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At some time in the past we decided to switch from celebrating Christmas to Festivus, partly because neither my my husband nor I are religious, and partly because it just seemed like a good idea at the time—mostly the latter I think.

(Obviously we are not alone, as evidenced by this window we passed last year.)—>

A 1997 Seinfeld episode centered around a hew holiday created by George's father, Frank Costanza, as a protest against the commercialization of Christmas, --"A Festivus for the rest of us!"

Frank explained, "Christmas has the tree. Chanukah has the menorah. Festivus has the pole, which must be tall, skinny, aluminum and devoid of tinsel (too distracting)..." On the evening of Festivus, there is the traditional 'airing of grievances,' in which family members share all the ways they have disappointed one another over the past year," followed by "the feats of strength." 'It's not over "until the head of the household is pinned."

We have our games of (mental) strength, and much good food. And instead of the steel pole we have our Festivus ball, a toilet float with some fake food and game pieces and a coin dangling from it.

(I think I' crossed the line into distracting, though, and we really need to go back to our original ball, a giant plain aluminum kitchen tea-ball sort of thingie. ) >

Anyhow, this year my son Rob and his wife Trina hosted our family Festivus Secret Santa- event on Christmas Eve; which was especially nice of them since they both actually had to work for part of the day on Christmas Eve.

(< Rob. My pictures this year were not all that great so I don't have a good individual one of Trina.)

I was thrilled since this meant that I managed to luck out and avoid hosting any major family events this year.

So at the designated time--( almost)--we picked up Susan and Abel and hauled ourselves, the appetizers, deserts, and the presents out there.

We wasted no time getting right down to the appetizers, and then moved on to gifts. Although our Secret Santa gifts were not there since the kids in Seattle had drawn us.

( Edited 12/30 to add that I spoke to Al and Rachel and they did send their gifts well before Christmas but they did not arrive. So it looks like they are lost in the mail.)

However, Maddie and Izzy did get the magic scarves which Al and Rachel sent them. And the present I waited so late to look for which I finally had to order online on Monday, a button making kit from Badge-a-Minit, did arrive on Christmas Eve! (I was so pleased with their service,and the machine works and is easy to use.. So if you want to make buttons for your political candidates or for whatever, order from them with confidence!)

I got them a couple of other things as well, and also I made them baskets with cocoa, and peppermint sticks, lip gloss and candy and some of the special bath bombs that I made. The adults got baskets also with thrift gifts and bath bombs and so on. And of course everyone exchanged the Secret Santa Gifts. We copped out and gave mostly gift cards this year. Waiting until the very last minute didn't leave me a lot of options. That's what people asked for, but I still feel a little bad about it because it really is pretty impersonal.

Rob silk screened us all souvenir Festivus T-shirts with the "pole" and the motto "...tinsel is distracting."

(Photos of us wearing them are at the end of the entry.)

Susan and Abel brought the funniest gift. They found this weird monkey-esque Christmas figure at Marshall's.

(Who thought that was ever going to sell in the first place??)

They immediately realized it was meant for us, and that we had to have it to add to our Festivus celebration. Much laughter ensued as we placed "St. Simian" next to our Festivus Ball, knowing that he will be with us for years to come.

There was no time left for airing of any grievances because the standing rib roast was ready, and none of us wanted to keep it waiting.

After salad, we quickly shoved aside any thoughts of Mad Cow disease as we chomped on the succulent goodness of the perfectly done roast. We also had beautiful baked potatoes which had been rubbed with bacon grease and cooked in a bed of salt. There were all the high fat condiments, including butter, sour cream, real bacon bits, chives, and a cream based horseradish sauce. Also creamed spinach with almonds. We all felt our arteries close up a little, but it was delicious.

After dinner we had little energy for games of mental strength, although Abel and Rob managed to get in a game of darts. But the rest of us just laid around groaning and holding our stomachs until Maddie got the idea to take pictures of St. Simian's Christmas Adventures. So Maddie, and Susan and I amused ourselves documenting the event. (Photos coming soon.)

Finally, we all managed to force ourselves to have coffee and desert of lemon tart and the Opera Cake from Trader Joe's. We laid around a little more, until we realized that we had to leave because they needed to get on with the rest of their Christmas plans.

We had a great time and I can't think of a year in recent memory where the whole holiday season has been this pleasant.

Here are a couple more photos. The camera was just not cooperating, so not so great.

The Happy Festivus Family, complete with matching T-Shirts.

The goofy picture. Why are the only people in this picture adults?

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