All Hallows Eve

Happy Halloween, America!!!

Abby the Vampire

This is it.  The climax of October, the apex of Fall. . . which is kinda weird seeing how the day after our big Halloween costume bash we're pretty much done with everything 'Halloween' around these parts. 

Today's social get-together over at the Johnson residence is definitely a more scaled-down affair that what we held last night, but it's still a hell of a lot of fun.  The kids go out Trick-or-Treating the 'horseshoe' neighborhood (compromised of Sweetbrier, Hanover, etc.) while us adults hang bang in the their driveway around a fire pit, drinking beer, passing out candy, and gorging on food.  Then, unfortunately, everyone's back to home by frickin 9pm so that we can all get up and go to work the next morning.

Seriously. . . who the heck schedules a Halloween on a Sunday night?  C'mon, America.

So yeah. . . here's this year's installment of Hough Halloween-ishness. . .

Getting ready to head out.  Alayna refused to get a picture of 'just her,' so this is what you get, folks.  Teenagers suck.

Settin' up shop at the Johnson's, with dads out in the driveway and moms touching up kid costumes indoors.  Like God intended. 

Some of the children of the assembled adults, posed in the Johnson's front yard.

Abby, in the back left, wearing her candy bag on her head. . . 'cause why not.

Alayna had nothing to do with any of this evening's activities - Kris dropped her off at her friend Christina's house so that she could Trick-of-Treat with her friends instead.  You know, like a cool kid.

These are all anime characters.  This is seriously the nerdiest shit ever.

Abby runs out to meet her mom (in the distance), who is bringing along a zip-up fleece she told Abby not to forget at home.  Kids are awesome.

Assembled children, ready to head out.

I'm not huge on ciders, but this one was pretty awesome.

Hours later, Abby and Sophie come stumbling in, weighted down with pounds of sugar.

Dividing up the spoils.

Good to know kids are still just as cut-throat with trading collected candy as they were in the '80s.

A little while later, Abby and Ella passing out by the driveway fire.

Mitch and Ryan showed up towards the end of the night and joined Erik and I hanging out in the Johnson's garage. . .

. . . aaaaand they brought their wives.

A whoop-ass nightcap at the end of the night.  Happy Halloween, jerks.  

- Brian

The Houghs' 900th Episode: A Monster Mash

Welcome to this blog's 900th installment, folks - the Hough's 6th Annual Halloween Costume Party.

Behold the Kid Zone - primed for party-time chaos.

This year was a true return-to-form - a costume party with nearly sixty people in attendance.  Last year our plans were mixed up a bit, since the Saturday fell on Halloween itself, which meant we had to merge our party with the Johnson family's annual Trick-or-Treating, driveway grill fest.  Due to spiking Covid numbers, an outdoor affair last year worked out rather well, all things considered, but it definitely didn't feel the same.  We were grateful that this year, once again, we were able to hold our party the way we usually did - with a huge spread of food on hand, everyone in costumes, etc.

All those streamers would be torn down within an hour.

So instead of writing too much more about this - because you guys all know how we roll with these annual Halloween parties of ours by now - I'll leave you to enjoy a crap-load of pics from this year's Hough Halloween Party.

Behold. . .

Kris' spooky-yet-delicious seven-layer taco dip.

Kris and I spent a couple hours in the kitchen prepping for this damn party.  Not my favorite thing in the world, I'll tell ya that much.

A kid staple: mummy dogs.  I had to hand-wrap these, and I was not good at it.  By far the low point for me this evening.

We went with a '90s theme this year, but of course our kids didn't want anything to do with that so we didn't really have a family 'theme' this year.  Kris wanted to do a Clueless group costume, so she dressed up as Brittney Murphy's character from the movie, Tae, while I played the part of her high school pot-head, skateboarding boyfriend.

The Larsons, as the Addams Family.  They showed up an hour early to help us finish setting everything up.

The Colliers.  They showed up about the same time as the Bos Fam, with Ryan dressed up as Dale Earnhardt Sr (he even shaved off everything but his mustache for the role) and Mees as Dionne, another character from Clueless (she got to be the black chick from the movie because she felt that, as the Asian in the group, she was the closest thing.)  No idea what their kids are.

Mitch and Kelli as Zack Morris and Kelly Kapowski from Saved By the Bell.

The Fab Five

Grazing in the kitchen

Mitch set up a deep-frying station in our garage so he could crisp up some of the smoked wings Erik brought.  A time-consuming process, but they were sooooo good.

The Nadgaudas.

The Johnsons.  Courtney went as Alicia Silverstone's character from Clueless (the main character), and Erik was her boyfriend, Paul Rudd.

The Holty Family (I guess her kids didn't get the memo about dressing up.)

Some of the kid spread in the basement.

The Sheahan Family as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Say what you will about this group of ours, we're never short on food. . .

Brad as Mario

Trina (one of Kris' coworkers) and her husband, Eric.

The Griffin Family.  Lonnie Big Balls and LJ dressed up in Space Jam jerseys, while Stephanie and Alivia suited up in Beanie Baby outfits.

Cluckfest at the kitchen table.

Never short on meat around these parts. . .

Wives and lemon shots, assembled.

The dads, as usual, stuck to the Study

The likeness is uncanny. . .

The Dads

The 'cast' of Clueless.

(Their attempt at the pic above.)

Kelli, Amy, Trina, and Alicia

Mitch and Morgan

The womenfolk entertained themselves with random party games in the living room for most of the evening, per the usual.

The Three Amigas - Ella, Abby and Sophie - wanted a few posed pictures in front of the backdrop. . .

Like this one, where they took turns being the happy one in the middle being flanked by the other two giving the middler person a WTF look.  I don't know, kids are weird. . .

Kris and Danielle

Stephanie, Susan, Trina and Courtney playing Heads Up

Mitch the Drink Master, being festive.

Causing mischief in Abby's room

Alayna and her friends Ava, Gabby and Christina - all too cool to hang out with the younger kids in the basement - hung out in her room most of the night.  I set up a TV and Fire Stick in her room (temporarily, of course) to keep them busy.

My neighbor across the street, Kyle (at right) dropped in towards the end of the night to say hi. 

Brad, Erik and Teagan.

(I let Tom borrow my wig for a hot minute.)

Towards the end of the evening, as people started to leave, some of the dads drifted into the living room to hang out and play some games. . .

Kris and the Larsons.

The girls had some roses sitting in a vase (leftover from their Orchestra Concert a few days ago) so we couldn't resist getting this pic from the movie.

The Barden Family

Rylan, Christina, Alayna, Gabby and Elson

- Brian