The Cains: For the love of paper.....

In our house there are 12 days of celebrating Christmas - so we are continuing to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior and spend time with family and friends. Our first Christmas with Catherine Ellis was perfect! We spent the weekend in Alexander City with my mother and had a low-key (which is unusual for a Bates family gathering!), relaxing and restful Christmas with the family.

Christmas morning was slow for us - we started a fire and ate breakfast and then began tearing into gifts from Santa - it took over 2 hours for Catherine Ellis to open and admire all of her gifts - we had to take a break and let her nap she was so worn out! It has certainly been a big Christmas for her and we are so thankful for all the love that has been showered upon her. Let's just say her toy chest (which I will have to make a spot for!) is overflowing and she will not need another toy until 2011!! I'm sure that will never last, but it's true. She's gotten a ton of great things. So thank you to the grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, and Santa!

One thing that emerged from Christmas was Catherine Ellis's love of paper - she could not get enough - it's not so much that she likes ripping it off gifts, it's that she likes to eat it! She's a billy goat in disguise! This is not to say the toys were not a hit, but her first love of the day was the paper - a battle that her Daddy fought with her the entire time we opened gifts.

Who came down the chimney?

Opening a gift....oh I think I like this paper.....

And the love of paper begins...

Oh this is just what I wanted!

Yay for Santa!

Happy baby (her pajamas have a gift bow on them because she's our greatest gift EVER!)

This is hard work...

Like mother, like daughter (I also received this gift my 1st Christmas (it was really my 2nd, but 1st in terms of being able to do anything - I was only 3 weeks old my 1st Christmas)