've have come at a better time for me an my kids." but, even more than that, maybe, they needed hope - someone to care about them - someone who understands that the holidays aren't easy for everybody. womans says, "you kind of lose faith a little bit at christmas time, and this kind of gives it back a little bit." and, you never know how far a little hope can go. we have no idea who our secret santa is - he just said he had a good year at work this year and he wanted to pay it forward. and, we want to say thank you for that. jenna: christmas came early for hundreds of siouxland parents as they got to pick out gifts for their kids today for free. it was distribution day for the operation toys drive at the salvation army people lined up in shifts to come in and pick out toys for their children. they also got to take home food baskets and a new coat, hat and mittens. over 500 families got to take part today. proud to partner to help bring in donations for operation toys each year. jenna: if you've been procrastinating your holiday shopping, you may not be out of luck, even three days out from christmas. waiting until the last minute, could even benefit your bottom line. mark ellwood, author bargain fever "the sales this year are looking better than ever. retailers are desperate to sell us things" many stores are offering anywhere from 20 to 75 per-cent off already reduced prices until tomorrow. plus, because of the unseasonably warm start to the winter there's deep discounts on cold weather clothes and accessories. and if you've waited this long don't feel guilty, only 10 percent of americans have all of their holiday shopping done. jenna: now, if you still need to ship gifts to your loved ones, be prepared to dig deep into your wallet. tomorrow is the deadline for one day shipping, but it will cost you two to three times the price of regular amazon prime could even allow you to order last minute for a small fee, but they make up for it with yearly memberships. jenna: and you may have a bit of extra spending money this holiday thanks to low gas prices. it's been the gift that keeps on giving all year. the national average for gasoline has dropped below 2 us dollars a gallon, triple-a estimates drivers are saving about 550 dollars total this year. experts attribute the current excess of crude oil and a fall in demand for drop in fuel prices. jenna: we're learning a service member killed in afghanistan is orginially from our area. joseph lemm is a native of beemer, nebraska... and still has family in the wisner area. this is video of lemm when he returned from a deployment to his home in new york city. lemm was one of six air national guardsmen killed when an attacker rammed an explosives-laden motorcycle into that happened in a lemm was on his third deployment, second in afghanistan. he leaves behind a wife and three children. jenna: fellow students are helping each other through their loss as they remember spencer high wrestler austin roberts. austin died saturday after collapsing at a wrestling meet. today, our bria bell talked to some of his teammates about how they'd descri their friend. "a lot of little kids and middle school kids looked up to him," said hurst. "he was kind of the center of the whole team," said mclaury. "he would stick out in a crowd that's for sure...big guy. everybody else said that he was really nice, but that's because they meant it. he was probably the nicest guy i've ever known," said bartley. austin roberts was a 220 pound, two-sport athlete for spencer high school in iowa, lettering in both football and wrestling. on saturday he collapsed during a wrestling tournament and died at spencer hospital of natural causes. friends, teammates and coaches say that austin was one of a kind...a person that anyone could depend on and was growing up to be a special young man. "he was always next to me in the room...next to me at the meets," said hill-anderson. "you could call him for just wanting to hang out to my car is broke, come help me," that he had within just the few years that we had him. it was pretty neat to see and we're going to miss that," said pratt. spencer's wrestling team say that they will remember him for the good guy that he was and how he was able to bring positive energy to the team. "he was a good man," said bartley. "he was such a teddy bear on the inside," said hurst. "he was like the spark to the team and he's kind of what would get us all to come together and really work together as a unit," said nissen. jenna: services for austin will begin sunday with a visitation in the spencer high school gym. that's sunday from 3 to 5 pm. his funeral will be held monday at 10:30 in the morning, also at the high school. jenna: have already shown their support for austin robert's family, donating to a "go fund me" page set up in their honor. in just two days, over 44 thousand dollars has been raised by over 850 