Festivus

Hey gang. 

It's been a hectic couple of days, guys. We had two Festivals this weekend, one with Alayna and the Midland High Orchestra, and one with Abby and the Northeast 8th Grade Orchestra. At these Festivals, the schools perform three songs for a panel of judges, then have five minutes to sight-read a brand new piece that they then perform for a separate judge. Top scores are given '1's, bottom scores are given '5's. It's more for vanity's sake, there's no consequences for getting shitty scores or anything like that, but the kids all take it super seriously.

Alayna's orchestra performed Friday night, at a considerably late 8pm start time, with Abby's taking place the following afternoon around 1pm. We would have been better off just bringing along some cots and staying the night over at Bullock Creek High School, where these Festivals took place, but Kris kiboshed the idea.

Later that evening, we had a semi-formal 'plated dinner' party over at the Bos residence. Mitch wanted something fancier for a friend group hangout for once, instead of doing the usual 'everyone bring a dish to pass' and we all just graze while hanging out. He offered folks four entree options: smoked salmon, bacon-wrapped pork, sirloin steak, or grilled chicken, and then had tons of sides and wines on hand to accompany them. After that, he had a couples game tournament, featuring a couple different trivia board games and card games.

Kris and I took second place in every round of the tournament, which was definitely respectable, but I hate losing trivia games - I'm usually a powerhouse when it comes to trivia - but we lost to the Johnsons, so it was understandable (aside from Yours Truly, Erik's probably the best at trivia.)

So here you go, folks - a crazy day and a half for the Houghs. Check it out. . .

Alayna and the Midland High Orchestra (you can see her in the front center, wielding her violin.)

I apologize for the VHS-level of quality with this particular video, folks - it's like five minutes long, so I had to degrade the quality down to 480p in order for Blogger to host it. I couldn't even condense the rest of the videos, as they were all well over five minutes in length. Abby's pieces are slightly better - two of hers I didn't have to scaled down - but whatever.

The performance part of the Festival went very well, as did the sight-reading aspect that followed immediately afterwards (pics and video of that part of the Festival aren't allowed.)

It took about a half an hour for the school to receive their scores for the evening, which were posted in the hallway adjacent to this cafeteria where we all waited. Midland High ended up receiving '1's - the top score - for most of the categories, and ended up with a '1' overall. Alayna was pretty stoked.

The next day, Abby and the Northeast 8th Grade Orchestra took the stage. . .

(Abby's in the front with her cello.)

This judge in the sweater vest off to the right was pretty strict, and ended up giving the orchestra a '2.'

Northeast ended up with a '2' overall - two of the judges gave them a '2' for their performances, while they scored a '1' for sight-reading. Abby was fine with it, though - she's not as in to orchestra as her sister is.

Later that evening, we all made our way over to the Bos residence for food, games, and drinks. The dads, as usual, set up shop in the kitchen where food was easily at hand.

Mitch made up some of his usual sushi rolls as appetizers before dinner started.

Flatbread pizza.

Lonnie helps Mitch bake some sides.

Grilling up some entrees in the Bos' gazebo out back.

Dinner is served. . .

Some snacks and desserts - gotta make sure folks have enough food.

My dinner for the evening. That steak was unbelievably good.

(That's some kinda bacon/onion garnish you see there.)

The Bos girls, Maddie and Audrey, came out of the basement to stock up on some dessert options before disappearing back into the basement for the evening.

Courtney, Kris and Stephanie, clucking about wife shit.

Danielle and Kellie at the wine station.

Collier channels his inner-gangster.

The gaming tournament begins. . .

Mitch had a lot of bourbon on hand this evening as well. Here's a glass of my all-time favorite bourbon, Woodford Double-Oaked.

Kris and I would have won this, but we lost a turn twice and got some really shitty questions. Still finished in second, though.

Stephanie, Danielle, and Kris.

Skip-Bo. Kris and I got 2nd place in this one as well.

Due to the amount of people we had, it was necessary to break of into two, separate tables for cards.

Morgan, who's already tall at 6' 4", was sitting in a high-seated chair, with Yours Truly (standing at a whopping 5' 9") was seated in a folding chair. Folks found the height discrepancy hilarious. 

Tried a glass of this next. A very, very expensive and rare bourbon, I almost felt guilty having a glass of it. Almost.

We had to break off into teams for Mind the Gap, which - again - we almost won.

We teamed up with the Colliers for this one. Mees definitely carried us with the Gen Z knowledge.

The battle rages on.

Lonnie and Omkar took a selfie at one point because they thought they were 'twinning,' despite the fact that, you know, one's black and the other's Indian.

Mitch, being inappropriate as usual.

A celebratory toast at the end of the tournament.

(Kris, your Farwell is showing.)

- Brian