Christmas in Clare

Happy Holidays, Internet.

Arising on Day Four of our Holiday Gauntlet, the Houghs slowly got around for the day, giving the kids as much time as humanly possible to get themselves somewhat presentable for the day's big event: Christmas in Clare.

No, Alayna is not drinking champagne. We're cool, but we're not that cool.

My folks were once again hosting the Hough Family Christmas, and, as in previous years, were catering Qdoba for everyone instead of slaving away over a huge meal for four or five families. Food was scheduled for 1pm, but my brothers were planning on arriving to Dad's in advance of this, seeing how they'd probably have to leave way earlier than us on account of their kids, and that way they'd also be able to open up their presents without all the additional chaos swirling around them. Us and the Whites - the regulars in Clare - were given a later arrival time, closer to when food was to be served. We decided to repeat last year and just do mimosas over at the Whites' house beforehand, and hung out there for an hour or two before caravaning into Clare at our designated time. 

So I'll leave you all now with a ton of pics that chronicles yet another Christmas with the (Extended) Houghs.

Behold. . .

After killing a few bottles of bubbly, we loaded back up into Kris' van and made our way over to Dad and Cindy's.

The usual kitchen desk charcuterie board.

Upon our arrival, folks tore into the Qdoba. Here's Kris, Scarlett, Bradley, his girlfriend (didn't catch her name, not that it matters, and Cindy.

These girls will throw down some Mexican food.

Sadly no one bothered to get a video of this. Cindy had me open another bottle of champagne for her after we got there, but when I opened it it exploded everywhere, dousing the floor, the ceiling, and Yours Truly.

She swore she hadn't shaken it up, but I have my doubts.

R.I.P.

Wiping champagne off the ceiling at Christmas. You know, the usual.

Eating at the Adult Table.

Once folks had eaten, I somehow - unsurprisingly - got put on nephew entertainment duty, and had to hook up the video game stuff for them downstairs. The parents had this old, '80s plush reindeer out for holiday decor - I think we had a bunch of these at one point.

Jeff, Carissa, and Jill - drinking mimosas, not entertaining children

Blake and a doodle.

The Cannonball and her phone.

Brian White

Nagatha Christie.

Here you go, America. The World's Ugliest Christmas Ornament, commemorating my brother Chris' first Christmas.

Today's installment of the Twelve Milkshake Stouts of Christmas. This was one of the better ones I've had so far, but the ABV could have been higher.

We weren't allowed to do this growing up, but now that Dad and Cindy are grandparents they don't give a shit anymore.

Tearing into Christmas presents (this was just us and the parents, as my siblings and all their families has already done this by the time we got there.)

Another hair tool for Alayna (she steals her mom's all the time, Kris is sick of it.)

Chris wrangles his offspring.

Some bomber jacket she's been wanting.

Abby, in true Hough fashion, has a bit of an OCD streak in her (as does her sister). . .

You will never see another child so happy to receive a f***ing label maker.

The Cannonball gets some fancy perfume that she'd been wanting. . .

At that price point, I'd be afraid of breaking the bottle.

I forget the story behind Scarlett's wounded eye. I'm assuming she wasn't listening to her dad at home.

Alayna and Levi.

Abby opens up a rather large present, wrapped in an apparent holiday trash bag.

A fuzzy, white chair for her newly-renovated bedroom.

Teenage girls are weird animals. I would not have been cool getting a chair at 13 years old.

With kids out of the way, now us adults could open up a few gifts. 

It's on colored vinyl, so you know it's gonna sound awesome.

I got this tactical bag from the folks, something I've been wanting for awhile - the Direct Action Dragon Egg MK II. My buddy Erik has one of these and they're insanely high-rated packs - he always brings his on our Brocations.

I plan on using this not only for those trips, but also as my default theme park bag, replacing my smaller Maxpedition pack that I generally carry around in the parks. The Maxpedition is perfect for my SLR - I upgraded it with a padded insert to protect the body and lenses - but it takes up soooo much space that nothing else can fit in it (no water bottle, no nothing.) So I looked into this pack, and the same camera padding insert I use in the Maxpedition fits snugly into this pack, and I can fit tons of other stuff in there as well. I'm looking forward to tricking this baby out and testing it.

Kris has been on a DIY Pinterest kick lately, and has been wanting some user-friendly, smaller power tools that she can wield for her artsy-fartsy projects around the house.

Jill doesn't look too sure about this. Maybe she just hates reciprocating saws.

Scarlett better watch herself unless she wants a matching scar on the other eye. . .

Kris really wanted this belt sander. (I can't believe I actually just typed that sentence.)

Dad and Cindy opening up their gifts. . .

We got Cindy some gloves and a hat, along with a candle . . . 

. . . and Dad got these color-changing LED lights for under the porch at the Lakehouse.

Playing around with the new lights. I showed him how to install the app and register his lights on his phone, and from there you can customize the lights in a ton of different ways.

Dad and a bunch of his grandkids (sans the Whites, who all disappeared by this point in time.)

And of course you have to get a weird one.

Cindy brought out Dad's birthday cake (a week ago today) for dessert. We were all supposed to drive up to Clare to celebrate Dad's birthday last weekend, but Cindy had to go ahead and get Covid and ruin everything. . .

My kids will tear into some cake, make no mistake about it.

This is how you wrangle nephews, America. This ain't my first rodeo.

Kinsleigh and Abby. (Seriously, we would have gotten in so much trouble for doing this back in the day.)

Once the kids were all settled in to activities and video games downstairs, the adults gathered around for the White Elephant gift exchange. . .

I brought up the idea last year of reintroducing this tradition back into our annual Christmases, as we used to do it with the Waites and grandparents back in the early/mid- 2000's for a bit. So I have kinda spear-headed this since, and for this year's exchange I just took Tom's rules and simplified them (because his were a little over the top.) I lowered the number of steals on any particular gift from four down to two, raised the price to $30 per gift, eliminated the 'matching wrapping paper' rule, and there were no prizes for whomever's gift was stolen the most.

Kris and Jill, discussing strategy.

I was number 7 (I had everyone draw a number out of a bowl to determine the order in which people would choose - or steal - random presents.) I passed on stealing anyone else's opened gifts, and went for the big one under the tree, which was this giant, Taco 'Lazy Susan' thing (that Jeff and Carissa picked out.)

Carissa, who was number 8, immediately stole it back.

I think Jill has some cocktail mixes here (like, you just pour tequila into them and it magically turns into cocktails.) Kris picked up those from Marshall's and added a bottle of tequila to it.

Speaking of White Elephants, this is one of the beers I got from the exchange we did at the Sheahan residence (courtesy of Mitch.) Not a bad lager, but nothing noteworthy either. Coincidentally, I ended up getting booze at this exchange, too - a gifted box of Gentleman Jack (which I stole from Cindy.)

Abby checks out Kinsleigh's new tablet she got for Christmas. . .

Totally normal for a dog to lay down on the floor like this.

Queso so good I could drink it through a straw. It's probably a good thing we only eat Qdoba at Christmas, otherwise I'd weigh 200 lbs.

Not sure if these were store bought or someone made them. Surprised there are any left what with all the little kids running around.

Boxing up some food for folks to take home with them.

These posed pictures are becoming a regular occurrence with this bunch.

We left Clare around dinner time - not that anyone was hungry after feasting all afternoon - and we made our way back home to Midland. The girls, of course, almost immediately retreated back into their bedrooms to enjoy their new plunder, and Kris and I settled into the couch for yet another Christmas movie (and, what would be for me, the only Merry Irishman for the year.) 

- Brian