Do you like to connect to the internet from wherever you are? Browse Facebook while waiting for the kids at Karate? Watch streaming video between meetings? New WiMAX-enabled laptops mean you can connect wherever you are at 4G speeds. To celebrate, Intel asked us to give away a $100 Best Buy gift cards and let you know how you can get another one too.

How does the New Victory Theater manage to have so many amazing shows that are sophisticated, entertaining, and yet, great for young audiences? I don't know, but I love it. Their latest feat is MOMENTUM a feisty interactive dance performance that kids and adults will both love. We're giving away four tickets to this fun show that will certainly make your Holidays a splash.

To show our appreciation for our readers (you) and add a little excitement into your Holiday celebrations, we are doing a week of giveaways this week. Starting today, we will be giving away one big ticket item each day this week. Each giveaway will only last one or two days, so don't blink. We're kicking this event off with tickets to the Big Apple Circus! And we've got other great prizes coming too: more great tickets and prizes, including a Best Buy gift card.

This weekend, the last weekend before Christmas, has something for everyone! Fun shopping events, live holiday music and dance, arts and crafts programs, bird counting and a very cool sounding Winter Solstice Party.  Plus, down at the Seaport Museum you can check out some old fashioned theater in the form of a magic lantern show or visit one of the city’s zoos to watch the animals go crazy ripping open their gifts.  For a nice early holiday celebration head to an elegant yet family friendly high tea service or you could try to catch one of those nostalgic trains the MTA is running before they put them back in the shed till next year.

There is a ton of fun waiting for you in our events calendar or in the Mommy Poppins Holiday Activity Guide.  Read on for our best bets for the weekend and we hope you make it a great one.

Only one week left until Christmas!  Keep the kids busy with free festivals like the Kwanzaa Festival at NJPAC with everything from dance classes to crafts, or the free Maplewood Dickens Village Holiday Event with a petting zoo, face painting, horse and wagon rides and holiday crafts.  Grinch lovers can enjoy a Whoville Feast at Liberty Hall Museum with real Roast Beast.  Santa will also be making an early appearance at local ice skating rinks in West Windsor, Roselle, Secaucus and Jersey City.  Finally, check out some holiday lights, either the old fashioned kind in the form of a candlelight tour of the Historic Allaire Village, or the more modern kind at the Turtleback zoo and the Planetarium.

And for more great holiday fun, see our Holiday Guide.

We asked our readers what their favorite holiday activities and traditions are and we got lots of responses. New York offers so many opportunities for holiday traditions and it's always fun to start new ones. We hope this list of favorite holiday activities and traditions from our readers inspires you to start some new ones with your family. Share your favorite holiday traditions in the comments below.

And for more great holiday activities and traditions, check out our Holiday Guide.

So they say science is falling by the wayside with today's kids. Not in NJ!  Home to geniuses like Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison, New Jersey offers tons of opportunities to expose kids to the sciences.  No need to commit to a series of expensive classes.  Whether it's kids' chemistry experiments, a visit to a planetarium, or exploring for fluorescent minerals, you can pick and choose among these fun science finds.
 

On January 7, 2011 it will be exactly 4 years from the day that I posted my first post on Mommy Poppins. As the site has grown, I have asked myself what can I do, now that Mommy Poppins is read by hundreds of thousands of parents every month, to make a real, immediate difference in the lives of other New Yorkers. The answer that I came up with was to start a new site that would be dedicated to raising money for NYC schools. Education has always been a passion of mine and I have been a dedicated advocate of NYC public schools, which are struggling more than ever with terrible budget cuts.

So I am very excited to announce the launch of my newest website, Poppins Perks, which will offer great deals for NYC families with 40-90% off of products and services we love, plus each Perk will be targeted to fund an important project for one NYC classroom through a partnership with DonorsChoose.

I hope that Poppins Perks will enable you to try out more of the best things in New York City for families at unbelievable prices. Read on to hear more about Poppins Perks and our first Perk, a great Holiday gift for a friend, relative (or yourself!)