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Monday Mini: SMNTY Holiday Updates · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Smitha and welcome to Stephane
0:07
Speaker 1: ever told your production of iHeart Radio. All right, y'all,
0:19
Speaker 1: we've talked a lot about the different ways we cope
0:23
Speaker 1: this year, the last year. Shoot, y'all, I'm still trying
0:26
Speaker 1: to figure out how to cope in general. I'm reading
0:29
Speaker 1: about brain fog and all of this. I don't know about.
0:32
Speaker 1: Y'all've been googling the hell out of how to focus
0:36
Speaker 1: or how not to be tired. It has not helped.
0:39
Speaker 1: Just you know, just um, And you know what, when
0:43
Speaker 1: it comes to the holidays, we know there's a lot
0:45
Speaker 1: of stress. And we've talked about it a lot um
0:48
Speaker 1: because both of us have talked about being overwhelmed during
0:51
Speaker 1: these oh so festive times, especially you know, during the
0:55
Speaker 1: last couple of years. And yeah, I will say you've
0:58
Speaker 1: gotten a little better. I don't get as angry as
1:00
Speaker 1: I used to for the gratuitous, preemptive need to put
1:06
Speaker 1: on Christmas music. But still why just still why? But hey,
1:11
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get better about this. Good. Yeah, I
1:19
Speaker 1: mean I feel more. I feel bad badly for people
1:21
Speaker 1: who work in retail. As someone who worked during a
1:24
Speaker 1: holiday season and retail that that's that music. Usually they
1:29
Speaker 1: only have one c D. They just play it over
1:31
Speaker 1: and over alright, and it was a radio station they
1:35
Speaker 1: repeated every two hours. I found that out. Yes, but yes,
1:39
Speaker 1: we have done episodes about the added stressors of the
1:41
Speaker 1: holidays from women and just the labor and need to
1:44
Speaker 1: go overboard. So we wanted to do a check in
1:47
Speaker 1: and some advice on how to cope a bit better
1:49
Speaker 1: this year. And we say advice loosely because we know,
1:54
Speaker 1: again you probably can google it yourself and or have already,
1:58
Speaker 1: but hey, it's nice to hear it every now and again. Um.
2:00
Speaker 1: And for me, this is the first I guess normal
2:05
Speaker 1: after pandemic holiday in which you know, the last year
2:09
Speaker 1: my family had pretty much all had COVID and so
2:13
Speaker 1: everything was postponed. Um, it was getting worse and worse,
2:16
Speaker 1: and the up and downs of it. Uh, And I
2:19
Speaker 1: won't lie, there is a bit of anxiety, a lot
2:23
Speaker 1: of anxiety. And added that this big bridge my partner
2:26
Speaker 1: and I are at in which we have decided to
2:29
Speaker 1: divide our time with family as well, so trying to
2:32
Speaker 1: get time with his family, so I'll go down there
2:36
Speaker 1: or go to where they are, or deciding how you know,
2:39
Speaker 1: if if we're going to go to my parents and
2:41
Speaker 1: how to divide this time, and because they're from different state,
2:45
Speaker 1: it makes it a little more difficult because you know,
2:46
Speaker 1: outside travel blah blah blah, as well as trying to
2:49
Speaker 1: get the perfect gift, and I any I have so
2:52
Speaker 1: many at sea sites up trying to find the considerate, perfect,
2:57
Speaker 1: you know, uh, partner gifts. So I'm like, look already
3:00
Speaker 1: the best partner for your son. Yeah, whatever, it is stressful.
3:04
Speaker 1: It's stressful because it does feel like it's a performance
3:06
Speaker 1: thing and it shouldn't be. Yeah. Yeah, Hilariously enough, I'm
3:12
Speaker 1: reading a fan fiction about all of this, of course
3:15
Speaker 1: you are, and it's a Hallmark fan fiction and it's
3:18
Speaker 1: about hiring someone to be a bad date, so your
3:21
Speaker 1: family never you know what that's happening on Netflix and
3:27
Speaker 1: all of the holiday lifetime and I know we have those, uh.
