Track Santa With NORAD, How It Works & Fun Facts For The Kids.

If you have children, tonight they will undoubtedly be anxiously awaiting the arrival of Jolly Ol' Saint Nick. Chances are, they are not snuggled in their beds with visions of Sugar Plums dancing in their heads. Heck, they don't even know what Sugar plums are.

It's more likely that they are using every excuse in the book to stay up late (I'm thirsty, I have to pee, I wanna see Santa....) and try to catch a glimpse of the bearded gift courier, you can assure them that He's on his way with the NORAD Santa Tracker.


   
December 24, 2010: NORAD has confirmed that Santa and his fully-loaded, reindeer-powered sleigh took off from the North Pole and soared into the arctic sky at 6:00 a.m. EST (5:00 a.m. CST, 4:00 a.m. MST, 3:00 a.m. PST). NORAD radar is tracking Rudolph’s bright red nose, and satellite imagery is providing minute-by-minute coverage of Santa’s location. Regale your kids with wonderful updates and info, like how many gifts have been delivered, how many snacks Santa has consumed so far in real time and his latest stop.


   
above: Santa as he cruised over Cairo, Egypt as I wrote this post   


How NORAD Tracks Santa
In case the kids wanna know exactly how Norad tracks Santa, here's the official answer: NORAD uses four high-tech systems to track Santa – radar, satellites, Santa Cams and fighter jets. Tracking Santa starts with the NORAD radar system called the North Warning System. This powerful radar system consists of 47 installations strung across the northern border of North America. On Christmas Eve, NORAD monitors the radar systems continuously for indications that Santa Claus has left the North Pole. The moment that radar indicates Santa has lifted off, we use our second detection system. Satellites positioned in geo-synchronous orbit at 22,300 miles from the Earth’s surface are equipped with infrared sensors, which enable them to detect heat. Amazingly, Rudolph's bright red nose gives off an infrared signature, which allow our satellites to detect Rudolph and Santa. US and Canada flags

 

The third tracking system is the Santa Cam network. We began using it in 1998, which is the year we put our Santa Tracking program on the internet. Santa Cams are ultra-cool, high-tech, high-speed digital cameras that are pre-positioned at many locations around the world. NORAD only uses these cameras once a year on Christmas Eve. The cameras capture images and videos of Santa and his reindeer as they make their journey around the world.




The fourth system is made up of fighter jets. Canadian NORAD fighter pilots flying the CF-18 intercept and welcome Santa to North America. In the United States, American NORAD fighter pilots in either the F-15 or the F-16 get the thrill of flying alongside Santa and his famous reindeer: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and, of course, Rudolph. And a video to share with the kiddles:

   



You can see him via satellite, or map or terrain... zoom in on some Santa Cams, use Google earth to follow him and more.

 

On YouTube you can track Santa's whereabouts on the NORAD channel in different languages.    

HOT UPDATES from the North Pole (changing each day of December)    

• Santa's Village Kids can even check in and see what's happening in Santa's Village here:

     

• Santa Snacks You can even see how many snacks Santa has consumed so far in real time!

 


Santa takes breaks during his Christmas Eve trip around the world – especially for snacks left by children. Do you put a snack out for Santa? Kids all over the world do. Some even leave carrots for Santa's reindeer. (Carrots are their favorite food.) Check to see how many cookies Santa eats during his journey. No wonder he’s jolly and round! Leaving cookies for Santa is a tradition for many families. Imagine eating that many cookies in one night (burp)!

How many cookies has Santa eaten so far at the time of this post?:
54335 Now see how many here!
 
   

•Naughty Or Nice List Mrs. Claus has informed NORAD that Santa’s “Naughty or Nice” list includes a record 1.9 billion children under the age of 15 this year. This list grows continually, as children are born at the rate of approximately 340,000 per day. Check the world’s current population here   
     

•Weather Forecast Weather forecasters have predicted that the temperature at the North Pole on December 25 will be about -15 F (-26ºC). Brrrrrrr! Check current North Pole weather here


    


•You can send an email to NORAD to find out where Santa is located!
Today, NORTH Pole staff have advised NORAD that it is the final day to send Santa an email because Santa and the elves will begin loading the sleigh later today. You can send an email to noradtrackssanta@gmail.com A NORAD staff member will give you Santa’s last known location in a return email.  
  

