Christmas Day 2011

As soon as we walked in the door upon returning from our Christmas Eve festivities with the Gill family and Gigi, Rowen found his baggie of Reindeer food he had made at preschool and was headed out the door with daddy to sprinkle it on the lawn. Then he made a plate of 2 cookies, a piece of cheese and a few crackers and poured a glass of milk all by himself (this is what Santa told Rowen he liked to eat the most in one of the letters Santa wrote to Rowen only a week prior).

This is what was left on Christmas morning. Most of the food was eaten and Santa left a note for Rowen.

Surprisingly, Rowen slept in on Christmas morning. I was the first one awake then Daddy and Paxton woke up and finally Rowen woke up at 8:30 only after I went into his room to rub his back, trying to slowly wake him up. Rowen rolled over with a smile on his face... he was ready to head downstairs right away. I recorded him coming into the living room and seeing his gifts from Santa. It was pretty darn cute! He saw the empty plate and glass of milk and wanted to know what the note said right away. Later after opening all of his gifts he asked Daddy to help him write another letter to Santa thanking him for all of his presents. He left it by the fireplace as he did all of the letters he wrote to Santa over the past month and sure enough, it was gone the next day!


After we opened gifts and our stockings we had a yummy breakfast. Then, I had to get a photo of my two kids in front of the Christmas tree on Christmas morning. Once again Rowen's forced smile is priceless :).


Rowen started playing with his new toys right away. Here he is riding his new plasma car around the house.


Soon family started arriving. This is the only photo I have of Christmas dinner! Grammy, Papa, Nana, Grandpa, and Uncle Shon joined us for a delicious feast... ham, prime rib and all the traditional side dishes. Then lots of yummy treats later of course.

After dinner we opened gifts between the Volk family members. Rowen got this cool new ski helmet from Uncle Shon and a pair of new shoes that help him run super fast ;). We went skiing recently and the helmet worked out perfectly!

Grandpa and Nana gave Rowen this telescope. It has great pictures to look at and it tells you interesting facts about the planets.

And one more surprise from Nana and Grandpa... a new art easel. Rowen is all set up to paint, draw, color, finger paint, you name it! We have used it lots already.

Everyone got a little spoiled. Paxton has some darling new outfits and two new pairs of shoes. Mommy and Daddy are looking forward to using their gift cards to go out on a few dates over the next few months.


Once again we had a great Christmas Day. We feel so fortunate to get to spend the Holidays with our family, that everyone is healthy, and that our lives are so rich with love and support from our family and friends.