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What Christmas Means to Me....Merry Christmas 2025! · Murders to Music: Crime Scene to Music Scene (Streamline Events and Entertainment)

• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to a Murders to Music Podcast.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Aaron, I'm your host, and thank you guys so much for coming back for another episode.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: It is Christmas Day 2025 when this episode drops.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Can you believe, like as we think about it, can you believe that it's already Christmas time again?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: It seems like it was just this time last month that it was Christmas.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think the older we get, the faster these years just fly by.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the older we get, the more we realize that we need to seize the opportunities and the moments in our life.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I absolutely love Christmas time.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you that, guys.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Christmas time from about Thanksgiving through the New Year's, that is by far my favorite time of year.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's about being with family and friends and what the reason of the season is really all about.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that to me is such an amazing blessing in my world.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely love it.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: So before I get into the show tonight, I want to kind of give you a roadmap.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to pay tribute to a very special man.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Christmas night is always going to resonate as something very special in my world.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you about that briefly.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Then I'm going to talk a little bit about thoughts about Christmas.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Then you're actually, I'm actually going to sing you a song.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to sing you my favorite Christmas song.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it's going to be me and my band performing it.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: You'll get to hear that.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that is what's going to push you out to the end of this.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get started.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: All right, December 25th, 2003.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: You see, that is a day that will always resonate in ringing history for me.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what occurred that day.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I've got an entire podcast dedicated to this story where I go into detail and talk about it and talk about the effects that it had.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I won't go into that tonight, but I just want to pay a special tribute to John Watson.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: In 2003, John Watson was not only my partner as a police officer, but John Watson was and a mentor to me as I grew up in the police department in the Explorer Post.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: John Watson was then one of my field training officers.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: John Watson was there when I was eight years old and went on my first ride-along.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And on December 25th, 2003, John had to cover a shift for me because I went on vacation.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: You see, I was a relatively new police officer, and John was an 18-year veteran who was within about 18 months of retiring.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: He had plans of traveling the nation on a motorcycle with his wife.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that Christmas night, he actually had to work and cover my shift.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: But that Christmas night wasn't just a Christmas night, it's also his wife's birthday.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: So John goes to work for me, and during that shift, he gets involved in a call for service that originated in another jurisdiction.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And long story short, there was a suspicious circumstance where a man and a woman went into somebody's house, ate Christmas dinner, and then left, and nobody knew who they were.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: So they send the police to go try to find these people and make sure everybody's okay because their behavior was odd.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And when John found that gentleman, and I use the term lightly gentleman, a fight ensued, and that person took John's gun from him and executed him.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And he killed him at 17 degrees below zero in a small town in Alaska while John was working an extra shift to cover me while I was on vacation.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now it took a long time for me to get over that survivor's guilt.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, well, if it wasn't for me, John wouldn't have been there.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if I would have been there, then maybe the results would have been different.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe the circumstances would have changed and John could still be there with his family and his kids and all of that.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then it wasn't until I got through therapy where I could open up this can of worms and I realized that God was there that night.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And John was exactly where he was supposed to be.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like it or not, I was where I was supposed to be.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus was right there with John that night when he died.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that is something that for me will always resonate, ring true, and has just recently in the last year, year and a half, helped bring me peace in this conversation.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: I want to throw this out to John.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: John, me rest in peace.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: In memory of you, thank you so much for all of your mentorship.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: And if you guys want to hear the full story, it's called The Moose, the Mentor in the Morning.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Please look it up and listen to that episode.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Christmas always seems to start so loud for me.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it starts with lists, with cards, with wish lists and notifications that it's only two days left.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Or does it even start when there's nine Fridays left or nine paydays left until Christmas?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it smells like cardboard boxes and tape and it sounds like Christmas music on repeat.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: It looks like a tree buried under things that we swore would make everybody happy.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And as kids, we believed in all the magic of it all.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: We knew that Santa knew our names and that presents appeared overnight, but the joy felt measurable, stacked under a tree wrapped in shiny paper.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: As adults, not much changes.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Except now we're Santa.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: We stay up late assembling things that we don't fully understand.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: We swipe cards instead of writing letters.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: We chase that feeling that we remembered having once as a kid, and we're hoping that we can recreate it for the people we love now.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And for a moment, maybe just a moment, Christmas morning at works.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: There's laughter, there are pictures, there's coffee going cold on the counter while the wrapping paper piles up on the floor.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: But then there's that quiet that follows.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know that quiet.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's not an empty quiet, it's just a still one.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: The kind where the music fades, the house settles, and you realize that the moments have passed faster than you expected.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: All the anticipation, all the weight, all the worry is over in just a fraction of a minute.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And somewhere in that quiet, a question tends to surface.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Is this all there is to Christmas?
