Reese Witherspoon Taking Advantage of Her ‘Cool Mom’ Status

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With her two children — daughter Ava Elizabeth, 9, and son Deacon Reese, 5 — still years away from the infamous teenage years, Reese Witherspoon is taking full advantage of the fact that her kids still idolize her. After enrolling them in a school that requires the students to complete five community service projects each year, Reese brought Ava and Deacon along to travel the world with her as she fulfilled her commitments as a global ambassador for the Avon foundation and — in places including Japan, Paris, and London — exposed them to the ways of the world outside Hollywood. "I want them to have that experience. I mean, they have me as their mom," says Reese, who admits that, for now, she is "the cool mom," but knows only too well that her status could change at any moment! "Looking at my friends who have older kids, I know it won’t always be that way, so I’m enjoying them now while they’ll still have me," laughs the 32-year-old.

Recently sharing her Christmas plans to spend the day eating a southern-style dinner, Reese says this year will be all about her family traditions with her two kids. While Reese will spend Christmas Eve at her church to watch Ava and Deacon perform in the annual pageant and then return home to sing songs and polish off the actress’ cooking specialties — turnip greens, pecan-coated sweet potatoes, and sugar-baked ham — after presents are opened, the trio will head to their farm outside of Los Angeles. Once there, Reese reveals she is all about tending to her animals which include a "chicken and the pigs — I have two pigs and boy are they really pigs. They just get down in the mud and roll around!" Reese’s Christmas wish? A new home for her chickens!

"I like getting down in there and working in the garden. Oh, I want someone to build me a good chicken coop…like a man who can just get down there and build it…oooh."

Ava and Deacon are Reese’s children with her ex-husband Ryan Phillippe.

Source: USA Today