Christmas Pre-Season: ENGAGE

Enjoying the first Nogs of the Season. . .

Good evening, America.

As I've told you now - Jesus, let me think about this - maybe six or seven times before, the Houghs kick off the Holiday Season in mid-November.  Back in our Florida days, we did so because it was the first weekend of Thanksgiving Break (yes, we got a full week off of work for Thanksgiving - I really, really miss that.)  Of course, we waited until after Thanksgiving to throw up the Christmas Tree and turn on the exterior lights, but all the interior decor went up at the start of the break, thereby marking the annual resurrection of the Christmas Beast.

Since moving back home to Michigan, this family tradition of ours has held firm, and this Friday we once again drug up about a dozen totes, boxes, and what-not from the deepest depths of our storage room, once I got back from work.  The kids were my sort-of-but-not-really helpers in the entire process, and it took us a few hours to go through each and every box and tote on hand.  Quite a lot of decor this year ended up being donated to the 'Mr. Hough's Classroom Decor' box - stuff we'd outgrown, or tackier/cheaper decorations we had had since we first moved in together back in the mid-2000's - so we deemed it necessary to go out shopping later in the weekend to acquire more stuff for the house.

You know.  The Reason for the Season.

Anyway, what follows is a sporadic walkthrough of this, the jump-off weekend to the Holiday Season.

ARISE, CHRISTMAS BEAST!!!!

Following the previous evening's interior decorating, Kris and I decided to take the girls out to Bronner's in Frankenmuth in order to do some shopping for ornaments and household decor. . .

I figured since it wasn't even Thanksgiving yet the crowds wouldn't be all that bad.  Holy. Shit. Was I ever wrong. . .

Kinda have to throw your kids in this giant wreath-thing when you first walk into the store.  Wouldn't be good parenting, otherwise.

The girls wanted to pet these creepy nearly-life-size Santa Claus beards.  I was a little nervous, mainly 'cause upon checking these things' price tags, I saw that each one cost nearly $1,000.

Kris and I came to the agreement this year that we would put an end to one of our family traditions this year:  the exchange of Christmas ornaments on Christmas Eve.  We've been doing it ever since our first Christmas together as a couple (2005), and over the course of the past twelve years we've acquired a treasure trove of Hallmark ornaments.  Too much longer and we'd have to start purchasing additional Christmas trees just in order to house them, so we decided this year that we'd buy ourselves one ornament a year and call it good.  Kris really wanted a house ornament that we could personalize with the year we bought our new home, and so we settled upon this one.

The personalization process was kind of a pain, mainly due to the crowd size, but fortunately we only had to spent about fifteen minutes in line due to the fact that they had, like, thirty people working the Personalization Desk (or whatever the hell it's called.)  Abby was already getting pissy, a mere twenty minutes after showing up to the store, probably on account of the insane crowds (I f***ing hate people), so we were super grateful that there were children's activities on the backs of the store maps to keep her occupied while we waited in line to have our ornament personalized.  It only took a couple minutes to get our ornament personalized, then, with Abby on the verge of a meltdown and the congestion getting on all of our nerves, Kris and I decided to cut our losses and check out another store instead.

How terrifying would Santa be if he were really this size in real life?  The size of a frickin' Cave Troll, stomping around on your roof, destroying your home's value.  No.  Thank.  You.

I make it a point to photograph Kern's every chance I get.

The kids were in desperate need of some lunch, following our rushed, hectic, but surprisingly successful run to Bronner's, so we decided to pull off at this McDonald's in Frankenmuth.  'Cause tradition.

Recharging the batteries.

More recharging of batteries (yes, there is a child under all that.)

Kris wanted to check out Hobby Lobby in Saginaw, in order to check out Holiday decor, but also to buy a hook rack for the house.  Hobby Lobby is to Kris what Radio Wasteland is to Yours Truly:  we were in there for over an hour, and spent waaaay more than we probably should have.  But, as the saying goes:  happy wife, happy life.

Kris' new coat rack in the entryway, with a few Holiday-themed mason jar decorations she painted/created after checking out Christmas decor on Pinterest.

I may have gone a little nuts with the girls' play area in the basement.  It's a constant struggle containing the inner-Griswold that is always attempting to break out during the Holiday season. . .

I'm going to try and run a few more strands of Christmas lights upstairs in the Study, just not sure how to do it without putting nails or hooks in anything. . .

(I'm going to move the pipe collection, down at the bottom right there, down into the Captain's Quarters for the Holidays, and set up my parents' old, vintage Nativity scene there on that shelf.)

First 'Nog of the Holiday Season.  These moments are worth documenting, people.

With the weather these days beginning to cool off - and taking into consideration it's been raining every weekend for the last month - I decided to make the most of the sort-of-okay weather Sunday afternoon and started putting up our exterior Christmas lights.  There was no wind, it wasn't raining or snowing, and it was in the high-30s. . . when I started putting up the lights.  About halfway over the garage, however, the weather began to cool off.  By the time I had gotten the lights around the front of the house, the wind was gusting and blowing snow, and my fingers and toes were numb.  I had to take multiple breaks inside to thaw my extremities - I obviously couldn't abandon the project halfway through - but I eventually got all the lights hooked up.  Screw you very much, Mother Nature.  You spiteful bitch.

