Christm- er, New Years Day - in Clare

Hey folks,

So today is officially the first day of 2026; in the past we've celebrated this by lying around the house in pajamas, recovering from the night before (which is always rough.) This year, however, my parents decided to try for a do-over for the extended Hough Family Christmas, seeing how our decades-long tradition of doing it the day after Christmas was torpedoed by a hellish ice storm that crippled all of central Michigan. We reluctantly agreed to drive up to Clare in order to meet up with all of our siblings and families, because - as stated before - we were all in pretty rough shape.

We ended up rolling in around 2:30pm, after Jeff and Chris' kids had finished tearing into their gifts from Dad and Cindy, and Alayna and Abby were finally able to open up theirs. Following that, everyone tore into the now-expected Qdoba spread, caught up with Bryan and Chelsey via Facetime (or whatever similar app was used, I wasn't paying attention), swapped gifts in the usual White Elephant gift exchange, and hung out with extended fam until evening.

The folks' charcuterie spread. . .

All in all, a quieter affair than normal (you can tell 'cause there's only like a third of the amount of pics I usually take), but it was a good time. Definitely did not feel like Christmas, but that's to be expected considering that crap was, like, a week or so ago. Hopefully next year things will return to form and we'll be able to celebrate the Holidays when it actually feels like the Holidays.

Here you go, folks - the smaller-than-usual, delayed, Extended Hough Family Christmas. 

Enjoy. . .

. . . featuring the infamous Meat Flower.

Alayna and Abby, opening up their gifts from the parents. . .

Alayna wanted one of those trendy Owala water bottles (that's the in-style brand right now, kinda like how Stanleys were a couple years ago), and some mug for Abby (didn't catch the story behind that.)

Alayna has been taking Watson's passing pretty hard, so she had asked for things that would remind her of him for Christmas this year, so the parents got her this frame and a couple other keepsakes along those lines. Abby had this random photo printer that connects to her phone on her list, which makes sense because she's about as obsessed with taking pics as I am.

That's a tiny printer.

This necklace features a locket that you can fill with your dead pet's ashes.

Cindy had margaritas out and ready to roll when we showed up, which paired nicely with the giant Mexican spread we grazed on all afternoon.

Dad and Cindy at the Kids' Table with some grandkids.

Jill, Chris and Kris (stuffing her damn face.)

Assorted Houghs finishing up Qdoba in the dining room.

Bryan phoned in from Nashville as folks were finishing up with food, seeing how him and Chelsey weren't able to fly up this year.

After we had the video call with Bryan up and running, we kicked off this year's White Elephant gift exchange. I handed out numbers for folks to draw out of a hat, and we selected gifts in that order. Kept the rules this year similar to what we used at the Sheahan's Christmas party, just scaled down a bit since we had fewer people (gifts could only be stolen twice instead of three times, etc.)

Bryan and Chelsey watch the opening of gifts from Tennessee.

There wasn't a whole lot of stealing this year - folks were either content or didn't really want any of the other gifts, who knows. I went next to last, so ended up with this Lego-ish flower set, which I gifted to my kids (who love that sort of thing.)

We got home around 6:30pm or so, and the girls set to work putting together their plastic bouquet while Kris and I resumed our movie-watching and lounging about the living room.

Another milkshake stout to close out the end of an unusual, but enjoyable, New Years Day.

- Brian

A Bunch of Holly, Jolly A-Holes

Season's Greetings, ya filthy animals.

This year we broke from our usual tradition a bit. Instead of the Bos Family hosting our friend group's annual Christmas party, this year the Sheahan Family took the reins. They've always wanted to host a big annual party, but most - if not all - of the major Holidays are already spoken for. The Houghs (as you well know) spearhead Halloween and St. Patrick's Day every year, the Johnsons do Trick or Treating, the Griffins take care of our annual Friendsgivings, the Larsons have become the go-to destination for the SuperBowl, and the Colliers bring in the summer with their Memorial Day bashes.