3:30
Speaker 1: I know you did the episode about Hallmark movies, which
3:34
Speaker 1: hinges on top of that typically all the time, and
3:37
Speaker 1: I know we need to come back and address it
3:39
Speaker 1: because there's now new like influx of having men of
3:41
Speaker 1: color as being or indoor a person of color as
3:44
Speaker 1: the main hottie. And I'm like that's new or at
3:48
Speaker 1: least a star. So the small changes are happening. But
3:53
Speaker 1: all of that to say, yes, there's a lot of
3:55
Speaker 1: stress right now. Annie, I know you've feel a little
3:58
Speaker 1: bit stressful because you know, just go home in general
4:01
Speaker 1: is stressful. You haven't been feeling too well, so you're like,
4:04
Speaker 1: oh my god, constantly thinking something's wrong, some things wrong.
4:10
Speaker 1: It is all cod I've been there too. I'm like,
4:12
Speaker 1: oh my god, I'm sick. Oh my god, I I
4:14
Speaker 1: filled light headed, have COVID no, no, no, But all
4:18
Speaker 1: of that and yeah, holidays coming around. We've talked about
4:21
Speaker 1: the whole issue with if you're a family and you
4:24
Speaker 1: have totally different belief systems. Yes, my family and I
4:28
Speaker 1: have a very different belief system. I'm talking a lot
4:31
Speaker 1: of stress um. And one of the things that we've
4:33
Speaker 1: talked about previously is just how you actually can't wait
4:36
Speaker 1: on you. So we did we want to help you
4:39
Speaker 1: recognize for this Monday many some of those physical stressors
4:43
Speaker 1: that might be saying, hey, you need to take a
4:46
Speaker 1: step back. Yes, so we do have some physical signs
4:50
Speaker 1: of stress um, which you probably already know, but we'll
4:54
Speaker 1: we'll just go over because sometimes you just have to. Yeah,
4:57
Speaker 1: you're you're too far in it and you have to
4:59
Speaker 1: take that step back be like wait a minute, right,
5:02
Speaker 1: I mean I think you and I've talked about like
5:03
Speaker 1: I'm tired, and I'm like, oh, that could be stressed.
5:05
Speaker 1: It could be. I mean, it does impact so much
5:10
Speaker 1: of our body. So what one sign is changes administruation.
5:14
Speaker 1: Another is effects in breathing, which is what I have
5:17
Speaker 1: been experiencing. One article says stress effects one's breathing. Whether
5:21
Speaker 1: one begins breathing faster, feeling shortness of breath, or hyperventilating,
5:25
Speaker 1: the respiratory system goes into overdrive over time. Continued strain
5:29
Speaker 1: on the system can make one up more susceptible to
5:31
Speaker 1: upper respiratory infections. And you know what, going back to
5:35
Speaker 1: the administruation, I kind of forgot because I am on
5:38
Speaker 1: and I U D and I don't really have my
5:42
Speaker 1: period anymore. It's been a blessing. I love it. I
5:45
Speaker 1: don't want it, but I still have some of the
5:46
Speaker 1: mood changes. But yeah, that used to be a huge
5:49
Speaker 1: factor for me. When I would stress, I would be
5:52
Speaker 1: all over the place, whether it was um, it lasted longer,
5:56
Speaker 1: I was bleeding more, I was bleeding more profusely, and
5:59
Speaker 1: I was being moreno gonna lie. I don't miss any
6:02
Speaker 1: of that, but I remember those changes and being kind
6:05
Speaker 1: of scared, especially if you're sexually active. That such a
6:08
Speaker 1: gross term, but in general, like if you're doing all
6:11
Speaker 1: these things and you don't quite know what's happening, and
6:13
Speaker 1: you're like, what's wrong with my body? And me coming
6:16
Speaker 1: up on forty one, I'm like, am I, oh my god,
6:19
Speaker 1: am I going through menopause already? Stuff like that go
6:21
Speaker 1: through my mind and I forget how badly your hormones
6:25
Speaker 1: are affected by stress in general, and sometimes those hormones
6:28
Speaker 1: cause you to stress out more yep, oh, the uterus
6:35
Speaker 1: and of course just the overall immune system, which another
6:39
Speaker 1: statement does continue. Stress can leave one more susceptible to
6:43
Speaker 1: infections and skin conditions such as eggzema, hives, and acne.
