Christmas in Clare

Dad and Cindy's super-festive library. . .

Happy Day After Christmas.

We enjoyed sleeping in today, I can assure you.  Yesterday was downright brutal:  running on four hours or so of solid sleep, coupled with waaaay more rich food than I'm used to, a series of Christmas cocktails with Chris and Nicole in the morning, and a frantic schedule more or less rendered our family comatose by 8pm last night.  No one was in a hurry getting around this morning.

The formal dining room. . . where I've eaten, like, twice.

Alas, eventually we did have to get our asses in gear, for the Houghs had two more Christmases yet to celebrate:  one with Dad and Cindy today, and a larger, extended family celebration on the 27th.  This entailed driving to Clare late this morning in order to open gifts with my parents before Jeff's family rolled into town to do Christmas.

(. . .and snag one of the two better guest rooms in my dad's house before more out-of-town company arrived.)

Anyway, here's how this year's Christmas in Clare played out. . .

Upon arrival, the kids made a dash for the stack of presents under the tree, but we decided to hold off until they had some food in their system and were in better moods (after two days of insanity and being showered with gifts, they were acting like a couple of prima donna brats.)

Watching some TV and composing herself.

Abby is, without a doubt, the more volatile of our two children.  Her temper is truly the most recent in a long line of successive traits that have been passed down through the Hough Family over the years; without a doubt, she inherited this horrible temper from Yours Truly, who in turn got it from my Dad, and so on and so forth.  In short, my grandchildren are going to be assholes.

I attempted to teach the Cannonball how to play pool in the basement, but I think it's safe to say we're still a few years off from her getting the hang of this.

Nothing about this looks comfortable in the slightest.

Watson's BFF, Bailey.

After an hour or two, we decided to let the girls start opening gifts. . .

Kris wants to buy purses with this.  I'll probably spend mine on knives or records.  You know, important stuff.

Patiently awaiting her turn. . .

See, if  I had designed this, I would have had the shirt read 'Pug Life' instead.  'Cause that's "gangster."

More Shopkins.  Thank Jesus.

(I think Abby just crapped in her pants.)

Another coffee mug for Kris (she's as bad as me and my beer glasses.)  This mug's been on her list for over five years, so I'm pretty sure my parents just wanted the shit gone so they could stop looking at it.

After wrestling with Bailey for a couple hours, Watson fell asleep sitting up like this.  Those two dogs are ridiculous when they get around each other.

Abby got a crap load of these Star Wars Galactic Heroes (from Playskool) this year - they're like action figures, except you can't take the weapons out of their hands (and consequently lose them.)  Definitely more user-friendly for kids in the 3 - 6 range.

This set was pretty cool - came with six different types of Imperial soldiers from the "good" Star Wars movies (Stormtroopers, Snowtroopers, Sandtroopers, pilots, etc. etc.)  I kinda want a set for my office now.

This was Nirvana's Unplugged in New York, which was one of the three or four albums that defined my sophomore year in High School.  The sound quality (180) is phenomenal.

I can't believe I didn't own pint glasses from my alma mater before. . . whenever I'm drinking beer at Dad and Cindy's, I always use one of their WMU glasses, so they decided to give a set of my own this year.  Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure the only WMU stuff I still own is a stained, beat-up hoodie and a rusty trash can.

Abby lays claim to the kitchen table.

. . . then Jeff and Annie and their kids rolled in to continue the Christmas madness.  While they tore into their gifts, I was in the Library attempting to put together Alayna's new Playmobil Vet Clinic (the girls have recently gotten into Playmobil, especially sets dealing with animals.  Unsurprisingly.)

Owen has a hell of a lot more teeth than either or our girls did at that age.  I don't think Alayna had this many teeth until she was four.

Taking a moment of quiet from all the gift craziness to play with her new Vet Clinic set.

Rowley and his wife, Lyssa, had been at his dad's house celebrating their family's Christmas for the majority of the day.  He ended up rolling in shortly before Jeff and his fam had to leave.  

Scarlett hates her picture being taken with an unbridled passion.  

Some of the super-fragile glass ornaments on the auxiliary Christmas tree in the library.  You know, the one that kids aren't allowed to go even remotely close to.

Not cool, Snow Village.  Not cool.

More to come - stay tuned. . .

- Brian