FESTIVUS! For the Rest of Us!

For those of you who don't know what Festivus is I need to refer you back to an episode of the TV sitcom, "Seinfeld". While it was originally created by writer Dan O'Keefe and his family in 1966, it was first introduced into popular culture by his son Daniel, a scriptwriter for the TV show Seinfeld. The holiday includes novel practices such as the "Airing of Grievances, while holding an aluminum pole (undecorated), and having each person tell everyone else all the ways they have disappointed him or her over the past year. We changed it a little so that the grievances don't have anything to do with the people there, but more of the general grievances they have about other things that happened throughout the year, or just in general. Also, after the Festivus meal, the "Feats of Strength" are performed, involving wrestling the head of the household to the floor, with the holiday ending only if the head of the household is actually pinned. These conventions originated with the TV episode. We decided to celebrate Festivus as a gathering of friends , usually on New Years Eve, or a night close to it that coincides with our schedule.

We had our Festivus party last night with a group of friends from church. We probably had 20 + people in attendance. Everyone was supposed to bring leftover food or food that you got as gifts (like fruitcake and chocolate, cake and cookies, etc.) No one was supposed to go to any great trouble to make something. We ate off paper plates to aid in the cleanup. It was a lot of fun. We had our airing of the grievances, and then for the feats of strength we went downstairs and played on their Wii machine. I had never played one of those before and I left sweating up a storm. We left sometime after midnight and realized that this was probably the first time we had gotten home "after" our 22 year old daughter had. It was worth it. We've been to so many parties this year that we are just partied out. I enjoy the holidays, but I sure am glad they're over. Happy Festivus, Happy New Year and all that.