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Signs My Dad Was With Us In Spirit This Christmas 2023 · OneLegUpAlex Media

• 0:04
  Here's your host, Alex Garrett. Oh yeah, it's the Alex Garrett Podcast
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  Network. And we are going to continue the Christmas music just a little bit
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  as we are. Now, what in day three of the twelve days of
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  Christmas, We're in Christmas week, We're in Bowl week, whatever you want
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  to say. But in the conversation about Simeon on Monday, Christmas Day,
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  I did not actually get to talk about a couple of things that meant the
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  world to me this Christmas twenty twenty three, see losing my dad. There
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  has been avoid this Christmas, no doubt. I wasn't able to run around
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  and get an incredible Christmas Morning set up like he did with the villages and
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  with the lights and with the tree. But Gabby and I had our own
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  Christmas they Garrett way, if you will, and then with our low tree
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  and whatnot. And then we had a great Christmas Eve with her family.
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  I finally had the Seven Fishes dinner, you know, the Italians and their
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  Sicilian and well the nature of the Italian Christmas Eve. I got to experience
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  that. We also experienced the rock Aveller Christmas treats with each other and man
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  in that power chair Gabby zoomed through traffic. Excuse me, excuse me.
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  I mean I could hear just right now talking to all those tourists to you
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  know, kind of get out of the way. And she did nicely.
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  She didn't run anybody over, but she did make it known, Hey,
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  I'm going to get through here in this middle of traffic here in New York
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  City, the foot traffic especially, And Mom and Vic and Abby, my
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  family for continuing the Christmas spirit. We did that very much show in the
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  honor of my dad this year, and very much so is creating new traditions.
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  See, my dad and I would always rush around on Christmas Day and
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  open the presence and boom, get to Saint Thomas Church. But this year
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  I decided, hey, you know what Christmas Eve is on a Sunday,
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  Let's try the Sunday. And it was a lot less stressful, believe it
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  or not, to get there on Christmas Eve than Christmas Day. So maybe
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  a lesson there is to keep tradition, but you can always adapt it.
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  You can always modify it to what works best for you. In that moment,
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  I love and admire that my dad worked to make Christmas Day work every
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  year as I mentioned, he would wake me up and all of a sudden,
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  the whole place would be lit up and there'd be presents galore under the
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  tree, and then we'd rush out of the apartment or that, you know
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  where he lived, to get to church, to Saint Thomas Church in Manhattan.
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  And this year Saint Thomas Church showed us we have a community there.
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  A few people stopped buy and talk to us, us being Gabby and I,
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  and then we got to talk to Rector Carl Pastor Carl, I thought
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  it was a deacon, and the deacon I think I mentioned this Monday,
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  said to us, Hey, you know what, We're going to light a
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  candle in honor of your dad in his memory from Christmas to New Year's How
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  special is that? How special is that? And then of course they lit
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  a candle for Gabby and I that we got engaged. It's cool when a
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  place, when a church and a place you've been to since you were six
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  months old. On Christmas Day you get to go back as a thirty two
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  year old and say, hey, guess what, I now have a plus
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  one right here, my fiance with two e's Gabby and she shined in that
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  church and she shines everywhere she goes. She pushes through her struggles every day,
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  and I admire that, and we both are thankful to God every day
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  that we are here and we're together, and we're together. It was our
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  first Christmas Eve and Christmas Day really spent together. Last time we're spending Christmas
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  time together was actually twenty nineteen, and I didn't really even get home to
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  her till late Christmas night, almost into the next day. So to spend
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  the time to watch movies, Christmas movies, I showed her the Christmas Story.
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  I showed her this, that and the other. And it was a
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  great Christmas weekend with Gabby, my mom, my dad, vic Abby and
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  her family as well. And then I want to come to this microphone with
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  this thought as well. There were signs my dad was with us this Christmas.
