All Systems: Christmas

Good morning, Internet.

What the hell happened to fall?!

We were one week into November when Mother Nature, apparently bored watching Yours Truly rake up leaves over and over again, said "f*** it" and started dumping snow on us.  I woke up on Friday to see my yard covered in snow, and when I went outside to heat up my car prior to my commute to work, I found this:

While I enjoy the First Snow as much as the next person, I wasn't really expecting it the first week of November.

November 9th.  I still have leaves on the ground underneath all this snow.

Seriously, Michigan.

This weekend, Alayna came down with a nasty stomach virus that had her projectile-vomiting anything and everything we put in her system.  She was forced to stay home from school on Thursday and Friday, and as such we couldn't really go out for our planned social activity for the weekend: 'Friendsgiving' (where everyone brings a dish and we rotate between people's houses for a series of potluck-style dinners, drinking and hanging out throughout the afternoon and evening.)  It would've been really fun, too, but with a kid puking up all over the place, there was no real way we were going to be able to do it.  I offered to stay behind with Alayna, but Kris wasn't really feeling up for it without everyone going, so we decided to stay in.

And so it begins.  Note the sick kid on the couch, not participating.

Abby was pretty bummed out that we were no longer going out, as she was looking forward to hanging out with the other kids in our extended social circle.  Since we were no longer 'doing anything fun,' she asked if we could break out the Holiday decorations instead.

Now, Kris and I, as you all know, wait until the weekend before Thanksgiving to start decorating the interior of the house for the Season (minus the Tree, of course - we save that for Black Friday), but, considering our social calendar had just been shot to hell - and seeing how we actually had frickin' snow on the ground, we relented and said 'screw it.'

So we broke out the Christmas decorations.  On November 9th.

Don't judge us.

Holiday Pre-Season:  ENGAGE.

The majority of Friday evening's work centered around decor for the Living Room, Study, and Kitchen..  I swapped out our glasses and dishes for our Holiday ones (takes awhile, since you have to hand-wash everything and let it dry before putting it away in the cupboards.)

We put on a Christmas movie for Alayna, who didn't get to help us break out the Holiday decor this year (though she didn't seem to care all that much, to be honest - she's getting to the age where it doesn't really excite her anymore.)

Abby's a HUGE fan of the light-up, music-playing Christmas Tree/Nativity Display thing we got from Marcy a decade or so ago.  She curled up in a blanket right in front of it, and kept playing the music repeatedly for about an hour or so.

The next morning, Alayna was finally feeling a little better.

I had initially wanted to put up the exterior lights when the weather was slightly warm out, like I've done the last three years.  Since that wasn't likely to happen again in 2018 (thanks a lot, Mother Nature), I realized I had to put up the lights this weekend - frostbit fingers be damned.  Like last year, the bush at the far right proved to be the hardest part of the house upon which to string lights - those frickin' bushes prevent the ladder from reaching the roof, so I have to break out the extended ladder, which wobbles like crazy.  It took me a little over an hour to string up the whole front of the house; our gutters are covered by a special grating system, which is super badass because I don't have to clean them out, but at the same time it means there's little to clip Christmas lights to.  It's a royal pain in the ass to hang up icicle lights, but I had a Sherlock Holmes audiobook to keep me distracted.

Like last year, Kris had to string up the lights for the center six feet of the garage, where the roof is at its highest point.  The ladder wobbles too much on the uneven driveway for me to do it, so I brace the base of the ladder for her and she's able to do it without the ladder wobbling.  Teamwork, folks.

A couple hours of freezing cold work, and Casa de Hough is ready for the 2018 Holiday Season.

As usual, we won't start turning on the exterior lights until after Thanksgiving.  We're classy, not trashy.

Yeah, yeah, I know - we still need to throw out Kris' Fall display stuff (maybe I can convince her to throw away the scarecrow - cross your fingers.)

And, in closing, the First Nog of the Holiday Season.  Prepare for Yule, America. . .

- Brian

'Twas the Night Before Christmas... Again.

Yule.

Around these parts, the Night Before Christmas is just as much of a big deal as Christmas Day itself.  We enjoy the buildup of the Holiday season just as much - if not moreso - than the actual Holiday itself.

I don't know about you folks, but every year after all the presents have been torn apart, I find myself sitting back looking at a living room full of debris and thinking, "Seriously?  That was it?"

Christmas Eve, in contrast, is all about the build-up, and so for the last few years we've really gone out of our way to make the most out of it.  Cooking a feast, having a marathon of Christmas movies, exchanging some gifts, having some Holiday cocktails, etc.  I think having Christmas Day (and all those presents) still on the horizon takes some of the pressure off Christmas Eve to be some almighty, whoop-ass Holiday event:  there's still more to look forward to in the season.

Make sense?  Of course it does.

Then there's this movie. . . 

Anyway, this year was slightly different from our previous Night Before Christmas-es.  Now that we're back in the not-yet-snowy lands of our forefathers (seriously, Michigan - where the hell's my White Christmas?), we have more access to family. . . and seeing how it's the Holidays and everything, they kinda want to hang out with us.  With Christmas Day being split up between our own family, Chris/Nicole, and the extended family over at my Mom's house, and the day after being spent in Clare with my Dad's side of the family, it came to pass that Kris' mom would be coming to our house on Christmas Eve to celebrate the Holidays.

This isn't an entirely new concept, mind you:  when we used to fly up to Michigan for Christmas back in 2009 - 2011 we always celebrated the Holidays with Kris' family on Christmas Eve.  This time around, however, we were hosting it; and in addition, Kris' aunt, Mickey, and her grandchildren (Victoria, Scarlett, and Kyan) would be coming as well.

