Holiday Gift Guide A Gift For Everyone: Family Fun Football for Wii

Finding a game that the entire family can play together is often a struggle, especially with younger children, but my oldest is jumping into video games a lot more now and is graduating from her Nintendo DS onto our Nintendo Wii for some games. She often wants to play with dad, but a lot of games are just too hard for her, so when we had the chance to try out Family fun Football for the Wii I couldn’t wait.

Family Fun Football features:

• A Simple Playbook: Makes it easy for everyone to learn and understand the game of football.
• Colorful Stadiums: A total of five stadiums that include a fun mix of realistic and fantasy worlds such as a space themed stadium.
• Power-ups: Earn power-ups during gameplay to enhance certain attributes including speed, strength, passing, and interception for a limited amount of time.
• Teams: Ten unique teams with their own attributes that players can choose to compete with.
• Mii Compatibility: Load in your own Mii and play against your friends’ and family’s Miis for a more personal experience.
  

The fun part was that we could play with our already created Mii’s. Now my daughter knows nothing about football so she was a bit lost, we hurried through the playbooks to get onto the game. There are a few different modes you can choose from that include:

• Quickplay: Select two teams and the stadium you want to play in to get started right away. Up to four players can play.
• Season: Play through a nine game season, each game against a different opponent. Defeat every team to be the best.
• Tournament: Play your way through a double-elimination tournament and be the last team standing to win it all.
• Mascot Mode: Play as your team’s mascot, or as one of 10 unlockable mascots.
• Mini-Games: Ten fun and simple mini-games can be unlocked and played with up to four players.
  

Game play was a bit difficult, we first selected quick play and for her to hold the nunchuck and do button combos to play was very difficult, she was just mashing any buttons at this point, so we moved onto the mini-games which was a lot easier for her, and a lot more fun too.

Now if you’re a Madden player or any other football game, you won’t be highly impressed by the graphics, but it is a Nintendo Wii game, and it is rated for everyone so graphics isn’t what I was really concerned about. Overall we had a lot of fun playing this with my daughter, and then later together as a couple with the quick play, it’s a cute, fun game that everyone can enjoy. Family Fun Football for Wii retails for $29.99.


Product was provided to me from Tecmo. Opinions are strictly those of the author of A Wrestling Addicted Mommy; please see my disclosure policy for more information.

Holiday Gift Guide Home Decorating: 100 Ornament Sets

We’ve got our tree up but something was missing…. ORNAMENTS!!!

Now I’ve gotten a lot of hand me downs, and threw a lot of them away because they were just old and ick. Over the years with the girls being so young so many broke, or we’re missing pieces etc so it was time to get some new ones. Besides with a new tree you have to have new ornaments.

Christmas Lights Etc. was the perfect place to go shop online for a new set of Christmas Ornaments. Their newest addition to all of their wonderful Christmas decorations was the new 100 count Christmas Ornament sets (starting at $37.99).

We decided on the set with the cherry, red and black colors and couldn’t wait for them to arrive; once they did I got the box right open to decorate my naked tree.

The colors were great and vibrant, no chips or loss of anything they were all intact. My biggest complaint and this is with most ornament sets that you buy, is that it didn’t come with any hooks. Some of the ornaments came with a tie of some sort, but others that needed a hook didn’t come with them so I had to search and search for remaining hooks that I had, luckily they weren’t far and right in my Christmas box.

The ornaments provided a great look to our tree and we’re so happy with them. They also do have other colors of the sets as well with various ornament shapes and sizes.

Christmas Lights Etc. are not only providers of some great ornaments but they can provide you with just about all of your needs for your Christmas decorating this year.

For more information about the ornament sets, or to see some of their other great Christmas decorations visit their website at christmaslightsetc.com.

Product was provided to me from Christmas Lights Etc.. Opinions are strictly those of the author of A Wrestling Addicted Mommy; please see my disclosure policy for more information

Holiday Gift Guide Gifts for Children: Green Toys Indoor Gardening Kit

My oldest daughter is into gardening, she planted her very first vegetable garden this year and decided to plant way too many things, needless to say it didn’t work out so great, but hey she learns from her mistakes and that’s what I love to see, her learning.
When I was offered to review a product from Green Toys I couldn’t resist the Indoor Gardening Kit for her.

The Indoor Gardening Kit is like most of the other toys from Green Toys in which they are eco-friendly and the pieces of the kit are made from 100% recycled milk jugs, they also don’t contain any Phthalates, BPA or external coatings.

With 3 planting pots, a planter tray, a trowel, soil pellets and 3 packets of organic seeds the gardening kit has everything a little gardener could dream of and with winter on the way, allowing her to have the ability to grow sunflowers, basil and zinnia indoors is so exciting to her.

It’s fun to teach both of the girls about gardening, and how things grow. Placing the planter near the window allows them to watch their plants grow each day. This is a great educational toy for kids, and would be perfect for those who are interested in gardening or just how things grow.

