Remember that long, scenic drive back up we were supposed to have?  The one that was supposed to involve lots of curvy roads and gorgeous ocean views and delicious food?  The one that involved us leaving January 1st?

Well, considering it’s January 2nd and I’m still in Anaheim, that is obviously not happening.

See, one of Mike’s ongoing goals has been to learn how to work on his own car.  In theory, this is a good thing.  However, when Mike called me from a payphone on Saturday asking me to come pick him up on the corner of Lincoln and Sunkist, I had a terrible feeling that his handiwork may have gone wrong.

And I was right.  One of his wheels had fallen off.  Evidently this causes some fairly expensive damage to the car.

So instead of arriving in San Francisco and seeking out a giant Mission burrito, I’m chillin’ in my parents guest house watching epidsodes of Psych on OnDemand.  Right now, we think we have 3 options to get home by Wednesday night:

a) wait and pray that the car gets fixed Monday night and hightail it out of here, hopefully leaving room for a couple hours of hanging out in Portland so Mike can finally see Powells and eat fish sauce chicken wings at Pok Pok.

b) find out that the car won’t be ready by first thing Tuesday morning and buy last minute plane tickets to fly home that day.  Leave the car here until somebody drives it up.

c) put the car up for sale and drive home in a new car.  At least one tiny part of Mike thinks that this may just be fate telling him that he is really meant to drive the GTR.  Or an M3 with paddle shifters.  Or a C300.

So that’s where we are.  Considering that total spontaneity pretty much sends me into tremors, I’m feeling a little stressed right now, and my body is obviously in agreement.  Check out the creepy burst blood vessel in my left eye:

That’s hot, right?

Thankfully, we have had good people down here with us, so we still have plenty of ways to keep busy.  In fact, the same day that Mike lost his wheel, we went to have a belated Christmas celebration with his mom and her AWESOME pho.

Of course, as soon as Mary and Scott heard that there would be homemade pho, they made sure they would be “accidentally stopping by.”

Mary and I took the opportunity to give Scott his Christmas present, which he promptly modeled.

Um, it was a little tight.  Thankfully, Scott didn’t collapse into a pile of hysterical tears like I would have, and instead danced around, buttons agape, for our entertainment.  This is why I love Scott.

Jimmy also came up with some especially awesome shirts for Tony and Amy:

Amy’s was the best.

Oh, and I got a pretty sweet present from Mike’s mom too-

Yeah, as much as I LOVE eyelashes- the trannier the better- I’m a little too scared to actually use this stuff.  But somehow, just the idea of Catherine giving me pharmaceuticals for Christmas feels right.

With a buttload of families to see during the holidays, Christmas can be complicated.  Thankfully, it starts out simply, just the way it should.  With cinnamon rolls.

That’s the wreckage of what was left over from my annual Christmas Cinnabun.  Some families leave homemade cookies out for Santa and wake up to the smell of homemade pastries wafting through the house.  My family makes a Christmas Eve run to the mall for white flour and trans fats.  Deeee-licious.  (This year we did supplement with some hippie cinnamon rolls that I brought from home- Sin Dawgs by Dave’s Killer Bread.  With their organic whole wheat flour and hefty dose of flax seeds, they may look healthy, but holy crap are they delicious.  Cinnabuns still hold a sentimental place in my heart, but if you have any way to get a hold of Sin Dawgs, do it.)\

Once we had ingested enough sugar, we moved on to presents. My mom definitely made out the best this year, scoring a swanky TAG watch from my dad.  Of course, she was even happier to open OUR presents-

A head scarf for her upcoming trip to Egypt.

And a Bumpit!

Okay, so she still has to master the art of the Bumpit- we’ll work on that.  My dad, however, totally dug it and has asked her to where it basically every time they leave the house.  This is ENDLESSLY amusing for me.

After we opened presents, my lazy family watched The Hangover while I slaved away in the kitchen.

Jimmy and Amy joined us.

Trust me, the food was better than their faces imply.  I’m just a horrific photographer.

After we ate, we were supposed to go visit Mike’s mom for a Christmas gift exchange.  Unfortunately, her father-in-law ended up having to go to the hospital.  He’s a nice guy, so Mike and Amy and I headed over to say hi.

They had their own Christmas feast.

We hung out, chatted, and I made some progress on Amy’s already-belated-birthday-knitting gift:

And that was Christmas Day.

One more celebration to go!

Traditionally, we spend Christmas Eve with Mike’s dad’s family.  They have their holiday celebrations down to a science- lots of kids, lots of pretty wrapped boxes, and lots and lots of food.  But it definitely has it’s own special spin on the process.

Dumplings, spring rolls, green papaya salad, noodles and mac n cheese.  Guess who contributed that?

aunts and orchids.

We ate.  A lot.

Highly competitive ping-pong tournaments.

Presents.

LOTS of presents.  Hey, when you have 28 people in one house, the wrapping paper really adds up.

Mike and I had a total of 2 presents wrapped before we arrived and about 20 to give out, so we did what any good older cousins do- we made the younger ones do all the wrapping.  (There is a culturally insensitive sweatshop joke that should go here, but I’m not feeling very clever.)

Passing out gifts.

Giving and receiving.

The best part of Christmas- happy kids.  (We know that kids take Christmas seriously- when we first walked in the door, a herd of boy cousins came up to Mike and said “We know you work at Microsoft and get a discount on Xbox stuff, so we have big expectations for you guys this year.”  Thankfully, Mike was able to score some cheap games and we had some happy campers. For the girls, the Wacom Bambu tablets we gave CK and Havanah were big hits.)

I seriously love these two kids.  They were both flower girls at our wedding and I still dig them.  Then again, I am a sucker for kids who can make a fort out of anything, even Christmas presents.

This is Emily, the other girl cousin.  Equally adorable.

Andrew and Phong are a little too old to be adorable, but I dig them too- especially Andrew’s little mohawk.

Older kids (ok, Tony and Amy don’t even count as kids anymore) are way less cute, but deserve good Christmas nonetheless.

This photo doesn’t really fit anywhere, but it makes me laugh.

Merry Christmas!

In this hectic, crazy world, it is always the small things that keep me going and bring me the most joy.

My co-worker and I showing up to our christmas-sweater themed holiday party in the exact same hanukkah sweaters = the absolute highlight of my week.

This has to bode well for the upcoming road trip of death.

And no, I haven’t finished packing.  Or, for that matter, started.

See you soon in California!