2018's Death Rattle

Auld Lang Syne, y'all.

December, and the year, have finally come to a close.  This year was much like last year, in that it's been drama-free, disaster-free, pretty easy-going, and we were lucky to have none of our relatives and/or favorite celebrities died (f*** you 2016, we're still mad at you.)  This last month was jam-packed to be sure, as it always is, so this month's installment is pretty substantial.  I'm sure we'll see the exact opposite come the end of January, when absolutely nothing happens.

So yeah, here's what the Hough's December looked like. . .

Towards the beginning of the month, Kris went down to Rochester Hills to hang out with her friend Sabrina for the weekend.  While she was down there, they hung out in downtown Detroit for a bit, and stumbled across this old church. . . that may or may not be familiar to you folks.

Fort Street Presbyterian Church.  (We were married there in October of 2006, guys - this was the first time either of us have ever returned to that church.)

Ice skating by some big-ass Christmas tree downtown.  No idea where, I was back home in Midland with the girls.

So this was a pretty awesome selection I picked up from Cork & Ale.  I went in looking for Brooklyn's seasonal Black Chocolate Imperial Stout, but it sadly wasn't available this year, so I settled for this one, and the Creme Brule Imperial Stout (see farther down on in this post) - both from Southern Tier (who do exceptional work with their imperial stouts.)

Hanging out on a Friday night and watching a Christmas movie.  There are a ridiculous amount of classic titles to work through every year.

Kris, Courtney, and their Girl Scout troop doing some Toys for Tots shopping at Meijer.  I'm sure there was a badge involved.

Behold: the 2018 Hough Family Christmas Card.  We went with 'authenticity' this year.

We always get so many Christmas cards of families standing around in flannel, outside in the leaves, with moms in boots and dads in crappy sweaters, and all the kids have puffy vests on, and everyone's smiling like a bunch of jackasses.  We didn't want to do that this year, so we said, 'let's just show people what we're really like.'  Mission Accomplished.

One night, the entire Fifth Grade gathered in the woods behind Midland's Center for the Arts to put on a caroling 'concert' for their parents and relatives. . .

Kris and Abby stood off to the right side of the kids (the audience of parents and grandparents formed a giant semi-circle in front of the assembled fifth graders), while I was directly in front of them.  I had brought along my SLR, but unfortunately Alayna was standing in the second row behind a couple of gigantic-for-their-age boys (as usual), so I couldn't see her at all.  I didn't get crap with my SLR, but was able to record the entirety of the concert (far too big of a file to upload here, unfortunately.)

Kris was able to get some video footage from her angle, though. . .

After about a half hour or Holiday carols, folks began to filter out back towards the Center for the Arts.  Alayna and Dani (whose mom works with Kris) hung out for a bit.

Photobombs.

Checking out some giant colored balls along the pathways. . .

Rosie, our family's Elf of the Shelf.  All frickin' month.

Hanging out, playing some Star Wars.

Alayna had her friend Noah stay the night, where they made an absolute mess of the kitchen making slime.  I f***ing hate slime.

Tropical Santa, Rosie, and Alexa.  Best Friends Forever.

Came back from a sub absence and found this scrawled across my white board.  Teenagers are weird.

Rosie, dollin' herself up like a whore.

Abby left this note for Rosie one night.  We were really stoked about having to fill a stocking for her f***ing stuffed bear.

One of Kris' co-workers created these custom Christmas-y signs for everyone in the office.  The Cannonball approves.

Rosie makes sure Alayna completes her piano lesson.

(This was much harder to set up than you'd think.  Rosie doesn't have opposable thumbs.)

This was unbelievable.  If you ever come across it in a store, snatch it up immediately.

My second-favorite Christmas movie of all time.  I don't care what anyone says:  if loving the Muppets is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

R.I.P. Jim Henson (and probably Sprocket, too - dogs only live so long.)

More festiveness in glass form.

This lame display we have here was created by Kris.  The Q-Tips are 'snowflakes.'  Good grief.

One afternoon, Mom took the kids for awhile so Kris and I could get down to some serious present-wrapping.  We trashed the living room in record time.

Seriously, girls.

It was high-time we introduced the offspring to the Greatest of All Holiday Movies.  Abby thought it was okay, Alayna immediately loved it.

(This was my idea.)

One weeknight (I think it was the week before Winter Break), we went out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings with our collective group of friends.  Seven of the families went, so we required two tables that sat 14 - 16 apiece.  On a whim, me and a few of the dads started to sit all the kids at one table, while the other was segregated into separate 'wife' and 'husband' sections.  Our server was indeed very brave, and rolled with the punches during the ordering process, but in the end she complimented on how unbelievably well-behaved all of our children were throughout the course of the meal (yes, Hell froze over.)   On our way out, we tipped her a small fortune so she could go to college for free.

You can kinda tell these are my children. . .

Cookie Booths.  I hate the whole Girl Scout cookie thing more than anything else in this world.

