The day after Thanksgiving is widely recognized as the biggest shopping day of the year. Besides being broke this year, one of my primary goals is to try to be done with my Christmas shopping by December 20. I know for those insanely organized folks out there, that’s probably pretty offensive. Yep. You’re the ones that are doing the LAST of your shopping today… the biggest shopping day of the year. Well, not me. I’m the guy that usually does his shopping on Christmas eve- I’m the last guy running out of the store finding the girl scout troup that wraps presents - with my arms full of packages, while making a call to my daughter to apologize for the fact that her present is going to arrive the day AFTER Christmas (Why doesn't UPS deliver on Christmas? I'd pay extra). Yep. Well, I’ve at least done some research this year, and wanted to give you some of my best picks (and some of my wishlist) for your shopping pleasure. (Oh, and by the way? I WILL be missing ALL the sales today. I’m not moving. It’s the WRONG day to be out on the roads or standing in line.)

Today, I’ll review some of what I currently think are the coolest gadgets to purchase this holiday season. These of course are subject to change… I’m a bit of a fickle shopper. Stay tuned for specific reviews of some great holiday gift ideas in the weeks to come (right up to shopping day for me... December 24).

Coolest DVD and/or budget present for the skiier in your life? I’m going to go with this season's best ski film from Omen Productions. The team of Benjamin Barnes and Itai Nemovicher have put together a video that shows some of the sickest ski footage following Tahoe/Reno natives combined with a KILLER soundtrack from bands like Flogging Molly, Earwig, The Expendables and more! Lines of Influence brings together some of the best veterans with the strongest new talent and is an entertaining study of generational influence.

Want to make your own ski, snowboard, roller blade, skating or mountain bike movies? Samsung's SC-X5105L Sports Camcorder is just what you need. It retails at $600. Coolest features include EIS and an external remote wide angle lens (that you can mount on your helmet or clothing to capture all the action).

One of my biggest problems with our current digital camera (pretty great otherwise) is that the shutter speed is slow to capture action shots. The 7.2 Megapixel Casio Exlim EX-Z750 is quick enough to capture the fastest Lions blunders with no blur.

I'm one of those people that bought an MP3 player way back when 128mb was the standard memory size. I've been saving up, and want a portable device that will allow me to watch video, listen to MP3s and play games. I found a cool product from Archos called the Gmini 402 Pocket Multimedia Center. It can store up to 80 hours of video or 10,000 songs. That should be enough even for some of my crazier cross country drives.

Ah, the TV. At the top of MY TV wishlist is anything with DLP (Digital Light Processing) technology. Although they're a bit bulkier than their plasma cousins, they should last much longer and the quality is literally the best you can get. One that I found particularly appealing is the Mitsubishi 62" WD-62627. Now I just need somewhere to put it.

There's only really one gaming console to consider THIS year (or hold out for the PS3). I sat in Best Buy for an hour and a half last week checking out Microsoft's XBOX 360. If you want to keep up with the Joneses (or at least their spoiled kids), this is the way to go despite the mixed reviews. Grab a plasma or DLP TV to go along with it, and I guarantee you haven't seen graphics like these out of a console system yet. (Until next year when the PS3 blows you away with the RSX 550Mhz 1.8 TFLOP GPU. That's geekspeak for WOW.)

If you're a fan of shock jock Howard Stern, the only place YOU'LL get to listen to him is Sirius Sattelite Radio. Good riddance, I say, but if you HAVE to have your Howard, you have to turn to Channel 100. If you don't have Sirius in your car, (coming standard in some Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Lexus, BMW and other's products now), good news- there are lots of options including portable and in dash systems. I have XM, and I really like the Delphi portable I have. I can (with a little bit of annoyance) switch it from my car to my wife's, and you can buy a boombox to listen to it at home.

This weekend, we'll talk about some great options for DVDs, Books, games and other gift ideas. Come back on Tuesday for our best gifts under $100, and advice from our fashion columnists for what to buy (and most importantly what not to wear) this Christmas.

Happy Holidays.