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Not in a cynical way.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: More like a wondering one.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because even after all the gifts are opened and after all the traditions are honored, there's still something in us, something deep inside that wants more nostalgia.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that's usually where the story turns.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, not sharply, not dramatically, just gently.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: You see, long before the Christmas decorations, long before the stockings, and before Santa, there was a family, and not a perfect one, not a powerful one, just a tired couple that was traveling.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Traveling when they didn't want to, carrying more uncertainty than supplies.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: There was no guest list, there was no warm welcome, there was no spotlight.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: You see, it was just a young mother, a faithful father, and a child born in the most uncelebrated place imaginable.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: There was no wrapping paper, no applause, and yet this is where Christmas actually begins.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Not with an abundance, but with humility, not with excess, but with presence, not presence.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: God didn't enter the world with noise, celebration, fanfare.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: He arrived quietly in a stable into a family.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the part that sometimes we forget in all of this celebration.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: You see, Christmas isn't about what shows up under the tree, it's about who showed up in the world.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: A reminder that love doesn't need perfection, that hope can be born in uncomfortable places, and that God shows closeness over grandeur.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's still why the story matters.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because beneath all the lights in the lists, we're still longing for that same things that family long for that night.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Peace, belonging, and reassurance that we are not alone in this world.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe this Christmas, maybe after all the gifts are open and after the house grows quiet, we remember not just the season, but the reason.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Not just the tradition, but the truth.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: That Christmas isn't about what we give or get.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's about what was given to us.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And now, even now, that gift still changes our hearts quietly, deeply, and where we are right now.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: This holiday season, I had the opportunity to go out and play music for many, many people.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that we do is I don't hide from the reason of the season, I don't hide from this story that I've just told you.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: I bring that present and forward in our music.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a song that I sing and it is a beautiful Christmas song.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want you to hear the lyrics of this song.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's snow on the ground and no rooms in town and nowhere for spending the night, except an old shed with hay for a bed and Mary she says that's all right.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now Joseph don't like it because his marriage's with child, and what if this is the night she gives birth?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: But when he has nothing, a man comes to see just how much a little is worth.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now the trip's been a hard one.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: They cross the courtyard to a barn at the back of the inn.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: They lay down to sleep among cattle and sheep and wait for this night to begin.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now she can see he's worried with love in her eyes.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: She reaches out and touches his face.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: She says a barn is a mansion if it's wall shelter love, and for some reason God has chosen this place.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: The baby's arrival fills up the night, and the light from a beautiful star shines upon the darkness so gloriously bright, and shines down on the world near and far.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And directly below it is if on a string, the shelter such humble design, given warmth and protection to the child Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, King of mankind.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Family and friends, Merry Christmas.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you guys have a wonderful Christmas day.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hope you have a wonderful 2026.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: I love you all.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: That is a murders to music podcast.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: No rooms in town, nowhere for spending the night.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: Except an old shell with hay for a bed.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: Mary she says that's alright.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: Joseph don't like it.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: What if this is the night she gives birth?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: But when he has nothing, a man comes to see just how much a little is worth.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: She reaches out and touches his face.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: She says it barn is a mansion.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: If it's wall shelter love.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: So gloriously bright, shines down on the world near and far.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: And directly below it, as if on a string, a shelter of such humble design, giving warmth and protection to the child Jesus Christ.