The Houghs: The Holiday Gauntlet

Abby gave me a To-Do list to help me out today. . .

I've said it before and I'll say it again, America: I enjoy Christmas Eve much more than I do Christmas Day.

Today is indeed the pinnacle of the Holiday Season. Anticipation for tomorrow morning is at an all-time high, all traditions and festivities are kicked into full-gear, and there's none of the driving around and lack-of-sleep that comes with Christmas Day's Gauntlet of Presents. There's a turkey in the oven, Christmas movies on the TV, and holiday LPs on the turntable.

All. Systems. Go.

Once again, Kris' family Christmas took place today, and like last year we offered host it at our house. This year, Crystal and Scotty (Scott's son), also showed up, along with Crystal's three kids, Marcy and Scott, and Crystal's mom, Mickey. I once again spent the majority of the day inside the kitchen, cooking and later carving, and separating the sum'bitch so we could feast off it for weeks. And drinking my holiday craft beer.

In the end, it was - miraculously - a drama-free, Griswold-ish affair.

Check it out:

A snowy Christmas Eve morning. After nearly seven years of not having this luxury, I was definitely cool with the prospect of finally getting a White frickin' Christmas.

I once again prepared my Michigander Turkey (search it up on AllRecipes, folks - it's awesome.)

I also added a garlic, meat tenderizing marinade this year, which helped the skin and underlying meat stay nice and moist.

Preparing for cremation. . .

First Christmas movie of the day: A Muppet Christmas Carol.

The table spread (we're a sucker for snack food around these parts.)

Alayna decided to make all her cousins some last-minute Christmas presents this year. 'Cause everyone loves candy canes. I guess.

Feel the Yule, Internet. Michael Caine singin' with the frickin' Muppets.

It's a special occasion. You can bet your ass Kris is making sure the girls' hair is all done-up.

This is where you can find our kids whenever they're being too quiet in the house: drooling in front of their computer to One Direction music videos on Youtube.

My roommates

Hours later, the Finished Product.

This year's turkey was better than last years (which was still good, but probably could have remained in the oven longer.) This year, I didn't take any chances and left it in for awhile.

(I also get to step in to take posed family pictures from time to time.)

Again, here's Watson.

Cousins

Marcy always shows up with arts and crafts stuff to do with the kids on Christmas Eve, and this year she brought a crapload of Gingerbread House stuff for them. . . which was awesome 'cause it kept them from tearing around the house like a bunch of savages.

No idea why I look so pissed here. This might have to be my Christmas Card picture for next year.

Frosting lipstick

Scott gets some tech support

Hilt-deep in the War Zone

(We keep things classy in the Hough home.)

While the yuletide dust from Gingerbread Houses and dinner settled, Kris' fam transitioned into the gift-exchanging segment of the evening. . .

I bought one of those color-changing packets of whatever-the-hell-it-is for the fire, which the kids insisted on me picking up this year. It was okay, but I think next time I'll add more than one packet on at a time.

Christmas chaos

Not sure these things are up to code. . .

We were going to get Scarlett a hoodie instead, but finding a well-rated, quality Pikachu hoodie is apparently harder than finding the Holy Grail or an electable Democratic candidate.

More f***ing Shopkins. . .

Opening up some presents from Alayna and Abby

Marcy and Kris

I think Abby picked out this scarf for Marcy, and so here she is explaining all the particulars about said scarf. . .

Eventually, all of Kris' family left around 5/6pm-ish. Last year they had all stayed until after 7pm, which didn't give us a whole hell of a lot of time to wind down the kids on Christmas Eve (which, as you can imagine, isn't the easiest thing to do in the first place.) After everyone had left, we let the girls open up their Christmas Eve presents, and Kris and I exchanged our annual ornament present. . .

She bought me this old school phonograph (ol' timey turntable, folks) from Hallmark, which plays a few different Christmas songs and even has a movable tonearm.

Due to our family's uncanny resemblance to Mystery Inc (see Halloween '16), I picked this up for Kris. . .

Our ornament exchange out of the way, it was time for the kids to open up their presents. . . which, as you can probably surmise, were pajama sets. I think that's become the traditional, Christmas Eve gift standard in this country.

Of course Alayna got Shopkins pajamas. . .

. . . and Abby got a hooded, full-body Chewbacca pajama suit.

(She clearly liked them.)

Obligatory Kids-in-Pajamas-in-Front-of-the-Christmas-Tree Picture

Christmas Houghs, 2016

Again, as is most likely the case in your house, the dad in the house (Yours Truly) read The Night Before Christmas.

(I'm starting to realize that in terms of Christmas Eve traditions, the Houghs are pretty run-of-the-mill. . .)

Abby actually read most of it this year.

With the kids in bed (but most likely wide-awake) - and the door locked, to prevent snoopage, Kris and I set to work putting bows on gifts, setting out presents, and stuffing stockings

. . . and listening to some more Holiday vinyl. Of course.

Alayna's been asking for a drum set for years, so this year when I came across a used set of decent quality, I decided to pull the trigger and buy it (it technically ended up as a 'combo' present, just to make things fair.)

After tuning and tightening the heads and adjusting the heights of all the stands and rigging, it turned out to be a pretty decent little set. The cymbals are crappy, but they're functional - maybe down the road I'll drop $100 and buy a set of cheapos to accent the ones they have here.

Santa left a note again this year, seeing how much the girls loved last year's letter he left for them.

Nutcrackers (the two on the ends were part of my four-tote Christmas decor score from Granny Hough's house. . . as was the holiday runner you see atop the piano, there.)

We opted not to do Christmas Cards this year, but received so many of them in the mail that we've decided to send some out next year. 'Cause we're adults and we should act like adults now.