Happy Festivus 2010!

Happy Festivus everyone!

Today has been an absolute blast and since I figure I won't have time to blog in the next 2 days, here's a wrap up of how our Festivus celebration turned out.

We started the day with disappointment, which seemed kind of appropriate-- you see no one really wanted to clean the house. But to me, getting the house cleaned up before Christmas was pretty much my main goal here and in some ways, linking it to Festivus made it fun for me.  Mostly because I knew what was in store for everyone else this evening.

The kitchen table was piled with stuff and the great room looked like demolition Sammie had gone through. And demolition Sammie had gone through (she's my loveable little Tasmanian Devil!).

At 9:45 am, we all met in the livingroom for a "family meeting" to outline the scope of our cleaning project.  My goal was to get things cleaned up room by room and I posted Post-It notes with tasks for each room on the door or near the light switches (for rooms without doors). The kids started claiming tasks and let me know by putting the post-it's on their chests.

But I quickly realized, the house was in such a state of disaster, that we would need to start with grabbing trash and belongings first.  So each person got a plastic grocery bag to collect trash in and a paper bag with their name on it, to stash their misplaced belongings: those things that didn't belong whatever location they were found.

My little shortcut finder, Sammie, grabbed her bag and started going from room to room.  My little literalist, Sean, began counting items and arguing how many items he had to pick up.  Yes, instantly Sean was pushing back and pushing my buttons.  Steve, was unfortunately busy trying to set up the entertainment center... so he missed the mouthing off.  I was trying to ignore the behavior rather than deal with it.  I was picking my battle and the battle of the day was I wanted a clean house.  To make my long story shorter... Sean and I had to be separated and in the afternoon the kids had to go play outside or at a friend's house so we could get things done.

Around 5:00, I realized the dishwasher was not cleaning well, which meant, instead of watching the Seinfeld episode, "The Strike," Steve was on his hands and knees repairing the dishwasher.  I'd post a picture, but he was emulating a plumber and it's not quite all it's "cracked" up to be.  So I rearranged our party schedule and we decorated the Festivus cake  instead.

Again, Sean took off in a huff when I got upset with him for jamming the M&M decorations into the cake (up to his knuckle)... don't know why he couldn't understand that no one would want to eat a cake that he stuck his finger in.  And I'd like to point out... those are Easter M&M's in the cake... they have bunny ears on them!  How very Festivus of us!

After waiting, patiently, for Steve to finish fixing the dishwasher (which btw, he did!! LOVE HIM)... we settled down to watch Seinfeld. Sammie spent the first 5 minutes inquiring, "I thought this was about Festivus?"  To which I had to explain that this wasn't a documentary but if she waited all would be explained.

As soon as the airing of grievances was explained... Sean was SOLD on Festivus.  In fact, when I  told him after the show was over to wash his hands and I witnessed a Festivus Miracle... clean hands:

We sat down to dinner of crockpot Picadillo and Basmati rice... the kids (as a treat) each got to drink soda at dinner.  And in homage to the dishes not being clean yet and it being Festivus... I went to paper plates for dinner. 

Sean happily volunteered to air his grievances first, then Sammie... Steve had the idiocy to declare he had no grievances (I admit, I'd had half an alcoholic beverage, which for me is like 4 drinks for a regular person... I shouted: BULLSH*T!).  He finally shouted over the kids, I'm tired of you not listening.


I aired my grievances as well, but I have to admit... there are no pictures of me tonight.  I decided not to get all festive and I'm wearing my comfies (MukLuks, yoga pants and one of Steve's old T-shirts... I don't look so great!).

Sean was, in a word, hilarious during dinner.... he was trash talking about the wrestling match with Steve.  He actually said, "You're going down like there's no tomorrow."  This kid was seriously GEEKED about wrestling his Daddy... and the next thing I knew, Sammie was threatening Steve too.  I started to get a little worried, because they were getting quite worked up.  As soon as dinner was done, I threw away the dishes and the kids ran to the living room to practice wrestling.  Sean insisted he needed to take his shirt off and be barefoot so he could stand his ground.  I'm wondering a little if he gets up late at night and watches WWE or something.

Sean was wailing on and rolling around with those pillows for a good 15 minutes... Steve let him work off some aggression in hopes that he wouldn't get hurt.  Sammie grew tired of the wrestling practice and, predictably, resorted to pole dancing.

Well, she was really dancing with the pole (and I'd like to point out to my friend, Karen, that it's planted in a Market Day Popcorn Chicken box).
We decided to go from youngest to oldest when wrestling Steve and he kindly let all of us individually wrestle and pin him.

Sammie took a running start and attacked him from behind.

 

Sean went at him with this crazy boxing stance.  

I admit, I pretended I needed a drink of water and sneak attacked him from behind, unfortunately, he locked his elbows and refused to collapse.  Lucky for me, the kids jumped on me and hurt me, so when he took pity on me, I swiped him from the side... he went down on his side and wouldn't roll onto his back.  I also admit to biting him to get him to roll over so I could pin him (shhh... the kids don't know that).  I never said I'd wrestle fairly in the Feats of Strength.  And I'll probably blame the daquiri tomorrow.

We declared Festivus Festivities at and end... mostly to get the pole out of the livingroom so no one ended up impaled.  We popped the ORIGINAL Tron movie (special edition, no less) into the DVD player and we're all fascinated by "Innovative CGI" and the deliciousness of store bought cake!

And when asked if we should do this again, Sean said, "Ohh You Betchya!"