6:47
Speaker 1: And you know what, I yeah, I remember, like I
6:49
Speaker 1: still am having that issue at forty one, like, oh
6:52
Speaker 1: my god, my face is all over the place, I'm
6:54
Speaker 1: getting pimples here and there, and or like the rashes
6:57
Speaker 1: and or I and my eyes are now puffy because
7:00
Speaker 1: of the stress and not sleeping as well anymore. I
7:04
Speaker 1: feel like or ever anymore the last two years. But yeah,
7:07
Speaker 1: just the overall immune systems I talked about can cause,
7:09
Speaker 1: uh not necessarily be the cause of cancer, but too
7:13
Speaker 1: much stress on the body can eventually lead to a
7:15
Speaker 1: lot of breakdowns in your immune systems, can cause you
7:18
Speaker 1: to be sick constantly, and can lead to things like
7:21
Speaker 1: that which are autoimmune diseases that stress has a huge
7:25
Speaker 1: impact on. So it's kind of that reminder. And for
7:28
Speaker 1: women when we talk about stress again, we see it
7:32
Speaker 1: in such a different manner, and we have it show
7:34
Speaker 1: in different manners, whether it is through autoimmune systems or
7:37
Speaker 1: those who have uteruses in general can have it in
7:39
Speaker 1: a whole different way. And how how it comes out.
7:42
Speaker 1: The headaches can be different. Um, as we talked about
7:45
Speaker 1: hard conditions, some of the symptoms can be different for
7:47
Speaker 1: women rather than men. So all of these things, even
7:50
Speaker 1: though they sound like, oh yeah, obviously, it's not sometimes obvious,
7:55
Speaker 1: you know, including the breathing thing. Um but we're not
8:01
Speaker 1: just talking about all of that. Yeah, so there's some
8:03
Speaker 1: signs for you. But any I wanted to do a
8:05
Speaker 1: personal check in because I feel like we've connected with
8:09
Speaker 1: our listeners. They know us so well that I feel
8:11
Speaker 1: like they may know before if we like make mention
8:14
Speaker 1: of something that like, uh, there it is. I just
8:30
Speaker 1: wanted to ask you a couple of questions. Is do
8:31
Speaker 1: check in with you? Do you feel like this year
8:34
Speaker 1: is different from last year for you? Yes? Yes, Um,
8:38
Speaker 1: I feel like so last year I went home for Thanksgiving.
8:41
Speaker 1: I think I told the story, but somebody showed up
8:44
Speaker 1: that I wasn't anticipating to show up, and I legitimate
8:47
Speaker 1: I cried. I cried because I was so scared that
8:51
Speaker 1: I would infect him with COVID and he would die.
8:54
Speaker 1: And I carry a lot of guilt around that because
8:56
Speaker 1: it was It's not a reaction I could have anticipated,
9:02
Speaker 1: as surprised even me, But it was just a sign
9:04
Speaker 1: of how stressed I was and how worried I was
9:07
Speaker 1: about all of this that I just started crying. UM.
9:11
Speaker 1: And then in the following holiday, no one else can
9:14
Speaker 1: because my whole family was like, oh my gosh, okay,
9:18
Speaker 1: we will not do that again. UM. So this holiday,
9:23
Speaker 1: some other people are coming and I feel more comfortable
9:25
Speaker 1: with it. We're all vaccinated. UM, but I am still
9:28
Speaker 1: anxious about that. And then you know, we've been talking
9:31
Speaker 1: about how there's all these the talk about shortages and
9:34
Speaker 1: um kind of all these things that are impacting making
9:39
Speaker 1: the holiday is magical or just even trying to hold
9:41
Speaker 1: onto a tradition that you have. So I have I
9:44
Speaker 1: have some anxieties around that, and I will say, like,
9:47
Speaker 1: like Samantha said, I haven't been feeling well, and I
9:49
Speaker 1: think it is stress. And I think a part of
9:52
Speaker 1: it is just it is you know, we've been in quarantine.
