A Very Tribal Christmas

Season's Greetings, folks.

Preparing the hot cocoa mix in one of the church's auxiliary kitchens.

This, the first full day of Winter Break (at least for the girls and I), is quickly becoming yet another Hough Family Christmas Tradition. 

Every year, in the early afternoon, us and the Johnsons head downtown to Kris' church (First United Methodist Church) to prep hot cocoa for our annual, yuletide volunteering event, passing out warm beverages for those poor bastards waiting in line at Santa's House (conveniently right across Main Street from the church.) 

The weather was better this year than last year (which was frigid as hell), and consequently the Santa House was slammed - the line was wrapped up and down the sidewalk when we first arrived - and we ran out of hot cocoa after an hour and half, thereabouts. We're thinking next year we'll have to stock up and have enough for three jugs worth, just so we can last a little longer downtown.

After we had run out of hot cocoa, we walked down so the girls could ride the train for a bit before ultimately coming home so Kris could prepare our food contribution for the evening's main event, the annual Sheahan Christmas Party. Two years ago Tom took the reins of this tribe staple from the Bos fam, and it's become one of the 'Big Three' parties for our group every year (the others being our annual Halloween bash and Collierpalooza, in May.) We had just enough time at home for Kris to whip up her veggie pizza dish, change into our party clothes, and drive a couple blocks over to the Sheahan's for the party.

So I'll leave you now with a bunch of pics that cover our first, installment of the Houghs' 2025 Holiday Season. 

Enjoy. . .

Establishing our position out in front of the Santa House downtown. . .

Kris, Abby, and the Johnsons.

A selfie of the girls, taken off Abby's phone.

Alayna brought Lexi again (she's helped us out a few times in the past with this outing.)

Some of Kris' congregation members, caroling for the folks waiting in line to see Santa.

At one point this old guy walked down the line of folks waiting outside with a reindeer in tow. . . .

Looks like a young one, I can't imagine something this small being able to pull Santa's fat ass all the way around the globe in a single night.

The Cannonball and Lexi

The Hot Cocoa Squad

This display out front of the Santa House is in pretty rough shape: multiple elves are missing limbs, the sign looks like someone blasted it with a shotgun, and the whole thing is just plain embarrassing. For a town with as much money to throw around as Midland, you'd think someone would have stepped forward at this point and offered to fix and/or replace parts of it.

The city courthouse, all decked out for the Holidays.

After two hours of slinging hot cocoa, we cleaned up and stored all the supplies in the church, then walked the girls down to the North Pole Express (or whatever the hell they call it) for a quick ride around downtown.

Old folks selfie aboard the train.

Abby and Ella

While Kris and I prepared at home for the two hours or so leading up to the Sheahan party, Abby and Ella hooked up with Jackson and drove around with him back over to Ella's house, where they were hanging out for a bit before the party started.

Doing some pom stretches in the Johnson's kitchen.

Kris and I made our way over to the Sheahan's around 6pm, and found the place already bustling with folks.

Mitch borrowed a sushi boat from a guy he knows who works at Fuji Sushi here in Midland, and stocked it full of multiple sushi rolls he handmade at home (he makes sushi for our tribe's parties on a regular basis, and he's damn good at it.)

Some of the festive spread set out for folks. This group knows how to eat.

Alayna drove separately (so that she could leave after eating in order to meet up with her own friends later on) and arrived about twenty minutes after we did. She immediately set about loading up a plate with a bunch of Mitch's sushi (which she does whenever he makes it.)

Tom set out his usual whiskey station by the front door, which we all made use of throughout the evening.

Kris and I made sure to get a couple's pic in front of the Sheahan's tree early on in the night while we were still thinking about it.

Kris and Danielle, stuffing their faces full of sushi.

Rob loads up on some of the glazed ham Tom had smoked on his grill.

Squaws eating in the dining room.

Old man Mitch, eating beside a roaring fire. All by his lonesome.

As is the case with any party this group does, food came first. Everyone made a plate and stuffed themselves stupid before ultimately moving on to party activities.

Downstairs in the basement, Kris got a pic of some of the older kids all hanging out. Left to Right: Alayna, Sophie, Fletcher (Ella's boyfriend), Abby, Jackson, Sophie's friend (forgot her name), and Ella.

