Merry Christmas! This is Kathryn and Josh’s Sixth Annual Christmas photograph taken in front of the very same spot on the very same night. It’s become a very nice tradition. I hope everyone had a great time this holiday season!

Well Christmas is officially over now and all of the Western world marks time until the next holiday, New Years. I had a good Christmas, and I must say I got everything on my list.. I got the leather jacket I’ve been coveting for quite some time, some nice perfumes and jewelery and finally my set of white dishes from Crate & Barrel which are unbelievably perfect. I couldn’t believe Josh actually got me those, it was quite a surprise. I will be so happy to finally see my sister’s old dishes from college go in the trash. It was a really nice Christmas. Josh is out of town visiting his family in Kentucky, and he’ll be back on the 30th. My sister and nephew are in town, so I’m sure there will never be a dull moment and it will be plenty noisey here for the next few days. I have arranged several things to do this week to keep me busy so that should be fun. I’m exhausted from my last week of work and am looking forward to not having anything to do this week though, because as soon as I get back it will be incredibly hectic and back to work again. Of course, since it will officially be "tax season" I’m sure my co-workers will be all hyped up about that….among other things. So I hope everyone had a good christmas and that santa brought them everything they wanted this year.

And the Joke Lives On … and On … and On …

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Kevin Campanella plans to seek "serenity now" by celebrating Festivus, a wacky holiday popularized in a 1997 "Seinfeld" episode.

Billed as "Festivus for the rest of us," the holiday celebrated by the Costanza clan on Dec. 23 features an airing of grievances and feats of strength in which a guest must pin the host before the party ends.

In protest of Christmas’ commercialism, character Frank Costanza puts up an unadorned aluminum pole instead of a tree. The metal, he says admiringly, has a "very high strength-to-weight ratio."

"I just always loved that episode," said Campanella, 28, a landscaper from Warwick, R.I. "But it’s not so much about the show — I think the idea of Festivus is a good idea."

So does The Wagner Companies. The Milwaukee-based maker of hand-railing components is bringing back its line of Festivus poles for the holiday season. The company had plenty of metal rails on hand already and launched the product last year on a whim.

Wagner sold about 250 poles in 2005, with around 100 sales coming from the firm’s 120 employees. This season, it sold about 300 poles by mid-December and was on pace to sell twice that number by Saturday, said Leto, whose claim to fame is that he shared a drama class with Jerry Seinfeld at Queens College in New York.

Wagner offers a 6-foot Festivus pole for $38 and a 2-foot-8-inch tabletop model for $30. The setup is simple: a hollow pipe, 1.9 inches in diameter, inserted into a collapsible aluminum base.

The "Seinfeld" Festivus episode developed from series writer Dan O’Keefe’s childhood experiences. His father invented the holiday in the 1960s.

"As a kid, we’d come home and there’d be weird decorations," said the 30-something O’Keefe. "There was the playing of strange German and Italian pop music from the ’50s. And the airing of grievances was a real thing."

Instead of a pole, his family celebration featured a clock and a bag. (O’Keefe said his father won’t say what they symbolized.)

Wagner’s Leto acknowledged the irony of making money off a holiday that celebrates anti-commercialism. But the company is having too much fun with the holiday to stop now, he said.

O’Keefe doesn’t begrudge Wagner’s commercial efforts.

"It sounds to me like they’re making a good living — good for them," O’Keefe said. "It’s just this joke holiday on a TV show. If they want to make a buck on it, go for it."

Or, as Seinfeld might say, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

From Foxnews.com, OutThere