Auld Lang Syne

 Happy New Year, America!

In the past, we've usually kept New Year's Eve as a pretty tame affair, but - after this year - it's probably going to join the ranks of Hough Family Parties, along with our annual Halloween and St. Patrick's Day ones.  And it happened pretty randomly.

Since moving back to Michigan, we've usually just hosted our old camping friends, Rita and Smitty, for the evening.  They're close with our kids, having camped with us throughout the state over the years, and we've kept it a pretty chill tradition - watching the Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve broadcast on ABC, eating pizza, and catching up.  Last year, due to Smitty getting Covid, they didn't come up, so we invited the Johnsons and Boses over, but again - it was a chill time.

This year, with my brother Chris and his family back in Michigan, we invited them over, along with Rita and Smitty.  My other Sausage Pad compatriots - Zack and Damon, along with their wives - were going to come up from Kalamazoo, but had to cancel at the last minute.  Seeing how we were going to have so many people on hand, we said 'screw it' and invited the couples from the inner circle of our friend group over as well.

And that's how a normally mild undertaking turned into a somewhat smaller party.

With my newly-acquired beer pong table set up in the garage and a bar-worthy karaoke set up established in the Study, were were definitely ready to entertain.  We considered a dry run for our upcoming St. Patrick's Day party, which would probably have double the amount of guests, if past parties are any indicator.

So what follows, dear readers, is a brief rundown of how the Houghs rang in the New Year.  

Check it out. . .

Chris and Nicole - sans their three kids (for once) - came over around 6:00pm, before the big rush of other folks, and we killed some time playing some of our friend group's go-to trivia games that we've been enjoying recently.

Not my favorite Holiday beer, but it wasn't terrible.

Alayna's friend, Lexi, was staying the night this evening (we'd have a few houseguests tonight.)

It's rare that I lose a trivia game, and tonight was no exception - I mercilessly beat the shit out of everyone.

While we adults continued our bouts of trivia, the kids eventually grew bored with it and moved into the Study, where we had set up the karaoke system.  It was a big hit with the teens, for sure (Alayna was singing, but refused to do so while the camera was trained on her.)

Nicole was able to sneak this one from her vantage in the dining room - that's about as good as you're gonna get, folks.

Slainte

After an hour or so, our good friends Rita and Smitty rolled in, followed shortly thereafter by our next door neighbors, Dave and Sherri.  At that point we decided to transition to beer pong in the garage (on my newly-acquired, regulation-size table.) Nicole is pretty cut-throat at this game, as is our neighbor Sherri. 

Abby and Ella, bustin' out jams.

By 9:00pm, our usual Midland friends started rolling in from their other engagements - the Colliers, Johnsons, and Bos families (the remaining inner circle family - the Larsons - were busy entertaining their own extended family at their house for the evening, so they were out for the night.)

Courtney and Mees, picking out karaoke songs.

Beer pong is a new fan favorite with this group - Ryan and Erik teamed up and were basically unstoppable all night.

Yelling at the Alexa to play what I f***ing asked it to.  Our robot has strokes from time to time.

After hours of beer pong, karaoke, and games, it was time to break out the champagne bottles (and sparkling grape juice for the dozen or so kids we had on hand by this time) and watch the countdown.

Distributing champagne flutes to the masses (Chris and Nicole had left a couple hours before this - apparently big crowds are not their jam.)

Awaiting the countdown. . .

Mitch, Smitty and Rita

And so it begins. . .

Happy New Year, America.

About an hour or so after midnight, most folks headed home with their more-than-exhausted children.  Smitty, Erik and I stayed up pretty late - singing karaoke to absolutely no one, as everyone else had wisely gone to bed.  Here's to 2023, folks.

- Brian