Christmas with the Ruckus! {2011}

We celebrated our little "Rollins Family Christmas" the morning of Christmas Eve this year. We knew that we would be out at the lake Christmas morning - so before our hectic holiday schedule began, we shared our own little Christmas at our house...just the four of us. I popped the sausage bread in the oven and the kids started opening their presents from "mommy & daddy." LilliAnn got a Baby Stella and a cute little monogrammed owl backpack.

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Reid couldn't wait dig into the presents...just look at this face!

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Already holding tight to her new baby!

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Mommy took pictures and daddy took some video.

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"Wook mommy, my princess backpack."

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And of course, we got a Dora bath toy...

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and a Spiderman coloring set...

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Can you tell that we love Dora the Explorer?

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The most special gift that we got for our children this year was from WorldVision. Jeb and I have been blessed with so much, and this year we really felt led to give back to those who really could use our help. I did some research and when I came across two precious faces on the WorldVision website, I knew that these were the children that I wanted our family to help. Our commitment is $70 a month to help these two children with food, clothing, school supplies, as well as contributing to an amazing Christian ministry. I was soooooo excited for Reid to unwrap this present! We sat down with the kids and talked about how Jesus helped people, and how He wants us to share His love by helping people too! We explained that these children live in a place where they don't have a lot of food or toys. We told Reid that our money can help give them clean water to drink and buy them bibles so they can learn about Jesus and God.

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I absolutely adore this picture. LiliAnn is looking at Prisila, the little girl that we are sponsoring. Prisila is a week older than Lil and lives in Zimbabwe. 

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Reid said, "Mommy, is this my brother?"

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This is Aley from Ethiopia. His birthday is the exact same day as Reid's and he loves to play hide and seek.

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Reid wanted to know how we would get to go see him in Africa.

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We received our first letter from Aley last week and I read it to Reid and LilliAnn. Aley lives in a thatched roof house in a small village in Ethiopia. He told us that the area was very mountainous and that he had lots of animals around his village, such as hyenas and rabbits. Reid, once again, asked how we would get to Africa where his "brother" lived and when we could go. I told him that Africa was far away and we would have to take a big airplane, but that maybe one day we could go visit Aley's country.

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My two precious blessings!

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Jeb told them to sit cross-legged. Lol!

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Christmas cuties

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The next morning Santa came to our lake house! When Reid saw his wakeboard, his facial expression was absolutely priceless!

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He had been asking for a wakeboard and a rope for almost 6 months!

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Santa brought LilliAnn the pink Pottery Barn retro kitchen!

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And they got a little market too!

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I love Christmas mornings at the lake! There's a magical feeling when I see the excitement on the faces of my children when they see what Santa brought to them.

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Reid got a gun and a crossbow that shoots these little Nerf-like bullets at this HUGE bear target! I woke up in the middle of the night to use the restroom and it almost scared the pee-pee right out of me!!

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Sissy was already trying out the food that she had whipped up in her new kitchen.

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Such a pretty little Chef

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Jeb did most of the assembling this year...we stayed up until 3 a.m. getting everything ready!

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I debated between the red kitchen and the pink kitchen because I knew that Reid would probably play with  it too. In the end, the pink won! Ever since I first saw this pink kitchen, I knew that if I ever had a little girl that she must have it!

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After the kids finished playing with their toys, we all got ready and headed to Uncle Doyle and Aunt Patsy's house. This "Cook Family Christmas" has been a tradition since I was born and I've attended every single year! We always try and take a few family pictures on Christmas day and this year I thought they turned out especially good. 

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Reid, Audri, & Jett

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The picture of our little family, however, did not turn out so good. Reid was not having it...too many Christmases and too much excitement! Oh well...you win some, you lose some!

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Christmas evening we went down to Ada to spend Christmas with Jeb's dad, and then the next morning we had a post-Christmas brunch at the lake with my dad's side of the family. Reid and LilliAnn decided they would take the Gator and cruise on up to Papa Glenn's house!

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One of my favorite Christmas pictures this year

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A pirate ship! Reid was soooooo excited!

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As you can see, we had a VERY busy Christmas - which is probably why I'm just now getting this post done! It took a while for us to recover from the hustle and bustle of the holidays, and I had taken a ton of pictures that I had to sort through! Although this many Christmases gets a little exhausting, we are very blessed to have such a big family to celebrate Christ's birthday with us.