christmas is all around me

"I'd be safe and warm

If I was in LA

California dreamin'

On such a winter's day"

-The Mamas & the Papas

Friday night, the mom's boyfriend arrived with his two teenage children. The boy's 17 and the girl's 14. Basically, everyone in this house is beautiful. Host mom is super skinny, with blonde hair and a constant smile, her boyfriend looks like David Hasselhoff in his prime, Vale's got perfect hair and bright shiny eyes, and these two kids look like movie stars. Specifically, the boy looks like Jeremy Sumpter in the live-action Peter Pan, and the girl looks like all the kids of celebrities I used to read about in Teen Vogue. She can roll out of bed, throw her hair up in a bun, and be ready to go--I'm so jealous of her! Lord knows I didn't look that good at 14. I mean, I don't even look that good now.

You get the whole family together and they're like a Ralph Lauren ad- they're all thin, with light hair, perfectly tanned skin, and model-like good looks. I stick out like a sore thumb, being a curvy brunette, with constantly sunburned skin, who doesn't look like them or dress like them. That's probably why they stuck me in the garage.

Anyway, the family held their end of the year barbeque on Saturday night. I wasn't sure who all would be invited, but in the end it was just staff and family. It was held in the stables, which are immaculate. There was a long table set up in the middle, and a few of the horses watched us eat. There was steak, and salad, and a variety of cheeses (apparently that's what the mom's boyfriend does, make cheese), and some other sides. And of course, there was beer and wine aplenty.

The boyfriend gave a little pep talk to encourage the staff, telling them that the high season was just around the corner, and they must be careful to always represent the stables well. There will be plenty of celebrities around, like athletes, actors, and even models, so it's essential that they always be impressed, even off the ranch. I was even mentioned in the speech, and of course my incident from the day before was brought up and laughed about by everyone. Then we had ice cream, which eased the pain somewhat. (But not the physical pain, because by this time I had about a billion bruises coming up.)

Sunday was supposed to be beach day, but it ended up being a little cloudy. That didn't stop us. Vale and I hunted for treasures in the surf and along the rocks, and I realized that he and I have very different ideas of what constitutes a treasure: at the end of the day, his pockets were full of little bones and red rocks, while I was holding sea shells.

Later in the day, I overheard the family saying something about going into La Barra in the evening. I assumed this was all we were doing and dressed according, with a tee shirt and skirt over leggings. Then people showed up in dress shirts and nice outfits and I was like, "Wait what?" Turns out it was a pre-Christmas family dinner which no one had told me about. I ran back to my room to change, but I'm seriously running out of things to wear. On top of that, the things I put in the laundry room to be washed have disappeared. It's getting tough to put an outfit together. Send me clothes for Christmas?

Today's another lazy day. We're just waiting for Vale's mom to come home, and then we'll have lunch. Vale wants to go to the beach later, and I'd totally go with him. Need to work on my tan. . .