Christm- er, New Years Day - in Clare

Hey folks,

So today is officially the first day of 2026; in the past we've celebrated this by lying around the house in pajamas, recovering from the night before (which is always rough.) This year, however, my parents decided to try for a do-over for the extended Hough Family Christmas, seeing how our decades-long tradition of doing it the day after Christmas was torpedoed by a hellish ice storm that crippled all of central Michigan. We reluctantly agreed to drive up to Clare in order to meet up with all of our siblings and families, because - as stated before - we were all in pretty rough shape.

We ended up rolling in around 2:30pm, after Jeff and Chris' kids had finished tearing into their gifts from Dad and Cindy, and Alayna and Abby were finally able to open up theirs. Following that, everyone tore into the now-expected Qdoba spread, caught up with Bryan and Chelsey via Facetime (or whatever similar app was used, I wasn't paying attention), swapped gifts in the usual White Elephant gift exchange, and hung out with extended fam until evening.

The folks' charcuterie spread. . .

All in all, a quieter affair than normal (you can tell 'cause there's only like a third of the amount of pics I usually take), but it was a good time. Definitely did not feel like Christmas, but that's to be expected considering that crap was, like, a week or so ago. Hopefully next year things will return to form and we'll be able to celebrate the Holidays when it actually feels like the Holidays.

Here you go, folks - the smaller-than-usual, delayed, Extended Hough Family Christmas. 

Enjoy. . .

. . . featuring the infamous Meat Flower.

Alayna and Abby, opening up their gifts from the parents. . .

Alayna wanted one of those trendy Owala water bottles (that's the in-style brand right now, kinda like how Stanleys were a couple years ago), and some mug for Abby (didn't catch the story behind that.)

Alayna has been taking Watson's passing pretty hard, so she had asked for things that would remind her of him for Christmas this year, so the parents got her this frame and a couple other keepsakes along those lines. Abby had this random photo printer that connects to her phone on her list, which makes sense because she's about as obsessed with taking pics as I am.

That's a tiny printer.

This necklace features a locket that you can fill with your dead pet's ashes.

Cindy had margaritas out and ready to roll when we showed up, which paired nicely with the giant Mexican spread we grazed on all afternoon.

Dad and Cindy at the Kids' Table with some grandkids.

Jill, Chris and Kris (stuffing her damn face.)

Assorted Houghs finishing up Qdoba in the dining room.

Bryan phoned in from Nashville as folks were finishing up with food, seeing how him and Chelsey weren't able to fly up this year.

After we had the video call with Bryan up and running, we kicked off this year's White Elephant gift exchange. I handed out numbers for folks to draw out of a hat, and we selected gifts in that order. Kept the rules this year similar to what we used at the Sheahan's Christmas party, just scaled down a bit since we had fewer people (gifts could only be stolen twice instead of three times, etc.)

Bryan and Chelsey watch the opening of gifts from Tennessee.

There wasn't a whole lot of stealing this year - folks were either content or didn't really want any of the other gifts, who knows. I went next to last, so ended up with this Lego-ish flower set, which I gifted to my kids (who love that sort of thing.)

We got home around 6:30pm or so, and the girls set to work putting together their plastic bouquet while Kris and I resumed our movie-watching and lounging about the living room.

Another milkshake stout to close out the end of an unusual, but enjoyable, New Years Day.

- Brian

Christmas in Clare

Happy Day-After-Christmas, folks.

Trying to enjoy a morning coffee before getting around.

Seeing how it's the day after Christmas and everything, we Houghs were scheduled to celebrate the extended family Christmas at my dad's house in Clare - something we've done religiously on the 26th since I've been back in the States. Originally, the 26th was a date that we reserved for the extended Hough/Waite/Grandparent Christmas, but as years went on - and those other folks either passed away or else no longer celebrated the Holidays with us cool kids - we just kept the date open on our seasonal calendars.

