Baby's 1st Post-Christmas Aftermath

whew.

okay. so yule party '08 has come and gone, and, if you're reading this, you are among those who came through the gauntlet still in one piece. on this end, the houghs are doing well - we have no casualties to report this time around. this year we focused on the task at hand and stayed away from all manner of shopping centers unless absolutely necessary. the result was an awesome christmas, and our first one with dependants.

as you know, we didn't opt to brave the cross-continental, overland adventure up to michigan this year. last year we did, and it took us about 20 hours driving straight through (with the exception of a unsuccessful 1 hour nap session at a rest stop in tennessee). not fun. we reached central michigan on fumes, after consuming nothing but energy drinks, coffee, and gas station food for 1,200 miles. that stretch of asphalt - through the boring states like georgia and ohio, through the pass of caradhras -is hell enough without the snow-pounding of the century reaking havoc all over the midwest (right through our otherwise projected route). we really didn't feel like driving 15 mph in such weather through appalachia and the smokies. bad things happen to people that fall to the wayside in the back-country of tennessee. and, to top everything else off, now we'd be making that trek with a grump-ass 6 month old screaming in the backseat the entire way.

yeah, i'll pass on that one.

seeing how we were doomed to spend christmas alone in central florida, the ever-vigilant hough clan circled the wagons and set up a webcam on a tripod.

from 7am - 9pm, we logged in over 13 hours of video-conferencing with my dad's side and mom's side of the family. for those of you who are away from family and friends, i highly recommend you look into this if you're computer is somewhat non-crappy - throughout the day, it helped out a lot.

i won't go into what everybody got for christmas, as that'd be incredibly tacky of yours truly (and yours truly is by no means a tacky person, as we all know), but i will say this: we did pretty well. the cannonball, however, did really pretty well. and that's cool - the whole presents-under-the-tree thing is really for kids anyway, and about 8 out of 10 gifts under ours was for her. by my figuring, she won't need any more gifts until she's about 14 or 15.

we seriously deserve a 'thank you' card from fisher-price - those jerks owe us big time.

anyway, thanks again for all of your well-wishing and gifts this year, folks - we had a good time. hopefully next year we'll be flying up to the glove so we won't have to rely on computers for family time, but, worst case scenario, now we know its at least doable.

in closing, here's a crap-load of pictures. enjoy...

Countdown to Christmas: Mass Hysteria and Tardishness

hi folks...

we're about four days away from yule-party '08... and this guy's about all funned-out.

why the humbuggary, you ask? allow me to explain. kris and i were pretty smart this year, and once again accomplished about 95% of our christmas shopping before thanksgiving - giving us an excuse not to brave the hellish gauntlets that we would've otherwise been forced to fight through at one of the local malls and/or shopping outlets. we got it all out of the way so we wouldn't grow sick and tired of the 'season,' that has somehow gone from being a straight-up december-thing to a shortly-before-halloween-through-valentine's day-thing. still, despite our most valiant of efforts, its hard escaping the mass of frenzied idiots when one does have to occassionally venture out into the realm of retail this close to the holidays. i can't stand it.

i don't see why so many people are so friggin' stupid about christmas shopping anyway, but i guess that's because i'm so smart about it. when in public, its common for you to see complete strangers in the parking lots of these strip malls willing to knife eachother over parking spaces... or two grandmothers ready to rip one another's throats out for that last vibrating elmo on a toys 'r us shelf. and at times like that, you find yourself wishing that christmas was already here and over with.

...and while we're on the topic of things that piss brian off, i don't know about you guys, but i've about had it with crappy christmas music. not to be confused with decent christmas music, mind you (much props, vince guaraldi trio, jingle bells-singing dogs, etc.), crappy christmas music grates at your soul like pourous rocks over a fresh wound (mannheim steamroller, pay attention here). this morning, for example, the family and i took a couple of our friends with us to a local church we occassionally attend for some live christmas music. this is out of the ordinary somewhat, but we figured since it was the season for pleasin' and all, why would anyone pass up live christmas music five minutes from their front door? i mean, come on - they had a string orchestra, full band and choir, the works. so we went.

...and it sucked. bad.

not the greatest way to get into the spirit of things, rest assured. it pretty much shot my sunday right in the foot - spoken word over narada-type piano-work? not my idea of christmas jammage. if its one thing i cannot stand, its contemporary christian carols and hymns - give me that kinda material old school and traditional. i want to feel like i'm in a lecture hall when i'm in church, not in some gawdy clapfest. leave the bells and whistles at home, and stick to the traditional stuff. am i boring? perhaps... but i'm also a licensed JamMaster, and know decent music when i hear it. and, in this case, i know when something sucks gigantically as well.

but like i was saying before: we've got four days left of this hysteria before the masses can slow back down again and refocus on what else is going on in the rest of the known world. there's corruption and peril afoot. and apparently some snow. and there's that 'economy' everybody keeps talking about, spiralling ever downward and/or out of control. and there's high school musical 3 making teenagers even stupider and less-cultured. and there's the muppets - still the coolest damn carpet samples known to man.

so, in the meantime, over the course of the coming week, i urge you to stay indoors away from the hell that would surely await you at the mall or a circuit city, and keep your radio turned off to avoid the ear-molestation you'd otherwise have to endure via the backstreet boys singing 'the holly and the ivy.' stay with loved ones, make a snowman, and keep focused on what's important.

...and for yours truly and company, that means making due without snow or family. in order to aid us along in this venture, we're stocked with holiday drinking ingredients, a webcam, and more (non-crappy) christmas music and movies than one could shake a stick at.

do i roll?/well i guess/thunder express.

merry pre-christmas,

- brian