The Houghs: Closing Out '21

Hi Internet.

So here we are at the End of 2021, with one last month of random pictures and videos to share. December, of course, is dominate by the Holidays, and as such most of the big events from this month have their own, individual blog posts. The rest of the month is obviously still Holiday-themed as well, but features some of the lesser-important, day-to-day crap that occupied our time in the weeks and weekends leading up to Christmas.

And, with that being said, here's your usual random documentation of crap around our house in this last month of 2021.

Behold . . .

The Midland County Courthouse, all festively done up for the Holidays. I snapped this pic while walking to the Larkin Building downtown for our monthly Lodge meeting the first Thursday of the month (I had to park all the way down at Kris' Church - First United Methodist Church - because all of downtown was shut down for some big Holiday event they were hosting.)

Some pics from Alayna's phone, featuring her friend, Ava.

(Kids are weird.)

The first weekend of the month our friends the Colliers hosted one of their infamous Euchre Tournaments. They have six tables going at a time, with a spreadsheet that automatically shuffles players between each round. Points are allocated by successful hands per game - two rounds per player - and then totalled over the course of the entire tournament. He had a TV rigged to his computer atop the refrigerator in his kitchen so folks could see the current standings between games, as you can see here.

Kris didn't play this year - this was a kid-free event and she ended up going home early, not being a huge fan of euchre herself - but I played this year, ended up 8th place out of about 20 players. Not enough to win the pot (each player pays $10 to enter, with first place getting $150, second place getting $50, and third getting their money back, and the losing two spots have to sing a karaoke duet.)

Random shot of roommates in the living room.

Trying out another one of my old man cardigans - I'm to the age now where I want to be comfortable at work teaching, and would rather look like an old man and be warm than look cool and freeze my ass off.

Abby, Ella, and Alayna attend a show at the Midland Center for the Arts.

Kris and her co-worker (shown here) got tickets from one of their patients. I forget which show it was for, but I definitely wasn't interested in attending.

Hanging out in the basement later that night, watching It's a Wonderful Life on the projector.

Abby, passed out.

The next week, Kris took the girls - and a couple of their friends, Ava and Ella - up to the Santa House to help pass out hot chocolate alongside Kris' church.

A non-flying reindeer (I don't think Midland can afford a legit flying one, but I could be wrong.)

Photo op in this non-operable sled thing they have set up nearby.

Caroling with some of the church folk.

The second Saturday of the month, our friends the Bos family hosted their annual Christmas party over at their house. Alayna wasn't down with dressing festive for the occasion - surprise, surprise - so she offered to take a picture of her family dressed up for the event instead.

Grazing in the Bos kitchen.

Mitch stocked a bar for us, which was mostly utilized by the dads (go figure.)

The womenfolk, as usual, staked claim to the dining room table.

. . . while us dads stood guard in the kitchen. Meaning we had to deal with kids coming in and out for snacks.

Mitch has this weird assortment of half-naked men charms that you're supposed to put on the lips of your drink in order to determine which one's yours (like a wine glass charm, or whatever they're called.) So we entertained ourselves by placing them around the kitchen in weird locations.

Snacks galore.

A handsome gentleman.

Mitch in the kitchen.

Courtney, Kelli, Mees, Kris and Amy.

Ella photobombs a pic of some dads.

As the evening went on, the couples convened around the dining room table for this trivia game we play once and awhile (I forget what it's called.)

Without fail, the winner of these gaming sessions with this particular trivia game is always me or Erik (and then it's usually me, I'm somewhat of a genius.)

Tom gets handsy with Steve.

I attemped making meatloaf one weeknight, the following week. Kris asked me to do it for her because she had to stay late at work, and I. . . well, I suck at meatloaf, I guess.

On December 22nd, the last day a lot of us dads had to work before beginning the Holiday break, we decided to celebrate by bar-hopping a bit around town. Our first stop was A Taste of Midland, a Mexican joint that specializing in various margarita options.

A spicy jalapeno margarita. It was f***ing incredible.

I'm actually not intoxicated here at all, just mid-story yammering on about something. Erik took this pic to prove to one of our other buddies that I had actually made an appearance coming out on a weeknight (they go out every Thursday night, and I always decline because I don't like going out on weeknights because I have to wake up every morning at 5:30am and then deal with teenagers all damn day.)

A festive stocking gift from one of my team teachers. Much appreciated.

The wives had a white elephant gift exchange the following night, and - of course - had to document their evening out with yet another group pic. They do this every, damn time.

Kris and I had originally planned on driving to Clare on the 23rd in order to deliver some furniture to Kris' mom's new apartment, but we were blindsided by a blizzard that morning that made the roads nearly undrivable. Kris was adamant about still going to Clare, regardless of the road conditions, until we saw an SUV slide off the road in town and up onto someone's yard. Women are stupid.

Shit conditions in Midland.

I was really hoping this would mean we'd finally have ourselves a legit, white Christmas, but it was forecast to warm up into the lower 40s later on Christmas Eve, so that was a bust.

I was lucky enough to pounce on this aforementioned Hallmark Muppet ornament on Amazon, after over a decade of price-watching it online. This was the 2010 release, and I didn't end up getting it when it came out originally - a horrible mistake on my part. In the years that followed, the price of this ornament hovered around $100 on Amazon, but I kept an eye on it regardless. Then, the third week of the month, some idiot listed it online for $20, and I pounced on it. Now I own the entire Muppets series except for the 2008 original release, Waldorf and Statler (which I am of course keeping a close eye on.)

Picked up this Christmas Countdown nutcracker at Target in their seasonal decor section towards the beginning of the month. They were pretty picked through, so all they had left was a Black option. At least now no one can visit our house during the Holidays and say the Houghs ain't 'woke.'