''The Christmas Pre-Season,'' or, ''November''

One of television's greatest villains, making a dastardly SNES appearance. . .

What up, players.

November flew by this year, which is to be expected:  the second Halloween is over we all put on our Christmas pants and start counting down towards Thanksgiving Break and the beginning of the Holidays.  Aside from stuff we've previously mentioned - getting ready for the Holidays, etc. - November could basically be summed up as The Month of Leaves and Girl Scout Cookies.  That's about all we did this month.

Think I'm joking?  Check this out. . .

Okay, so Kris did take the girls out to see Wicked - one of her favorite broadway plays.  They didn't see it on Broadway, though, but the DeVos theater in Grand Rapids (pretty sure that's what the theater is called.)  She bought the tickets over the summer (I won't even begin to talk about how much those cost us) and over the course of the last couple months has been playing songs from the show for the girls.

Can you tell they're excited?

Me?  I don't fancy myself a theater fan, and I don't care for musicals.  So, while Kris and the girls went to their show, I had them drop me off in Rockford (some fifteen minutes or so north of the theater) to BP's house, where we passed our time drinking beer and playing Super Nintendo.  Which, obviously, is waaaaay more fun than watching the backstory about the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz.

They ended up getting medium-quality seats (I'm not sure the actual name of the section is, but it's not the super-nice seats, but they're not in the nosebleed section where you can't see anything, either.)  They ended up being good for the kids, I guess.

Hough girls are big fans of selfies.  As I'm sure you know by now.

Meanwhile, back in Rockford. . .

Here's a shopping list we found on the kitchen counter that the girls made.  Seems pretty legit to me.

An outtake from this year's Hough Family Christmas Card, which I shot the second week of the month.  Can you guess how much fun Kris is having?

We took our family portraits with all the leaves on the ground ('cause leaves are Fall-ish), but afterwards it was one of my main weekend goals to clear the yard of all the tree debris.  We had experienced a fairly long - and noticeable, for this time of year - cold snap towards the beginning of the month, and as a result, all the leaves from the trees fell all at once.  Thank God I invested in a Ghostbusters-esque backpack leaf-blower, which made short work of the raking process.  In an hour I had blown all the leaves into a 4 ft x 20 ft long leaf pile (the pic shown here was after we had hauled several tarp-loads away.)  I seriously need to invest in larger tarps, though.

Making progress

(These guys aren't very much help.)

These pictures don't do this pile justice - it stood above the curb by a couple feet, extended about six feet from the curb, and ran the duration of our property line.  It was insane.

. . . and, of course, the next week I had to start over once again.  I f***ing hate Fall.

Cookie Season begins.  I hate Girl Scout Cookies with passion:  Kris is a co-leader so it's become a pretty big part of our Fall lives, with both girls running around collecting orders, and cookie boxes from various members of their respective troops taking up space in our house.

This was after several orders were picked up from our house by various parents.  It's like living in a warehouse.

Hawking wares at a booth outside a Home Depot.

Collecting food for the poor - pretty standard Holiday season charity work.

On a Girl Scout field trip to. . . the Dentist's office.  Edge.  Of.  Your.  Seat. 

Studying geography and science.  We celebrate all things nerdy in this household.

Abby and her BFF, Larkin, on a play date while Kris took Alayna and her BFF, Maddie, out to a theater to see Wonder.

I had no interest in seeing a movie about a deformed kid who gets bullied but somehow ends up with a happy ending.  I like my movies with explosions and one-liners, thank you very much.

Fancy sleepover dinner for the ladies.

Setting up my classroom after Thanksgiving Break (I took other pictures showing off more Christmas lights and decor in my room, but unfortunately my students' names and work were visible in those shots, so I can't post them (FERPA.)

Our 8th grade team this year adopted a sturgeon as part of some Michigan Tech math/science unit, and our science teacher is raising the fish in her room throughout the school year.  Our 8th graders named it Bubbles (I know, it's horrible.)  In the spring, we're going to go on a field trip to release the fish into the Tittabawassee River.  Something to do with science and conservation or something, I don't know.

On yet another Girl Scout quest, collecting toys for the less-fortunate.  'Tis the Season.

My classroom, all primed and ready to roll for our annual Constitutional Convention simulation (one of my favorite - and the students' favorite - activities we do in class this year.)

- Brian

The Great Christmas Record Odyssey, Ep. XXIX

Welcome back, fans.  For today's installment, we're headed south of the border for some Tijuana-fashioned yuletide jammage. . .

Album Title:  Christmas Album

Album Artist:  Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass

I picked up this gem during last February's great Record haul with Dad.  It was a buck, it's a Tijuana Christmas album, it's a no-brainer.

