Auld Lang Syne

 Happy New Year, America!

In the past, we've usually kept New Year's Eve as a pretty tame affair, but - after this year - it's probably going to join the ranks of Hough Family Parties, along with our annual Halloween and St. Patrick's Day ones.  And it happened pretty randomly.

Since moving back to Michigan, we've usually just hosted our old camping friends, Rita and Smitty, for the evening.  They're close with our kids, having camped with us throughout the state over the years, and we've kept it a pretty chill tradition - watching the Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve broadcast on ABC, eating pizza, and catching up.  Last year, due to Smitty getting Covid, they didn't come up, so we invited the Johnsons and Boses over, but again - it was a chill time.

This year, with my brother Chris and his family back in Michigan, we invited them over, along with Rita and Smitty.  My other Sausage Pad compatriots - Zack and Damon, along with their wives - were going to come up from Kalamazoo, but had to cancel at the last minute.  Seeing how we were going to have so many people on hand, we said 'screw it' and invited the couples from the inner circle of our friend group over as well.

And that's how a normally mild undertaking turned into a somewhat smaller party.

With my newly-acquired beer pong table set up in the garage and a bar-worthy karaoke set up established in the Study, were were definitely ready to entertain.  We considered a dry run for our upcoming St. Patrick's Day party, which would probably have double the amount of guests, if past parties are any indicator.

So what follows, dear readers, is a brief rundown of how the Houghs rang in the New Year.  

Check it out. . .

Chris and Nicole - sans their three kids (for once) - came over around 6:00pm, before the big rush of other folks, and we killed some time playing some of our friend group's go-to trivia games that we've been enjoying recently.

Not my favorite Holiday beer, but it wasn't terrible.

Alayna's friend, Lexi, was staying the night this evening (we'd have a few houseguests tonight.)

It's rare that I lose a trivia game, and tonight was no exception - I mercilessly beat the shit out of everyone.

While we adults continued our bouts of trivia, the kids eventually grew bored with it and moved into the Study, where we had set up the karaoke system.  It was a big hit with the teens, for sure (Alayna was singing, but refused to do so while the camera was trained on her.)

Nicole was able to sneak this one from her vantage in the dining room - that's about as good as you're gonna get, folks.

Slainte

After an hour or so, our good friends Rita and Smitty rolled in, followed shortly thereafter by our next door neighbors, Dave and Sherri.  At that point we decided to transition to beer pong in the garage (on my newly-acquired, regulation-size table.) Nicole is pretty cut-throat at this game, as is our neighbor Sherri. 

Abby and Ella, bustin' out jams.

By 9:00pm, our usual Midland friends started rolling in from their other engagements - the Colliers, Johnsons, and Bos families (the remaining inner circle family - the Larsons - were busy entertaining their own extended family at their house for the evening, so they were out for the night.)

Courtney and Mees, picking out karaoke songs.

Beer pong is a new fan favorite with this group - Ryan and Erik teamed up and were basically unstoppable all night.

Yelling at the Alexa to play what I f***ing asked it to.  Our robot has strokes from time to time.

After hours of beer pong, karaoke, and games, it was time to break out the champagne bottles (and sparkling grape juice for the dozen or so kids we had on hand by this time) and watch the countdown.

Distributing champagne flutes to the masses (Chris and Nicole had left a couple hours before this - apparently big crowds are not their jam.)

Awaiting the countdown. . .

Mitch, Smitty and Rita

And so it begins. . .

Happy New Year, America.

About an hour or so after midnight, most folks headed home with their more-than-exhausted children.  Smitty, Erik and I stayed up pretty late - singing karaoke to absolutely no one, as everyone else had wisely gone to bed.  Here's to 2023, folks.

- Brian

Christmas in Clare

What's up, homies.

The Holiday Gauntlet Run continues as the Houghs enter Day 3 of Yuletide tomfoolery, as always entailing our annual Day-After-Christmas trek up to Clare in order to celebrate with the extended Hough Clan.

Unlike the last few years, where we picked up a QDoba order for Cindy in Midland at 11am and then driving up to Clare laden down with about 50 lbs of awesome Mexican food, this year we were slated to head up there around 1pm.  Cindy had been burned a few times with the Midland Qdoba, so she wanted to try out the Mt. Pleasant location instead, and consequently didn't need folks at the house until after 1pm.  This meant that the traditional mimosa window (pre-noon, for you non-drinkers out there) was out the window, so us and the Whites decided to 'pre-game' celebrate over at the Whites house this year.

We showed up to their house around 10:45am, where we met up with them and, shortly after, my brother Chris and his fam.  And so kicked off another Hough Family Christmas in Clare - check it out. . .

(Spot the nephew.)

(Again. . . spot another nephew.)

The kids entertain themselves while the adults drink orange juice and cheap champagne.

The Hough Girls, doing what they do best.

Moms.

Chris, playing with some dolls.

The Freshman enjoys her picture being taken.

I let Abby walk around with my SLR for awhile.  At least someone in this family besides me feels the need to take pictures during social gatherings.

SUCCESS

Louis and Jax

A series of pics I found on my camera card after Abby had my camera for about a half an hour (she took like a hundred pics, but most of them were what you'd expect) . . .