9:57
Speaker 1: They're almost two years at this point, and I think, I, yeah,
10:04
Speaker 1: I think I'm just tired. And we have a lot
10:05
Speaker 1: going on, all right, we do, we do, which we'll
10:09
Speaker 1: talk about in the future future episode perhaps, but I think, yeah,
10:14
Speaker 1: I'm just like I feel like I can't. I'm always
10:18
Speaker 1: thinking I just have to get through this day, which
10:20
Speaker 1: is the way. I hate thinking like that, because every
10:23
Speaker 1: day is but I keep thinking like I just have
10:26
Speaker 1: to get through this, and there's no endpoint insight, like
10:30
Speaker 1: the holidays aren't an endpoint. It's just like, well, now
10:33
Speaker 1: I have to get through this. And I mean, I
10:35
Speaker 1: do have some enjoy I love hanging out with my mom,
10:38
Speaker 1: I enjoy spending time with my family. I love the food,
10:40
Speaker 1: but there are so many other stressors on top of
10:43
Speaker 1: it to make it happen one. But I just also
10:45
Speaker 1: have like my weird thing with eating and knowing all
10:49
Speaker 1: the work that builds up and you're gonna do. So
10:51
Speaker 1: I think that's about where I am. How about you? Yeah,
10:55
Speaker 1: so I think I'm with you with last show is
11:00
Speaker 1: a little bit more easy because again I chose not
11:03
Speaker 1: to go home, but my family understood everybody had COVID.
11:07
Speaker 1: There's still like the back and forth with my other
11:10
Speaker 1: family member of siblings when it comes to vaccinations. So
11:15
Speaker 1: h there's a little concerned about that. But it kind
11:17
Speaker 1: of come to the point that I know I've done
11:21
Speaker 1: what I needed to do. As upset as I might
11:23
Speaker 1: be if I did get COVID, in the end, I
11:26
Speaker 1: know that because I am vaccinated, I am at a
11:29
Speaker 1: lower risk for the severity of COVID, and it makes
11:33
Speaker 1: me feel selfish. It's not necessarily selfish, but again that
11:36
Speaker 1: there's that guilt. I'm like, but which one is better?
11:39
Speaker 1: Y'all know how I feel. You refused to do this,
11:43
Speaker 1: So if you get sick because of me and I
11:44
Speaker 1: didn't realize it, I don't know what to do other
11:48
Speaker 1: than you needed to you needed to figure this out
11:52
Speaker 1: and I really wish you had. I'm not wishing that
11:55
Speaker 1: upon anybody, but that's just the back of my head.
11:58
Speaker 1: So I do want to see my family in that
12:00
Speaker 1: realm of like it's been a while since I've seen them,
12:05
Speaker 1: and I am maybe too much of a pessimist. Again,
12:10
Speaker 1: I hate the holidays. My family knows that I hate Christmas.
12:13
Speaker 1: They know everything. They've tried to persuade me to say
12:15
Speaker 1: it's good this way, this is so great, and I'm like,
12:17
Speaker 1: I just don't like it. I don't like it, and
12:20
Speaker 1: so just kind of again like you just waiting for
12:24
Speaker 1: the next marker of what I do have an end time,
12:28
Speaker 1: like when this is over, this will feel better in
12:31
Speaker 1: that level. So there there are things again. The other
12:35
Speaker 1: part to that is going with his family and seeing them.
12:39
Speaker 1: I'm excited because they have a great relationship and they
12:42
Speaker 1: really get along. I get along with them as well,
12:44
Speaker 1: so I feel a little more free with that. But
12:47
Speaker 1: it's still We're gonna be driving four or five hours
12:50
Speaker 1: and I have a dog and they have dogs, and
12:53
Speaker 1: my dogs are jerk with other dogs. So how do
12:55
Speaker 1: we keep this aside? You know it always without causing
12:57
Speaker 1: too much stress. I'm one more added person where or
13:00
Speaker 1: they didn't have to think about the fact that we
13:01
Speaker 1: were a couple coming down. Uh, you know, like it's space.
