All Hallows Eve: Coronavirus Edition

Happy Halloween, ya filthy animals!!!

So 2020 really wouldn't have been complete without Covid disaster-bombing one of our most cherished of yearly activities:  the Annual Hough Halloween Party.

In the past years, our party has fallen on the Saturday before Halloween itself, which was cool because our good friends, the Johnsons, hold a Halloween party of their own on Halloween night itself.  While ours is a somewhat larger affair - with everyone in costumes, etc. - theirs is more of an 'establishment of headquarters' during Trick or Treating:  they set up a fire pit in the driveway and food in the garage, and, while the wives take the kids around the neighborhood Trick-or-Treating, the dads hand out candy (along with waters and beers to parents.)

Well, this year Halloween fell on a Saturday, so we clearly couldn't throw both of our respective parties (we share a common guest list.)  With that in mind, Erik and I talked it over and decided to merge our two Halloween parties into one, epic event:  we'd combine the full-blown, Halloween costume party of the Houghs with the driveway hang-out and trick-or-treating aspect of the Johnsons.  A win-win all the way down the board, right?

Well, then Covid struck.  Of course.

Erik and Brad season the pork butt the night before the party.

About a week or so before Halloween, a couple of the moms in our group tested positive (remember?), and quite a few families backed out.  Kris started freaking out about having a bunch of people in our house (something to do with air circulation, who knows), and so Erik and I went back to the drawing board and tweaked a few things for this year.  

We decreed that this year's party would have to have more of a 'tailgating' vibe to it, since the goal was to keep people outdoors and spread out, and the weather was supposed to be sunny and in the low/mid-60s (gorgeous for this time of year.)  We'd make use of his fire pit, and in addition fire up a few grills (including Brad's super-fancy, electric pellet smoker), and spend the day grilling multiple slabs of dead animals, watching college football (by rigging up a TV in the garage), playing corn hole, smoking cigars, and, when time came for it, passing out Halloween candy to neighborhood kids.

The backyard.  I didn't get around to it this morning. . .

So, all in all, this year turned out incredibly well.  The prep work involved was staggering - with dads popping in and out from 9am to noon with grills, leaf blowers (we had a crap-load of leaves fall over the course of the last couple days, and had to take care of it before the party started), corn hole boards, etc.  Granted, most folks didn't dress up in costume like in previous years, but the Houghs sure as hell did, and once again we let the girls pick out a family costume theme for the year.  The Mystery Inc. Gang in 2016, Pirates in  2017, Ancient Egyptians in 2018, Totally '80s in 2019, and now, in 2020, Ghosts of the Haunted Mansion (see pics below.) 

This year definitely didn't feel the same as our previous costume parties, but it'd still probably go down as one of my favorites.  We were bummed that so many of our friends couldn't make it, but the ones that did make it definitely did their fair share of 'heavy lifting' in order to pull it off (whether it be manning a grill, bringing over supplies, running errands, etc.)  We circled the wagons this year, and, all things considered, managed to pull off yet another great Halloween Party.

Behold. . . 

I awoke and showered before 8am, and after chugging a cup of coffee headed outdoors to attack the front yard leaf accumulation.  Everything you see here was in my front lawn, which was about as heavily carpeted with leaves as the previous shot of my backyard (which I'm loathing to start working on next week.)  The leaves were coming down so quickly that an hour or so after completing what you see here, my yard was covered again.  Ryan swung by to drop off some corn hole boards, and happened to have his leaf blower in his trunk, so together the two of us knocked it out a second time in about 15 minutes.

After taking helping me take care of the leaves, Ryan took off to get some more stuff from his house.  His family was quarantined so he would end up bouncing and back and forth between our house and his over the course of the last twelve hours or so.  While he was gone, I began setting up chairs in the driveway.

Kris put together several assorted snack trays - lots of fruits and vegetables, crackers and chips of all kinds, and pounds and pounds of gourmet cheeses.

Ryan hooked up one of his TVs in the garage and rigged to his iPad so that he could stream the MSU/Michigan game via Youtube Sports (which, I guess, is a thing.)  I personally didn't give a shit about this game, loathing most sports in general, but I guess this was kind of a big deal. . .?