Susan (Tom's wife), Amy, Lacy (Rob's wife), and Courtney.

Still grazing in the kitchen.

Holty and Morgan

Erik donated this mini bottle of Malort - mankind's grossest liqueur - to the Sheahan's house, if only to give this gnome something to enjoy on Christmas Eve.

The first activity of any Sheahan Christmas Party, once folks had stuffed their faces, is the White Elephant Gift Exchange. Everyone drew a slip of paper with a number on it that determined their position in the order of gift-selecting/stealing/opening.

Kelli and Mitch Bos

Courtney and Erik Johnson

Kris selects a gift from under the tree (she was the second or third person out of eighteen to do so.)

Gifts have to be around $25 and wrapped in all white so that no one knows who brought what.

A bottle of Bulleit bourbon. She didn't hang on to this long, it was stolen a couple times by various guys before Collier ultimately won it. 

Abby took this selfie of a bunch of kids all crowded into someone's car in the driveway. We're hoping they didn't go joy-riding around town like this while their parents were all drinking inside at a Christmas party. . .

Kris ended up with this as her gift for the evening - a bunch of toilet-themed stuff, that she plans on putting downstairs in our basement bathroom.

Susan, Lacy, Rob, Morgan and Mees.

Tom's sister, his brother-in-law, Kelli, Mitch, Tom and Ryan.

Watching folks open gifts.

Alicia and Holty

Rob discovers a bottle of Basil Hayden hidden in a loaf of bread. This, too, was stolen a handful of times before Mitch ended up with it.

The older kids had left the party awhile ago, and had run up to Taco Bell for some food (because, you know, there wasn't enough food at the party they had just left. . .)

Kris' veggie pizza and yet another charcuterie board.

More of the spread.

Meanwhile, back in the family room, the gift exchange was still raging on. . .

Another whoop-ass Holiday ale from Southern Tier. Was perfect for a night like this, sooooo good.

Danielle, Courtney, Kris and Alicia.

Conversing over the food table, following the end of the gift exchange.

Tom once again printed off and framed this collage of our tribe's pics throughout 2025 (about 95% of the pics in this collage were taken by Yours Truly, and if you look closely you're sure to recognize most of them from earlier blog posts.)

Danielle, Alicia, Kris, Courtney and Amy prepare to take a shot of Screwball (which is a nice dessert whiskey to keep on hand, I have a bottle downstairs in my bar.)

Down the hatch. . .

Tom brings out his second smoked ham for the masses.

The next event was the annual Flip Cup Tournament. Like in for the gift exchange, folks drew numbers in order to determine the teams.

The tourney kicks off. . .

Mitch, taking care of business.

Morgan, Mitch and Amy won the first game.

Erik was saddled with two less-than-ideal teammates, but they came from behind to beat tout their opponents and hung for quite awhile in the tournament.

Celebrating their victory.

Abby and Ella ended up back over at the Larson's house for most of the night, where they hung out in their basement and took a series of weird pics.

Tom and his sister.

Danielle, Mees, Kris, Courtney and Alicia.

Mees is notorious for her in-game shit-talking.

My team got knocked out of the tournament right away - I didn't even get to participate 'cause one of my teammates (Kelli) didn't manage to flip her cup over once before the entire opposing team flipped their cups. Twice.

Abby, doing some kinda cirque du soleil nonsense in the Larson basement.

Kris and Alicia, kicking ass in Slap Cup (following the completion of the tournament.)

This game gets out of hand real fast (which you've seen from its extensive use at our Halloween parties over the years.)

In the zone.

Jackson, giving Abby and Ella a ride back over to the Johnson's place.

While some folks remained out in the garage playing slap cup, some folks migrated back into the family room to watch some Green Bay game that Kelli was all excited about.

Towards the end of the night, the ladies all requested a group pic in front of the tree, so I was called into action.

Lacy and Amy had gone home by this point.

. . . .and the obligatory weird one.

The Kings of the Hill (plus Tom's brother-in-law.)

Mees photobombs our group pic ('cause it's Mees.)

The whole gang (with MacLeod's daughter filling in for her mom, who had already gone home.)

Erik, hanging out by himself in the garage at the end of the night, "taking it all in."

So there you go, folks - another year, another Christmas party in the books. Stay tuned for more Holiday shenanigans from the Houghs and our associates.

- Brian