Nicolas and Kelsey enjoy some raisins a la Go Diego on the floor. This isn't where Ricco's normally eat although you might not guess that from some of these other images...

After a catalog-inspired Christmas at my Uncle's I now introduce you to the house I grew up in, which is where my brother currently lives with his lovely mujere, Paola (hola, Paola!) I stayed with them last night and Paola was gracious enough to come with my brother to pick me up because as you can see, my brother's car is out of commission. We are sure if it exploded from a recall part or if it got torched but when he woke up in the morning, it and the grass around it, were extra-crispy. This is after a week that included a dog fight and a drug raid but that's really neither here nor there.

So Christmas sorta fell by the wayside in this branch of the family tree, and since my mom is Buddhist and doesn't celebrate the holiday, the evening of the 25th was pretty quiet. My brother, Paola and I sat on the front porch and got drunk in hammocks. Given the ambiance of a toasted car now sitting on its spokes, the scene, albeit Christmas night, didn't seem entirely inappropriate.