Black Fridays Matter!

Topical, right?  I thought so.

We actually don't partake in Black Friday for a number of reasons, and all of them are exactly what you would assume (shitty deals, horrible shoppers, no sleep, starts on a Thursday, greedy corporations, etc.)  I think America is finally starting to wake up, though - more and more people are starting to skip Black Friday and the idiocy of those shoppers who still scamper out at 3am to a local Best Buy in order to score a 'deal' on a clearanced two-star HDTV that, well, sucks.

The Houghs stick to Amazon almost exclusively (the exception being stocking stuffers, which we try and take care of before Thanksgiving), and as a result we save more money than any Black Friday deal, and suffer 0 stress whatsoever in the shopping process.

Well, this year, we actually did walk into a store on the busiest shopping day of the year, and consequently became 'those people.'  The store in question, however, was somewhat off the beaten path - we hit up Bronner's Christmas Wonderland with Marcy and Scott on our way back from Romulus (seeing how it was on the way back to Midland and all.)  And, since we bought a few ornaments while we were there, we technically took part in Black Friday.

Which makes us assholes.

Here, take a look. . .

Friday morning in Romulus - high 30s/low 40s and rain.  How festive.

Kris and Margie ran out in the morning to grab coffee and donuts from Dunkin Donuts, which made Kris' day because it's her favorite and she hasn't had it since June.  She was beyond thrilled.

Aunt Margie to the rescue with hot cocoa for breakfast (she spoiled the bejesus out of these kids.)

Marcy watching Netflix with the girls in the den (no idea why Abby looks so morose.)

We had to jump Kris' aunt Mickey's car before we set out.  That's always fun.

Havin' a blast.

The girls have been here before, but it was for Christmas 2010. . . and who the hell remembers that?

I have the most uncooperative kids in the world. . .

. . . I mean, seriously. . .

The store was PACKED. . . which makes total sense, seeing how it's Black Friday and everything.  Got really old, really fast.

If you look closely, you can see Abby had recently been crying - she had a meltdown over this stupid moose stuffed animal from Frozen (I forget his name at the moment.)  As any good parent would do, I refused to purchase her the toy (I don't negotiate with terrorists), so she settled for having her picture taken with it.

Into the forest. . .

Browsing for treasure (Kris and I switched kids so that I could have the better-behaved one and she could have Rosemary's baby.)

This store's gigantic - we were there for about two hours and maybe hit up 30% of the store.

Snugglin' with little plush animals.  Little plush animals are practically used as currency in this house.

Bein' weird with Grandma and Grandpa Jordan.

The Houghs.  In front of some stuff.

Way to pose, Abby.

Abby telling Grandma Jordan about the true meaning of Christmas (seriously.)

Hooray for. . . Kern?

A jolly kick-off to the 2015 Christmas Season

When we got back to Midland, and after Marcy and Scott had taken off, we threw in a Christmas movie for the girls and I set up our Christmas Tree.  As you may or may not recall from a year ago, we had a strand of lights go out on the tree last Christmas, and I knew it was going to be the big Christmas Dilemma of the 2015 season.  Well, I strung up another three strings of lights on the string - which went beyond the simple filling of dark holes.  Took forever, but now our tree looks awesome.

Margie sent us home with a giant can of popcorn, which the kids quickly set to work on while watching Home Alone.

Ready for ornaments.

The Merry Irishman, made from an assortment of boozes (shown here.)

Once the kids went to sleep, it was time for Christmas cocktails (my weapon of choice for tonight you just saw), ornaments, and our go-to Christmas decorating movie-in-the-background, Some Like It Hot.  I've mentioned it before, but it just became a family Christmas tradition by accident - we randomly put it in one year while decorating our tree, and then we just kinda continued to do so every year thereafter.  Totally randomness, which is fitting indeed for our family.

Comedic gold - this movie is beyond underrated.  Jack Lemon is a genius.

After awhile you have to kill the Christmas lights and see what the tree looks like un-lit (to make sure ornaments are evenly-spaced along the tree.)  Mission accomplished, America.  

The finished product, over and hour (and a few drinks) later.

Vanquished.

The 2015 Hough Family Christmas Tree

Lazy, lazy roommates (in other news, check out my festive record collection lighting in the background - awesome, right?)

- Brian