The mustache challenge and my Christmas present

It started this fall.
As October began, I started noticing that Steve was getting a bit scruffy. As you know, he's a firefighter, and they aren't allowed to have beards because they need to get a good seal on the SCBA equipment they use when they are inside burning buildings, and the hair from a beard would prevent it from sealing up tight. They are allowed to have a mustache to a certain degree though.
October is when hunting season begins. Two different weekends in October Steve was off hunting the elusive deer, lol, so he got a little bit scruffier then.
Just before Halloween he left for Elk camp. He was gone for 11 days, I think. When he came home from elk camp he had a beard going.
The fire department in Redmond works on 24/48 shifts. That means you are on shift from 8 am until 8 am the next day, and then you have that day and the following day off before you go back to work again. Steve likes to be there nice and early on his shift day, so that he can have a cup of coffee with the guys from the previous shift, and be ready to go when it hits 8am.
The day he returned to work after hunting, he got up bright and early and left the house around 6:30. He kissed me awake as he left, which he always does, and it wasn't until hours later that I put two and two together and realized there had still been hair on his face when he left. I immediately called him at work only to discover that he had, in fact, shaved everything.... except a mustache. ayiyiyi.
I HATE mustaches.
I think he looks old.
I think he looks like his Uncle.
What's up with the little fu doohickey on the chin there?
Why?
Oh Why?
I feel like I'm kissing my dad or my Grandpa, the only two guys I've ever pecked with facial hair. Does he want me to think of my dad when he kisses me???????????????

But herein lies the dilemma. If I wanted to cut my hair or grow it out, I'd do it. It's my head. If I want to have long hair, I'm going to have long hair. So I felt really guilty about hating his ridiculous mustache and wanting him to shave it off. But I hated it.

I soon discovered that the real reason for the mustache was a Christmas challenge put forth by my fiesty, troublemaking little brother, Jobie. His name is Joe Brian, but since he was born, we have always called him Jobie. I hear he refers to himself as Joe now, but Jobie he'll always be to moi. Anyway... Mr Jobie issued a mustache challenge for our annual Christmas gathering at the coast. And he took great pleasure in irritating me by pressuring Steve to pursue and persevere in the quest for a perfect mustache. Gal dang his 25 year old hyde.

Jobie can grow massive amounts of hair in the blink of an eye, so this challenge wasn't very fair. We didn't know what to expect of him, though. This is what he looked like the last time we saw him:

A short beard, and a mustache. I've also seen him as quite the mountain man. And if he's issuing a mustache challenge... well, Steve had to go for it with 110%.

This is what he looked like when we got to the beach.

bah.

And here's our four participants.
This challenge wasn't fair at all, because two of them have facial hair all the time.
First is Ethan. Always has a mustache. And in his defense in these photos... the poor guy had just recently had knee surgery, and also had the flu while driving from Seattle to Lincoln City which meant he wasn't keeping down anything, including pain medication, so bless his heart for letting me make fun, but he was in a bit of pain here.
Steve and Jobie seem to be doing some sort of "bad ass" post. Apparently Jobie had a full beard but stopped at my Mom's house in Portland to do a little shave before heading to Lincoln City.

Second is my brother-in-law Matt and his son Kael. We figured Kael had better participate in the challenge too, so we gave him a mascara mustache.
Jobie can't let go of the "bad ass" pose....

This one is good. Now Matt seems a bit put off by the bad asses.... and Ethan looks like he's thrown in a courtesy grimace. Kael is just having a ball, lol.

This last one is my favorite. They are a bunch of jokers. It was really nice to have them all together. And look... they all are about the same height too!

heehee.

We decided that Kael won the challenge.

Jobie introduced Steve to mustache wax while at the beach so I thought for sure I was doomed to a forever mustache, despite all my grievances.

However....

Fast forward to Christmas day.

The kids had a wild night on Christmas Eve so they gave us our present early by sleeping in until 7:45am. A record! Then we herded them together and out to the living room where the paper tearing began. It wasn't until we were knee deep in gift wrap that I looked at Steve and realized.....

HIS MUSTACHE WAS GONE! lol!

Apparently he got up at 3am and trimmed the whole thing off! And gross as it was, he gave me a baggie of mustache hair in my stocking!

Yippeee!

If you ask my girls where dad's mustache is, they say, "Mom, it's in a bag!"

I just feel bad that we didn't even notice at first. Obviously we were a bit overwhelmed by the day.

So for Christmas my baby gave me his clean shaven face back. THANK YOU.

He's also getting me a new 50mm lens. THANK YOU for that too, babe!

Tonight is reveal night at Studio Calico, don't you know... and one of my layouts is about my sweet big little brother. He's got that silly mustache in the photo, which takes away from the sentiment of the layout a little bit, I think, so I wanted to share the mustache challenge before you saw it.

I talked to Jobie on Christmas day and he had also shaved his off. Thank you for that one as well! lol

I hope you are having a great vacation! Perhaps I will see you tonight!

Davinie