Around 12:45, we decided to head to Dad and Cindy's. 

We made a pit-stop off at Marcy's - since we couldn't host people on Christmas Eve, on account of the blizzard - to drop off some leftover food and some presents.  Abby and I went in for a couple minutes, but since Marcy has a cat now (as shown here) and both of us are highly allergic, we quickly retreated to the van and waited for Kris and Alayna to finish their visit.

Seriously. F*** cats.

A little while later, we finally arrived to the house for some highly-anticipated Mexican lunch. . .

Roommates, chowing down at the adult table (our traditional rules apparently no longer apply.)

Dad and Chris

After everyone had gorged on Mexican food, the kids rallied in the living room to start tearing open presents.

My special needs sister.

Sam and Nana

Louis and Dad

Blake and his girlfriend (I don't remember her name.)

Digging into presents

Cindy and Jill

We no longer adhere to the strict 'one present opened at a time' rule in this house.  Christmas mornings used to take, like, six hours seeing how we had five kids in the house back in the day.

The Cannonball is introduced to the world of Vinyl.

Louis is really into cars, and Sam is really into dinosaurs.  Apparently there was a mix-up this year. . .

Nora opened up her presents on the floor of the kitchen, away from the craziness of the older kids.

I have the same model, only in a different color.  Can't beat the quality in this price point.

Abby got a bunch of art supplies, which she burns through at an insane pace.

Dad tries to figure out one of the grandkid toys.

A gift certificate to that 'mom store' in Bay City Kris is obsessed with.

Abby had a tiny mini-fridge on her Amazon list this year, we assumed for make-up (which, I guess, is a thing - her sister has one that she uses for this purpose) but she assured us for this is for pops and stuff like that.  It could maybe hold four.

Kris has been wanting a new Fitbit lately - the strap on her old one has been falling apart.

Nothing says 'Christmas' like an infant's wiener. . .

I got some shit for wanting a boxed set of Tolkien's deep-cut works.  Lot of uncultured people in this family.

Cindy had a giant-ass box that was a pain to wrap.  No one bothered to compliment the wrapping job, which basically ruined my Christmas.

I picked this out for Dad - a cornerstone of any record collection.

Cindy's fancy new folding chair.

Taking it for a test drive.

Sam got some help with a new Lego set from the family block guru, Bradley.

Testing out Alayna's new turntable in the dining room.  It comes with a 45 adapter, so I asked Dad to break out his 45 collection so we could show Alayna how it works (though I doubt she's going to be purchasing 7" records any time soon.)

Healthy snacks.

Lego construction at the kid table.

Teenage stamp of approval.

Autographed, framed pictures of the grandkids.

Doodle hugs.

We broke out an old family Christmas tradition this year, the first time in over a decade - the White Elephant Gift Exchange.  $25 - $30 apiece, two per family, adults only.  I picked out a Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun - the exact model from the classic A Christmas Story - and Kris put together a combo gift containing a culinary butane torch (for searing) and a bamboo charcuterie board.  Brian was stoked to get the Red Ryder, but Chris stole it from him.

Kris' score.

I opened up this fleece blanket. . .

. . . but Dad snatched that up.  I ended up with a fancy water bottle (which will actually be perfect for work.)

Louis helps Chris with some Legos.

Nora makes a mess in the foyer.

More Legos.

With most of the grandkids occupied in the basement, the adults settled into the Dining Room for a couple boardgames.  We brought along a copy of that Mind the Gap game we enjoy playing with our Midland friend group, figuring it'd be a good fit for our Millenial/Gen X/Boomer crowd.

Nora wasn't very good at this game.

Neither were these ladies.

Brian demonstrates how to do the Whip/Nae Nae dance (some shitty rap dance that was all rhte rage in 2015.)

We all thought he was recreating a scene from Roots or something.

I was pretty bad at showcasing dance moves from the 2010's that I had never heard of.  I'm trying to do 'The Wobble' here (I have no idea what it actually looks like.)

Shortly after this picture was taken, Sam came running around the corner with blood all over his face - apparently his brother smashed a toy in his face in retaliation for God Knows What. This forced Chris and Nicole to pack up their fam and head home prematurely (once Dad and Cindy fixed up the wound.)

Once they were gone and the dust had settled, we broke out another game - that Smart Ass one we play a lot with our friends in Midland.

Jill doesn't approve of how my kid feeds herself.

Contrary to how it looks here, Brian and I did not drink all of these ourselves.  We're not that bad.

The Whites. Abby snatched up my SLR again. . .

Bradley and my trusty sidearm.

Ol' Ma Kris

Cindy and Jill (Abby clearly doesn't know how to frame her pictures.)

Dad (slightly blurry.)

As we packed up, I asked Dad for his karaoke set up, as we are planning on having some people over for New Years and figured it'd be a cool activity to have on hand for folks.  For our St. Patrick's Day party, too.  When we got home from Clare I immediately began setting it up in order to make sure I had everything I needed.

Alayna took this phone video of Abby and I, who were the only two people in our family who were willing to perform (Alayna and Kris are lame.)

Bringing the house down at the end of another awesome Christmas in Clare. 

- Brian