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  The first sign was a couple of days before Christmas, I actually opened
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  up a present that my dad gave me. One of my many knapsacks was
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  a Ranger knapsack. Is a Ranger knapsack that my dad gave me, and
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  in it were a couple of Christmas cards from my dad. So that was
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  sign number one. Okay, my Pops is here, right here with us
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  in spirit. I know it, I feel it because this was one of
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  his favorite holidays, one of his favorite holidays. Another sign there were always
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  years where he would literally carry me and his plastic bags of Christmas goodies around,
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  especially to my grandmother's or to our Brooklyn home, I mean, or
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  even to our Queen's home. But it wuld only be me in one hand
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  or on his shoulder and a bunch of plastic bags in his hand trying to
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  get us to him from on subways and buses. Pretty amazing actually, how
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  much work he went to every Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and I'll always
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  admire that. Sign Number three was when we were saying Thomas and I lifted
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  my palms up for outreach to the Lord, and I felt the spirit of
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  my dad in that church on Christmas Eve. I felt him with us,
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  I really did. And then sign number four was actually at one of the
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  Neon Name doctors retirement parties. And yeah, one of my Nike You doctors
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  invited me to a retirement party and next to the desserts was a Polar Express
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  train. This was in early December, and I thought, man, that
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  is my dad. He loved the Christmas trains. He loves setting me up
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  with Christmas trains every year, and he loved and pushed me to set up
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  the Christmas Tree Christmas train every year as well. But there he was a
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  Polar Express train next to the desserts. I feel like that was him saying,
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  hey, I am with you this Christmas season. And sure enough,
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  on Christmas Day, my stepdad got a train car. I said, Merry
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  Christmas, and I said, that is continuing my dad's love of Christmas and
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  trains and the Christmas train set in one form or another, so there were
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  signs my dad was here with us this Christmas. I guess that's why I
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  think it has emotional or cry as much. I did certainly tear up though
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  at certain endings of movies. Of course, It's a Wonderful Life, one
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  of his favorite movies. Of course, we got to talk. I got
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  to show Gabby a Christmas story about Ralphie, and then we both watched this
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  movie, and of course Elf, but we both watched Fred Claus and vince
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  Ball is usually a you know, a goofball and whatnot, but that movie
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  with watching the kids open the presence, I mean, if you don't think
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  about opening your presence with your parents during that scene, you may not have
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  a soul, because that's what I felt. I felt my dad and Mom's
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  Christmas days watching that scene in Fred Claus. You gotta check it out if
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  you haven't already. It's a whole thing about Chola sat Nick's brother Fred,
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  Santa Claus's brother Fred. Get it, this and the other, and then
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  just a couple of times where my eyes got moist because a I either remember
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  watching the movies with my dad or the memories of yesteryear, olden days of
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  yore, if you will, came pouring through at certain times this Christmas season.
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  But I'm thankful for my physical family year that got me through it.
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  I am thankful for my fiance to Ease who got me through it. And
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  I'm thankful that my dad was still with us in spirit and showed us that
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  he was here in spirit. By the way, this podcast was inspired by
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  Joe Piscobo and I was conversation about my dad's very presence during Christmas on the
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  Joe Piscobo Show This Morning You look at father very recently in April. Yeah,
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  and you know the station, you guys, the Morning Team has been
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  by my side as well. And uh, this this past Sunday at Saint
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  Thomas Church, the longtime church of my dad and I went to for Christmas.
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  Lit a candle the deacon of the church that we're going to light a
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  candle in on our of your dad, and then they lit a candle on
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  our. Gabby and I are getting engaged, so you know, we have
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  a community there, which which was great to you. Are good, you
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  are good. You got engaged and you propose guys and I had a seven
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  fish dinner. That's right, it was. She's a Sicilian, so I
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  have the Italian side that night on Christmas Eve is great. I need dating
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  advice from Alex. It's always fun when you get to work on the Joe
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  Piscobo Show. And of course this network shares their condolences with Joe and his
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  family as they underwent their first Christmas without mam Episcopo, and we send our
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  thoughts in prayers to Piscopo family as well as they grieve their loss during this
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  Christmas season. We'll talk to you soon on the Alex Garrett Podcast Network