The Sheahans certainly lived up to our group's expectations. They planned multiple activities for the evening: a Table Tennis Tournament for the kids, a Flip Cup Tournament for the adults, an Ugly Sweater Contest, and a White Elephant Gift Exchange. On top of the usual ridiculous amount of food and booze on hand, obviously.

The only downside to the whole evening was that we had to behave ourselves and retire quasi-early, seeing how we had a 9am church service the next day that Abby was involved in (so we couldn't skip it, unfortunately.) We ended up leaving, along with most of the other families, around 10:30pm, but we definitely filled up our four or five hours over there with more than enough yuletide spirit (and beer.)

Behold. . . 

Mitch, per Tom's request, made up a bunch of his famous sushi.

I had a talk with Alayna beforehand to remind her that the sushi was there for everyone, and she had to allow other people to eat some.

If I don't say anything, she'll load up her plate with, like, 30 pieces of sushi. . . then go back for seconds. Sushi's definitely her favorite type of food.

The Houghs. We made sure to nab a family picture right at the beginning of the evening, before we were scattered to the Four Winds.

As folks came in, they went straight to the food. Usually at parties like this the first hour and a half is spent eating and watching other families slowly trickle in.

The moms and some of the kids staked out this table right away. . .

. . . while the dads, as usual, were cast out to the smaller table at the far side of the house.

Apparently the kids' tournament went down right away, they must have been eager to get started.

Tom had set out liquor and shot glasses by the front door so folks can take shots as they came in. Screwball - which I've seen at Costco a few times - does a Peanut Butter Whiskey (which tastes exactly as you'd expect, but surprisingly good), and an Egg Nog (which, while good, wasn't my favorite 'nog - Kirkland's is better.)

This wouldn't be the last time we did this throughout the course of the evening.

I brought along one of my all-time favorite Holiday craft beers. 'Tis the Season.

After everyone had a chance to eat, the adults gathered in the living room for the White Elephant Gift Exchange. . . 

Tom made up a ridiculous amount of rules for this Exchange, and, while it was a bit too structured, it was more competitive than some of the other exchanges we'd been involved with in the past. I plan on modifying his rules when we do our family's Exchange at my dad's house for Christmas next week. . .

Whoever's present(s) got stolen the most during the Exchange won this poster-sized collage of various shots of our Friend Group and our adventures over the course of the last year. I took, like, 95% of these pictures. Ultimately Danielle and Morgan would win this.

Tom and Susan had this frame sitting on one of their end tables. Apparently they love the two kids in this stock photo image more than their own kids.

By the end of the Exchange, Kris won a $25 gift certificate to the theater (which had been stolen a few times) and I won a four-pack of craft beer and a cookbook called 'Cooking with Beer.' We were both pretty happy with what we ended up with.

Post-Exchange, grazing in the kitchen.

Danielle won the Ugly Sweater Contest (when she puts her arms above her head she turns into a wreath.)

The Flip Cup Tournament kicked off shortly afterwards. When we first arrived at the party, Tom had everyone draw numbers out of a hat in order to lump people into teams of three. I was assigned to Team Dasher, along with Ryan and Morgan.

Some people are definitely better than others. You can tell who used to play this in college.

I happen to be really good at this game. My time at Western Michigan served me well.

Team Dasher racks up another win. The three of us probably shouldn't have been on the same team, it wasn't really fair to the other teams.

Undefeated Team Dasher, coming into the Championship game. . .

This is the stuff of legend.

The Champions

Victory is Ours. #TeamDasherRules

After our victory, a few folks continued playing on random teams, but things were definitely beginning to wind down.

The Wives, Left to Right: Kelli, Courtney, Mees, Stephanie, Danielle, Amy, Kris, some MacLeod lady that was there (must be a friend of Susan's), and Susan.

(Not sure what was happening off-camera, here.)

And the Dads.

Left to Right: that MacLeod guy (that lady's husband), Omkar, Mitch, Tom, Brad, Ryan, Yours Truly, Morgan, Lonnie Big Balls, and Erik.

Aaaaaaaaand one more, in closing, of the entire gang. Happy Holidays, Internet.

- Brian