'Twas the Day Before Christmas

Happy Christmas Eve, kids.

Well, so it looks like we're finally going to have ourselves a White f***ing Christmas for the first time in a long time, I think (at least it feels like a long time, I could be wrong.) That alone has helped bring in a bit more Christmas Spirit into the House hold that we were somewhat lacking last year. 

Granted, the kids have long outgrown the 'fun' phase of buying, wrapping, and watching them open up presents on Christmas morning. Back in the day when they were unwrapping toys, video games. . . hell, even books. At this point I'd even settle for picking them out one, major gift that they're super excited about - something big and expensive that totally makes their Christmas. Nope. Nowadays, it's an assortment of mid-range presents that are super boring: brand name clothing, too-expensive-for-what-it-is make-up crap, over-priced perfumes and body sprays, and teenage shit of that nature.

Coupling that with the fact that Kris (yet again) wanted to only exchange stockings this year, Yours Truly wasn't as amped for Christmas as I used to be, even three or four years ago. But, all things considered, it wasn't as bad as last year (see: White Christmas.)

I again went with my decades-long, favorite Michigander Turkey recipe.

This year's Christmas Eve was the complete opposite of 2023, when our house was filled with at least a dozen relatives from Kris' Laginess branch of the family. This year most folks were either working, sick, or otherwise occupied, so in the end we only had like three people show up (and most of the time it was just Marcy.) Meant for a much quieter, less stressful day for the four of us - I didn't have to have an SLR in everybody's face while simultaneously prepping, roasting, and carving an 18-pound turkey, so I was cool with it.

Anyway, I'll leave you now with a visual run-down of how this year's Christmas Eve went down.

Enjoy. . . 

Based on the success I've had with turkeys the last two years, I ended up repeating the Dry Brine process (this time for three days instead of just a day and a half), and then prepping it first thing in the morning with that "Michigander" recipe. 

I threw it in the oven around 10am, and, remembering my mistake from a couple years ago that actually worked out awesome, roasted the bird upside down (so that all the juices seep into the drier, breast meat.

Kris meanwhile made several sides for folks to graze upon throughout the afternoon and evening, like this fancy cheese (forget which kind) and tomato spread topped with balsamic vinegar drizzle. Was pretty good, but I wasn't overly fond of the cheese.

Alayna took this while trying to get Samson's attention, as he was chasing something around in the snow. This is the most snow we've had around Christmas in years, I honestly can't remember the last time we've had more than a dusting for the Holidays.

Around 2pm, Kris' 'niece' Vic (technically her cousin's oldest daughter, but she's basically a niece), her boyfriend, and their two kids swung by for a two-hour visit. Enough time to get some food, have a few beers, decorate some cookies, and warm up before their next Christmas Eve obligation.

We don't have very many little kids toys left in the house - aside from the multiple totes of Playmobil and Lego down in the crawl space, which would be too old for two kids under three - but we do still have a bin of Duplo's. We brought that out for Vic's son, Julian, and her boyfriend's daughter (forger that kid's name) and the Cannonball sat down and built some crap alongside them. 

Kris apparently got a pic of both Alayna and Julian in their Spiderman gear at some point. I don't remember this, I was probably still in the kitchen at this point.

(Again, no idea who that other kid is.)

I like taking the top of the roasting pan the last 30-45 minutes of its time in the oven. Browns the top right up.

Doesn't look like much, but this turned out awesome. Skin was seasoned perfectly, meat was juicy, flavor was on point, etc. Took me about an hour to cut and separate - white and dark platters to serve, a to-go container for Marcy, the bulk of the white and dark meat bagged up and thrown in the freezer for future meals (soups, pot pies, etc.), and then a pile of soggy skin, fatty pieces, and gristle for the dogs.

While I worked on the turkey, Alayna and Abby took a seat at the dining room table and got ready to decorate cookies with Grandma Marcy (Vic and her crew had taken off just as I was pulling the turkey out of the oven.)

Alayna was very, very proud of the 'zoo' she built.

A Christmas Eve go-to around these parts.

This process takes forever. . .

. . . but you get to eat while you do it, which I'm a big fan of.

With the oven freed up, Kris ran a few different side dishes through for folks. Caramelized brussel sprouts, roasted potatoes and peppers, etc.

I had picked up a gingerbread house kit from Aldi a few weeks back as a backup activity for folks to do on Christmas Eve (because we've done them multiple times in the past.) This year's model was a hot, f***ing mess, though: the pieces were heavy and the frosting wouldn't dry fast enough to hold them together.

