Christmas at the Bubela's

Wayne woke me up at 7:30 this morning...(what the?)...to see what time I wanted to go to Carolyn and Brent's to take our gifts for the little ones.  "Not this early," I replied.  I was thinking of going about 10:00.  "Why do you have a flashlight?", I asked just before I realized it was his iPhone.  Carolyn had texted him a Merry Christmas greeting and he seemed to want to reply...maybe he didn't remember how to do it.  He's fairly new at having a smartphone.

When I got my new iPhone, the 4G-S, I gave him my old one and suggested that he mess around with it and get familiar with it.  He was long overdue for an upgrade and I thought he might want to consider the iPhone.  He had it for about a month before he decided to upgrade.  I went with him to the AT&T store, but they didn't have one in stock.  He's been on the waiting list for several weeks.  When he checked with them a day or two ago they told him he was in the #3 spot.

Even though he wasn't able to buy a new iPhone at that time, we did have them activate my old one (a 3G-S) for him.  Now he's pretty much like the rest of us smartphone users.  See the photos below for the big age difference in users... Jax at 2 and Wayne at 68.

At a soccer match...I love the look on his face

Surrounded by onlookers

Shortly after this, he got out of the wagon and went to a chair surrounded by adults.  He was tired of the boys hovering over him.

Moving from Carlee's match to Kate's match...he never looked up!

Checking the weather or something

The video below shows the girls in the inflatable Karts we gave them for playing Mario Kart on the Wii.  It was a huge help to them.  The remote fits into the steering wheel of the inflatable and they have better control of the Kart onscreen.  Can't wait to give the boys theirs when we go to the Garner's this afternoon!

But first, here's one more shot of Jax.  They had removed the steering wheel from the Karts while they did other activities in the playroom (dancing, I think).  Jax got a new electronic thingy from us for Christmas and he decided the Kart was the perfect place to lounge while he figured it out.

Done!

And it's done. Well, the tree, anyway.  I got busy after breakfast this morning and finished putting the decorations on the tree. The photos below show different parts of the tree because it looks better than the tree as a whole.Well, that's not really what I meant to say. I took a picture of the whole, completed tree, but what really stands out are the lights...so much so that you don't see the ornaments. So the best way to look at it, in a photo anyway, is just little bits at a time.

I'm pretty happy with it. I did leave off quite a few small ornaments this year. They were the little wooden ones that I painted so long ago. There's also a box of small ornaments that a neighbor gave me and I usually use those but for some reason I didn't open that box this year.

Next, I need to hang the stockings. There are 13 of them...that's if I don't include pets. I used to include Robin's dog, but now she has three dogs and Wendy has a cat, so no pet stockings this year.

I think I'll keep the mantle a little more simple this year. Last year there were trains, a village , and trees...in addition to all the stockings. We'll see.

The snowman is the first ornament on the tree every year.  Wade brought that home from pre-school our last Christmas with him.  The popcorn ornament said "Wayne" to me.

I bought the leaf ornament while I was at Mirror Lake last year.

It doesn't have to be expensive to look pretty on a Christmas tree.  The green ornament was in a box of 6 for $4.  In this photo you can also see glittery pipecleaners twisted into spirals.

The tractor was also for Wayne.  I made the baby in the sleeper a few years after the Tyrolean characters. Age has not been kind to this ornament...the baby looks like Lizzy Borden has taken an ax to her head!

The santa working on the tire was for Wayne.  I made the grandma in green and the angel in the egg shell.

I bought this Santa in overalls because it reminded me of Wayne.  I made the Tyrolean figure...made about a dozen of them in the early 70's.