While I was gone, I...

...watched a cook throw stuff around.
We celebrated my dad's birthday together, which was great. And as an added pleasure, we had dinner at a restaurant that held hibachi performances. A cook stands in front of your table and throws food around (and sometimes at you. Dad caught a flying veggie in his mouth, and I was lucky enough to capture that event too!). It was a lot of fun to see, and good food too. I wonder if throwing it around added to the deliciousness. Maybe I should try it. Or, maybe not.

...took part in the Christmas practice of visiting the tree at Rockefeller Center. 
Times square is one of the most annoying places to walk through (and if you're in a hurry, it's the worst!) But the tree at the Rockefeller Center cannot be missed, and with my parents in town, it was the perfect persuasion to walk through the hoards of visitors who had the same idea as us. I'd imagined something much more spectacular (the crowds might have had a hand in dampening my experience), but it was a very pretty sight still, and I'm glad I went and checked it out.

...hung out with some pretty unpleasant looking iguanas.
When I spotted this guy on my first day in Cancun, I was super excited. He was pretty cooperative and posed for a bunch of photos. Then I walked ahead and found a whole other family of iguanas! Turns out a sight of one in Mexico is no big deal, as I spent the rest few days spotting them all over the place.