Here is a list of the people that I spent time with while on my vacation: Mom, Dad, my sister, my sister's girlfriend, my cousin, her mediocre non-boyfriend; Eric, K.T. and the baby; Steve and Melissa and the ten thousand people at their party including Tim; Pam and stee and the ten thousand people at their karaoke including Allison, Sarah, Evany and AB; Charlotte and her husband; Bruce and his boyfriend and about half of Bruce's family; my aunt and uncle and friends of the family; my parents' square dancing buddies; Tamar and the people at her brunch including her family, Diane and her family, Jill and Jay, Kymm, Tiny Coconut and family, and Steve Amaya; a bunch of Suspects at brunch including spiderbite, Prudence, maya and assorted other people; and Ian who flew down for New Year's Eve weekend.

So, that's a lot of people. And here are some pictures that have mostly nothing to do with any of these events.

Okay, so first of all... you know how I tell stories about my parents, right? And you may think that I am exaggerating these stories to create comic effect when in fact it is impossible to exaggerate stories about my parents because they are already the Platonic ideal of wacky parents. To wit, here is what I found when I went home for Christmas.

Do you know what this is, standing in the hallway at my parents' house? It is a cardboard cutout of George Burns, wearing a scarf and a Santa hat. Cardboard... George Burns... wearing clothes....

See what I mean? Any comment I could possibly make would be gilding the lily.

Here is my mother, holding a construction-paper snowman face in front of herself. She is wearing candy-cane antlers. Candy-cane antlers. There's nowhere to go with this!

Here are my parents wearing their Christmas gifts to each other: personalized jackets with their names embroidered on the front, and the logo of their square-dancing club on the back. My mother's says "Sunshine" because that's what she calls herself.

Thus, my parents.

Here are some other pictures of the trip.

My cousin (Princess Fancypants) and my sister, and my sister's girlfriend. Cute, cute, cuteness.

I know that maybe I shouldn't find this as nifty as I do, but the streetlights on Rodeo Drive are chandeliers in glass boxes. Only in L.A.!

We were just driving around seeing the sights, and Ian and I had this big argument over palm trees. He contends they are "pointless" and "weeds" and I think they are "pretty" and "a marvel of physics because how do those tiny trunks hold up their big heads?" Please feel free to agree with me.

Speaking of Ian, here he is eating grasshoppers on New Year's Eve. There was some awesome chicken mole as well, but we both ate the grasshoppers. Well, I tried the grasshoppers. He ate them. If we ever go on the Amazing Race, he will be the one to eat the live octopus.