This time of year, so many charities send out requests for contributions, and it's hard to know which which to choose. Over the years, I've selected a half dozen Emergency Relief Organizations that do especially wonderful work rebuilding homes and communities after floods, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.

Have I left out an important organization for disaster relief? To add your favorites, click the "comments" link below.

If you're planning a new house for the new year, chances are you're spending your holiday pouring over home catalogs and building plans. Where to begin? Don't panic... These two articles describe new home construction one step at a time.

• 5 Steps to Your New Home
• Photo Essay: 4 Months to a New Home
  

Architecture isn't usually a laughing matter, but folks in our Discussion Forum have been trading some pretty good jokes. Like the one about the two licensed architects who.... well, you get the idea. Join in the fun: Architecture Humor

Related: Funny Pictures of Weird Buildings

So much attention is given to Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe, it's easy to forget that Bauhaus wasn't just about architecture. The early twentieth century movement also transformed painting, graphics, sculpture, furniture, textiles, and industrial design.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York City celebrates the Bauhaus movement in their all-encompassing exhibition, Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity, showing through January 10, 2010. The exhibition includes workshops, tours, lectures, films, and rare showings of some 400 Bauhaus works. Our Guide to Art History has information and photos:
Bauhaus Exhibition Pictures