Santa, Poms, and Friendsgiving

Season's Greetings, Internet.

I didn't take this pic, but someone else did and posted it on Facebook.

We haven't hit Thanksgiving yet, but none of that bullshit matters anymore. For today, dear readers, marked the return of Santa Claus to Midland, Michigan, via the annual Santa Parade. This momentous occasion, which sees Santa ride a train (on wheels) down Eastlawn, Saginaw, and Ashman streets on his way to his yuletide home at the famous Santa House, marks the official beginning of the Holiday Season.

You heard me, Thanksgiving fans.

Like she's done the last few years, Abby once again marched in the parade with the rest of the Northeast Pom Team. Unfortunately for us, they were positioned almost at the very end of the parade this year, which meant we had to sit (er, stand) through the entire parade in order to get some pics and video of her and team as they marched by. 

Not that it mattered, Kris and Courtney (who we met up with) insisted on staying until Santa came by, and he's dead-last every year.

After the parade, we went over to the Griffin residence for our annual 'Friendsgiving' celebration. This is like Thanksgiving itself, just a week earlier and with our local 'tribe' of friends (the ten or so families that make up our Midland friend group.) We kicked off dinner around 5pm, then hung out and had drinks, played some games, etc. before retiring for the evening. You know, more or less the usual - any excuse to get together and gorge ourselves stupid.

So here you go, folks - another Saturday of weirdness with the Houghs. Enjoy. . 

Frosty was losing air and falling off the float. Dude needs to stop hitting the egg nog so damn hard.

Midland might not have as many horses on hand as Clare does for its parades, but they managed to scrounge up a few.

A super gay unicorn.

We met up with Courtney down at Kris' office, which is located near the corner of Ashman right across a side street from Kroger. This is super convenient because we can park in the the private lot, have access to bathrooms and hot chocolate (inside the office), and our corner parade-watching vantage is all of, like, thirty feet away. Courtney had the Larson kids and Jackson's friend, Aiden, along with her, and Kris was able to get a selfie of the whole group while we waited (forever) for Abby, Ella and the rest of the pom team to pass by.

Some local company tricked out a vintage hearse like the old Ghostbusters car. Pretty rad.

Featuring Slimer in the back seat, a nice touch.

This sign was posted on the back of someone's RV float (if you know, you know.)

After over an hour of watching other folks pass by, the Northeast Pom team finally came into view. Courtney ran into the middle of the intersection to start taking pics.

Not sure what the deal was with that lady trying to smother her dog. Lots of crazies come out of the woodwork at events like this.

Ella, at far left, and Abby, at far right, in the front row of the team (which makes sense, since they're the  veterans and two of the best performers on the team.)

Look. More horses.

I'd love to normalize converting vehicles into pirate ships. Let's get on this, America.

One of Midland's high-tech, futuristic fire trucks. This is Courtney's favorite part of the parade. Shit looks like a Transformer.

At long last, Santa and his train finally arrive, bringing up the rear.

Santa (the real one) and his ball and chain.

After the parade passed by our location, we headed back to the van and drove downtown to rendezvous with Abby and team at the end of their trek. Unfortunately, they were still making their way down Ashman, so we parked down by the East Building and made our way down Main Street in order to meet up with her. As we passed by Ace Hardware, we saw this awesome Holiday display in one of their storefront windows.

We ran back into Courtney and the Larson kids shortly before the pom team passed us a second time.

Kris was able to nab a few selfies with Abby as we followed the team back down Main Street towards the end of the parade route.

Another selfie, featuring some random, dashing gentleman.

After the parade, we headed home and basically just sat around for a few hours. When it started approaching dinner time, Kris threw together a couple dishes to contribute to our annual Friendsgiving, I threw together my trusty cooler, and we headed over to the Griffin residence. We showed up around the same time as the Larsons and Bardens, but had to kinda wait around for, like, a half an hour until all the late arrivals showed up. . . with their contributions.

The husbands took the initiative this year and snagged the big, dining room table (in previous years, we've always gotten screwed and have had to cram in at that small-ass, kitchen nook table you see the wives at. They complained a little at first, buuuuut. . . . f*** it.

Lots of awesome food on hand this year. Several different side dishes - casseroles, mac and cheese, potatoes, stuffings, dips, veggies, breads, etc. - along with hams, smoked briskets, sliders, charcuterie boards, pies, cookies, and other desserts. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again: this group will EAT.

You can't tell from this picture, but these hens were clucking something fierce - they're so loud when they get together we have a hard time hearing ourselves talk from the other side of the room.

The kids were in the basement for the entire night, only resurfacing to grab more food and then scamper off back downstairs.

Picked up six-pack of my all-time, favorite Christmas beer, which was fortunately still in stock at Cork and Ale earlier today (I made Kris stop off there on our way back from the parade downtown.) I had a few of these left over in the basement beer fridge, so a couple weeks ago when I was picking up seasonal beer I passed on picking it up then. It had been gnawing at the back of my brain ever since, so I was glad to have finally set my mind at ease. I won't be doing that again next year, I can guarantee you that.

Lonnie opened up this $60 bottle of 'whiskey wine' (yes, you heard that right) to share with us dads. It's a red wine from Leelanau that's aged in whiskey barrels, and you can actually taste the whiskey pretty well (though its well-balanced, not over-powering.) At 20% we only drank like 3 or 4 oz apiece, but damn was it ever good.

We started a few simultaneous games of euchre after awhile. Lonnie, Tom, Steven and Collier played through two games pretty quick, but Mitch, Morgan, Erik and I had a long, drawn-out slugfest that was quite possibly the ugliest game of euchre any one of us had ever played. Every one of us euchred, every one of us was caught in a 'screw the dealer' scenario at least twice apiece, and, in the end, Morgan and I won by one point. But in a game that ugly, there really aren't any winners, folks.

Found this beer in my fridge earlier in the evening while packing up my cooler - it's one of the last from a sampler pack I picked up in the UP on Brocation 2020. Back then you couldn't get Upper Hand anywhere in the Lower Peninsula, so you had to stock up before you came back down south. Now that's not the case, and you can start finding it around here and there.

Tom's wife, Susan, brought me a box of dusty, old vinyl to look through - her dad had passed away a couple years ago, then her mother-in-law, and this was a bunch of their records. Mostly the kind of crap you'd find in a dollar bin at Radio Wasteland, or sitting around on the bottom shelf of a local Goodwill store, but I was happy to look up some of it while the other guys continued playing cards. The wives got a huge kick out of this because I had to use my reading glasses in order to read some of the worn run-out grooves.

Things wound down pretty early this evening - the Larsons took off to catch a movie at the local cinema around 9:30pm, and us, the Sheahans, and the Colliers weren't far behind.

While most of these albums were in pretty rough shape - they had been stored in an attic, so were exposed to moisture (damaging the outer sleeves), dust, and scratches (no inner sleeves in any of them), there were a few things that peaked my interest. There was a case of 78s that were in new condition, and a couple LPs looked like I might be able to get $15 or so out of them if I ran 'em through my Spin Clean machine first.

That Stones album was in rough shape, but it's a first pressing, so even in crappy condition I might be able to get something out of it.

Collier - like all the wives - thought I looked ridiculous and decided to get a couple pics. I look like some sorta frickin' Grand Rapids hipster. . . should've chosen a better outfit I guess.

Food comas knocked a lot of folks on their asses this evening.

These guys were playing cards as Kris and I packed up and left, sometime around 10:30pm. A pretty chill evening, capping off the first 'official' day of the Holiday Season. . .

- Brian