13:05
Speaker 1: So there are so many things to that level. I
13:08
Speaker 1: also feel weird in being in that type of relationship
13:13
Speaker 1: and being in a relationship in general. This is new
13:16
Speaker 1: to me because like I existed in my world, you
13:19
Speaker 1: exist in yours. End the story, and now we've come
13:22
Speaker 1: to the point like, oh, that's not feasible in that
13:27
Speaker 1: sort of like trying to meet each other's family and
13:29
Speaker 1: trying to give as much attention to the families as
13:33
Speaker 1: you know, being shared and all of that to show
13:37
Speaker 1: that we care about the other. So that's a whole
13:39
Speaker 1: other weird thing that I'm having to experience that I
13:43
Speaker 1: didn't think I would want or I would do. Yeah. Ever, yeah,
13:48
Speaker 1: I mean that's definitely stressful. Like you said, finding the
13:51
Speaker 1: gift and knowing how to act does feel like a performance. Yeah, yeah,
13:57
Speaker 1: the gifting Like I was wrapping all my presence from
14:00
Speaker 1: mom lest say, and I was like, is this enough?
14:01
Speaker 1: Is it? Is it too much? Like you know, you
14:03
Speaker 1: go back and forth, right, you do you want to
14:05
Speaker 1: buy the perfect one? And then I have my parents
14:07
Speaker 1: who just doesn't care like they're like, oh, yeah, I
14:10
Speaker 1: give us gift cards. It feels so impersonal because especially
14:13
Speaker 1: when my sister has so much like intel, because they
14:17
Speaker 1: do see my parents every day, so though, like they
14:19
Speaker 1: know exactly what craft they want from the specialty store
14:22
Speaker 1: that I've never heard of, and I'm like, there's a
14:25
Speaker 1: fifty dollar gift card. Happy Christmas. You know, So you
14:29
Speaker 1: feel like you're competing with people. But anyway, enough of
14:45
Speaker 1: the complaining, because I have a feeling this is not new,
14:48
Speaker 1: as you said, and there's so many of you who
14:50
Speaker 1: have dealt with this, so we did want to talk
14:52
Speaker 1: a little bit about how to deal with some of this. Yes,
14:56
Speaker 1: and one of the key things that I am frankly
14:58
Speaker 1: terrible at but I'm working in is balancing your time,
15:02
Speaker 1: including work and family time, because yeah, I feel like
15:06
Speaker 1: us we're trying to cram in so much work to
15:10
Speaker 1: possibly have like some actual time off, which is not
15:14
Speaker 1: the way you should do it. Yes, um, but that
15:18
Speaker 1: doesn't mean we should push ourselves to the point of
15:21
Speaker 1: a breakdown. And some some possible solutions to that like
15:25
Speaker 1: learning to delegate, organizing your time and priorities, and remembering
15:29
Speaker 1: to set boundaries, which yeah, I think that's huge. Yeah,
15:32
Speaker 1: it is, um and if budgeting is something that you
15:34
Speaker 1: are struggling with our finances in general, because you know what, Yeah,
15:38
Speaker 1: it is a huge one for me and as someone
15:41
Speaker 1: who loves giving gifts because I do, that's one of
15:43
Speaker 1: my favorite things to do. If I know that person.
15:46
Speaker 1: If not a stressful budgeting was not and it's not
15:49
Speaker 1: something I'm great at still, but realizing that it is
15:52
Speaker 1: a good thing to do and that you need to
15:55
Speaker 1: know your limits because you're not going to enjoy it afterwards.
15:58
Speaker 1: It is stress that it comes with after the fact,
16:01
Speaker 1: not worth it, not worth it. Another thing is learning
16:08
Speaker 1: to say no. It's something that caregivers really struggle with
16:12
Speaker 1: but um really need to learn to do. It's very
16:15
Speaker 1: very key. Also that I think I spoke about this recently.
