Latest / Beyond Labels Premium / Episode #17: “Good Tidings” from Joel & Sina

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Episode #17: “Good Tidings” from Joel & Sina · Beyond Labels Premium

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: When I think of Christmas, I always think of of people.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: We'd have friends over, um, you know, uh play games.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, a lot of times we had snow here, and so we, you know, there are a lot of sleigh riding and and uh snowball fights and and um you know things like that in in my memory, but it was it was all about the people.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, everybody, and welcome to another Beyond Labels podcast with yours truly, Joel Salatin, and my uh partner in crime, Dr.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Cena McCullough.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Merry Christmas, everyone.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's the time of year when we celebrate Christ's birth, gift giving, and and fellowship in probably more intimate ways than we do any other time of year, and and uh think about you know family, friendship, and the all the warm fuzzies that that that surround uh the Christmas uh time.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so we thought we'd do a short podcast today uh talking about uh Christmas traditions and memories and and you know um uh uh Cena, I I think that that sometimes when we when we don't do traditions, uh we lose our identity, you know, as as people.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And um and I think it's important to appreciate that that having routine, uh building memories is really a a powerful uh a powerful part of human development.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we we live in a dysfunctional time where a lot of people carry bad memories.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's really a part of our health and part of our our our um our grounding, our anchoring, if you will, as people is to build in some good memories.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: And what better time to build in some good memories than the Christmas season?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so Cena, what's your you know, what's your uh uh whatever, um, you know, your families or your your big deal around Christmas?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what do you what do you think?
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, and I completely agree.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: So Christmas is my favorite time of the year.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: I literally start counting down till Christmas on December 26th.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like I just can't wait for Christmas to come around.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: For me, Christmas is um, I mean, obviously, it's to celebrate Christ's birth.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it is a it is a magical time of the year for me.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's a time where anything is possible, right?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: If you just believe.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that goes, like you said, for your health as well.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about that a lot, the power of perception, the power of belief.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: And um in in my family history, um Christmas was always a time for me to kind of escape into that magical world, into that world of believing again that anything's possible.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like many people, I didn't have a great childhood growing up.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so some of my best memories were during that time of Christmas where the family was getting along and you know, it was that hopeful, hopeful time of the year.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: So we I've brought forward those, um, the feeling of magic, of belief, of anything is possible.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's my biggest tradition that I actually um try to pass on to my children.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not something physical, it's not what I cook for them or places that we go, it's the feeling of Christmas time and all that potential that it holds.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know that uh that magic and and mystery of Christmas um is both in the religious and non-religious traditions.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the the the magic of the birth of Christ for those of our listeners uh that are of a more traditional conservative, you know, a biblic Judeo-Christian uh worldview.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh then you have, of course, the secularization uh of the magic of you know uh Santa Claus and and and uh the reindeer and and the whole thing, and uh Winter Wonderland, you know, uh Frosty the Snowman, and and so there there is there is uh it is one time where the tent that tent is big enough to accept the imagination, the mystery, and and and the as you say, the magic of of all those traditions.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's a big tent, and it's a so it's a it's a culturally, it's a culturally uniting, uh powerful thing.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't agree more.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: So what's your traditions in your family?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, when when I think back of what our traditions, you know, I I was sitting here trying to think, and I couldn't think of a single present I'd ever got.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, well we've got we got presents, we exchanged gifts, but but it is profound for me at this point in my life that I can't think.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I think there was one time when my brother and I got bicycles, but but I I can't I can't remember gifts.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: What my my all my memory, my adult memories, thinking back, are all about food.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um mom always made peanut brittle, and and uh, you know, that's a that's a sugary, you know, you put peanuts in this sugary sheet, and and uh that was a big deal.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, too, uh people who know us um know that our family was in Venezuela for a decade.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so we were in the tropic, we lived in the tropics, and so we brought back from there uh one of the traditions that we did in our family was uh mom would always go down and buy uh several coconuts.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just raw, you know, real coconuts and take an all and you know, punch in the little hole in the, you know, and and drain out the milk and drink that coconut milk.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just drink, you know, she'd set it in a little, a little like on a on a uh just a glass drinking glass.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that was like that was like, you know, Christmas is here, you know, when you when you saw the upside down coconuts draining into the glass, you know, and uh well coconuts for Christmas.