different people and organizations across the midwest. many of those donations are coming from fellow wrestling groups and programs. if you're interested, we have a link to the page at siouxland matters dot com. jenna: the state of south dakota is getting ready for a big change coming for the new year... and inmates at the south dakota state penetentiary are busy. they've been pumping out tens of thousands of new license plates each day. starting january first the new designed liscence plates will be distributed to south dakotans. the current design is ten years old and being retired for readability concerns. jenna: davenport, iowa has a new tool in the fight against the mess left behind by geese. it's called the goose migrator. davenport's the remote controlled device themselves. scare geese away from places like golf courses and basically, anywhere the city needs to prevent waste. scott hock, rec says, "the geese have already noticed it.. it's shooed them out here at red hawk golf course guys bring it out and as soon as they see it they just kind of take off." parks and rec says the migrator idea origniated in they say it birds. still to come... one company is making space history. see what they've accomplished after the break. (fred) tonight's ask fred question is "how long does el nino last?" the answer, and your 7-day up after the break. milestone in space travel. private company "space-x" launching and successfully landing an unmanned rocket from cape canaveral. abc's david kerley has more. " nats: 2,1, liftoff of falcon 9 it was space x's return to space after its last rocket blew up... nats: but this mission was to prove more... than delivering 11 small satellites to space. this was about returning the main rocket.... the first stage... to earth.. to land it to be reused... nats: the first stage is returning to land cheers finally .. space x workers at california headquarters... and at cape canaveral... could see it.... nats: lz1 the falcon has landed cheers "that was so awesome" space x ceo... and tesla electric car magnate elon musk called reusable rockets... one of the keys of going to mars... he got an up close look shortly after the falcon 9 first stage landed. sot: kerley su / washington dc "but musk is not alone. this is a new... private company space race. call it the battle of the billionaires." a month ago... this blue origin rocket stage landed after a test launch... a victory for that company's founder--- amazon c-e-o jeff bezos... at the time... musk needle bezos... tweeting congratulations... but adding there is a "difference between 'space' and 'orbit.'" the back and forth continued last night... with bezos offering congrats... club." the battle continues... but for the first time... rockets are reusable...making reaching space more affordable. dk abncn washington" jenna: the oldest known pilot in the united states is from right here in iowa, and he spent his birthday today doing what he loves. flying. ernie smith turned 98 today, and took to the skys. smith's first pilot's license proudly hangs on the wall of the red oak, iowa airport and dated september 15th, 1942. smith says people ask him all the time what attracts him most about flying, smith: "a lot of people ask me this, how many landings have you ever made? i say hundreds, thousands, in the 70 years i've been one is the only one that counts," smith rents a plane at the red oak airport and says he plans to continue to fly even when he hits 100. in order to fly, every two years ernie has to pass an aviation medical exam. he says he passed his last exam with flying colors. (fred) (jenna) fred, what can we expect tonight? (fred) mostly cloudy skies and a few showers late. 2 line super: fred hexom [email protected] om (fred) the port neal welding company skycam hd shows mostly cloudy skies from theo chunk centre in downtown sioux city. the high today was 47 and the indicating more moisture in the air than previous days and the promise of a warmer overnight low. local temperatures are in the 30s, and most wind chills are in the 20s and 30s. the northeast is an exception, where it feels much cooler in spencer and estherville. the satellite and radar shows tomorrow's weather system now developing in western nebraska where we see snow. low pressure will be developing over colorado tonight, and by 5 am tomorrow morning, we will see rain mix with and perhaps change over to snow. then, our active weather pattern continues thursday, as another disturbance brings us a chance of light snow. another disturbance will have snow in western nebraska by friday morning, and this piece of energy will provide siouxland a chance of rain and snow friday. your snow forecast is for up to 0.5" to 1.5" of snow tomorrow, but with temperatures above freezing, a lot of this will melt. your forecast for tonight is for a low of 35 with rain late. breezy winds. the high will be 38. the 7-day shows