16:17
Speaker 1: This has been a big journey for me. This is
16:19
Speaker 1: something I'm working on still. I love that the pandemic
16:23
Speaker 1: has helped you. Yes, I think it's because we have
16:27
Speaker 1: an excuse now, but people are more understanding, our group
16:31
Speaker 1: of friends are. But still, and I know for those
16:33
Speaker 1: of you who have FOMO fear of missing out, it
16:36
Speaker 1: can be a hard one and I think it might
16:38
Speaker 1: still be you a little bit. I also don't want
16:42
Speaker 1: to hurt people's feelings those two things, but it's something
16:45
Speaker 1: that can help you slow down and just take some time,
16:48
Speaker 1: learn to say no, it's okay. You don't always have
16:50
Speaker 1: to be there. Yeah, I'm that person who said no
16:53
Speaker 1: so many times people forget me and I'm like, I'm
16:56
Speaker 1: leaving me out, but still feel better. Well, speaking of which,
17:04
Speaker 1: another good one is taking time for yourself. Um. And
17:07
Speaker 1: we've been very outspoken advocates for self care, so of
17:10
Speaker 1: course it's something that we highly recommend. It's important to
17:13
Speaker 1: you just be able to go quietly get away from
17:16
Speaker 1: the chaos of the holidays. So yeah, we're telling you
17:19
Speaker 1: to do it. We recommend that you do it. Um
17:22
Speaker 1: Go watch a Staffy movie you love by yourself, or
17:24
Speaker 1: her fan fiction about the Saffy movie you've never seen,
17:28
Speaker 1: take off, bath, sit in the sun, listen to the
17:30
Speaker 1: new Adel album I Love It, um, whatever it is,
17:33
Speaker 1: just take some time for yourself, right and even if
17:36
Speaker 1: it's that's just fifteen minutes, even if it's five minutes
17:39
Speaker 1: so you can breath. I've actually hidden in a bathroom
17:41
Speaker 1: for five minutes to breed. That's okay. Who do that, um,
17:46
Speaker 1: and just a reminder, give yourself a break. It's okay
17:50
Speaker 1: to feel overwhelmed or underwhelmed or just whelmed. Get it, okay,
17:56
Speaker 1: don't beat yourself up if you do feel stressed, or
17:58
Speaker 1: if you don't feel like slid eating, or if you
18:01
Speaker 1: love the holidays, don't let the naysayers like me kill
18:05
Speaker 1: your spirit. Enjoy it, go full force into it. Listen
18:08
Speaker 1: to that Mariah Carey album standing here from the top
18:11
Speaker 1: of your lungs. Go ahead and decorate that Christmas tree,
18:13
Speaker 1: show off your Christmas tree if it's ready and done.
18:16
Speaker 1: Show me your pets, pajamas Christmas pajamas. I really I
18:21
Speaker 1: want to see them. Actually, it's okay. It's okay to
18:24
Speaker 1: enjoy it. It's okay to take a break from it.
18:26
Speaker 1: It's okay not to enjoy it, and just admit it's
18:29
Speaker 1: not for you. All of those things are important, and
18:32
Speaker 1: of course there are so many other things that you
18:34
Speaker 1: could look into to help you, probably a little more
18:37
Speaker 1: uh nuanced than what we're giving, but yeah, yeah, just
18:42
Speaker 1: take care of yourself, yes, any specifically you and we've
18:52
Speaker 1: talked a lot about the stress. We've talked about all
18:54
Speaker 1: of this, so I'm gonna end on a happy note
18:56
Speaker 1: just in case the more of like y'all calm down
18:59
Speaker 1: is it's just two months. Annie. What is one of
19:02
Speaker 1: your favorite holiday memories? Um? This might surprise you, actually,
19:08
Speaker 1: but when I was nine years old, I had been
19:11
Speaker 1: requesting I've been asking for a dog since I was
19:14
Speaker 1: four years old, and I kept getting turned down. Um,
19:18
Speaker 1: So when I was nine years old, I wrote, I
19:20
Speaker 1: made a graph and a chart and I explained how
19:24
Speaker 1: I was going to take care of this dog and
19:25
Speaker 1: how I was going to pay for the food. And
19:27
Speaker 1: it was like a presentation I gave to my whole family.
19:30
Speaker 1: And the I came out on Christmas morning. This was
19:33
Speaker 1: back when we celebrated at my grandparents house, and there
19:36
Speaker 1: was a dog cage there and I ran and I
19:38
Speaker 1: was so excited. I looked in and if we have
19:40
Speaker 1: is on VHS, so it lives forever all the way.