The Indoor Gardening Kit retails for $19.99 at most retailers. You can find out more information about this toy or so many others and where to purchase them by visiting www.greentoys.com.

Product was provided to me from Green Toys. Opinions are strictly those of the author of A Wrestling Addicted Mommy; please see my disclosure policy for more information

Holiday Gift Guide A Gift For Everyone: Roku Digital HD Video Player

Since we got rid of our satellite TV and premium channels, I do miss the availability of movies I had and was able to watch whenever I wanted; digital cable is just not the same. We threw around the idea of getting a Netflix subscription so that we could rent movies easily on DVD, but with kids, my big worry was them breaking/ruining those DVDs so we decided against that as well.

This is why I was so excited to be able to review the Roku Digital Player. This small little magical box sends you quality (and some HD) streams right over the internet to your television. We did have to purchase a subscription to Netflix which was fine by me, our $8.99 a month subscription with the Roku player gives us unlimited access to instant movies and even TV series to watch whenever we please and we still have the ability to order DVDs if we wished to as well. We also have access to Amazon’s Video On Demand movies and shows as well.

The setup was fast and easy, you just plug it into the wall, grab the HDMI cable and plug it into the back of the Roku and TV and set up our WiFi and we were ready to start watching. Cables are provided for you if you don’t have an S-Video or HDMI cable.

We’ve already watched a ton of movies and TV show series. I love that I can watch some old TV shows that I haven’t seen in years, I just finished the entire series of Gimme A Break, and me and the girls have just started watching the full series of Fraggle Rock as well. Hubby is enjoying being able to watch Law and Order SVU from beginning to season 10 right now, and the movies we get to watch are incredible. I think we watch things on the Roku player now, more than we watch actual TV.

The Roku Player also comes with a small remote, I think that’s the only downside to this great little box; the remote is small so I have lost it a few times.

With access to over 12,000 movies and TV shows on Netflix, and over 40,000 movies and TV shows on Amazon On Demand I don’t think you’ll ever run out of something to watch. It’s great having access on your TV instantly without having to wait for DVDs in the mail, or purchase movies one by one on Pay Per View.

The Roku Digital players start at $79.99 and would be the perfect gift for just about anyone this holiday season. I can’t see what we’d do without or Roku Player now; it’s definitely one of our most loved electronics! You can find more information by visiting www.roku.com or finding them on Facebook and becoming a fan.

Product was provided to me from Roku. Opinions are strictly those of the author of A Wrestling Addicted Mommy; please see my disclosure policy for more information

Roku Digital Video Player Giveaway

Enter for your chance to win one of the Gifts for Everyone from my 2009 Holiday Gift Guide. One lucky reader will win a Roku Digital Video Player, for more information please see my holiday gift guide.

To Enter: Simply let me know if you already have a Netflix subscription or not, and what you're most looking forward to about winning this prize.

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Giveaway ends December 16, 2009 at 11:59pm ET and is open to those with a US Mailing Address.

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Thoughts going out to Umaga and his family...

There's news stories circulating that former WWE star Umaga (Eddie Fatu, 36) was found in his home last night unresponsive and was rushed to the hospital.

There's rumors of his death and other reports that say he's hospitalized in Houston right now in a serious life threatening condition. I'm hoping he's just hospitalized at the moment and him and his family will be in my thoughts.

Umaga is also scheduled to be on the Wrestlers Rescue Slam On the High Seas cruise this upcming July as well.

I'll update this post as I get details.

-- F4WOnline.com is reporting that Eddie “Umaga” Fatu has been taken off life support.

-- According to NoDQ.com

According to a report from Dave Meltzer, Eddie "Umaga" Fatu at this point is still alive and in a hospital in Houston. The family is being gathered and, without a miraculous recovery, it is just a matter of time until the bad news comes.

The family asks that you keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

UPDATE

It's now been confirmed by WWE.com that Eddie "Umaga" Fatu has died of a massive heart attack at the age of 36. This is such a sad, sad loss. Another wrestler gone way too young. R.I.P. Eddie "Umaga" Fatu.....

My thoughts go out to all of his family and friends. Another sad day in the wrestling world.

Some comments from friends/fellow wrestlers that have been made:

Howard Finkel: "I am saddened by the passing today of Eddie Fatu, a.k.a. Umaga. My sincere condolences to his family and friends."

Paul Heyman: "The world is minus one very cool Samoan tonight. We offer our most profound condolences to the Fatu Family."

Tara: "Rest in Peace Umaga We will love you always and we will all miss you."

Ken Anderson: "I'm very thankful to have had a private closed-door conversation with Ecki prior to our match a few days ago in Sydney. He insisted that we go out and tear the house down. We both had something to prove that night and in my opinion: Mission Accomplished! Our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Fatu family. Ecki absolutely adored his wife and was extremely proud of his children. I have so many amazing, funny, and heartwarming (sometimes gut wrenching belly-laughing) memories."

Such a sad day in the wrestling world to see another pass at such a young age. You will be greatly missed!