For dinner Sunday we let Alayna pick out a restaurant for her celebratory Honor Roll meal, and she went with. . . frickin' Olive Garden (I despise Italian food.)  This was Alayna's first year getting real grades, and she got all A's and one B+ (in Writing), so, you know, I kinda had to eat Italian food.  On the plus side, they did serve beer. . .

French fries at an ethnic restaurant.  Standard Hough move.

Following dinner, Kris had to run Alayna over to the Church in order to hit up her 'Tween group meeting (a special Sunday School class for 4th - 6th graders), so she charged me with helping Abby with her 'All About Me' board (it's called something else, but I forget.)  This elaborate project was to celebrate Abby as the class student of the week, and was unfortunately due tomorrow (Monday.)  I had to print off a bunch of pictures of Abby and her life from Walgreen's, help her cut out and glue them onto a board, and then quasi-guide her through the process of writing down stuff about herself that she could share with the class.  Took us about two hours, from start to finish, which wasn't too bad. . . but on a Sunday night, when you have to wake up early the next day in order to go to work, it's not really at the top of my 'Totally Bitchin' Things to Do with Your Time' list.

She did pretty good with it, if I don't say so myself.  Kinda wish we had started the project a couple weeks ago, when we first heard about the project and it's due date, but. . . well, we're Houghs.  And that's how we roll.

- Brian

Santa, Bronner's, and a Snow Storm

Hi gang.

As you may remember, last year Kris and I took the girls to see a guy dressed up as Santa Claus here in Midland.  We've done it a couple times, actually, and were totally planning on doing it again this year.  They definitely have a cool setup there downtown, and it's a convenient, five-minute drive from our house, which is awesome.

Well, we kept putting off the mandatory Santa meet-and-greet this year, for no other reason than we were just super busy these last few weekends, and during the weekdays we didn't have the time after school/work to swing it.  Before you knew it, we were two weeks away from Christmas, and Kris and I - being the super shitty parents that we are - still hadn't gotten around to taking our kids to see the Fat Man yet.

Enter Dad and Cindy.

They were taking my nephews, Bradley and Jax, to Bronner's in order to pick up their annual Grandkids Christmas ornament and to take the boys to see Santa, and they extended an invite to us to tag along.  Figuring we'd probably have a hard time getting off our asses to do so otherwise, Kris and I decided to accompany them to Frankenmuth in order to get the annual Claus visit out of the way.

The drive to Bronner's this morning was far from pleasant.  A bad blizzard was rumbling through mid-Michigan, and the roads were absolute garbage.

The lack of visibility was ridiculous.  It felt like we were in a North-of-the-Wall episode of Game of Thrones.

It took WAAAY longer than it should have to make it down to Frankenmuth.  Neither of us were looking forward to the drive back to Midland. . .

Dad wanted to be outside the side entrance right when the store opened in order to get tickets to see Santa right away (if you don't get tickets right when they open, you end up having to wait hours to see him I guess.)  We made it there with about ten minutes to spare, and weaseled our way right to the front of the crowds.  

Unfortunately, we were waiting at the wrong gate, and when the doors finally opened, Yours Truly had to power-walk across the entire store in order to pick up tickets (and it being the "World's Largest Christmas Store" and all, that's no small feat, America.)

As luck would have it, I was able to pick up tickets in the first group to see Santa, and got in line with only about a dozen or so people ahead of me.  Once in place, we rendezvoused with the others. 

(She wanted her picture taken in front of this.  For whatever reason.)

Still waiting in line.

(At least the decor is festive.)

This penguin looks pissed his crotch is buried in snow.

The Houghs, v. 2.0

Abby and Santa.

She talked his ear for awhile, mostly about wanting Star Wars toys.  The usual.

Alayna had a laundry list of shit she wanted this year - Shopkins, Num Nums, clothes, a cell phone, a microscope, a drum set, and, most of all, a Project Mc2 Spy Kit.

. . . Santa told her he'd see what he could do, but she should be happy with whatever she ended up getting.  Nice try, bro.

Santa and Jax

Bradley is a bit too old to be buying into the whole 'Santa' thing, but he's good about it for the sake of his little brother.

After getting the mandatory Santa visit out of the way, we started walking around the store, checking out Christmas ornaments and decor displays. . .

 

Abby, mid-meltdown.  It's a pain in the ass wrangling kids in this store, and on busy days like today - being it so close to Christmas, the store was packed - it's easy to lose the people you're with.  If you do lose them, good luck:  there's NO cell phone reception in the entire store.  I personally think they do that to f*** with people.

In the personalized ornament section.  Every year, Dad and Cindy buy an ornament to have personalized with the names of all their grandkids and the year, and were nice enough to buy us one for our family as well.

After a couple hours walking around with little kids, we all wanted to kill ourselves.

(We'll probably be heading back there over the summer in order to have a more relaxed time with it - hopefully the crowds will be non-existent.)

By the time we were leaving, Abby was an absolute train wreck (she was hungry, and when this kid gets hungry, she turns into a demonic hell-spawn.)

Heading back to the cars

KERN'S

(Yes, the weather still sucked.)

Obligatory, post-Bronner's McDonald's stop for Lunch.

We let the kids terrorize the crap out of this PlayZone (or whatever the hell it's called) for awhile once they finished eating, before ultimately parting ways with Dad and Cindy and nephews and heading home.

That frickin' Zilwaukee Bridge again. . . JUST as much fun in the middle of a blizzard.

- Brian