19:44
Speaker 1: I don't have a VCR to play it. But there
19:45
Speaker 1: was no dog. And you can tell I'm visibly like
19:48
Speaker 1: trying and keep it together because I thought they'd given
19:50
Speaker 1: me the cage but not the dog. So then I
19:54
Speaker 1: go and I start unwrapping gifts and I'm like, clearly
19:56
Speaker 1: like don't cry, don't cry. And the dog, my old
20:00
Speaker 1: puffy Dizzy. She came up behind me and started licking
20:03
Speaker 1: my face and it was so happy. I am very surprised.
20:09
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I loved it. I loved her. She was
20:12
Speaker 1: so cute. All yeah. So for me, I think it
20:17
Speaker 1: may have been my first Christmas. Essentially, when I moved
20:19
Speaker 1: to the US, never had Christmas, not a thing. I
20:23
Speaker 1: don't have Santa Claus. I really like lived in an
20:25
Speaker 1: orphanage for a while, so obviously everything that was handed
20:28
Speaker 1: out was not necessarily like Merry Christmas. Here's the whole thing.
20:32
Speaker 1: Waking up. My brother was more excited than I was,
20:35
Speaker 1: because I was thoroughly confused about what was happening. But
20:39
Speaker 1: he was very excited for me. So he and Ore
20:42
Speaker 1: did this is the younger brother, and here and now
20:43
Speaker 1: are about seven months apart, so he was still really
20:46
Speaker 1: into it. And I was seven. He was seven, and uh,
20:49
Speaker 1: he was so excited that we and my sister is
20:52
Speaker 1: also my sister was there and she's a traditionalist, so
20:56
Speaker 1: she has all kinds of rituals. She is the one
20:59
Speaker 1: who is probably the most sentimental of our family. So
21:01
Speaker 1: we had to all line up in the order of
21:04
Speaker 1: the oldest to youngest going down the stairs, and everybody
21:07
Speaker 1: had to work on the tree. I'm half asleep trying
21:09
Speaker 1: to figure out what the hell is happening, because I'm
21:11
Speaker 1: like what what uh? And seeing all these presents around
21:16
Speaker 1: and then having them like the night before, talking about
21:19
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what was happening, because it still
21:21
Speaker 1: my English is not great at this point, but setting
21:23
Speaker 1: out Christmas cookies, my dad went all out with the
21:26
Speaker 1: jingle bells outside and us all matching pajamas like it
21:30
Speaker 1: it was a thing. And having these beautifully homemade stockings
21:34
Speaker 1: put up, and being able to sit with a family
21:37
Speaker 1: for the first time and getting toys that was gifted
21:39
Speaker 1: to me and only me was unusual. It was something new, newer, obviously,
21:45
Speaker 1: like I've been given things as I had come to
21:47
Speaker 1: the US, but the fact that I was having a
21:50
Speaker 1: moment where it felt familiar but new and promising, and
21:56
Speaker 1: it was a really nice, little, very small tidbit of
21:59
Speaker 1: a memory that I do remember about Christmas and really enjoying.
22:04
Speaker 1: We had to do the whole Christmas Eve. You get
22:07
Speaker 1: one gift and we all open a gift the next day.
22:10
Speaker 1: Everybody takes turns opening gifts and it was a lovely memory.
22:14
Speaker 1: M yeah, that does sound lovely. Um. Yeah. So we
22:22
Speaker 1: hope listeners that whatever you're celebrating or not celebrating, that
22:27
Speaker 1: you're taking care of yourself, You're taking time for yourself.
22:30
Speaker 1: We we love having you as part of our seminty community. Um.
22:34
Speaker 1: And if you are celebrating, like yeah, hold onto those
22:37
Speaker 1: like happy moments and then enjoy them and and share
22:40
Speaker 1: them with us if you would like, Yes, you can
22:44
Speaker 1: email that stuff and your mom stuff at iHeart media
22:46
Speaker 1: dot com. You can find us on Twitter at mom
22:47
Speaker 1: Stuff Podcasts, or Instagram and Stuff I've Never Told You.
22:50
Speaker 1: Thanks as always your super producer, Christina, thank you and
22:53
Speaker 1: thanks to you for listening. Stuff One Ever Told You
22:55
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcast on I
22:57
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or
22:59
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite show. H