Christmas, All Systems Go

The Hough family has officially endorsed the Christmas season. Yulefully.

Although the pairing of Clark Griswald and Scrooge McDuck might seem a bit odd, more or less that's the holiday dynamic between Preggosaurus and myself: I tend to rather enjoy Christmas lights year-round, and therefore see no problem with stringing them up the weekend before Thanksgiving in order to relish in festiveness throughout my week-off of work. Kris, on the other hand, foams at the mouth when she sees anything related to Christmas pop up in front of her before Thanksgiving (i.e. the day the Lions always lose).

As we've done in recent years, the Griswald and McDuck have come to a compromise in regards to holiday decorating: I get to string up Christmas lights the weekend before Thanksgiving, but the actual Christmas Tree, as well as anything that has Santa's face on it, may only be put up the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday, as I guess we're calling it now).

It might seem a bit unnecessary, but that's what keeps our marriage chugging along.

Anyway, so this year we ran into a bit of a dilemma. I have always, always, always hated our Christmas Tree - we've had it since we first got married and were throwing together Christmas decorations, and therefore what we've been using for the last three years is a $20 Family Dollar tree that could pass off as Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree's mentally disabled step-brother.

Taking this into consideration, this year I opted to upgrade to a $70 pre-lit tree that was a foot taller and much more filled out - still not the $250 job I'd like to own someday, but I can't really bring myself to spending that much money on something I throw up for a month.

Kris wasn't gung-ho with this purchase, but she relented eventually, and now our Charlie Brown-esque auxiliary tree is positioned back in my man-room, if only to keep the Hermit Crabs company during the holiday season.

Merry Commercialism,

- Brian

Treasure Island

our family lives in a pretty touristy area. central florida can be a sprawling, congested, urban smear filled with bad crime and badder drivers, but, at the same time, it offers limitless sources of entertainment.

we live in orlando, but not in the touristy part you may be accustomed to. we live in a golf club part of town, which, while nice, feels nothing like touristy florida. jimmy buffet cannot be heard in the streets, but T.I. can. there are palm trees, sure, but only at major intersections and at the gates of fancy planned communities. in order to get that traditional, 'fun in the tropics' experience down here in central florida, you have to a.) go to a theme park, or b.) drive a couple hours to either coast and escape central florida all together.

now, we have a couple friends down here who have always been more than generous in the area of park admittance. its appreciated, and its awesome (as the countless pictures already posted across this here blog attest to). however, for our first 'family' vacation (as a dynamic trio), we decided to spend a few days on the coast in a beachfront hotel, living it up like a gang of tourists.

our destination: treasure island.

treasure island is located a few miles north of st. petersburg, in the greater tampa area, and is absolutely gorgeous. kris ended up finding dirt-cheap rates for a room at the treasure island bay & marina hotel, which was, by far, the best room we've ever stayed in (with the exception of a room we got once while traversing the bahamas). the view from our balcony was of the ocean and beach itself, which was literally a five minute walk from our hotel room door.

we spent as much time on that beach as humanly possible (or, rather, as alayna could tolerate without going ape-shit ballistic), and did more than our fair share of souvenir shopping along the main strip.

we also hit up john's pass - which we coincidently went to during our april mini-reunion with ex-peace corps compatriots lauren, brett, bonnie, and susannah - while we were in the neighborhood, and yours truly bought himself a new old man hat to replace my grandpa's (which i'd prefer to preserve as long as possible). in addition, we also picked up a hermit crab as a new pet while we were out there, which i was adamant about obtaining from day one...

as far as souvenirs go, you really can't go wrong with hermit crabs.

all in all, it was a solid, touristy vacation in the tropics, with a final price tag of about $400. not too shabby at all, and highly recommended for you locals out there looking for a change of scenery (as for you non-locals, it'd still run you about $400, but then add a couple hundred for the rental car and a few hundred for the plane tickets).

so yeah... our first 'family' vacation was a success. henceforth, we're making treasure island our annual mid-summer family vacation/getaway as long as we're stuck down here in the sunshine state (see also america's wang).

slainte,

- brian