To expound on my bulleted list from earlier today ...

Veronica's family was scheduled to arrive on Wednesday evening, but for two consecutive days the Denver snows kept them in Iowa (luckily at home and not holed up in the airport). They were able to secure three tickets through Chicago to SFO on Sunday, aka Christmas Eve, which put the kibosh on our plans to head down to la-la-land ahead of the holiday. However, it gave us a chance to finish shopping and pick up a late tree to celebrate at home. We spent our Saturday morning hunting for a deal, but only found decent trees at the lone remaining Christmas tree lot along El Camino, in Belmont. They wanted $70 for our pick at 11am, which i was happy to pay but Veronica considered highway robbery. We left and ran some errands, during which i took advantage of Sirius's exclusive Chelsea coverage to hear the climax of the Blues' second consecutive last-minute 3-2 win, courtesy of a late late late Arjen Robben strike against Wigan. After trips to Peet's, K-Mart, Toys R' Us, and A.G. Ferrari, our resolve weakened and we returned to shamefully accept a tree deal, getting a different tree for the slightly less insulting sum of $55. I called my parents to let them know we'd be in the Bay Area for another few days, so they brought my visiting sister Emily, her husband Jared, and their in utero child "Tadpole" over for dinner. After we caught up for a while, they headed back to Fremont while V and i prepared the tree.

V had the nice idea of printing our own tree topper, using the Roo-designed ana-girl fairy. Tara watched mostly bored.

After a whirlwind cleaning binge on Sunday followed by a relaxing Christmas eve at my Aunt's house in Burlingame, we headed to SFO to fetch triple A. The indomitable Ana returned to our house to find Santa had visited in our absence, leaving her a Nintendo DS, a Hello Kitty guitar, an assortment of custom printed ana-girl paraphernelia from Cafepress, and a variety of other goodies. I got a nice 4AD graphic design compendium, a Timberland long-sleeve polo that's more sweater than shirt (alright in my book), the Mr. Show season one dvd, the Xbox Live Vision webcam from Veronica, and a few other tidbits. We passed out after the present-opening festivities, at the late late hour of 2:30am.

After a brief Christmas breakfast of Alan-made pancakes, and an amusing stint creating custom multiplayer Rainbow Six: Vegas character models using my new Xbox 360 camera, we hopped into our two cars (Alan and i in the Jetta, and the de la Mora girls, including Tara, in the Mini) and headed down the 101 to the 152 to the 5. We arrived at Veronica's aunt's house around 9pm, to a Jose-prepared meal of carne asada. Tara got introduced to the Villanueva's six dogs, and after a chilly reception was left on her own in the living room while the other canines were sequestered elsewhere in the house. Tara discovered the chihuahuas' food bowl, which is kept full so they can eat at their leisure. Tara isn't familiar with this tactic, devouring her meals as soon as they reach mouth-level. So she furtively proceeded to eat about a cup and a half of dog food, absconding after each mouthful to chew in hiding only to return to steal another bite. As Veronica's uncle George was at the house as well, we did a late Christmas gift exchange once George's daughter Jessi awoke from a nap. I got some office tools from Veronica's grandmother, a desktop motorcycle clock from the Villanuevas, and a set of two humorous pirate novels from Naomi.

With nothing much planned for the day after the holiday, we slept in and played with the dogs. Tara warmed up a bit to the chihuahuas, and was even somewhat accepted by the more menacing German shepherd and boxer outside. We wondered if Tara associated one of the little brown chihuahuas with her old crotchety companion Pepe. We decided to catch an early-evening showing of Rocky Balboa on George's recommendation, using the movie passes he'd given us the night before. Alan and Ana opted instead for the more kid-amusing Charlotte's Web. As i entered Sly Stallone's somewhat farcical attempt to relive his glory days with absolutely no expectations whatsoever, i wasn't disappointed. It wasn't a BAD film, persay ... its heart was in the right place, and the fight scenes were as rousing as those pitting the Italian Stallion against Mr. T or the hulking Russian. Arlene was less than impressed, but i contend that my enjoyment of it was produced by my complete refusal to expect any redeeming qualities from the film whatsoever.

We headed back north on Wednesday, getting on the road around 3pm and making a stop for assorted Mexican cooking ingredients for Alan's planned culinary adventures. This time Alan and i took the Mini with Ana and Tara, while Arlene and Veronica drove the Jetta, with Veronica's grandmother in tow. We hit a nasty storm crossing the grapevine, with freezing rain pelting us across Tejon pass. As Alan and i were descending into the Central Valley, i got a call from Veronica informing me they were about 5 miles behind us and nearly out of gas. Great. It seems she was looking for the trip computer's estimate of how far they could get on the gas remaining (5 miles), and instead misinterpreted the distance travelled on the current trip (86 miles). Oops. I advised her to turn around and head to the nearest gas station in Lebec, which she luckily reached on fumes. We reconnoitered at the Starbucks at the bottom of the grapevine, and proceeded on until stopping for dinner at Red Robin in Harris Ranch. Returning to the road, our cars were pelted by tumbleweeds propelled by high winds for the next ten miles. Really disturbing actually ... some of those suckers were as big as cars and were impossible to avoid. Luckily the car turned most of them to dust on impact. Alan, Ana, Tara, and i got home at 12:30am, while the three generations of de la Mora women stopped at Wal-Mart (egad) in Gilroy to get an air mattress.