(Kris isn't very good at this.)

Alayna sorta decorated cookies, but her attention span for stuff like this isn't the greatest.

We don't give them a ton at a time - because they'll get sick as hell - and just mix up some of the broth and pieces-not-suitable-for-people into their usual dog food. They'll gorge themselves stupid so we have to limit how much they consume at a time (they don't get 'people' food very often so there tolerance is super low.)

Some of the spread this year (lots and lots of sugar on hand.)

Some of the finished masterpieces.

This is about as far as the fam got on the gingerbread houses this year. We threw in the towel this year, chucked the whole thing into the garbage. Suck it, Starving Kids in Africa.

Since cooking/prepping/serving food - and decorating cookies - had taken longer than anticipated, we realized that it wouldn't be feasible to make our usual, 4pm church service down at First United Methodist (you know, the half-hour, laid-back service where you do nothing but watch a Nativity pageant and sing Christmas songs.) So, instead, Kris and Marcy accompanied the girls next door to our neighbors' house where Alayna and Abby had been tasked with dog-sitting the Angelotti's three dogs (the girls had wanted to show off the dogs to Grandma.)

While they went next door, I cleaned up the kitchen. . . which doesn't sound like a major undertaking but took quite awhile because of all the shit we did in there today.

Way more snacks than four or five people would need, but whatever . . .

Lots of baked goods went un-decorated this year - not as many hands on deck as there was last year, but we still made the same amount of food.

Blasting some of my yuletide classics while working around the house this evening. Can't go wrong with Ol' Blue Eyes, kids.

The fam was still next door after I had everything cleaned/picked up, so I decided to watch my second-favorite Holiday movie. . .

I'm not going to bother you with the plot of this movie, because I seriously talk about it every frickin' year and honestly, if you haven't watched it by now, I don't even know what to say to you.

The last 'Nog of the Season.

The Absolute Legend Himself.

Kris ran Marcy home after they got back from the neighbors' house, so the girls and I rolled right into another Muppet classic, The Muppet Christmas Carol.

When Kris got home from Clare, we gathered up the kids and headed down into the basement for our annual Christmas Eve Pajama Exchange. This year - for probably the first time ever - I actually remembered to pick out Kris a shirt (instead of her picking up one herself.) I saw this '80s classic at Kohl's and knew right away it was the shirt for the wife.

Kris had purchased this set of fleece, pajama pants for all four of us. You know, to match. 'Cause we're that family.

Samson is not amused. When folks start opening gifts the dogs start losing their frickin' minds, expecting dog treats, bones, and what-not (because they always get something on Christmas Morning.)

Abby has some RBF, make no mistake about it.

(I don't know what this means.)

Pretty much.

Kris got into explaining '80s cartoons that she grew up with while showing off her Rainbow Brite shirt to the girls, and that somehow ended up to her and the girls wanting to watch Care Bears 2 on the living room TV after gifts were done. This has to be the most random, non-Christmas shit we've ever pulled as a family on Christmas Eve.

The dogs, passed out. The feasting and craziness of the Night Before Christmas finally catching up to them.

The Care Bears, taking heavy enemy fire.

Both girls wanted to spend Christmas Eve next door with the neighbors' dogs (they get paid to do so, as you'll recall), so as they packed their overnight stuff up Kris went down into the basement to start the process of laying out and organizing the kids' presents in the basement. I hung out upstairs for a few minutes, taking more yuletide 'mood' pics around the house, to make sure the kids were out of the house before heading down to assist her.

Another Holiday banger.

Some of our Holiday Cocktail weaponry.

Kris likes to match up the kids' presents so we have a rough idea of what everything is and where to place it under the tree, that way Christmas Morning we're handing kids gifts that sorta match up (either by price, or size, or whatever.) We also had to stuff their stockings - as well as each others - and put bows on everything.

Sequestered next door until the morning, Alayna took a selfie with Smooshie.

Like we do every year, we threw on my all-time favorite Christmas movie while we set everything up for the following morning.

Some more pics from the girls as they attempted to fall asleep with the dogs.

So we didn't host a huge party, we didn't go to church, we didn't remember to take our traditional Hough Family Christmas Eve Pic, and we didn't remember to have me read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas to the girls, BUT we did watch Care Bears 2 this year. Soooo. . . there's that. The stage is once again set now for the chaos that tomorrow morning will bring. Stay tuned. . .

- Brian