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: That that's very unique.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: And she she would she would cook those, uh, she would cook those in the oven, you know, and of course they would, you know, they would break apart and that that fresh uh just just eat coconut.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so that that's that's probably a little unusual one, uh, but we brought that back for Venezuela because it was such a such a big deal there, um, you know, and and and maintained it here.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know, I don't know if we got Venezuelan coconuts or not.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: They probably came from who knows where, but um, but anyway, that that was that was a tradition.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then and then the other thing that that that for me um is the memory is is just the people.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: I I always you know, we'd have friends over, um, you know, uh play games.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, a lot of times we had snow here, and so we, you know, there are a lot of sleigh riding and and uh snowball fights and and um you know things like that in in in my memory, but it was it was all about the people.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Probably one of the one of the most uh distinct memories I have is uh we had we had a family over, friends family, and we had a meal and all this.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: And we we kids, um, I don't know how old I was, might have been you know 11, 12.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: We were up in the living room, of course, you know, the adults are down there, you know, they're doing their visiting, and the kids were up, you know, uh playing games, whatever we were doing.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And um mom always had she decorated the mantle up over the fireplace with with greenery and candles.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and of course, the candles were not lit unless you had guests in and you had you know the whole you know uh uh shindig going on.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so and and it got later in the evening and the candles burned down farther, and one of them caught the greenery on the mantle on fire.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so everybody was scrambling to put the fire out, grabbed a grabbed a blanket off a sofa and pounded it out.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And um that was a pretty exciting evening.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: But that was that was a that was a real memory.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh but it was but but but the but the memory that the reason that it happened was because we had decorated for Christmas.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's the thing to remember.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: And um and so it was it was uh it was a result of our efforts, of our efforts to create special space in our life that then you know uh made this this uh uh fire.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: It did it didn't it didn't do any damage, you know.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was uh had a little you know black stain there on the mantle, but it it flared up, you know, uh pretty good there for for a minute, and it was pretty exciting.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: That is so cool.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: I I'm so excited that you brought that up, especially about the candles, because I brought something.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: This is show and tell time.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um so if you're if you're watching the video version, you can see this.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: If if you're on the podcast, I'll try to explain it.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: So one of my favorites.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yes, yes, if you can see it, yeah.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: We had one, it's the candles, and you light the candles, and then there's little angels, and they spin around and they ding the little bells.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: So here and you can hear the bells.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so this actually was my grandmother's.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: And every year, we you know, my parents were divorced, so we went to multiple Christmas celebrations, but every year at my grandmother's house, she would have this um sitting, you know, like front and center, and she only lit the candles on Christmas.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember being a child just staring at it.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: For me, this this was so magical.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, how is it doing that?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: Right, how are these candles making these angels spin and the bells ring?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: And like, I still don't know.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, I'm just kidding.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: I have I have subsequently figured it out.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: But as you know, as a six-year-old, you're staring at this and just in wonderment.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: And this captures the spirit of that magic of this season that we're talking about.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I actually she passed this on to me because she knew um she's still alive today.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: She knows she's like 97, but she passed this to me so that I could share in the spirit um and capture it with my children.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: And sure enough, when my when I got it a couple years ago, my my five-year-old sat there and stared at it in wonderment, just like me.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and then we turn it into a science lesson, but you know, but I love I let him sit there and enjoy that wonderment and try to figure it out his own.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's just I and sometimes I do light it more than just at Christmas.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: So sometimes if I'm, you know, feeling a little blue, need some encouragement, um, you know, I keep it, I keep it in my office and I'll just light it and listen to the candle to listen to the bells ding.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: And it just reminds me of that spirit and gives me hope again.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because those those uh the the top, the vent on the top, uh, those angels are spinning, but there's no there's no visible connection between the candle.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's no visible connection.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's just the heat rising, turning the fan on top.