The mysteries of parenthood and a personalized Santa video

All parents learn to appreciate a good mystery. Think about it: One moment, you are happily twirling along in the universe, doing your own thing and the next moment, you have a baby and are faced with a million unanswerable questions. (How long is the baby supposed to sleep now? What did the baby eat to make that smell? You want me to put the thermometer where?)

As your child gets older (and if you are lucky), you'll start to notice themes to their queries. Right now we are answering a lot of questions about Santa. I can handle the normal ones: How does he fit down our chimney? (Magic.) What if one of his reindeer gets sick? (He has backups.) Why can't I zoom into Santa's house on Google Earth? (He put a block on it so you can't see what toys he is making.) 

But this is Media Monday, and I am supposed to be writing about that. So, let me take a brief moment to thank the gods of technology and the kind people at Portable North Pole (and Kevin O'Hara for sharing it with me) who came up with this personalized video message from Santa so that I could add to the wonder of the season for my son. Yes, you can send your child a free Santa video, choosing one for a nice child, an on-the-fence child, or a naughty child (I wonder how often that option is chosen.)

I don't mind injecting technology in our holiday season. I love showing my son the reindeer cam, and I will be happy to track Santa with him using NORAD's site. I think technology has a place among the traditional movies we can show him and all the other traditions we have. One bit of technology I am avoiding this year are all the new mobile Elf on a Shelf apps. I'm sure they are well made, but we don't do the Elf on a Shelf thing at our house. My husband and I talked it over before we even had our son and agreed it wouldn't work for us.

Besides, we have enough mysteries to solve in our household without having to worry about daily elf movements, such as:

• How exactly did my son go through 18 pairs of underwear in one week? Is he changing them multiple times a day without our knowing or is he just randomly throwing them in the hamper?
• Where did that chocolate smear come from on my son's blue chair? He hasn't been given chocolate in several days and the stain appeared yesterday. Does he (like his mommy) have a chocolate stash somewhere?
• Why does the cat declare war on me only on days I want to record a podcast?
• How many repeated listenings to "Here We Go Looby Loo" does it take before a person is rendered insane?
• At what point did I start seriously considering "really cozy socks" as a good Christmas gift for myself? 

What technology do you rely on to get you through the holiday season?