My dear mother.

All she has ever wanted in this world was a big, loving family that loves to play games, sit around and eat licorice and drink wine. When she was a kid she told me that her friends had to tell her to go home at the end of the day. She’s a real people-person, a chit-chatter, she may or may not invade your bubble. She is without a doubt the most creative, fun-loving woman I know and I am so glad she’s passed down these traits to me. Her and I are the party girls.

Unfortunately my extended family is all spread out over the great state of Washington and with everyone married and having kids these days, family get-togethers are a real toughie.

This year, Nan had the brilliant idea of getting everyone together BEFORE the craziness of the holidays began and calling it…

FESTIVUS. (for the rest of us)

And for those of you who are not Seinfeld fans please unsubscribe :

Festivus is a holiday celebrated by the Costanza family that revolves around an un-decorated pole, feats of strength and of course the official airing of grievances.

So we came, we were festivious (I’m making that I word I guess) and had a fabulous weekend.

Here’s what went down. And I apologize for the over-abundance of pics of Tate and E. They’re impossible not to photograph.

Tate is now a full-on miniature Ben Johnson (his dad). He is man of adventure, curiosity and of course, few words. He fights my cuddles, hugs, kisses and drive-by grabs fiercely and consistently. These behaviors become even more amplified when E is around, as he adores her. I may as well be chopped liver.

Night one was spent with E putting on a puppet show for Tate where a set of paternal twins (a bear and a dog) go to Starbucks. She wrote the whole thing out on paper before hand and girlfriend’s execution was impeccable. Tate grunted in appreciation and then tried to incorporate a piggy into the show, with E lovingly accepted.

Then, pants were removed and E pulled Tate around on a blanket for a good half hour.

The next day was Festivus so naturally, Nan and I wrote a commemorative song for opening ceremonies to the tune of Oh Christmas Tree. It went something like this:

Oh Festivus! Oh Festivus!

The rest of us love Festivus.

Oh Festivus! Oh Festivus!

The rest of us love Festivus.

It is the day where we drink wine,

share feats of strength and then we dine.

Oh Festivus! Oh Festivus!

The rest of us love Festivus.

We prepared food, started drinking wine around 2 pm and subsequently began covering the Festivus pole in grievances.

My aunt Con brought over gifts for Tate and E, including the best necklaces ever:

And (because of her passionate rendition of How Far I’ll Go from Moana the previous evening) E got this fabulous Moana outfit:

Then we were presented with Festivus shirts to honor the holiday, which are definitely pretty amazing.

The rest of the holiday was spent playing games, jamming out with the cousins, playing cards and just kinda laying around.

 

All in all, it was simply perfect and I cannot wait for next year’s festivities!