Black Friday in Clare

 Happy Black Friday, folks.

This year's Day-After-Thanksgiving for the Houghs was a little different this year.  Usually, we spend the day at home - not braving the crowds of stores on what is arguably the biggest shopping day of the year - and slowly break out all of our Christmas Tree stuff (we have multiple trees now.)  This year, however, my folks in Clare decided to celebrate their Thanksgiving a day late in order for our family to be able to make it (seeing how we always spend ours down in Romulus with Kris' extended family.)

Originally the Whites and my brother Chris' family were going to be hanging out in Clare as well, but a couple days ago some vomit-heavy sickness descended on Chris' house, so his family wasn't going to be able to make it.  So it would just be us and the Whites on hand this year, but it was cool being able to actually hang out with my family over this holiday break (something we haven't done since, oh, 2006, thereabouts.)

Anyway, here's a breakdown of how our day went down this year - check it out:

We didn't have to be in Clare until 2pm, so we spent the morning hanging out in the basement setting up our 'auxiliary' trees - I'm a big fan of Christmas decor, folks.  This family fun activity was brought to a quick close when Abby broke one of our bar stools, which set me off in an epic Hough rage.  Now I get to spend $400 on a new set of bar stools, which, you know, wasn't something I had to worry about earlier that morning.  Frickin' kids. . . 

After arriving at Dad and Cindy's, we began grazing on all the snack food and dips Cindy had set out around the kitchen - something we always look forward to.

Abby discovered my old house's built-in intercom system from the mid-90s while we were there - I don't think anyone's touched it since 1997, so that was nostalgic.

Cindy had this really good mullet apple cider on hand, which tasted awesome, but Brian and I figured we needed to add some Fireball to it in order to properly drink the stuff.  A quick run up to what used to be the old 7-11 on the top of Hamburger Hill easily remedied things.

Kris

Some really handsome guy.

Us and the Whites, enjoying some adult-friendly apple cider. . .

Yet another selfie with Kris and Jill. . .

Hanging out in the kitchen while Cindy slaved away on our meal.  This is how we help out.

Kris and Abby

Bradley tries out Uncle Bryan's old SVSU track jacket. . .

Jax broke out this race car track in the living room, but I ended up playing with it.

One of the cars ended up driving straight into Jax's hair and immediately began stuck in his hair, so that was fun.

I ended up having to break out my pocket knife and cut it free from his hair - it had gotten tangled up in the wheels of the car.  Could've been worse, I suppose.

Blake, his girlfriend, and a little brother thrown in for good measure.

Blake and Nana

Hanging out in the Snow Village. . .

Towards the end of our evening in Clare, the girls decided to play some pool in the basement while listening to one of Alayna's rock-heavy playlists. . .

The snappy dresser.

None of us are any good at this Goddamn game. . .

A blurry family picture on our way out at the end of the evening.

Back in Midland, Kris and I decided this year to break from tradition slightly and let the girls help us take part in our annual tradition of decorating the Christmas Tree while watching our traditional tree-decorating movie, Some Like It Hot.

Abby was enthusiastic about decorating the tree, but Alayna had zero interest in doing so. . . so she just hung out in her room on the phone with her friends. F***ing teenagers. . .

This is seriously one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.

We let Abby hang up ornaments wherever she wanted, we just told her to hang similarly-themed ornaments next to each other (gotta theme the tree in sections, folks - I don't make the rules.)

Shots fired.

Trannies, before it was cool.

Putting on the tree, towards the end of the process.  We finished decorating the tree in record time this year, seeing how we had a third hand helping us out.

The finished product.

The complete Muppet collection from Hallmark.  Appreciate the hell out of it, folks - a lot of time, energy, and money went into this.

The complete Hallmark Indiana Jones series.

Getting drowsy on the couch with Samson, watching the movie.

Hallmark started releasing ornaments based on Walt Disney World rides - that's gonna be my next ornament collection, I think.

Star Wars ornaments - I have quite a few, but based on the number of ornaments that have been released from this franchise there's no way I'd ever complete this series, so I just buy ones that strike my fancy.  The one with the Millennium Falcon was purchased from Hollywood Studios on our recent family vacation.

Some Nintendo-themed ornaments, for good measure.

The Hough Family Pet Hall of Fame.

About funned out with the evening.

The 2022 Hough Family Christmas Tree

- Brian