 •See Santa on your mobile phone This Christmas eve, join NORAD to track Santa's flight from your phone. On December 24th, open Google Maps for mobile and do a search for "Santa" to see his latest location.

All I Want For Christmas Is... Jews. Another Hilarious Holiday Video for Members Of The Tribe.

Melissa McQueen impersonates Mariah Carey and sings a hilarious version of "All I Want For Christmas"



Lyrics:

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS... JEWS

I just want you for my own
More than you could ever know
Make my wish come true
All I want for Christmas is... Jews

I wont ask for much this Christmas
I don't even wish for snow
Just want a Jew who runs show business
Speilberg, Stiller Ari Gold

I will make a list and send it
Of my choices for St. Nick
Seinfeld, Zach Braff and Jon Stewart
Are the boys with a big schtick.

Cause I just want them here tonight
Holding on to me so tight
I'll take Zac Efron too
All I want for Christmas is Jews.

Menorah lights are shining
So brightly everywhere
And the big box office
Makes Jews millionaires

They may have killed our savior
That's not the best behavior
That's ok he rose again three days later and now I'm an active J-dater

Oh I don't want a lot for Christmas
Gentile boys are such a bore
Goldman, Weissman, Cohen, Levy
These are names that I adore

Oh I just want a chosen one
Hebrew boys are so much fun
Make my wish come true
Baby all I want for Christmas is Jews

Another classic Jewish Christmas video, if you never saw it, is this wonderful SNL short by Robert Smigel sung by Darlene Love:

Nibble Nibble Little Mouse, Who Is Nibbling On My House? $15,000 Gingerbread House.

The Edible Gingerbread Playhouse by Dylan's Candy Bar is one of the more outrageous gifts in this year's Neiman Marcus Christmas Book. The full-sized playhouse stands 6.6 feet tall by 5.25 feet wide and 4.1 feet deep.

It's handcrafted with 381 pounds of gingerbread and 517 pounds of icing and includes giant cookies, lollipops, gummies, mints, gumdrops, and a candy-encrusted roof. There's even a lollipop tree inside.



CEO and self-proclaimed Candy Queen Dylan Lauren (daughter of fashion legend Ralph Lauren) was inspired as a child when she watched the classic movie Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. With Dylan's Candy Bar locations throughout the nation, she's made all our dreams come true.

Edible Gingerbread Playhouse by Dylan's Candy Bar
Price $15,000.00

For all the delectable details, call 1.877.9NM.GIFT.

Crack Up At The Crandall Family Christmas Cards.

above: In 2005, the Crandall family sent out their own version of the childrens' book, Pat The Bunny

Meet a family whose yearly Christmas Cards are way better than yours. Not only are these people better looking than your family, but they are far more clever, too. Before you scoff and think to yourself "Well, you haven't seen our family Christmas cards," I don't have to. Read the post and you'll see that I'm right.

Court Crandall is a talented creative director, screenwriter, author, father and beer league hockey player and someone I worked with too many years ago to put in print.

Each year Court, along with his equal parts stunning and smart wife Denise and their two handsome sons who don soap opera hunk names Chase and Zane, poke fun of themselves in their annual holiday cards. Nothing and no one is sacred as they mock everything from menopause to puberty to the Yankees. What a nice and welcome change from the family Christmas cards that take themselves seriously or worse, pretentiously. The fact that they come from this disgustingly good looking, trim and tanned family makes one like them even more.


above: Court and Denise at their 1992 nuptials

I wouldn't dare attempt to re-word Court's award winning prose, so I will simply reproduce his blog post here for you with the images of their family Christmas cards for the past 17 years so you can enjoy these hilarious annual greetings from the Crandall Family. Perhaps these will inspire you to move away from matching sweaters and frozen smiles in your next family Christmas card.

