A hot pick this holiday season for tween and teenage girls is the Style Lab Jewelry Design game by Ubisoft for the Nintendo DS. Testing out this game made me seriously jealous that I wasn't a girl in 2009. I can only imagine how much fun a young girl would have playing this game.

Users design their own jewelry pieces by mixing and matching various beads and charms on the game. They can create a bracelet, necklace or earrings. Use the stylus to drag and drop your choices into your design.

My three-year-old son received Dr. Seuss' Super Stretchy ABC game for his birthday from some friends. I was skeptical at first but once we broke the box open, all my doubts were washed away. This is game is great for a night of family fun.

The game is pretty much Twister, with a preschool twist. Hands, feet and an ear need to be placed on a letter of the alphabet in each turn. You collect chips for every correct place you can reach - the person with the most chips has better odds of winning in the end.

If you've spent any time around a 6-year-old boy (like mine) or really any child lately, you've probably heard about Bakugan Battle Brawlers. At great volume and great length. The latest cartoon/toy/card game to come out of Japan (a la Pokemon) is sweeping the elementary school set and is sure to be found at the top of countless wishlists.

So what are your Bakugan options? Check 'em out...

Do people ever really grow out of board games? You may mature beyond Candyland (then again, maybe not), but children do not have a Monopoly (get it?) on this kind of entertainment. Board games and board games parties are a great way for adults to socialize and have fun in groups. The holiday season is one time of year when you're certain to have enough friends and family around to get some really good board games going. Here are some games that are easy to learn and fun to play -- the perfect games for a board game party.

The green revolution has conquered family game night!

Combine recycled paperboard, soy inks and water-based varnishes, and what do you get? The new eco-friendly line of board games from ALEX Toys, made to test pre-schoolers' imaginations without taxing the earth.

Crossword puzzles have long been a favorite weekend pastime, but the last few years have seen a tremendous boom in the popularity of math and logic puzzles. Now your daily newspaper has a sudoku puzzle or two between the crossword puzzle and the bridge column. The rules are simple, and the puzzles range from easy to infuriatingly difficult. When one puzzle a day isn't enough to get your fix, you can get whole puzzle books for all your favorite kinds of word and math puzzles.

Do your kids love play sets with a million little pieces, but you really don't? We hate accidentally vacuuming up tiny playthings, which is why the iPlay Fairyland Playhouse play set, with a few not-so-little pieces, is a dream for busy playrooms.

We've got a thing for International Playthings, now that we've found they speak our language: simple toys, no pointy edges and oodles of creativity.

Recently, I went to lunch with some folks from game company UbiSoft. They demoed a number of games for the holiday season but one game that stood out for me was Petz Dolphinz Encounter. I have two boys, both of whom love marine life and visits to the aquarium.

Last week, when I looked up the most-searched for toys, I discovered the term, Zhu Zhu Pets™, at the top of the list. What in the world are Zhu Zhu Pets™? If you don't know what a Zhu Zhu is, get to know them; they've officially become marked as one of the hottest toys for Holiday 2009! Some sites are claiming the toy as the Furby or Elmo of the Holiday 2009 season. Some stores are actually already selling out of them.

Not only are shoppers looking for them, Zhu Zhu Pets™ have been recognized by renowned toy expert Dr. Toy. The toys have made her Top 10 'High Tech' Toys and Top 100 Toys list of 2009. Toys 'R' Us has also included the toy on its 2009 Holiday Hot Toy and "Fabulous 15' list. To top it off, Zhu Zhu Pets™ are on FunFare Magazine's Annual Hot Dozen list for 2009. So let's meet the Zhu Zhu Pets and see what they're all about.

We go through waves of playing the Wii in our house. We got our Wii over a year ago and I try and save playing it for rainy or snowy days with my almost-6-year old. Recently, we had a series of rainy days. We got out Animal Crossing: City Folk. I had purchased awhile back but never played and it's been a smash hit in our house.

We play it together as my Kindergartener is only just learning how to read and there is a lot of dialogue. But it's so much fun. Your character builds a house and a life in a world of animals. You make money (Bells) by catching fish, collecting items you find along the way (shells, bugs you catch) and you interact with the other animals in the town.