And So Goeth Up Thy Tree

Welcome back.

We decided to throw up the Christmas Tree the day before Thanksgiving opposed to the day after Thanksgiving this year.  More or less 'cause Kris had the day off, and I wasn't about to tackle that crap by myself.

Here's our Wednesday launch into the Season of Yule. . .

The girls sharpen their Wii skills with a little Lego Pirates of the Caribbean action (I still have the Wii U hooked up in the bedroom from my stint of post-vasectomy bed rest.)

These guys passed out on my bed.  Much like my old roommates used to, only for different reasons entirely.

As I was cleaning out an old tote in the garage, I stumbled across these bad boys in a bag among a bunch of old college relics. . .

The classic - and insanely popular - TMNT franchise of the '80s was really my brother Chris' thing, so I'll be sending these back up to Michigan via UPS.  Cowabunga

Wrapping presents. . .

We have to store these out of reach from prying eyes (and fingers.)  And FYI, that Muppets/John Denver albums is AWESOME.

Testing the lights.  We let the girls 'help us' with this part, as there's little they can break and/or screw up.  We always wait until after they go to sleep to put up the expensive (breakable) ornaments, when we can take our time, have a couple Christmas cocktails, and follow our bizarre tradition of watching the same, random movie while we decorate the tree.

We've officially graduated to two totes full of Christmas ornaments this year.  I guess that earns us another Adulthood merit badge.

Wouldn't truly be decorating the ol' Hough Family Christmas Tree without this classic. . .

The Merry Irishman - one of my favorite Holiday cocktails (Tullamore Dew Irish whiskey, coffee liqueur, peppermint schnapps, and - 'cause it's Christmas - garnished with a candy cane.)

At the bottom there you can see the Muppets collection I've been amassing since Hallmark launched the series in 2009 - only missing Kermit (2013) and Beaker (2010.)

Kris and I buy each other ornaments every year for Christmas, and nine times out of ten those are from Hallmark (and I usually pick up other ornaments from past years during the summer months when they're super cheap.)  Consequently, our tree looks absolutely ridiculous.

See that dog ornament there?  We bought that the year we got Watson, but never got around to putting his face in it.  So we have this random picture of a dog on our tree.  We're those people.

Honestly, if it were a genuine 'Mr. Hough' beer, it'd be an Imperial Stout (my personal favorite.)

The quasi-finished product (like I said before, we only put up the Hallmark and expensive ornaments ourselves now, and let the kids finish it up with the unbreakable, cheaper ornaments when they wake up the following morning.)

- Brian