Our post-Christmas pre-New Year's days were spent with Veronica's family crammed into our little house. V and i slept on an air mattress in the living room, distinctly uncomfortable especially with Tara hopping on. We did some window shopping on University Ave. in Palo Alto on Thursday, and then mostly kicked it at home on Friday. I ran out for a bit to pick up Veronica's belated Christmas gift. She'd requested a home theater system, along with a way of listening to her iPod in the living room. I solved both requests with a Sony DVD 5.1 surround sound setup, and a DLO Homedock Deluxe that allows an iPod to be controlled through a TV interface and output to a stereo system. Purchased from Best Buy in part using two gift cards given to Veronica and i by my aunt, uncle, and cousin. No major incompatibilities with the new hardware and my current setup, but i then had to figure out how to install the surround speakers without running speaker wire all over creation. This effort was postponed on Saturday while we headed to the city to take Ana to the Exploratorium. She bounded from exhibit to exhibit like a whirling dervish, seemingly most interested in the sensory illusions. That evening norcal expatriate Kevin visited us for a meal of Alan-made empanadas, bringing along his new Wii to try out. He, Veronica, Ana, and i gave Wii Sports a try. Bowling with the motion-sensitive "Wiimote" was a lot of fun, the contest won surprisingly by the Wii-natural Ana. She fared less well at tennis, in which i almost brained several people with my vicious backhands. Boxing was so-so, while baseball was amusing. We ended the evening with a few rounds of golf, during which Ana's lack of skill boiled into frustration and the inevitable meltdown. Her tirade was short-lived however, and Kevin left us to slumber around 2am with Veronica's desire to obtain a new Nintendo strengthened.

I completed my surround sound installation on New Year's Eve. Alan graciously offered to poke around the insulation-coated attic to check the feasibility of running the speaker wire through the wall. Turns out there's a gap in the wall behind the entertainment center, but there's a crossbeam halfway up that would prevent the speaker wires from running from the floor to the picture rail. Thwarted in this effort, i resolved to run the wire up the acute junction between this wall and the fireplace until it reached the picture rail. I was then able to conceal the wires behind this rail and run them to the hanging front and rear speakers. Upon installation, i tested the system using our 5.1-compatible Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl dvd. The battle on the high seas shook the house ... booyakasha. The Homedock installation went swimmingly, and Veronica is now free to rock out at high volume. After expending most of my energy on this endeavor, i relaxed and awaited the new year over a dinner of homemade posole. By this point Arlene had developed a nasty cold, and i too was feeling a bit crappy. We counted down to midnight with a decided lack of enthusiasm, and rung it in with Ana celebrating in a manner Veronica had tried while in Boston ... revelling with the residents of Kandyton in Animal Crossing. I used this opportunity to finish reading the final Age of Apocalypse collection, bringing the enthralling alternate reality to a conclusion. The closing episodes instilled an interest in other X-Men storylines, particularly the Legacy Virus.

A mediocre night's sleep on the crappy air mattress reassured me i was just tired and not ill. We arranged for a New Year's meal at Kan Zeman with Veronica's uncle George and co., but were thwarted as our favorite Meditteranean joint decided to take the day off. We opted instead for a mostly empty P.F. Chang's, and were joined by Naomi and Phil. The get-together concluded with another surround sound Pirates demo, and a few rounds of solo Guitar Hero II. Alan, Arlene, and to a lesser extent Ana then readied for their trip back to Iowa the following morning.

Today i headed back to Stanford to begin tackling the work i'd shirked during my holiday sojourn, as always saddened by the departure of my occasional insanity-inducing but ever-entertaining in-laws. I caught the third consecutive Chelsea draw via live Soccernet commentary, a drab nil-nil encounter with recent bogey team Aston Villa in which the Blues dominated possession and marauded the midlands outfit's goal but couldn't put one in the back of the net. The result leaves us six points behind in-form Manchester United, with our defense impatiently awaiting the return of injured skipper John Terry (made even more anxious by the recent injury to stopgap summer signing Khalid Boulahrouz) and our attackers struggling to convert chances. With the January transfer window having swung open, i wouldn't doubt Mr. Abramovich to open his pocketbook and begin buying wildly once more. My preseason prediction that our expensive squad may buckle under its own weight is looking more and more correct. Convincing massive egos to coexist is fine when you're winning, but when you're slipping into second place while the leaders gain ground, those egos become less compatible. My prediction for the second half of the season? If United continues to play as they are, it's done and dusted ... they take the title. Otherwise it'll be a tight race, if only because i don't see Chelsea kicking it into the high gear of the last two seasons where they could grind out results and win week in week out.

Veronica's grandmother is going to remain with us for a bit, and we entertained the Spanish-speaker this evening by taking her down the El Camino to the Guild Theater in Menlo Park to see Pedro Almodóvar's latest Volver. A sometimes funny, sometimes depressing, always interesting tale of a splintered family and their departed mother, it was a wonderful end to my winter break.