December Birthday Boys

My three nephews all have December birthdays. The twins turned six last Saturday, and Ryan will turn eight next week. Each December we travel to Puyallup to celebrate their birthdays. I teased Nadine that next year they'll have to come to our house to help us decorate for Christmas. We always help them decorate their house, and although we do have our tree, we haven't even begun to start decorating ours yet!

When Saturday dawned, all the boys were up early, as were Mom and I. We decided to take all the younger boys to Starbucks as an early birthday treat. Little did we know that our cars would have a thick icy layer of frost on all of our windows and everything would be frozen. (We had to take two separate vehicles because of all the car seats.)
Never again will I take five little boys to Starbucks. They were well behaved enough, but when we were trying to order, Nick was wandering around a bit and getting excited (as he is wont to do at age 3). He stood on a chair next to some guy and shouted. I went to retrieve him and corral him to a table we had found back in a corner...but the guy looked daggers at me. Once the kids were all ensconced with the donuts, breakfast sandwiches, and chocolate milk, all was fine...until the guy and his female companion left the store. He glared at us and left, shaking his head in disgust. Next time we will go to Krispy Kreme instead--I'll bet the customers there are more accustomed to children.
He--and other people who seem to wallow in negativity and try to drag us down into the muck--is the reason that I am trying to make this my mantra for 2010:

“Have compassion for everyone you meet, even if they don't want it. What appears bad manners, an ill temper, or cynicism is always a sign of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen. You do not know what wars are going on down there where the spirit meets the bone.” –Miller Williams

How could he be so disgusted at such sweet little boys as these?


You can tell how cold it was--because my camera lens was all fogged up from being outside!!


Tree decorations:

Daniel:

A wonderful quiet moment between Nick and his Uncle David:
Grandpa and the boys:


Birthday boys and their presents (from us):

Nick in his hand-me-down Christmas dinosaur sweater (from his cousins):
With Aunty Nadine:

Me and Kieran:

Nadine and David's sister-in-law Judy and her son David:

The whole family--Dennis (David's brother), Judy, David, and Sam:

All of us in front of the tree:
Sam and her Uncle David:

Herrera (the boys' wonderful nanny) and my mom:

The boys and their Speed Racer cake:

Posing in front of the tree:

Herrera and the boys:
Nadine and David:
And the whole family:


Celebrating our sweet nephews' birthdays in Puyallup is always a great way to start of December!

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