The End of the 'Teens

What's goin' on, America.

So here we have the Houghs, at the end of another decade.  I have to say, the last ten years have been a whirlwind of change, and it's weird to think of looking back on where we were ten years ago around this time.

Oh wait, here you go.

A lot's changed, right?  Damn straight.  We got a second kid, got a dog, we changed addresses a few times, we changed jobs a few times, we changed states (once), we bought a couple houses, bought a couple cars, went on vacations, went on adventures, went to Europe, went to the hospital, joined new churches, joined new secret societies, joined a couple different Girl Scout troops. . . phew.

Whole lotta livin', folks.

And now we get to look forward to the Roaring Twenties.  I, for one, am really looking forward to it; not my forties, per se, but the idea that I get to once again live in a decade that's easy to say.  God knows we haven't had that since the Nineties.

I mean, seriously - what do you call it, the 2000's?  That's lame.  And the 'Teens?  Is that what we're calling it these days, now that they're over?  That's equally lame.

So anyway, here's a long-winded rundown of the Houghs' last, jam-packed, chaotic month of the 'Teens (God I hate saying that):  all Hail the Randoms of December.

Enjoy. . .

The first Sunday of the month, we volunteered at Kris' church's Friendship Lunch, which dishes out free meals to the community homeless.  Unfortunately for all parties involved, the day we signed up to do this, their was an ice storm in town, and the Church lost power.  Since we had no power, we waited around for a bit (shown here) to see what the program's manager wanted to do for lunch, and ultimately we ended up handing out Subway and bags of chips to those hobos that showed up.

A wintery start to December.  The majority of the month would definitely not look like this.

Another day, another Amazon package. . . 'Tis the Season.

Kris has bought a ridiculous amount of fleece this winter - pants, blankets, you name it.

Every year, around this time, I have my students recreate the Constitutional Convention, where delegates from twelve states (thanks for nothing, Rhode Island) came together to revise the Articles of Confederation and put into a motion a new form of government.

Students are assigned the identity of actual, historical delegates, and argue various debate issues taking their personal and state stances.  It's a pretty cool activity, but it's a shit-load of prep work.

Rosie Peppermint, our resident Elf on the Shelf, 'came back' this month - something Kris and I grudgingly undertake every December.  This year, as you're about to see, we really went half-ass with it - we've more or less run out of ideas at this point.

I like the cut of Rosie's jib.

Went to a basketball game at Alayna's school (they were playing my 8th graders, who absolutely slaughtered Northeast) and saw these signs they were selling.  They have auto decals as well, so I'm sure we'll end up grabbing something at some point, if only to appease the Cannonball.

Doing some arts and crafts (I guess, I wasn't there) at Youth Night at First United Methodist, a weekly thing the church does for middle and high school students.  Alayna always brings a friend along with her, so this week's model was Christina.

 

Posing in front of the Christmas Tree.

Seriously, we're so frickin' bad at this it's not even funny.  What's hilarious is that the kid's didn't even seem to notice.  Once and awhile they'd ask where the elf was, but it wasn't a daily thing.  Sometimes they wouldn't even bother looking for her, so Kris and I are really crossing our fingers we don't have to go through this next year.

Some pretty awesome-looking beer cans I came across at Zack's Meijer down in Kalamazoo, when I went down there towards the beginning of the month to visit for the weekend.

Upon returning from Kalamazoo, I found my house contaminated with head lice.  Fortunately, only Alayna really got it - Kris found a couple in Abby's hair the first time she combed through it, but during subsequent combings found nothing.  Still, we had to play it safe, so the Sunday I came home we spent the entire day doing laundry, combing kids' hair, and watching a shit-load of TV.  I moved a TV from the Captain's Quarters up to the Kitchen in order for the kids to have something to watch while we combed their hair.  I pulled the trigger on Disney+ after seeing it at Zack's house - definitely hard to say 'no' to all the Disney, Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar movies and shows, plus the entirety of The Simpsons (my all-time favorite show.)  The girls definitely approved of this purchase.

I hate lice.  I hate them so Goddamned much. 

Kris and I both had to take Monday off of work in order to further treat this lice outbreak, and we paid nearly $200 to drive Alayna down to Kalamazoo (yes, I drove back-to-back down to Kalamazoo twice within 24 hours - not fun at all) in order to have her hair professionally treated at some place called Rapunzel's, that guarantees the eradication of every last nit and egg in a person's hair.  We were all checked out, found clean, Alayna was treated, and we were free to go.  Definitely a shitty day, but it got the job done.

Frickin' Rosie.  She doesn't know how to play chess.

Digging for candy in the cracks of our couch.

Some copious shots of this year's Christmas Tree. . .

(I love the color transitioning setting we have this set at.)

Out for lunch with Mom one Friday the kids had a half-day (must be nice. . . .)

(This one was my idea.  Not that you could tell.)

Alayna's 6th Grade Orchestra had a concert at Central Park one weeknight, half-way through the month.

She's done pretty good with it this year.

It's like listening to a cat being skinned, isn't it?

The worst part about this whole concert was that we parents couldn't leave after the 6th grade was finished performing - we had to wait for the 7th and 8th grade orchestras to perform as well.  Man, I don't give a f*** about other folks' kids, gimme a break. . .

I try and pick up a sixer of this every season - it's one of those Christmas beers that you can drink a six of without feeling like you've eaten 20lbs worth of food.

One Friday evening, Kris took the girls and Alayna's friend, Sylvia, down to Dow Gardens to run around and check out the Christmas lights.

Sylvia, Alayna and Abby

Abby looks pissed. . .

