...aaaaand a Couple More Christmases

Battle Stations. . .

We're nearing the end of the Holiday Gauntlet, America.  Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Christmas in Clare is over and one with, leaving only a handful of smaller Christmas get-togethers and New Year's Eve in the 2019 Holiday Season.

We had Christmas at Mom's on today's agenda, beginning in the early afternoon, followed by a Christmas party with our entire friend circle over at the Bos residence later around 6pm.  A hell of a lot of Yuletide festiveness to cram into one day, raging for over twelve hours.  Fortunately, we Houghs never turn down an opportunity to put on our Party Pants.

Here's how it all went down.

Enjoy.

Shortly after we arrived at Mom's, we ate some more Mexican food - this, apparently, is the new Christmas cuisine norm - tacos, nachos, etc.  After everyone ate, we moved on to the living room, where folks started to exchange gifts.  Here's Abby opening up another gift card from Grandpa Chinery.

Owen and Abby (and one of Abby's new trucks.)

Scarlett watches as Alayna and Abby open a few more gifts.

Yet another gift card for the Cannonball.  I feel that this chick now has more disposable income than I do. . .

Mom and John got us this dachshund skeleton - that looks eerily like our dog, Watson - for our house for the Halloween season (as you may or may not recall, we're kinda big on the whole 'Halloween' thing at our house. . .)  

I kept messing with Owen throughout the afternoon:  whenever he came into the room I'd take his picture, so he'd run off into the kitchen/dining room area.  This went on for hours.

He had to come back in to save his truck at one point, of course.

Kris' turn to open some gifts.

Mom bought Abby a gift certificate to the Build-a-Bear Workshop, where kids can design their own stuffed animal from scratch, pick out clothes for it, and pick out other shit for it like sounds and even scents.  It's a Goddamn con job, but kids love the hell out of it, and Abby's been wanting to check it out for awhile now.  The closest Build-a-Bear location is down in frickin'  Grand Rapids, sooooo. . . . it looks like I'm going to be visiting BP soon.

Grandpa helps Sam out with his new car.

Chris always makes sure his Santa hat matches his pajama pants. . .

Mom opens up a few gifts from her grandkids. . .

Owen makes another quick escape upon spotting the camera lens closing in on him.

Remember the coasters that Kris got her mom on Christmas Eve?  She did the same thing for Mom and John, except obviously there was some swapping out of certain grandchildren (Chris and Jeff's various kids with Jessica's, to be precise.)

Louis and Sam both got these indestructible plastic cars from Grandpa Chinery.  They played with them for the remainder of the day.

Admiring some not-so-awesome grandchild artwork.  Wouldn't be a Christmas without each grandparent receiving a crap-ton of shitty, grandkid artwork.

Owen's waaaaay into this.

Personal space, bro.  Personal space.

I feel ya, Sam. . . .

Abby and Alayna each bought Mom some wall art at their school craft store/thing they always buy gifts at.  Think the cliche signs with words all over them that people steal from Pinterest.

Sam Jack and his namesake.  Three generations apart, yet somehow making the same face.

Keeping her younger cousin occupied at the window.

Around dinner time, we said our goodbyes to family and drove across town to our friends Mitch and Kelli's house, where the rest of our nine-family group of friends and offspring were assembling for a Christmas party.  As usual, the women hung out in one room (the dining room), the kids dispersed to the basement, and us husbands staked out the only room that matters at a Christmas party: the kitchen.  We hung around their center island, shoving shit in our faces, and drinking.  I brought along a cooler filled with a selection of Holiday Season craft beers (this one, alas, wasn't all that great.)

After a couple hours, the kids were all sat in a giant circle in their family room for a $10-and-Under White Elephant gift exchange.  Kris ordered a couple things for our kids to bring to the exchange off of Amazon, but the delivery truck - right at the last minute - got a 24-hour delay.  Abby decided to re-gift a $10 gift card she had received, but Alayna wanted to keep hers, so the day was saved (Alayna sat out, not interested in this at all.)

Kids (sans Cannonball) assembled.

The Dads.

Kids had to pass gifts left and right a few times, then each kid got a turn to draw a card, with each card containing a certain command ("take the biggest present," "take the smallest present," "take the present of the person who is on your left," etc.

Alayna and Kris watch from the sidelines.  Kris and I figured the girls could keep the gifts we bought for this, so by Alayna keeping her original gift card, she was actually coming out ahead.  She totally didn't mind sitting out and watching this.

Abby just so happened to draw her card last, and she drew a "steal a present from anyone" card - the Holy Grail of games like this.  She snatched up a certain gift that had been stolen seven or eight times before, and rightfully so:  inside was a pair of Bluetooth headphones, a ukulele, and a few other small items (I don't think they got the message this was a $10-an-under thing.)  To the Victor go the Spoils.

While this was going on, the Dads quietly retreated to the Dining Room, where these four started a game of poker. . .

This game would last a couple hours.  I don't get the appeal of poker.

- Brian