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what makes it, that's what makes it so mysterious as a child, is that there's there's no there's no engine, there's no motor, there's no, you know, what is what is this that's making that go?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, um uh we I grew up with one of those in the home too.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Mom still has it, she hasn't given it to me yet.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I I I must I must confess that I didn't have the same sense of of wonderment.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh um uh it it's it's a little bit uh uh I don't know, it drives me crazy sometimes.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: All the all the the the bells, the bells, but but yes, it it it is a it is definitely a part of Christmas, which reminds you know it and it in our house, it always sat up in the living room, and we we didn't spend much time in the living room.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, our living room is kind of you know off, and we still don't spend much time there.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's just uh you know, it's it's uh it like like the living room was reserved for you know for entertainment and special occasions.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: It was a big room.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: We have a big living room, but it was kind of off the rest of the house.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: It was not this incorporated living room like a lot of places have now where you have the you know the the the open the op the open uh uh architecture.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Ours was off on the side there where nobody went.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And um, but but at Christmas, that's when we spent time in the living room.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's where the tree was, that's where the presents were.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was also where the record player was.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Vinyl, vinyl records.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: And we had we had a huge assortment because mom mom loves music, and um, and and uh we had a huge assortment of you know, the Nutcracker Suite, the New York Philharmonic, the, you know, and and and um and a lot of my memories are are around listening to that.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Today, I can listen to Christmas music three 365 days a year.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: I love Chris.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: I I can never get I've I I think as as a genre, as a genre, Christmas music is probably some of the most um enjoyable, easy to listen to, um harmonic uh music around.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: And and I I still I still love Christmas music.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: How about you?
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: I absolutely agree, and I play it throughout the year too.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but one time I always play it is when we're decorating our trees, right?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: And it's always the traditional Christmas music that you know that my parents had playing.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: I passed that on to my kids.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I will tell you, so what one of my favorite Christmas songs is um Mariah Carey's song, you know, All I Want for Christmas is you.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: I probably play that like 5,000 times every Christmas season, so much so that I I start, I play it, and my kids are like, oh, not again.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I that's one song I love, but that's my generation, you know, like we grew up on Mariah Carey.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I I blend the the older with with the new for my kids.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I'm sure when as they grow older, they're gonna they're gonna blend some of their new with mine.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm a I'm about a generation older than you.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, I grew up with Bing Crosby, uh and and uh, you know, the Glenn Miller Orchestra and and the big a lot of big band, big band stuff, and um and enjoyed all of that.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: And and of course, now that we're grandparents, uh Teresa's favorite Christmas song is uh Grandma Got Run Over by a reindeer.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it um you know the the anticipation, you know, uh Cena, that we we need anticipation in life, don't we?
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you need you need to be able to um to look forward to things.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're talking about looking backward here a lot today, but but a lot of the backward look um uh breeds or creates, facilitates the anticipation going forward.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and your and your anticipation going forward is directly related to you know the the joy of looking back.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so these traditions are are healing, uh emotional, you know, spiritual places, they're that they're anchor places, they're anchor places in life where when things are unsettled and crazy and dysfunctional, they're places that we can emotionally go um to find solace and continuity, uh continuity in our life.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's exactly why that I will play Christmas songs throughout the year, you know, not every day, but you know, every now and then when I need it, um I will.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like what you're describing, it grounds me, right?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: It reminds me that there is a space that you can create that is healing and is magical and is filled with hope.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: And and it's a reminder that we all have the power within us to create that space, that you really do create your own reality.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: It is what you want it to be.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so for me, Christmas is that time of the year where I can say, you know what, I am in the driver's seat and I'm going to create this wonderful, magical, hopeful, joyful time for my children.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: And my goal, um, like I don't do New Year's resolutions, my goal is to actually hold on to that space, you know, keep that space sacred for my children year round so that they always can, they always can feel grounded, they can always feel connected and never lose sight of that feeling that anything's possible.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think for me, that ties into home, the feeling of what home is, you know, and it's it's what you create.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: And for me, that Christmas feeling is how home should feel.