"I Have a Fat Belly!"

I've told this story probably 10 times already, but I'll tell it once more here.

On Christmas Eve, Kirk and I were busy wrapping presents at my mom's house (she hates wrapping), and Adam had gotten in trouble several times for trying to sneak into the room where we were wrapping. When I heard a little knock on the door, I was quick to tersely respond.

Me: "Adam... is that you again?"

[Pause]

Adam: [in a much lower than normal voice] "No." [Pause] "I'm Santa Claus."

Me: [Stifling laughter] "Adam, you are NOT Santa Claus."

Adam: [still in a low voice] "But I have a fat belly! Ho, ho, ho."

Kirk and I just laughed and laughed. Later, my brother informed me that Adam had stuffed his blanket up his shirt. I guess he really wanted to get into character.

Earn a FREE "Year in Review" Flip Book from PhotoFinish

What it is: 20 page 6x8 flip book including one page each for the following: Title Page, January, February, March, April, EASTER, May, June, July, August, September, October, HALLOWEEN, November, THANKSGIVING, December, CHRISTMAS, plus 3 PAGES FOR THE SPECIAL EVENTS OF YOUR CHOICE. Choose your favorite pictures from each month/occasion, and I'll put them together in a flip book. This book is a $50 value, yours free if you

HOST A PHOTOFINISH OPEN HOUSE IN JANUARY

What does that take? Just pick day in January to let me show my books off at your house for 2 hours. All you have to do is send invites to 20 of your friends, and provide a light snack. My open houses are just that... an open house. Your guests should only plan to come for about a half hour, look through the books, ask questions, eat a snack, and then they can be on their way. I'll have gift cards available for purchase, or they can start planning their own projects.

The tricky part is getting people to come to the open house when they've never heard of my company. That's why I'll also give you a $30 PHOTOFINISH GIFT CARD if at least 5 people come to your party. You may want to try doing some follow-up phone calls after you've sent the invites, or talk it up in person.

PRESERVING YOUR 2008 MEMORIES HAS NEVER BEEN EASIER!

I Want to Learn

I want to learn how to give my family better food choices, but there are several barriers in my way:

1- I really don't know where to start. I'm really interested in cutting down on processed foods, but I don't know how.
2- I am a really picky eater, and I'm pretty sure that when I take out the bad stuff, I'm just going to starve to death because there will be nothing left that I like to eat.
3- I don't really like to cook (although I am pretty good at it), and I'm worried that healthier will also mean more time consuming.
4- Our food budget is very small. I'm pretty sure that eating better means spending more money on food.

HELP ME! I really want to teach my kids to make good food choices, and I really want to help Kirk and I to be more healthy, but I really just don't know how to make it all work. Suggestions, please.

Amazing Custom Jewelry

My friend Becca has been working really hard to take her custom jewelry business to the next level. Today is the grand opening of her new website: www.drogedesigns.com. She's running some awesome specials now thru Dec. 20th, so be sure to check it out (and tell your hubbies). Becca's gorgeous pieces would be the perfect finishing touch for your holiday outfits.

• The first three people who contact Becca to order (via web or phone) will receive 30% off their total order!
• All orders between today (December 9th) and Saturday, December 20th will be entered into a drawing. The winner will receive a $50 gift certificate!
• All orders over $50 will receive a free gift with their order! The larger the order, the bigger the gift!

If you do order, please put my name in the referral box so Becca knows I sent you.

My Favorite Fife Family Tradition

Don't get me wrong, I love my kids, and I love my nephews (and niece), but I also love that for about 6 hours each year, I get to hang out with my awesome family-in-law without all the noise and chaos that comes with the kids. We call this heaven-sent chunk of time "The Christmas Party."

I've heard that some people consider their family Christmas parties boring. This is not even a possible classification for the Fife family party. There is always great food, plenty of sweets, fun gifts, and games. We love games! Last night consisted of a VERY long game of UNO Attack, followed by Pictionary, a Fife family favorite. I laughed so hard for so long that my abs literally ached. Props to Mom, who had quite a few good jokes last night (a rarity, according to her two sons).