A full house, a ton of food, and a whole crap-load of picture-taking.

Here we go. . .

The girls prepare to play a "boardgame" that Abby invented.  Who knows why they're sitting on their desk - I don't ask a lot of questions around here anymore.

. . . I don't get it.

Another Christmas Eve, another masterpiece of a turkey in the making.

This dude's pathetic.  He didn't leave the kitchen the entire time I was preparing food.  He's a bum.

Ready for firing

The Cannonball requested a picture of the gingerbread house she made with Kris at school.  Every year the kids make one of these we always tell them they can eat if after awhile, and every year we just end up tossing it (seeing how the kids eat so much damn sugar throughout the Holiday season anyway.)

The 5-O lose their shit over a walking, talking snowman.  I hate this movie with a passion.

Midway through our Holiday Movie Marathon, while the turkey was baking and Kris was still at work (she didn't get out until 2pm), Marcy, Scott, Mickey and the kids showed up.  Marcy was good enough to keep all the kids busy with arts and crafts stuff so I could focus on my ongoing shenanigans in the kitchen.

Making rice-filled snowmen with Grandma Jordan.

Pissed.  As always.

After an hour or two of arts and crafts, we not-so-gently directed the kids into the basement so they wouldn't be running around like savages upstairs.  Karaoke became a fan-favorite after awhile.

Kyan became enamored with my retro videogame collection.  Good to see the classics still hold some appeal to the younger demographic.

BAM.  It turned out much better than last year's, I was pleased.

Scarlett, Kyan and Victoria - Crystal's kids (I wasn't in the room for any of the gift-exchanging, as I was slaving over the carving and meat-separating of the Christmas Turkey for at least an hour.  Thug life.)

Exchanging gifts

Anything even remotely pertaining to Star Wars is a big deal to this kid (this was some art kit box, but she ended up converting it into an action figure storage box for her Star Wars toys, which worked out pretty well.)

Better 'hot' than 'tramp.'

Sisters.

The girls picked out ornaments for Marcy and Scott this year (when we were at Bronner's, back on African American Friday.)

Giving Grandpa Jordan a Lions ornament

More presents being opened while I was hacking away at a dead bird with a 12" knife. . .

John and I recently inspected the fireplace so that we could use it over the Holidays.  A previous inspection had come back satisfactory, so John came over a few days before and gave it a quick once-over.  Originally, when the house was built, it had been a wood-burning fireplace, but at some point in the grand scheme of things, it had been converted to a gas fireplace.  When we turned on the gas, however, the pilot light wouldn't function properly, so John cut the gas at two different locations and told us to just go ahead and use it as it was originally intended:  as a wood-burning stove.

Kids love fire.

Still creepy.

Mickey and the kids had to leave after dinner (they had to drive all the way back up to Charlevoix, which takes a couple hours), so once they left Marcy had the girls do one last craft:  mouse cookies.

This was kind of a lengthy process, but the end result was pretty cool - little chocolate-covered cherries that resemble mice standing on cookies.

More than a few of these were devoured in the process.  Rest assured.

(Kris didn't help at all.)

Eventually Marcy and Scott left, and we let the girls open their traditional, lone, Christmas Eve present.

We usually go with a matching-theme present, as it tends to reduce fighting and drama between the two girls.  Last year, for example, we got them each these high-end, plush cats from the Hallmark store.  The year before, they got Hello Kitty fleece robes.  The year before that. . . I forget.  Anyway, point being, they got matching crap again this year: pajamas.

Abby got some Star Wars pajamas from us (she asked Santa for Darth Vader pajamas and slippers, and so she'd be opening those up tomorrow morning - I apologize for the spoiler), and Alayna got a button-up set with those annoying Minions on them.

Our attempt at a family picture in front of the Christmas tree this year.  Didn't turn out as well as last year's, on account of the lighting and 'special' looks a few of us are sporting, here.

We let the girls watch one, last movie before they went to bed:  A Muppet Christmas Carol (another one of my personal favorites.)  A fitting end to the night's craziness.

Heavily rotated Holiday jamz.

Abby continued to leave notes and "presents" for Santa right up until the moment we forced her to bed.  She's become borderline obsessed with Santa Claus this year.

Wouldn't be Christmas Eve without reading this ol' chestnut. . .

Once the girls were in bed, we realized we had a dilemma on our hands.  Aside from the usual cookies (the mouse things the girls made earlier with Marcy - seen here) and milk, Abby also left a stack of old Chuck E. Cheese tokens and a letter of instruction for Santa.  She really wanted the dude to swing by her room. . . for whatever reason (remember the previously shown note on the fireplace?)  Seeing how that was a definite impossibility, Yours Truly was forced to come up with an acceptable Exit Strategy for the Fat Man.

After I finished writing this, I taped it on the ladder next to her bed.  I then wrote a second, shorter letter for Alayna (she didn't care as much, so I wasn't about to write as lengthy a note as I did for Abby. . . that shit took forever, what with all the swirly lettering and what-not.)

After the letters from Santa were written, Kris and I quickly set about preparing the house for the following morning.  We crumpled all cookies (Kris ate a couple, I tossed mine in the garbage), poured the milk down the sink, stuffed all the stockings, and began arranging the presents underneath the tree.  This process took an hour or so, but we had the greatest of all Christmas movies - National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - and a couple of festive cocktails to help us along.

The house, primed and ready to go for tomorrow morning's Holiday chaos.

Some random Christmas decor from the dining room. . .

The stage is set.   Now it's time for four hours of sleep. . .

- Brian