The womenfolk also got to meet the reindeer they had brought down (assumingly from the North Pole.)

This is so unsanitary. . .

Posed in front of some giant-ass tree.

While Kris and the girls were away at Dow Gardens, Yours Truly was over at the Collier residence where some of us dads got together for some darts, poker, and boozery.

Ryan's got some dart set-up that connects via Bluetooth to an app on his phone, which he then projects onto his TV.  A pretty high-tech setup, and it definitely improves the game.

Erik, Morgan, Ryan and Jeff - mid-game.

I generally opt not to play poker when these guys do so, because it bores the living crap out of me.  This evening, however, the guys twisted my arm into playing, so I proceeded to do so. . . and kicked ridiculous amounts of ass in the process.

My winnings were ridiculous, and I made it to the final two, but after 2am I just started throwing my hands away so I could go home and sleep.  I'm too old to party this hard.

Later on in the weekend, we knocked out a couple more Christmas movies, like this timeless classic.

My kid's weird. 

Abby's school had a Spirit Week the last week before we all went on Winter Break, and one of these days was 'Hat Day.'  Abby opted to wear one of her dolls' hats instead of one of her own.

Kris, Courtney and their Girl Scout troop passed out hot chocolate and cookies to folks standing in line outside the Santa House over the weekend.  Here we have Abby and Ella bolting back and forth, doped up on sugar.

Courtney and the sugar dispensary.

Ella, some possessed random chick, and Abby.

I'm sooooo sick of doing this.  You have no idea.  Coming up with new things for this stupid thing to do every night after the kids go to bed is a burden I definitely don't need this time of year. . .

Another week, another concert at Central Park.  This time, it was Alayna's Choir group.

The good news is, we didn't have to stay for the 7th and 8th grade choir concerts - we just left after the 6th graders walked off the stage.  Now that's my kinda middle school concert.

Kris lifted this idea off of Pinterest. . . and afterwards the girls refused to use their bathroom toilet because they didn't want Rosie seeing them.  F***ing kids. . .

I came in to work the last day before Winter Break to find this note left behind by my building custodian.  I was immediately perplexed:  either he a.) believes my name is Kevin, or b.) named his vacuum cleaner Kevin.  I'm not sure which one concerns me more.

That same day, Kris went in to Chestnut Hill for a little bit to help out with Abby's classroom Christmas Party. . .

No idea what the hell is happening here. . .

Making a Yuletide mess. . .

Abby aaaaaaand someone I don't know.

While Abby and I were at our respective schools, Kris took Alayna to a different Rapunzel's for a follow-up with her hair.  After finding her lice-free, two weeks later, they celebrated with some Dunkin' Donuts (which, as you know, they no longer offer around these parts.)  Kris is arguably the world's biggest DD fan.

That weekend, Kris and I wrapped gifts while Mom and John watched the girls.

A seasonal favorite from Bell's Brewery. . .

My all-time, second-favorite Christmas movie. . .

Rockin' out with the Electric Mayhem.

Watson, like Kris, is a big fan of fleece.

Kris' project gift for Marcy and Mom.  She modge-podge'd (I don't know how you spell that) pictures of the girls to tile squares, added some cork on the bottom, and - voila - grandchild coasters.  If that's your thing.

Meal-prepping the Monday before Christmas Eve, in anticipation of the following day's influx of relatives. . .

Playing a family question game - a meal-time favorite around these parts.

Another hangout with the guys over at the Collier residence, while Kris was wrapping up the food prep.  No poker this time around, but we did do darts again . . .

When I returned home, Kris and I watched this Holiday Classic.

A White Russian for Kris, a Merry Irishman for Yours Truly.  You gotta love Christmas Cocktails. . .

A couple days after the Christmas dust settled, the Johnsons invited all of our friend group families over to the Holiday Inn to swim (Erik had cashed in all his Big E's rewards to get a room for the night so the kids could all swim.)  The hot tub there was half-inside, half-outside, so obviously the girls got a huge kick out of swimming back and forth.

Swimming outside.  No, thank you.

These kids are frickin' nuts - there's no way I'd be down for swimming outside in the middle of winter.

BFFs Abby and Ella

The Cannonball gets down with some pizza.  Erik splurged on all the food for everyone - that dude must've had a hell of a lot of Big E's reward points to afford all of this. . .

Moms, gossiping.

When we came home later that night from the Holiday Inn, we discovered that all of our exterior Christmas lights were fully-operational.  This really wierded us out, since a three-foot strand of lights above the garage (of course, at the highest possible point along the house) had burnt out a few days after Kris and I strung them all up.  Every year, despite the fact I plug in and test every last string of lights prior to hanging them up, I always have a short length of lights burn out after a few days.  This year, obviously, was no exception. . . then, miraculously, after a couple weeks, the lights came back on.  I'm just gonna go ahead and call that a belated Christmas miracle.

After we I set up Abby's new loft bed, Kris and I decided to repaint Abby's walls in order to give it more of a beach theme.  Kris kept the coral accent wall, but painted over the grey walls with white.  Took about three coats, but it turned out really well.

Inspecting the paint job.

New Year's Eve this year, we had planned on going down to celebrate with Rita and Smitty (per tradition, they are our New Years Eve go-to's.)  Alas, Smitty had to work that night at the last minute, so we were forced to cancel.  We didn't really feel up to going out to another party, so we decided to stay in and invite some of our neighbors over instead.  While we waited for them to arrive, we played a game of Skip-Bo, which the girls really enjoy.

Like father, like daughter. . .

One last selfie of the decade. . .

- Brian