This year my old high school/college buddy, Jon Kimmel, and his wife, Kat, drove up from Chicago to attend our party, as part of their semi-annual trek to Mid-Michigan to visit family, etc.  I took the two of them up to Cork & Ale (the best beer/liquor store in the area) so he could stock up on Michigan beers before heading back to Illinois.

They're actually expecting their first kid - a boy - the first week of April, so Kat unfortunately couldn't partake in our state beer selection. . . 

Two-thirds of Jeff's Left Front Pocket.

This kept folks warm in the shade (the sun unfortunately never crested over our garage, due to its position in the sky this time of year, so the driveway was mostly cast in shadow.)

The legendary Jon F. Kimmel.

Ryan, doing his best to make conversation with an eccentric Farwellian.

Brad and Erik showed up shortly, bringing with them Brad's pellet grill and a few coolers filled with craft beer, liquor, ice, meats, and all sorts of other awesomess.

By this time, it was about 11:30am.  We had a looooong day of hanging out ahead of us.

When you were outside of the garage's cast shadow, the weather was actually really awesome - you didn't even need a jacket.

Kimmel and I squared off against Ryan and Erik.

I wasn't a fan of throwing over a grill and table (at right) - it definitely messed with you.

We lost two games before I carried us to victory in the third.  Kimmel is horrible at corn hole.

Checking in on the pork butt, which had by this point been smoking for about 20 hours.

And the cornhole continueth. . .

After moving the pork over to my grill (which we used as a searing station), Mitch went to work with his salmon 'cinnamon' rolls:  instead of frosting, he made up a dill/jalapeno/cream cheese filler between the layers of salmon, then drizzled a candied bacon glaze over it.  I'm sure each roll was, like, 1,000 calories, but it was soooooo good.

A couple of wives, cluckin' it up.  Kris didn't come outside much until the later afternoon, as she was food-prepping indoors.

Time for cigars (Brad, as usual, had brought us a box or five to work through.)

Another Hough selfie.

Bought this on a whim while taking the Kimmels up to Cork & Ale.  Tasted like a sprite, but not bad - I'm a big fan of the normal Mas Agave beer, which tastes more like a margarita.

Gauging temps.

Erik had to take a work call for, like, a half an hour at one point in the afternoon.  He was pretty thrilled with that.

Around 4:30pm or so, starting to get kids prepped for costumes.

Enjoying Mitch's salmon thingies.

We Houghs are a festive lot, make no mistake about that.

The Cannonball volunteered to do everyone's makeup this year.  Since we were all going as ghosts, this meant we all got white-faced this year. . . which, to be fair, isn't racist at all considering we're all white in the first place.

A ghostly selfie.  Kris loves her selfies.

We once again used our built-ins as a backdrop for our annual family Halloween portraits - they actually suited our costume theme this year.

The Cannonball.

Kimmel and I, looking dapper as always.

Trying out flash settings.  Abby's always happy to volunteer to be a test subject.

The Houghs, 2020.

Welcome, foolish mortals. . . 

Kris wanted some individual shots of the kids this year.

Alayna

Abby

Ella and Abby collaborated on their costumes this year (unsurprisingly) - Ella's just has more of a Dia de los Muertos vibe to it.

Bride and Groom

After everyone was suited up and the official portraits were out of the way, the kids prepared for Trick or Treating. . .

The Kimmels (Jon was Clark Kent this year - he really wanted to get use out of a suit of his he never gets to use.)

Preparing to head out, sans adults.

Skeleton conference.

Jon is not amused by the Iowa/Northwestern game. . .

LJ and Brad

The wives all rolled in around 5pm or so to help prep kids for Trick or Treating and eat up all the damn food.

A couple a chuckleheads manning the grills. . .

(A very small percentage of this food was healthy.)

A couple hours later, divying up plunder on the back patio.

Following the pork butt and salmon, we began putting through the grills three tri-tips (premium cuts of steak) aaaaaand. . . something else, I forget.  It'd take a half hour to grill one up, then we'd devour it in seconds, and start the next one.

One of the tri-tips that wasn't long for this world.

Erik and Mitch, deep in meat discussion.

Winding down at the end of the evening.

A ridiculously bright full moon on Halloween Night (the first time this has happened since, like, the 1940s.)  My phone camera didn't do it justice.

Kris and Courtney

Hopefully next year we can go back to a real, full-fledged Halloween party, but this year definitely turned out better than we expected.

- Brian