It should go without saying that anyone sitting down and putting this record on their turntable knows exactly what they're getting themselves into.  Herb's trumpet is prominent on most tracks, with his band's '60s laid-back swing backing him up on familiar Holiday standards.  It's unoffensive, familiar, and doesn't take any chances with the well-known material - which, for a pigeon-holed genre artist like this band, is probably a safe gamble.  Still, it leaves you wanting a little bit more in terms of arrangement.

When I picked this up, I was honestly expecting a more upbeat Tijuana-styled album from Herb and Co.  Not so much with this record.  This LP is straight-up, '60s, holiday cocktail music, with a Latin-infused twist.  Like several holiday albums I've reviewed previously, this is turtleneck sweater-wearing, cigarette-smoking, holiday-themed martini-sipping music one would place on their living room Hi-Fi while they entertain their neighborhood guests.  Only, in Tijuana.

(Why someone would wear a turtleneck sweater in Mexico is beyond me - it's hot as shit down there.)

"Hey amigos, anybody down for a nap?"

Anyway, the music, despite it's obvious Latin sound, is very '60s - just that slooooow, chill '60s swing.  It's much more chill than I would have expected.  I guess if you're a huge Herb Alpert fan - and you're probably not, as most Herb Alpert fans must be dead (that's all you can find in the record section at thrift stores anymore) - you can probably already guess what these slow jams of his sound like.  As if his band started falling asleep halfway through the recording process and Mr. Alpert just said 'screw it' and kept the tapes rolling.

I love me some Holiday, well-wishing, 'from our house to yours' messages on the back of Christmas albums. . .

All in all, it's an okay background LP, but not something I'd put on very often.  I rarely feel the need to wear a sweater and chill out with a martini in Mexico.

VERDICT:  6/10 - Decent  (As expected, and definitely not too bad. . . just a little too chill for my liking.)

- SHELVED -

The Great Christmas Record Odyssey, Ep. XXVIII

What's up, fan base.

We're officially in the Holiday Season now, so it should go without saying that Yours Truly is already hilt-deep in his record collection, scrounging up Christmas treasures won from various record stores, thrift shops, and. . . well, Amazon.

For the last two years, I've shared with you one of my all-time favorite - and borderline obsessive compulsive - Holiday pastimes:  the audio scrutinization and analysis of every last Holiday record in my ever-expanding record collection.  This year is no different, folks - I've got a horde of new albums to review, some fake logs on my gas fireplace, and some yuletide 'nog all set and ready to rock and roll this evening.

So throw on your Santa hats, fetch yourself a holiday cocktail, and let us do this. . .

Album Title:  Joyous Music for Christmas Time

Album Artist:  Various Artists

Okay, but before I start off with this, I should point out that I have no idea where this came from.  I've had it for a couple years now, and just haven't gotten to it in my previous year's Holiday record rating.  There's no price tags to be found, but the inner paper sleeves - while still in pretty good shape - aren't in the Near Mint condition that would give it away as being a former number from Granny's collection (which I inherited.)  These records also have some hissing surface noise to them (fortunately no pops or anything), which is odd - it tells me that this collection was well-loved and often-played.

And that, dear readers, is kinda sad, really.  For whomever previously owned this particular 4-LP box set must have had a really, really weird taste in music.

I had some high hopes going into this box set, folks, I really did.  Some of the songs are a straight-up full-choir tour-de-force, backed by roaring church organs and brass.  Kinda like if you were dragged to your Grandma's church one Sunday in December, but unlike the church your family usually goes to, your Grandma's church is one of those centuries-old, castle-like cathedrals downtown, with a shitload of stained-glass windows, a full orchestra, and a 200-person choir conducted by Basil Poledouris (see:  Conan the Barbarian.)

It's the sort of music that makes you want to celebrate the Lord's birth. . . then run to the nearest living thing and chop off it's head with a mighty broadsword.

But sadly, those few songs are about all this boxed set has to offer.

While these numbers - mostly from the first record - relish in their epic yule-ishness, the majority of this collection is more humble in arrangement and sound.  There's some quieter organ work, which sounds less like Conan and more like one of those warbly deals you can find in living rooms all over the 1970s.  We also have some '60s easy listening and some hymns.  Then some more hymns.  And also some hymns.

Then the boxed set attempts to 'kick it up a notch' with some futile attempts at operatic singing, as if you were dragged back in to your Grandma's church, where one of the old choir ladies in their congregation starts singing with delusions of grandeur.  And you have to sit there and listen to this random old lady pretend she's on some theater stage, belting out her rendition of Silent Night, all the while you're trying so hard not to laugh that you pee yourself a little.