Thanks to Rachel for heckling me through the whole game of UNO Attack. Thanks to Mark for making fun of his small "deck," much to our amusement. I would say thanks to Dad for the carmel corn, but he let us down this year, again. :) Thanks to Marie for always giving white elephant gifts that seem more like real gifts. Thanks to Mike for joining in all the fun and craziness. Thanks to Heather for not catching's Mom numbering mistake for the white elephant gifts; you've given us future ammunition. Thanks to Kirk for providing such a pleasant aroma for us to smell (remember Mom, no spaghetti next year). And thanks to Mom for such an AWESOME party!

Blaze Ticket Upgrade

We've been Utah Blaze season ticket holders since the very first year, and we have loved it. Here's a brief history of our time with the Blaze:

Season 1: I got Kirk season tickets for Christmas (2nd row upper bowl, kind of in the corner). I wasn't interested in going, so I sold the second ticket to each game to a different one of Kirk's friends or relatives. I ended up going to one game and loved it.

Season 2: I refused to give up my seat to any game I could attend. Due to scheduling conflicts, I made it to 4 of the 8 games and again I loved it. Adam and Alex also came to a game or two, and they loved it. (Okay, Alex was a newborn, and he slept through it).

Season 3: They reduced the price of our season tickets by almost 50%, so we decided to get 4 seats instead of 2. We figured in the future the kids would want to come, and I had already decided I would not be giving up my seat for them. The two seats next to us were not available, so we were moved to the opposite end of our row; hey, 10 seats closer to the 25-yard line is 10 seats closer. Woohoo!

Season 4 (upcoming): I got a call today from the Matt at the Blaze, and he told me that they're doing a promotion on season tickets, and to be fair to those of us who've already paid, they're offering free upgrades. So, for $56 per seat a season (that's 8 games), we'll be sitting on the 2nd row of the upper bowl at about the 20-yard line. (Remember that the 25 in arena football is like the 50 in NFL). Not only that, he says we'll be able to renew next year at the same price!

Don't forget that we have 2 extra seats to each game (except the one or two we'll take the kids to). So start sucking up now!

If Only I Was This Goal Oriented in Real Life!

Here's how it happened:

Several weeks ago, I finally signed up for Facebook.

My friend, Raini, sent me an invite to join her mob on Mob Wars.

I declined.

Kirk signed up on Facebook and joined Raini's mob.

He sent me an invite to join his mob.

I declined.

He bugged me about not joining. I told him I just wasn't interested.

Yesterday, I was bored and thought, "What the heck. I'll check it out."

Today I am hooked. The first thing I did this morning was check how my mob had fared during the night. How lame am I? But the game is so cunningly crafted. You need money to buy weapons, you need weapons to win fights, you need stamina and health to be a able to fight. You need pieces of the city for residual income, but you need money to buy them in the first place. It all goes around and around in circles, and I am SO HOOKED.

In fact, the only reason I'm on blogger right now is because I am waiting for my health to build back up to 26 so I can attack someone. Wait... Yay! I'm there. Got to go.

Andrea Needs...

Andrea needs to actually write a blog with some substance. But that's not going to happen today. You can check back later in the week for pics of the advent calendar I'm going to make today, but for now all I have to offer is a fun tag I saw on Jami's blog:

Andrea Needs: Basically how this works is I typed "Andrea needs" into a Google search bar and came up with these fun morsels:

Andrea needs me close to her heart (actually a YouTube video... but not worth watching)
Andrea needs sleep… badly (always true)
Andrea needs help fast!!! (hmm... not so true. Life's actually pretty good right now.)
Andrea needs numbers! (here's a stretch for this one. Today I will be making the numbers 1-25 to go on my new advent calendar. So yes, Andrea needs numbers.)
Andrea needs some help coming up with stalker songs. (um...)
Andrea needs a profession in which she can express her inventive and idealistic side (got one, thanks)
Andrea needs needles color pattern by undergroundrailway (again, um... apparently there are some weird Andreas out there)
Andrea needs to revise her paper now (no thanks. Done with school)
Andrea needs a cheerleader outfit with a big “O”, pom-poms and short skirt (though I can't think of a useful application, it does sound fun)
Andrea needs change (quite the opposite; Andrea is loving life right now and is afraid of the changes she may have to make to keep it going)
Andrea needs to know (oh, there is so much I need to know, but I'd settle for knowing how to keep Alex out of trouble)
Andrea needs to be extremely more careful (always true; as my dad says, I'm missing the self-preservation gene, so I always have to be careful)

Well, that was fun. Seriously, though, I'll try for something real next time.