Christmas #4

Christmas Day was spent with my family. We started by opening stockings at my sister's house. As you can see by the photo below, Santa went a little crazy and left us gift bags full of stocking stuffers instead of actual stockings. We were all very spoiled this year by Santa! Somehow, I think Finley's stocking will be alot smaller next year....haha

Here is Finley opening up some stocking stuffers...
After opening our stocking stuffers at Kristy's place, we loaded into the car and drove over to my Aunty Sandy & Uncle Lloyd's place to open presents....again, Finley was ridiculously spoiled
One of Finley's most favorite cousins, Madison, helped her open a bunch of her presents...Finley was kinda interested in opening presents but I think next Christmas will be much more exciting for her!
Even Finley must've thought she had way too many presents because she was getting tired opening them up...
Tanner & Madi got RockBand for Christmas. Finley loves the drums so she was helping Tanner with the drum sticks...
After all the presents were opened, we set up RockBand and had a great time playing until breakfast was ready....here is Jimmy channeling his inner Tommy Lee
Here is mom making our traditional Christmas morning breakfast...Fried eggs, scrambled eggs, bacon & toast!
We decided we needed a break from playing Rock Band so we played PictionaryMan. Madison received this game for Christmas. Considering it was a game aimed at kids, it was certainly very hard. Needless to say, we didn't get very far into the game before we all gave up.
For the second year in a row, it was a very frigid Christmas day in Saskatoon. Because it was way too cold to go sledding or skating like we usually do, we had to spend the day inside playing with whatever Santa decided to bring us. Finley got bored real fast of all her toys and spend a portion of her afternoon playing with the hanger that her Christmas dress came on
Finley really loves the drums and insisted on sitting on Daddy's lap so that she could help him play!


Every Christmas night, our family embarks on our Twinkle Tour. It starts at the Enchanted Forest and then we head to "Bearinstein" Cres and "Smurfy" Cres before driving down Sask Cr and heading back to my Aunty Sandy's place. And for the second year in a row, Finley was sound asleep before we even left the driveway!
After the twinkle tour, we arrived back at Aunty Sandy's where we embarked on a game of Taboo. Kristy & Greg got into some crazy fights and accused each other of cheating constantly - just another regular games night with our family...hahah
Soon after, we headed back to Aunty Kristy's place where we settled in for the night - we had a VERY busy day planned for the 26th so we certainly needed our rest!

We had a great time at Aunty Sandy's and enjoyed visiting with all of our family!

Christmas #3 At Grandma Gail's

On Christmas Eve Morn, we awoke early, picked up Uncle Brad and headed East to Saskatoon for a very busy Christmas season! Finley slept the first half and was a little cranky towards the end of the ride. That was expected considering she hates being confined for such a long time!

Our first stop once arriving to the bitterly cold Saskatoon, we made a pit stop at Finley's Great Aunty Sandy's to drop off some presents and to change into her Christmas outfit for Christmas #3 with Grandma Gail

Finley was pretty excited to see her Grandma Gail
Getting in some much needed play time before dinner

Finley was so happy that Grandma Gail made mashed potatoes just for her this Christmas! She LOVES mashed potatoes!!
This is a yummy gluten free chocolate cake that Gail made for me! It was so insanely chocolately delicious - especially with the brown sugar sauce on top of it! I so appreciate the thought and effort that went into the gfree dessert!!
One of the many presents that Finley received from her Grandma Gail was this easel that had a chalk board on one side and a white board on the other! The above photo was of Greg showing Finley how to use chalk
It didn't take her long to figure it out....look she even wrote her own name....hahah
Finley seemed to love playing with Uncle Aaron's omelette maker....
Finley discovering the white board side of it...
Finley helping Grandma Gail open her present from all of us!
Gail was so excited that we got her a slr or something like that. She wanted one so badly!!
I was so excited to see a hard copy of this book. We have the bigger version and Finley likes to grab at the pages and I am so afraid she will rip them so we don't read it anymore! Now we will be able to enjoy the story for years to come! This is my favorite Robert Munsch book!
Finley busily undecorating Grandma Gail's Christmas tree
The Florizone/Diederich Family Christmas photo!

All in all, it was a wonderful evening spent with great Finley. Finley was definitely spoiled be her Grandma - I hope she realizes how lucky she is one day real soon!!

Thanks Grandma Gail for the wonderful time, we all enjoyed ourselves very much!!

We're Back....

Well we finally made it back to Calgary today! We left Saskatoon bright and early and made it back to Calgary first thing this afternoon. Finley did pretty well although I must say she doesn't travel as well as she did as a baby!

We are all exhausted considering we were in Saskatoon for 4 days and had 5 Christmas celebrations! But it was so wonderful seeing all of our great family!!

Finley was so spoiled this year - it was ridiculous! I hope she realizes what a lucky little girl that she is!

I will post some blogs about our Christmas celebrations in the days to come - I am off to veg on the couch with my sister & watch All About Steve.....

Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Season!

Christmas #2

Way back in 2001 when Greg and I first started dating, we celebrated Christmas just the two of us without anybody else around. We usually exchanged presents and go out for supper. Obviously, with the addition of Finley to our family - she is also included in our Christmas celebration and we cook supper at home just the 3 of us. This year proved to be quite the challenge as she still is that into opening presents and is easily distracted by everything around here! So here is a snapshot of Finley's 2 of 7 Christmas celebrations that was held last night on the 23rd.