yet another chance of mixed precipitation saturday, before we get a break sunday. monday, we have another chance of snow. this system may be more substantial, with the potential for accumulating snow. cooler temperatures will arrive next week. tonight's ask fred question is "how long does el nino last?" the answer is that el nino is still stong, as seen by the orange shading along the equator in the eastern pacific ocean. this causes keeping us warm and fairly dry. el nino typically lasts about a year, and the current el nino will be strong through the winter and weaken in late spring or early summer. in other words, the rest of the winter will be a lot like december. joan trimpe from ute, ia is our winner tonight. tonight's ask fred prize is 4 tickets to see the muskies vs. sioux falls on january 2. to enter, email a weathequestion to [email protected] om or post on our abc9 news facebook page. (jenna) thanks, fred. (fred) you bet. coming up in state lived up to its nick name tonight. find out if the cyclones could notch a huge road win up ahead. tim plus high school teams wrapped up their pre-holiday season tonight. we'll head to lawton and hinton taylor university in indiana is best known for the silent night tradition, when fans are silent until the team scores its tenth point of the game and then erupt. for the fourth straight year, hinton, as you just saw, has done the same. let's head back up there now for the action on the court...hinton hosting akron- we're scoreless a couple of minutes in but what a start here...jay small gets the steal and the slam, blackhawks take the lead. but wyatt heyl responds immediately...he connects from downtown and a- dub takes the lead. later on, the allard twin connection pays off...austin gets the steal and the outlet ahead to aaron for the layup, westerners within two. but logan jurgensmei, we saw this play earlier...hoop and the hack...the crowd gets into it at that point and hinton runs away from there...thehe cruiui, 75-38. and in the girls game earlier on the sameourt... late in the third...bailey davis with the outlet ahead to brynn van eldik...the westerners take the 34-33 lead. then in the fourth...davis, finds ann hedlund all alone under the basket...a-dub stretches the lead to four. but back come the ackhawks...kaile y burke...the state's leading scorer, gets it to go on the weak side. movement frees up laura brighton for the long two. blackhawks down 2 with 13 seconds to play but van eldik, picks off the inbounds pass and lays it home. akron-westfield wins it 45-41. down to lawton...the eagles hosting seventh ranked heelan in a non conference tilt. and in the fourth, the crusaders up big...wesley myers, with the nice finish inside...heelan up 75-39. but the eagles fight til the final whistle...cody ricke, connects on the three from the corner and then tips away the inbounds pass. then keesten hanks...from waaaay down town...eagles would chip away and get within 25. but the lead just too much to overcome...tommyschiltz with the hoop and the harm...heelan takes it 84-61. chris: the last time out, iowa state suffered its first loss of the season against in-state rival uni. tonight, the cyclones tried to bounce back, but isu on the road at number 22 cincinnati tonight. we pick it up in the second half...deonte burton, finds monte morris with the b-e-a-u-tiful bounce pass...cyclones lead it by 7. but late in the game...troy caupain, connects from the top of the key for three...bearcats up four and they're fire up. under 20 ticks to play...georges niang finds abdel nader in the corner and the cardiac clones retake the lead. cincy would get three looks for the tie or the win in the final 11 seconds, but none of them tickle the isu gets a huge road win, 81-79. iowawalso in action this evening...hawkeye s hosting tennessee tech. in the first...mike gesell out on the break...the no look feed to jarrod uthoff...hawkeyes 12. then the other crew, adam finds anthony clemmons who move underneath...the lead up to a bakers dozen. minutes left in the picks the pocket, and we saw last he can get up...hawkeyes win big, 85-63. in other basketball action...nebraska, suffered an ugly loss to samford on sunday. they bounce back with an 81-50 win tonight over prairie view a and m. and later tonight, if you're still up, uni takes on host hawaii at the diamondhead classic at 12:30. that game will be on espnu. the usd men and women, taking on big time opponents tonight the road. the men the women make a statement...they head to illinois and d lk out of the big ten with an 85-76 win over the illini. freshman jaycee bradley from norfolk, went for 17 points s f the breezy winds. the high will be 38. the 7-day shows yet another chance of mixed precipitation saturday, before we get a break sunday. monday, we have another chance of snow. this system may y more substantial, with the potential for accumulating snow. cooler