Santa and technology are not two things that immediately seem to go together. Santa has been the ultimate luddite; 1500 years old and he never even upgraded to a motorized vehicle, for pete's sake. But this year Santa is getting his geek on with some fun hi-tech tools and social media solutions that bring the jolly old elf to life for kids.

Check out how technology has upgraded Santa Claus this year:

It's still not too late to get Holiday photo cards printed and the city is the perfect backdrop for your holiday photos—bright lights, shiny blues, silver, red and greens galore. For studio-style photos with even better scenery, grab your camera and take the family out to these holiday hotspots for fun-filled days of photo ops.

Department Store Windows
This year, Bloomingdale’s windows display is designer Vicki Khumazi’s interpretation of classic Christmas tunes like, “Silver Bells,” “Winter Wonderland,” and “O Christmas Tree.” Lord & Taylor’s windows show us their favorite things like “My Favorite Foods,” a window scene decked out with gingerbread. Macy’s windows all relate to St. Nick, in honor of their “Believe” campaign. Try to snap a shot of your tyke writing his letter to Santa and mailing it at their “Believe” stations. Or head to Barney's to pose in front of their Hippie Holiday windows. See our photo and walking tour of department store Holiday windows here.

When I was a kid, I would get overwhelmingly tired at night and be completely unable to finish my homework.  So, my Dad who is a teacher would wind up finishing it for me.  This led to me handing in papers in the 6th grade with references to Karl Marx and Woody Allen and a paralyzing inability to write anything by myself which lasted until freshman year in college when I realized it had gone too far.  These days I'm more or less cured of the writing issues though the narcolepsy is very much still with me.  It particularly comes into play with this column which for some reason I can't seem to write at a normal time.  And, tonight I'm feeling so tired that I actually just asked my Dad (who has been visiting for a really long time) to finish it for me which he seemed really happy to do.  Which in turn made me realize it was a bad idea.  Note to self - remember to be helpful without quoting Marx.

Now, onto the week in news - keep reading to find out why Scorpios get more asthma, what Blagojevich calls his hairbrush, why holding your kid back from kindergarten (aka redshirting) may not be a good idea and more.

I've been quoted in a couple of cool articles recently that I think you might find interesting. Two of them are about saving money during the Holidays or when traveling, and the third is about Holiday charities. Check out what other people are writing about on some topics near and dear to me:

Some of my favorite holiday events are this weekend: All those wacky events in our Off-Beat and Multicultural Holiday Events post are all this weekend. So if you missed that check it out here. And if you haven't taken a look at our round-up of the best Nutcracker performances for kids, find that post here.

Below we've picked out just the cream of the crop of other cool events for this weekend, where we think you'll find something new and interesting for the whole family.

This site is dedicated to helping parents find all the amazing, cool, once-in-a-lifetime events that you don't have to spend a fortune to take advantage of, but there are some events that are worth the splurge. A Night at the Museum Sleepover is one of them and would make a terrific Holiday Gift.

The American Museum of Natural History invites families to spend a night exploring the museum after everyone else has gone home and camp out in one of the exhibit halls. My daughter was lucky enough to be invited to do this with a friend who received the sleepover as a gift. What an amazing present! And they had such a great time.

I recently wrote about how to find charity activities you can do with your kids. I like the fact that there are some organizations that make volunteering fun and feel not that different than any activity you might do with your children, but for a good cause. I just found out about one such event this weekend: A charity knit-off for teens and tweens.

While everyone out there tries to remind us to keep on consuming to save the economy, I just don't buy it.  In contrast, Obama's announcement of of his public works program on Saturday feels exciting.  He is talking about about things like improving schools, providing universal broadband access and creating programs to increase energy efficiency.   I can't help it, the guy makes me feel hopeful! 

Keep reading for more of this week's news including a simple test you can take to find out how your marriage will turn out, the toxic toy report and what in particular to avoid, my favorite family that clearly doesn't believe in birth control and more.