Like in 2022 and 2023, we Houghs ended up heading north a couple hours before my parents' set start time of 1pm, in order to pre-game and chug down a few bottles worth of mimosas with the Whites before caravaning on to the folks' house. This also gave our girls the much-needed time they needed in order to finish up the two-hour process of doing their hair and make-up for the day (the last couple years they've been able to finish up the process at the Whites,' allowing us to get on the road earlier - we don't wanna have to wait around on their nonsense.)

Less than ideal driving conditions on the way to the Whites' house . . .

So Christmas at Dad's this year was more of the usual. The grandkids opened gifts, we had Qdoba catered, the adults did a White Elephant Exchange, we played some games, and were back at home in Midland by 8pm. All in all a pretty fun day, and the last installment of Yuletide Houghness for 2024.

I'll cut things off and just let the pics and video do the talking. Enjoy. . .

Catching up on gossip and family drama over champagne and orange juice.

Taking a pic of Jill Facetiming with Bryan.

Kris, taking a pic of me taking a pic of Jill Facetiming with Bryan.

Brian taking a pic of Kris taking a pic of me taking a pic of Jill Facetiming with Bryan.

A dreary drive through downtown Clare on our way to Dad and Cindy's house.

We rolled in just as folks were digging into the Qdoba, which all of us are huge fans of.

Once folks were done eating, the grandkids got to open up their gifts from Dad and Cindy. This year Aunt Lucy drove up for the day in order to celebrate the traditional day-after-Christmas with the Hough branch of the fam.

The wife, stuffing her face.

Abby wanted one of those trendy Stanley mugs for pom practice, while Alayna wanted some kind of a comforter cover. . . or something. . . for her room (I forget what it's called.)

AirPod 3's for Abby, yet another pair of Converse for the Cannonball.

This family will mow down a charcuterie board.

Folks would be grazing off these leftovers for hours. We're nothing if not thorough.

As folks digested chain Mexican food, we gathered up in the living room for the ol', annual White Elephant gift exchange.

Lucy, pontificating about something or other.

Yours Truly went pretty much in the middle of the gift order this year, which isn't ideal but whatever. 

The first gift I opened was this Detroit Lions travel mug that was pretty awesome, though I didn't have it long as someone else stole it right away. I ended up opening up a second gift (opposed to stealing it) and ended up with something even better - a massage gun (for easing sore muscles, etc.) Since a doc told me I had triceptal tendinitis a few weeks ago, this was a great find; maybe now I can get on the mend and get back to doing upper body workouts at the gym.

Brian opens up a new cocktail set.

Kris scored some accessories for our grill (she grills far more than I do, I hate grilling.)

Jill go this Snuggy cloak-type thingy.

Gonna have to figure out what the hell all these attachments are for. . .

Brian approved.

Couple of Brians having a few beers following the gift exchange.

The Other Houghs

The Cannonball, Kris and Jill

Lucy and Chris

The younger kids - like Jax and Louis, here - stayed down in the basement playing video games pretty much the entire time we were there. Good riddance, says I.

Abby disappeared for most of the day once the food and gifts were done. Pretty sure she just hung out upstairs in one of the abandoned bedrooms taking selfies like this.

Last year we had run into several technical difficulties trying to get Bryan and Chelsey on a video call for the Holiday get-together. Dad troubleshot it this year so that once everyone was settled we were able to get them up on the living room TV.

The rapt audience.

Hanging out at the kids table.

As if we didn't have enough food before, the parents brought out a cake to celebrate dad's belated birthday. As always, Cindy baked it herself. . .

We decided to do a guys vs. girls game of Mind the Gap (which we had introduced two years ago at this extended family Christmas.)

By far the most challenging questions in this game are the Boomer ones, though Dad and Lucy were definitely kicking ass for their teams.

(Pretty sure Dad is shitting his pants right here.)

Bryan shows off the Lions helmet Chelsey got him for Christmas. Both of them helped out their respective teams during the game, which ultimately us dudes won (not surprisingly.) Once that wrapped up, folks started packing up to head home, and we brought an end to yet another extended family Christmas in Clare.

- Brian