The Houghs: Friendsgiving and Black Friday: Coronavirus Edition

Happy Thanksgiving-ish, America.

Starting off the day with the Great Christmas Record Odyssey.

Well, the ol' Covid Pandemic continues to rage unabated throughout American society, and consequently our usual Thanksgiving plans for this year were kibosh-ed.

Now, typically, we Houghs load up in the minivan and travel down to scenic Romulus in order to spend the day with Kris' extended fam (both her mom and her dad's side), squeezing dozens of visits all into one day. Due to impending society collapse, of course, this couldn't happen this year, and so we were left wide open for the holiday for the first time since, well. . . ever.

Ultimately, we ended up spending the holiday with the Larsons, Boses, and Johnsons - all of which have already been hit by Covid (more than three week ago), have quarantined, have the antibodies/imunities, are all working from home, and only hang out within our immediate circle. We were hesitant to even do this - considering how insane things are getting these days with ever-increasing case numbers, etc. - but, seeing how they're no longer carriers and everything, we deemed it safe. Note: as a further precaution, just to be safe, we plan on quarantining for two weeks following the holiday, since we don't want Christmas to suffer the same fate.

So, America, I leave you now with a bunch of pics that highlight our last-minute, Hail Mary attempt at celebrating Thanksgiving, the usual subsequent Black Friday tree setup, etc.

Enjoy.

My brother, Chris, proposed having a family-wide Zoom call on Thanksgiving Day, but since he has no experience with Zoom at all, asked if I wouldn't mind setting it up (I spend about 6 hours a Goddamn day on Zoom, so I didn't mind.) We kicked things off at 11am, and set up in the kitchen so we could visit with the rest of the Hough fam while Kris and I started putting dishes together.

Definitely reminded us a lot of our Florida days, that's for sure. . .

From Top Left to Bottom Right: The Houghs v.2.0, the Whites, Dad, Cindy, Bryan and Chelsey, and The Houghs vs. 2.1.

It wouldn't be Thankgiving without watching the Lions lose. . .

Queen of the Sides, hard at work in her office. Kris was tasked with this year's mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, and stuffing.

After our Zoom call with my extended family, and while Kris wrapped up her meal prep and the kids showered and got ready for the day, I took these two assholes around the neighborhood for our daily walk. Definitely a highlight of my days, as I get to have a moment's peace with a pipe and an audiobook (currently I'm working my way through this phenomenal book, which is incredibly well-researched and insightful. And long.)

Around 3pm, we headed on over to the Larson residence, who once again hosted Friendsgiving (like they did last year.) Mitch did the Turkey for us this year, putting it in a smoker instead of a conventional oven (he's one of our group's 'mad scientist' grill experts, so pulling shit out like this on a whim is his forte.)

Smoked Turkey.

Mitch's wife, Kelli, hacking the bird to pieces.

After the Lions lost, we watched the Cowboys play the artists formerly known as the Redskins. . .

Abby, Sophie, and Maddy enjoying some sparkling cider. I really wanted to have Kris, Danielle, and Kelli (their moms, respectively), recreate this pic in order to do a side-by-side, but sadly we never got around to it.

The Cannonball is a huge fan of mashed potatoes (her plate was practically filled with it earlier.)

The Johnsons and Colliers showed up shortly before dinner, and afterwards us dads just kinda sat around in the living room and had a few beers while watching football. Personally, I don't like football, so I spent a lot of my time shopping on Amazon.

About 8pm, ourselves, the Johnsons, and the Boses ended up leaving, but not before we left all of our children behind at the Larsons for a mega-sleepover. There's no way in hell I would've been down for something like that, but to each their own. . .

The next morning, a desk that we ordered from Wayfair was delivered (assuming it came in the morning because it was privately shipped - usually we get packages in the late afternoon/early evening.) Kris really wanted to buy Abby a desk, seeing how she's currently learning from home virtually, and for the unforeseeable future. This desk cost far more than I was hoping to spend, buuuut. . . Covid. I ended up assembling it in under an hour by myself with zero issues (thank God.)

For most of the day, our kids hung out at the Larsons - despite not having packed a toothbrush, change of clothes, etc. - and they didn't come home until about 5pm or so. When they did so, we heated up some leftovers and popped in a Christmas movie: being the Day After Thanksgiving and everything, it is now 'officially' the Dawn of the Holiday Season. As such, it was only fitting I start cracking away at my reserve of Holiday beers. . .

As in previous years, we started (and plan on ending) the Holiday Season with our household's all-time favorite Christmas movie, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

After that movie ended and the kids went to bed, it was once again time for Kris and I to decorate our Christmas Tree. Our traditional, go-to movie while hanging up all our decorations is the comedy classic, Some Like It Hot, and we keep our DVD copy of the movie in the same tote bin as our tree ornaments, as this is the only time of year that we watch it. Alas, seeing how it's 2020 and everything, this year the movie was mysteriously missing - it had randomly disappeared without a trace (of course.) So, consequently, we were forced to rent the movie off of Amazon Prime.

Kris, not amused.

Alongside Christmas Vacation, I like to open and close the 'official' Holiday Season with my all-time favorite Christmas cocktail, a Merry Irishman.

This cocktail is a bit too strong for Kris' taste, so I always whip her up a Christmas-y White Russian instead (using peppermint vodka instead of regular to give it a festive twist.)

If you've never seen this movie before, you're doing yourself a disservice. Shame on you.

I was adamant this year about sectioning off the tree in various 'regions' of themed-ornaments (much to Kris' annoyance.) I gave her the front of the tree for our nostalgic and sentimental ornaments, while I sectioned off the sides for our series runs. And yes, I'm aware that I put waaaay too much thought and effort into this. Shut up.

Samson made it on to the tree this year (fortunately Hallmark offers an annual, dated dog frame ornament.)

Proud to say that I own every Indiana Jones ornament Hallmark has ever created. Tell your friends.

Trannies.

The Master at work.

Behold, Hallmark's The Muppets collection. I'm completely up to date with this series. . . except for 2008's Waldorf and Statler and 2010's Beaker (I'm keeping an eye on them on Amazon, but the price for those has skyrocketed.)

Meanwhile, back on the train bound for Florida. . .

I purchased this extremely hard-to-find NES system ornament after months of it being out of stock (and triple the price through most online vendors.) Was able to pounce on it when it was back in stock at the regular price for a few minutes on Amazon - I've never seen such a popular Christmas ornament, but totally get it - the lid opens up, there's a Super Mario/Duck Hunt game inside, and if you hit the Power button it lights up and plays the Mario Bros. theme music. Pretty badass.