The Houghs: Santa Claus and the Beer Olympics

What's up, Internet.

Today was a busy, busy day, right out of the gate. Bright and early, Kris had to run Abby out to Midland High School by 8:30am so that she could assemble with the Northeast/Jefferson Pom Teams in the staging area for Midland's annual Santa Parade. The parade itself didn't start until 10am, so who the hell knows why they had to be there so damn early - it was only 27 degrees out, absolutely frigid, so we had to force Abby to dress in multiple layers in order to keep her warm. She fought us throughout the entire dressing process, claiming that she wouldn't be able to move her arms and legs well enough to do her routine throughout the march, so we had to get stern with her (always fun.)

At 9:30am, we headed over to Kris' work, which is conveniently located across the street from Kroger and about 30 feet from Ashman Street, where the parade would be passing by. This allowed us to wait until the absolute last minute before venturing over to snag a spot in the parade (because, as stated earlier, it was only 27 frickin' degrees out and no one wanted frostbite today.) The Johnsons and my brother, Chris, and his family met us over there, so we could all have some coffee - and hot cocoa for the kids - in the warmth of the building before walking up to Ashman Street for the parade.

About 10:30am we assumed position on the corner across the street from Kroger (we pushed it as long we could waiting indoors in order to take advantage of the heat, knowing that it'd take awhile for the parade to march from Midland High to our vantage point.)

The Other Houghs (Sam was gung ho about seeing Santa and the various vehicles throughout the parade, but Louis wasn't as enthusiastic.)

There was definitely a theme with the floats this year - Erik and I were convinced it was 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, seeing how so many floats had trees decorated with vinyl records (far too many for it to be a coincidence.)

Northeast Middle School

The twins scored a shit-ton of candy throughout the first half of the parade, they easily filled a grocery bag.

The Northeast and Jefferson Pom squads.

(The girls seemed super excited that their parents were there to cheer them on.)

Still ridiculously cold out. Just in case you were curious.

Some futuristic fire truck. Midland doesn't f*** around, apparently.

Another record-laden Christmas tree. . .

And another.

Sam and Chris

Livestock.

RIP Little Sebastian

This was a well-built gingerbread house - I can't imagine they scrapped this, it was built better than our shed.

I assume this is a pirate ship. For whatever reason - not sure they got the email regarding the parade theme this year.

After a loooooong parade - much longer than we had anticipated - Santa and his train finally showed up (at the tail-end of the procession, of course.)

Sam waves to Santa and his spouse.

Kris had to hold Nora so that Nicole could take Louis back to the car to warm up (something she had to do constantly throughout the parade.)

Complimentary jello shots and coozies.

After the parade, we had a little downtime in the afternoon, where Kris ran some errands and Abby got a chance to relax and unwind after the hellish morning march (Alayna spent the morning at home because 'it was too cold out to watch a parade' (she was right.) In the evening, around 6pm, Kris and I left the girls - and Ella, who was crashing at our house for the night - at home with a movie and headed over to the Collier residence for the day's main event: Ryan's 40th Birthday Party.

Mees decided to host a Beer Olympics for Ryan's 40th - five different types of drinking games, with teams competing against one another in an epic tournament. Flip Cup, Beer Pong, Giant Jenga, Quarters, and Ice Cube Tray Racing. Teams were selected by drawing names out of a bowl, and for five hours the five teams battled it out against one another. Tons of good food on hand (as always with this group), and - as the pictures and video below can better illustrate - it was an awesome time.

So here you go, folks - Collier's 40th Birthday Beer Olympics.

Behold. . .

They bought a bunch of complimentary seltzers for the moms, and a quarter barrel keg of Miller Lite for the dads (we killed it before the end of the night, rest assured.)

Kris, Danielle, and Mees determine the teams for the 'olympics.'

A bunch of ladies all standing around with the 'birthday shot.'

Out in the garage, the dads all got a group pic as well. . .

And one with two of Ryan's old college buddies who showed up late.

The Birthday Boy. And Mitch.

Before the tournament kicked off, everyone needed to make sure they had a solid base established. Mees and Ryan had made up multiple trays of sliders, as well as several things of chicken wings they had ordered from somewhere (never found out) and a bunch of nacho/taco stuff.

Post-food hen-cluckin' in the living room.

Ryan's buck. Erik had his own two deer processed at some local place where Ryan also had his kill dropped off, so when Erik picked his up he also grabbed Ryan's for him and dropped it off in the garage. So whenever someone had to refill their drink at the keg, they got to lock eyes with this handsome sum'bitch.

Big group pic (Mitch, Kris and I were in the garage taking the previous pic when this was snapped.)

Kicking off the first round of games in the basement. . .

Kris and her damn selfies. . .

Mitch takes a call.

My Team (Team 5) started off on Beer Pong, where we unfortunately lost (but it was close.)

Meanwhile, Kris' team battled it out in a game of Jenga.

Danielle takes her turn.

Dave McPeak

Erik, Mitch, Kris, Susan, and whoever this other lady was (who only played a little bit as a late-addition add-on), shortly after their victory in Quarters.

Morgan and I squared off as our teams engaged in Jenga.

This would ultimately end up being the night's longest game of Jenga - our teams were evenly matched.

This game seriously took forever, to the point where all the other games wrapped up and no one else could compete in anything until our Jenga bout finished.

Towards the end of the night, I ended up having to go twice in a row, and it was perilous, perilous work.

Not to brag or anything, but these two rounds of mine were basically the deciding factor in my team's victory.

Mees - who was also on my team - equally did awesome with this.

After our Jenga win, we faced off in quarters, but no one besides Mees got to play because, well, she was really, really bad at this and the other team all managed to flip their quarters into their glasses before she ever managed to get hers in.

Not sure what this ice-cube tray racing game was, but it was pretty funny to watch.

Kris' team won at this as well.

Morgan's a dick.

Our team had to face off against another team in Jenga, having advanced to the championship of that game.

In the basement, Kris' team lost their first game of the night to Morgan and Ryan's team in Flip Cup.

Our second game of Jenga didn't go as well - Mees and another player on our team had a few drinks in their system by that point in the evening and it definitely showed. This was taken at the end of the game, as the tower fell following Mees' attempt at removing a block. This took us out of the running for first place.

We lost Flip Cup as well, which cemented our Third Place position in the tournament (I was fine winning the bronze, all things considered.)

The final game of the tournament, to determine First and Second Place in the olympics, came down to this last round of Flip Cup. Stakes were high.

Team 4 emerges victorious. . .

The Medal Ceremony

The Champions (they made sure everyone knew how awesome they were, don't worry.)

After the tournament, getting some group pics taken upstairs. . .

(Some folks had taken off by that point in the evening.)

One with the guys.

Towards the end of the night, some of us dads decided to play some darts back down in the basement. We log in to this Gameboard app Ryan has that connects our accounts via Bluetooth to Ryan's dart board - keeps track of scores and makes it a little more entertaining to play.