The Curse Returneth: Christmas in Clare

I'm not usually one for over-dramatizing crap, but this Christmas will probably go down in Hough Family History as the Worst Christmas Ever.

(Well, maybe the Second Worst Christmas Ever.  Kinda hard to beat the Educational Christmas of 1988.)

As you know, we were blindsided not once, but twice by the Hough Family Holiday Curse, which ravaged Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year.  With the first two days of the season considerably damaged, we were looking forward to our two, remaining Christmases at my dad's house in Clare:  one with the Waite family on the 26th, and a Hough/White Christmas on the 30th.  We were hoping these get-togethers would be a yuletide rallying cry for the family, and lift us out of our end-of-the-year doldrums.

But alas, the Curse had other plans.

The human body is f***ing disgusting.

The morning of the 26th, we were notified that my dad's appendix was about to burst, and he had to go in for surgery.  Consequently, this meant that no relatives would be driving up for the holiday, and all festivities in Clare were prompted cancelled.  While this was disheartening, obviously, the good news was that it wasn't anything super-serious with Dad, and that being a relatively simple procedure and all, he'd end up being fine.  Plus, we were still looking forward to the 30th - our last shot at a family Christmas of some kind.

The Curse wasn't having that, either.

After a relatively quiet few days of Curse-free, sitting-around-the-house-doing-nothing-ness, December 29th saw Dad suffering complications from his surgery, and he was forced to once again enter the hospital.  This put the 30th up in the air, and it wasn't until the morning of the 30th itself that we received the word that Dad was feeling up to it and it'd be fine for everyone to come up to celebrate what was left of Christmas.

Had it not worked out, we probably would've just celebrated Christmas up at Eight Point Lake in the summer.  Just to play it safe.  I don't think the Curse has caught on to the fact our family gets together during the summer up there.

Anyway, here's how the Houghs finally told the Family Curse where to stick it.  Enjoy.

As usual, we brought up Watson with us, as it wouldn't be in the spirit of the season to deny him a playdate with his BFF, Bailey.  He started losing his shit while we were still on the expressway - usually he doesn't start going nuts in the car until we turn off onto Witbeck Drive.

We got in to Clare late in the morning, giving us enough time to do presents with our kids before Jeff and his crew rolled in (after his kids' nap times.)  Chris' family was still down with Small Pox, so they wouldn't be making an appearance.

Gift cards are getting to be a big hit with the girls, now that they're old enough to shop quasi-responsibly.

Dad was still pretty post-op at this point, so he was in pretty rough shape.

The girls were really excited to get these Amazon Dots for their bedrooms.  Alexa more or less controls our house now:  we have Echoes in the basement and main living areas, and now have Dots in all the bedrooms.  All we need is one in the Captain's Quarters downstairs and we're all set.  On a side note, I'm sure the girls having access to the intercom feature is going to get real old real fast.

They got a couple light-up bluetooth speakers to go along with them, too.  For when they really want to crank up their shitty, shitty pop music.

It's an Amazon kinda Christmas. . . that's how Houghs roll.

More room decor - the girls have both taken a lot of pride into how they're decorating their personal space lately.

Abby loves these dolls.

Why she wanted the 'nerd' doll?  Who knows.

Dad checks out Alayna's leopard-print fleece throw.  It's Alayna - of course it's leopard print.

Kris wanted a bike helmet this year, which is appropriate, seeing how she's a six-year-old girl.

Abby picked out an ornament for Cindy while we were at Bronner's a month or so ago, and went with this baker 'cause, according to Abby, "Nana likes cooking for people." Not sure if that's 100% accurate - maybe Cindy only does so because no one in our extended family can properly feed and take care of themselves.

Dad starts to tear into his plunder.

A picture-disc LP reissue of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's - that vinyl would look awesome framed.

. . . .and speaking of awesome vinyl, here's some coasters.

This classic's been on my wishlist for quite a while, and is a quintessential addition to any record collection.  At 200g, you know it sounded damn good. 

