Kids and parents tracking Santa's flight around the globe on Christmas Eve could be in for a big treat in Madison.

We have it under good authority that the big guy himself could be making a specially recorded stop in Madison, as his journey is tracked second by second by the U.S. military's air defense command center in Colorado.

The annual NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) Tracks Santa event is done courtesy of Google Earth and Google Maps websites, and can be found here.

A major part of the fun in tracking Mr. Claus is seeing the cities selected by NORAD, following Santa's touchdowns in those select locales.

"He may very well be stopping by in Madison," said a Google spokeswoman when contacted by madison.com. "That is, of course, if the little boys and girls have been good in Madison this year."

The Santa tracking begins at 1 a.m. (central time) on Christmas Eve  and continues to 4 a.m. on Christmas Day.

Google couldn't say exactly when Santa Claus will be heading to Madison, since that's between Santa and the reindeer. Rudolph can be fickle, so any arrival and departure estimate is, well, up in the air.

NORAD Tracks Santa started in 1955 by accident. An ad for Sears in a Colorado Springs, Colo. newspaper gave an incorrect phone number for kids to call Santa Claus, with the calls going into the air defense command center, located inside Cheyenne Mountain at Peterson Air Force Base just south of the city.

A colonel on duty that night told his staff to give the callers the current location for Santa Claus, and a tradition was born.

While NORAD Tracks Santa is predominantly done via computer today, the facility still gets thousands of emails and phone calls asking where Santa is at that moment.

Weather forecasters at local TV stations also get in on the action, showing where Santa is in the Christmas Eve night sky.

Santa tracking fans can also do so by smart phone using this, or through Facebook or Twitter.

The Christmas sweaters you never knew were ugly are back again for more hilarity this year. And the young brother and sister entrepreneurial team of Martha and Jack McCarthy will be happy to sell you one.

They've turned their parents' basement in Wauwatosa into ugly Christmas sweaters R us, and they're selling hundreds through online marketing.

"Each year, more and more people are buying ugly sweaters and trying to outdo their friends in having the ugliest sweater," Martha said. "We just scavenge for the good ones, put up some photos and funny descriptions, and ship them all across the country."

Just about any Christmas sweater could be considered ugly in post-ironic America, but people are willing to pay top dollar for the truly garish and cheesy ones that are busy with color and patterns, and trimmed with bells, Santas, sequins, holly, mittens, stockings, reindeers, teddy bears, wreaths, presents, snowmen, candy canes, nutcrackers - you get the idea.

For years, these were considered festive and cute, especially by your grandmother. Now, to the young and hip, they're so ugly they're cool. Since the craze began about four years ago, ugly Christmas sweater parties and pub crawls show no sign of letting up.

That's good news for Jack and Martha, who are laughing all the way to these parties and the bank. He is 17 and a junior at Marquette High School. She is 22, a grad of Pius High School and the University of St. Thomas in the Twin Cities, where she lives now and runs a digital marketing business.

Their sweater website is UltimateUglyChristmas.com. There you'll see Jack and his friends modeling the merchandise. Most on the home page are $45, but you can also find some for $19 or $32. Don't worry too much about the size. It's even funnier if they fit poorly. And they're all unisex.

Christmas came early to Marshfield Wildwood Zoo over the weekend as children and parents watched mountain lions, a lynx and wolves tear open presents.

"The gifts are a few pieces of meat," said Heather McBride, a zoo volunteer, as she wrapped three large shoebox-size containers with brightly colored holiday paper before the gift-giving Saturday morning.

Planned as an enrichment activity for the animals, the event also is a way for people to have fun and learn more about the zoo's wildlife, said McBride, a member of the Marshfield Zoological Society.

About 30 children and parents gathered at the viewing area for the mountain lions -- also called cougars -- to watch Thunder and Star tear into their Christmas gift. After the gift was placed in their enclosure, the door to the viewing area opened and the two cougars leaped into the enclosure and pounced on the box.

In seconds, the lions had torn open the box and were contentedly lying on the ground to gnaw on chunks of venison.

"Oh! They're fast," said Aaliyah Nelson, 4, of Marshfield as she watched the felines swiftly tear the paper off the box.

The enrichment activity simulates how the animal would eat their prey in the wild, said Steve Burns, zookeeper.

A Green Bay, Wis., woman opened a Christmas present from her children to find a refurbished vacuum - and a load of drugs.

Authorities say the woman found 2 pounds of crystal methamphetamine and 2.2 pounds of cocaine shrink wrapped inside the box. Sheriff's officials estimate the drugs' street value at about $280,000.

Lt. David Poteat tells the Green Bay Press-Gazette that a smuggler likely put the drugs in the box before it was shipped from the Juarez, Mexico, area, where it had been reconditioned.

Poteat says no one noticed anything, including the department store where it was purchased, until the woman opened the package.

...This was from Januar, but somehow it never hit our radar... until now. CRAZY!

These are available on Amazon

Thanks to @tundratweets for the tip-off on this great Packer-land gift!

You can download this song from the UW Mad Hatters website.