Here is the tree all lit with presents under the tree. These were all for finley with exception of 2 small presents, one gift bag and one medium sized box - those were for Greg and I. All the presents were from us, her Uncle Doug, Aunty Leslie and cousins Cameron & Connie. Needless to say I went completely overboard with presents but it is just so much fun shopping for her!

Here are the stockings laid by the fire place with care....
Stocking time....
Trying to open her gift that Santa left her. It was her very own shopping cart!
Playing with a snowman that she got...
She had much more fun hauling her gifts around then she did actually opening them....
Opening up her Magic Tea Set....When you add water it changes color...so cool!!
YAY!! She got her own Camping Headlight! Can't wait to try it out this summer!
Her very own COACH bag! Yes it is real, but before you all think We are crazy, we bought it at Nordstrom Rack in Spokane after seeing it 4 times previously at the ones in Seattle. We thought it was destiny plus I had bought a bag with the same pattern myself so it was just too cute to resist! I will post a photo in the new year with us and our matching bags!

This was probably the gift that she was 2nd most excited for. She loves books - especially Sandra Boynton (not Susan as I mentioned in my Christmas with the Florizone's Post)
She was crazy excited for her Foofa doll. Foofa does so many fun things, I just love it and thankfully so did she!
Another great find in Seattle: Converse Shoes & ROXY shoes....they are ridiculously cheap in the US that it's impossible to not buy them....
This was her haul in the end....she got a crazy amount of stuff, I certainly need to contain myself next year...or at least try! I will take another photo of all her Xmas presents on the couch after we get back from Saskatoon just to see how completely ridiculous my family is!!

After the presents were opened and dinner was done, we put Finley to bed and we sat down to watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - so funny!!

Anyways, we are headed to Saskatoon today (Dec 24th) for 5 more Christmas' - should be a tonne of fun!!

Hope y'all have a safe and happy holiday season!!

Who's Got A Beard That's Long & White?

The day we got this photo with Santa taken, Finley was probably the worst behaved she has ever been in her life. The only time that ENTIRE day that Finley was happy was here with Santa. Apparently unlike every other child in the world (including her Aunty Kristy), Finley seems to love Santa......

PS We had some beautiful sparkly white shoes for her to wear but I forgot them so I kept her leggings off so her red Converse shoes didn't look TOO funny...hahah

Christmas At The Florizone's

On Sunday, we headed over to Grandpa Don & Grandpa Jen's house here in Calgary for our first of seven Christmas celebrations this season! We were excited to have Uncle Aaron join us this year - it had been several years since he has made it back to Calgary for the holidays!

As you can see below, Finley was definitely feeling festive (the nap on the 45 min drive over was key)...

She soon discovered thanks to Grandpa Don & Uncle Neil that there was a bunny living in their backyard so she tried looking for him or her....

Now that she can walk, she follows Uncle Neil everywhere!

Daddy then tried to put Uncle Neil's Santa hat on Finley...

Which did not maker her happy at all....

She then laughed at her daddy when she got it off...

She then noticed for the first time ever, that Grandma Jen had a piano...

When Uncle Brad arrived, it was stocking time...

She was quite happy with her stocking loot...a christmas orange, which she tried to eat with the skin on, a bazooka, a pair of socks that "Mrs Clause" AKA Grandma Jen made for her & some Lindt chocolates that Mama & Daddy enjoyed...

PS. That is not a pee stain on her tights, it's her yellow reusable diaper showing through....just noticed it when I put it on facebook...haha

Daddy then showed Finley how to use the Bazooka.

And then she tried, unsuccssfully, herself...

It was then time for Christmas dinner which consisted of an assortment of veggies, potatoes (her favorite), lamb & ham. Much to my dismay, she LOVED the lamb. I am not sure if the ham has always been a tradition or if it's done due to the fact that I won't touch the lamb? We also opened our Christmas crackers and you will soon see what Finley thought of her Christmas hat...

I seriously hope she gets over this refusal to wear a hat phase that she is going through before summer...thank goodness her winter jackets have hoods attached!

After supper, it was time to open presents! Uncle Neil helped Finley open her first Christmas present. She wasn't overly interested in her own stuff

But she was quite willingly ready to help Grandma Jen open her "joke" present from Grandpa Don

I think she enjoyed the gift much more then Grandma Jen did...she wanted to play with the items in the bag far more then her own presents!

Playing with the books Uncle Neil got her....She LOVES Susan Boynton books - they are super fabulous!! We have a tonne of them!

Helping Grandpa Don open one of his presents...

She hugged her big green froggy from Uncle Aaron as soon as she opened it...very cute! She insisted on taking it to bed with her that night!

Greg received a marble rolling pin & pastry board. I have no idea what a pastry board even is, but he was crazy excited to get the stuff...

Finley hanging with her Uncle Brad....

Since Aaron was around for Christmas, we did a Florizone family photo...can you tell who messed this photo up? HAHA

This one turned out much better!!!

Neil got Guitar Hero 5 for Christmas, so after dinner was done & presents were unwrapped, we headed downstairs for some fun!

Finley grabbed the drum sticks from Uncle Neil and was totally rocking out to Grandma Jen singing Dancing With Myself. I think she was totally channeling Travis Barker or Tommy Lee!!

Soon after this, we headed back home. Finley had a great time and will surely miss Grandma & Grandpa as they head off to Hawaii on Christmas Day. But I am sure she will have lots to keep her busy with 6 more Christmas's to go!!