The annual Hough Family Christmas Calendar, courtesy of Cindy.

I've been wanting this record cleaning system for a couple years now, after having seen it in action over at Radio Wasteland.  I'm hoping it'll restore some of my older, vintage records.

This kid can't go twenty minutes without pounding on some ivory. . .

Bailey

Dad lends a hand with our family tree.  Not sure if I mentioned this or not, but Kris bought me a DNA kit through Ancestry.com this year, and one of the perks of registering the kit is they give you access to the site's full database in order to build up your family tree.  I've been working on our family's tree for the last few days, and have been able to trace some of the main lines pretty far back.  I traced the Houghs back to their initial crossing over from England in 1683, where they settled in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  In a super-creepy twist of fate, the Lundys (my maternal Grandma's paternal line), were traced back to the EXACT same PA county in the EXACT same year - the two families most likely knew each other back in the 1680s, which is creepy as pure f***.

Hanging out in the library

Dad verifies some of our family tree (we worked on this for awhile throughout the late morning/early afternoon.)

Watson claims one of Bailey's toys during some dog downtime. 

This is one of my favorite Christmas beers - always look forward to this one.

Showing off some new jewelry. . .

In the early afternoon, Jeff and his family rolled into town (they had to wait until their brood arose from their naps.)

Storybooks with Scarlett

(Pretty sure I've said this before, but this is my favorite room in Dad's house - I definitely have a thing for built-in shelving and fireplaces.)

Dad and some forty-five-year-old-trapped-in-a-baby's-body.

Gettin' festive.

Levi is not amused.

Christmas songs and Holiday ales

. . . .aaaaaand still not amused.

I'm a sucker for Holiday-themed koozies.

Busting out the ever-evolving medical kit from Fisher Price.

Cindy gets some help opening up her last Christmas present. . . whether she likes it or not.

We picked out an Instapot for Cindy this year.  I'm told they're 'all the craze' this year, which apparently is a good thing.  They're some kinda space-age pressure-cooker or something. . .  I don't know, I don't trust alien technology.

I have those kids.

Cindy actually got Kris the exact same Instapot, she's not just posing with Cindy's box.  This is more or less what happened to Dad and I a few years back with those record brushes we bought each other.

Scarlett

No idea what's happening here.

To be fair, I'd be pretty pissed if I had to wear that hat, too.

This kid seriously needs some space.  It's gotta suck being an infant.

A bunch of kids checking out the Snow Village.  Thank God it's not breakable at all!

You can probably imagine how 'good' these kids made this piano sound.

Levi, getting handled by some handsome guy.

These magnetic shape-things are fan favorites with my kids - they have a couple sets of these.

In the early evening, the Whites rolled in so all the cousins could exchange gifts.

Christmas chaos.

Jeff wrangles some of his brood.

The Cannonball lends Jax a hand with his new Lego set, which we got him for Christmas this year.  Lego has this new line called Juniors, which are more or less normal Lego sets just with simplified instructions, fewer pieces, and easier builds.

Obligatory Jax-and-Scarlett-holding-hands pic.

 Nephews.

Tending bar

Nana sets up the pool table for the grandkids.  Without fail, at some point in any visit, the kids find their way downstairs.

The Peanut Gallery

(I'd  make a joke, here, but she's probably better than I am.)

You gotta keep a hand free so you can pick your nose when you need to.  Obviously.

My wife disgusts Jeff.

Before we all took off back to Midland, Dad wanted to see if we couldn't pose all the grandkids together on the stairs.  Not surprising to ANYONE, this was a shit-show right from the beginning, and Levi couldn't handle it.  This one here would've been somewhat of a cute pic, but someone's camera flash off to my right cast a shadow of Owen's face.

Of seven kids, only Bradley is looking at the camera.  How is that f***ing possible?

Seriously.  You couldn't pay me enough to be one of those photographers who has to take pictures of people at JC Penney or Walmart.

- Brian