The text below is taken directly from the blog Holding Court and is written in the first person voice of Court Crandall:

This is probably the longest running campaign I’ve ever been a part of. It started just after my wife, Denise, and I got married in 1992. I had been in California for two years and wanted a way to punk my friends back in Boston. So, for our first Christmas together, we sent out a holiday card that showed us rollerblading our tree home. (Something we actually did by the way, because I was driving a, um, Miata. Trust me, it was super cool back then. Super.)



As we got older, life graciously provided us with a number of props: A new house, two children, a cat, a dog and a fake nanny to name a few. Sometimes these accessories worked. Sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes they needed to use the litter box in the middle of the shoot. Regardless, there have always been plenty of stories that went along with the shooting of the annual Christmas card. Most of which involve one or both boys misbehaving, my wife getting frustrated to the point of tears and all of us riding home in silence. Typically, to some song on the car radio like “We are Family” that accentuated what a disappointment we are as a family unit.

Then there’s the fulfillment process, which Denise runs like a Nike factory in rural Malaysia. Each family member gets a pile of envelopes, a stack of labels and whatever saliva you can muster to seal roughly … nine hundred thousand invitations. You see, due to the card’s increased popularity over the years, numerous people have requested to be added to the mailing list — a list that now includes family members, friends, folks I know but don’t particularly care for, complete strangers and the guy who owns the Indian restaurant down the street.

That said, with time, our sons have come to not only endure but embrace the annual Christmas card tradition. And they’ve learned that, while humiliating, being dressed in togas, having fake pubic hair applied to their face and Hershey’s chocolate coagulating in their ears, are small prices to pay for getting attention from chicks at school a week later.

There are 18 years of cards in all. While I like some more than others, the thing I’m most proud of, is that all four of the people who are featured throughout are healthy, we’re all still together and not a day goes by that we don’t share at least one really good laugh.

2010:


I hope you enjoy the latest submission (shown above). I hope you have a great holiday with the folks you love most. And I hope that with time, the chocolate smell in my wife’s car will dissipate.

Previous Crandall Family Christmas Cards:

2009:

2008:

2007:

2006:

2005:






2004:

2003:

2002:

2001:

2000:

1999:

1998:

1997:

1996:

1995:

1994:

1993:

all images reproduced with permission from the Crandall Family

I look forward to their cards to come and I bet you do now, too.

Merry Christmas!

Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water Reproduced In Gingerbread. Incredible Edible Architecture.

Fellow blogger Melodie blew me away with her version of Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Fallingwater home reproduced in gingerbread. Given that she graduated from BYU in Landscape Management a few years ago and more recently from MATC's Culinary School, it does give her the perfect credentials for such a feat.





Melodie began the blog Garden Melodies because she adores flowers and is hoping to expand into cake baking and catering. From the looks of this masterpiece - created with her friend Brenton for entry in the 2010 Gingerbread Festival in Orem, Utah - many people will be hoping she starts her cake business soon!






all images courtesy of Garden Melodies

Model Statistics:
• It took over 12 hours to design
• It took Brenton and Melodie around 40 hours to build and decorate
• There are around 164 different pieces of gingerbread
• It took roughly 12 square feet of gingerbread dough (that’s four large batches) to make all the walls, floors and roof
• Over 8 bags of powdered sugar were used to make all the frosting
• It took over 40 sleeves of large Smarties which are used to simulate dry stack stone on the building exterior
• The river and water fall are made up of three batches of hard candy

Best gingerbread house cookie recipe (according to Melodie):
2 Cups light corn syrup
1 1/2 Cups packed brown sugar
1 1/4 Cups margarine
1 teaspoon salt
9 Cups flour

Melt together the corn syrup, brown sugar, and margarine. Mix till smooth then add in flour and salt. Bake for 15 to 20 min at 350 degrees.


Unfortunately Melodie lost out to the entry Candyland (below) at this years' Gingerbread House Festival:

above image courtesy of the Grierson Family blog

Want some pretty flowers or a fabulous cake? Or simply to congratulate her on this masterpiece? Melodie can be reached at garden.melodies@gmail.com.