Kris went in to the girls' school the last day before break to help out during the classroom Christmas parties.  Here we have Abby using dry pasta to create. . .  something.

And here's 5th grade, featuring Alayna and some members of her squad.

Here's me and my 'Work Wives' (the ELA, Science, and Math teachers on my team, respectively), during our school's Ugly Christmas Sweater Day.

After the last day of school before Winter Break, me and my two brothers went down to Whichcraft for some local craft beers and some kid-less, wife-less down time. 

This one was pretty damn good.  Gonna have to look for it next time I frequent Cork and Ale.

Selfies with mom.

I don't know why we subject ourselves to this one.  It's a toss up which one of the Clauses - Santa or Mrs. - I'd rather throw off a bridge.

Doll time.  They're big into dragging out a bunch of their doll stuff into the living room in order to play. . . 'cause God forbid they pick up their bedrooms enough for them to have some floor space to play somewhere else.

Exhibiting some rare sisterly cooperation with their dolls.  We don't get many moments like this anymore, so whenever we do we try to capture them on film (er, whatever the digital equivalent of 'film' is.)

Alayna left this note for Rosie one night before she went to bed.  I like that she's attempting to cover all her bases in order to insure a bountiful Christmas morning.  The piece of Christmas cookie left behind as an offering for the elf was a nice touch, too.

Kris had Rosie take some 'selfies' of the kids while they were sleeping, and I wrote out a letter in response (you can open up the image if you want to read it, I guess.)  It's in reply to Alayna's previous note.

Kris wanted to make some of these chocolate-covered peanut butter ball thingies (I guess folks call 'em 'Buckeyes') one night, in preparation for the Holidays and our Christmas Eve thrown-together shin-dig.

(This was a lot harder than it looks.  Just sayin'.)

Kris really wanted to put up a table in the Study for a puzzle over the Holidays, but I put my foot down (I didn't want my classy Study being filled with clutter.)  So I suggested the bottom of Watson's old dog crate as a portable puzzle surface, which worked out incredibly well.  That's what we call a 'life hack' in cyber speak, folks.

Watson really wanted to get down with this.

Ew. 

Nailed it. . . ?

More Christmas, more Muppets.

Advent Calendars.  A somewhat obligatory - and frequently skipped - Hough Family Christmas tradition.

Abby displaying the infamous 'Hough' temper. . .

Rosie's last night in the Hough Home this season. . .

She left a lengthy letter for the girls on her way out.  As usual, her penmanship was exquisite.

So remember how we gave Alayna a new bed set, lamp, decal set, some other room accessories, and a gift card so she could redesign her bedroom into a 'Paris' theme?  Two days after Christmas, Kris and I went out and picked up some paint and decided to get the whole 'room makeover' thing over and done with.  These 'before' pictures you see were taken back in April, but I put them in here so you could see what her room used to look like.

Edging the room.  It was going to take a few coats of white to cover those pink walls. . .

Alayna popped in once and awhile to 'help' with the whole painting thing.

Before.

After.  In hindsight, I should've gotten a picture with her white bed canopy set up, but I didn't think about it at the time. . . soooo just picture one of those fancy, white canopies above her bed and you'll get the idea.

Before.

After.  Again, we took a picture before all the decals and wall art were up.  Whoops.

Alayna had Kris' phone for this.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume she was talking about the dog.

Kris and the girls randomly met up with a few friends one day over Winter Break at Midland's Roll Arena.

One Sunday morning I was downstairs in the Captain's Quarters, having a cup of coffee and playing a video game.  It was like 6:30am, so the rest of the house was still asleep.  Suddenly, out of nowhere, Abby came walking in looking like this.  She had woken up with a bloody nose, and instead of walking three frickin' feet from her bedroom across the hall to the bathroom, she decided to wander around the house looking for me.  Thank God she didn't drip anything on the floors - we totally lucked out there.

A couple days later, after shopping in Saginaw for some decor for Alayna's fancy new Paris-themed bedroom, we decided to hit up Valley Lanes with the Johnsons for some lunch and bowling.

She bowls like her old man.

These scoreboards are getting pretty high tech.

Healthy lunch.

Abby wanted a selfie.  Give me some credit.

Playing with dolls with cousin Scarlett.

Abby had a sleepover with Ella the night before New Year's Eve.   We recently acquired a futon couch for the basement, which has done its job of keeping kids down in the basement for much longer duration of time.  It's AWESOME.

Yet another girl selfie.

. . . aaaand one with Dad.

Putting some effort into Kris' puzzle while we wait for Smitty and Rita (something we're not at all unfamiliar with after all these years.)

This was only so-so.  But hey, it had a record on the label. . .

It's pop.  Chill out.

Abby made it until about 11:15pm this year.  Which is about the usual with her, honestly (her sister has no problem staying up, so long as there's TV involved.)

Smitty and Rita help the Houghs ring in the New Year, once again.  Here's to a (hopefully) badass 2019.

- Brian