Apart from the other three albums, one whole record in this boxed set is comprised of selections from Handel's Messiah.  If you like that classical piece, cool.  You might like this boxed set.  I personally don't have anything against it, per se, but neither am I one of those guys who drives around listening to frickin' Handel during the Holiday season.  Tchaikovsky, sure.  Handel?  Not so much.

I mean, I love Rossini and Mozart, but I don't want either of those dudes on my Christmas album, folks.

In conclusion, I'm seriously considering tossing out Records 2 and 4 from this boxed set and re-rating this collection a 6. . . but that would require getting up, walking across the Study and into the Kitchen in order to reach a trash can, and. . . well, I'm a lazy, lazy man.

VERDICT:  5/10 - Meh  (25% of this boxed set is pretty good background music, 25% is Handel's Messiah, and the other 50% is nothing but shitty music from your grandma's church.)

- SHELVED -

Romulus, Black Friday, and Other News

Scenic. . . Romulus.

Happy Start-to-Christmas, Internet.

As you guys know, the Houghs travel downstate and celebrate Thanksgiving with Kris' side(s) of the family, and this year was no different.  Marcy came down with us again this year, and we ended up rolling into town around noon, stopping in briefly to see Kris' Uncle Jeff and Aunt Carol, before heading over to her Uncle Wayne's house to spend the rest of the holiday.  We ended up leaving around 8pm or so, which made this year's venture south kind of a whirlwind trip, but none of us really wanted to stay the night down there.

This movie is one of the greatest comedies ever made.

Anyway, the next day Kris and I (okay, just me) threw up the Christmas Trees (our new, fancy pre-lit one in the living room, and the girls' three-foot-tall, pre-lit tree in the basement), and, after the kids went to bed, Kris and I once again indulged in one of our personal favorite, Holiday traditions:  decorating the tree and having a couple Christmas cocktails while watching Some Like It Hot.

In summary, if you've stopped in to check out our Thanksgiving/Black Friday posts before, then this is practically identical to what we've done the last couple years.

. . . buuuuut just in case you're still curious:

Rolling into the Pearl of Michigan. . . .

Again, Kris wasn't down with stopping off at the Landing Strip for a quick steak-and-a-lap-dance.  Good ol' Queen Buzzkill. . . .

Margie's (at left) and Wayne's (right.)

Cousins.

Some people like to pride themselves with pairing certain wines with certain foods.  I personally like to think of myself as somewhat 'awesome' when it comes to pairing certain craft beers with certain events.

Watching what would eventually end up as another fine example of a Detroit Lions Thanksgiving ShitShow.

Hiding away in a makeshift fort between a couch and a wall.

Watching the Lions lose.

Women in the kitchen

I don't think I've ever once actually finished a game of Monopoly.

Sisters

Dance party

Just like last year, as it got dark out the girls all grew convinced that there were ghosts outside the house.  And, again like last year, they set off to capture photographic 'evidence' of aforementioned ghosts using their personal cameras.  Such as whatever the hell this is.

See?  Clearly proof of paranormal existence on the astral plane. 

Logging their 'facts' into a 'ghost book.'  Seriously.

Truly legit, empirically-based ghost facts.

The best part of marrying into Kris' family is all the venison sausage and jerky we score whenever we visit downstate.

The next afternoon, after a lazy morning of movie-watching and not participating in Black Friday craziness, I pulled out the girls' Christmas Tree and their tote of JV, not-quite-good-enough-for-the-living-room-Tree ornaments. . . .

The girls' tree - all 'prettied' up.  It takes a ridiculous amount of self-control on my part not to fix the holy hell out of this mess.

After the girls went to bed, it was time to kick off the start of the Official Christmas Season with my favorite Holiday cocktail, a Merry Irishman (Tullamore Dew Irish whisky, coffee liqueur, and Peppermint Schnapps.)

Our new tree (shown here) is programmed with nine LED lighting options, featuring white, multicolor, and seven additional alternating, blinking and fade-in/fade-out options.  My personal favorite is a gradual, alternating fade between white and multicolor, but, for the sake of decorating this evening, we kept it on plain ol', boring white.  Also known as Kris' favorite.

Daphne and Josephine, in over their heads as usual. . . .

We're strong Hallmark loyalists in this house, as you can see.

Watson assumes his usual pose for the evening.

Like I said before, this year Kris and I decided to end our annual ornament exchange tradition (seeing how we need to start slowing down our ever-expanding ornament collection) and begin a new, annual tradition of picking out one, single ornament for the tree.  This year's personalized Bronner's pickup represents our first Christmas in our new home.

Starting to fill up

The 2017 Hough Family Christmas Tree

- Brian