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we uh if if there's any time of year that that is home centric, uh you know, July 4th, you go watch fireworks, right?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Or you know, you uh or or or you, you know, you get together at the park with friends to grill out uh burgers or whatever.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh you know, Easter is more, you know, um church oriented, I think.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, uh Thanksgiving is certainly is certainly home.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but but nothing brings home like Christmas.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing brings people home like Christmas.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we see it in our, you know, in our stewards, our apprentices, our staff.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they don't mind missing, you know, missing home at Easter, missing home at July 4th, missing home Labor Day, whatever.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: But boy, Christmas, um that's that's when everybody's scrambling to get their name in the pot, to be the one to miss, you know, miss uh, you know, uh Christmas.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and I I'll be honest with you, you know, I I at this stage in in our our farm life, um, I struggle a little bit with Christmas um that I didn't used to because so much of the we try to give the staff as many as people can can get away at Christmas, get away.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so Christmas hasn't, I mean, but the eggs still have to be gathered, the pigs still have to be, you know, taken care of, the cows still have to be moved.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so for our family right now, Christmas has become a time of of concentrated extra effort while we give the gift of everybody else going home.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: We now, you know, we now have to pick up the slack uh here on on the farm.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and and that's been a it puts a little puts a little damper on the season, you know.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: But but we're but we're glad that everybody else is getting their, you know, getting their time to to go and and um and and enjoy enjoy that season.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a wonderful gift that you're giving to so many families.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's such a blessing for them, you know, and that's and they'll remember that.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like that will actually be part of your legacy, you know, moving forward.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: One of the one of the uh uh little childhood memories that I have, it was really funny.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Our my little sister, who's five years younger than I am, she was about three or four, and um it was snowing outside.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: It was snowing outside, and uh we were decorating the tree up in the living room, so so I'm whatever, I'm you know, eight or nine, and she's three or four.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: And um, it was snowing, real snowing pretty hard outside.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: It was one of those, you know, Christmas card, perfect Christmas times.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're decorating the Kree.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: We're listening to the Nutcracker Suite on the you know on the uh uh record player, and we're there doing that.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the uh the snowflakes, the snowflakes were so heavy they were coming down the chimney in the fireplace, um you know, uh pattering, pattering in the chimney.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: You could hear it.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: And uh my sister turned around and she looked at mom and she said, Santa Claus come down chimney.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: She heard that little clattering, that little sound in the chimney, those snowflakes.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: No, it was just it was just we and of course, you know, uh we joke with her about that all the time now, you know, in front of her kids to help embarrass her.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, you know, those there all of those are about family memories.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I love what you said about, you know, sometimes, sometimes Christmas memories are not good.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: There are times when you're you're forced to um pick one parent over another.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Pick uh there's there's of course crazy, crazy Uncle Harry that gets drunk, or or what you know.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's a lot of stress at Christmas, a lot of stress at Christmas.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and I really appreciate you bringing out that you can you have to make the decision to make it what you're gonna make it.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want it to be a happy time, you you put on your happy face, you know, and you and you let yourself step into that magical time uh and create that safe space um for your for your children and your family.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that's something that you can control because you can you can control that spirit of Christmas in your own house.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have you don't have to control it down the street, you don't have to control it in in that family over there, but you can control it in your own in.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Your own home.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a that's a very powerful, hopeful, you know, empowering thought.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: And along those lines, so Christmas was stressful for me as I got older.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: So as a child, it was that magical time that we were talking about.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and I loved it and I looked forward to it.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then um, as I grew older, uh, you know, my parents had divorced, and it was spend this amount of time at this parent house, and then then you had a run over and spend this amount of time, right?
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it was this competition between them.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like literally one year, one of my parents said, You spent 30 minutes longer with you know with your other parent than with me.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, as though, oh, I love that parent more because I was there 30 minutes longer.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: So there was always this um stressful component to it as I grew older.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I actually grew to kind of dread the holiday, all the holidays, because I always had the the parent, the separate the divorced parents that we were, you know, shuttled between.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and nothing that we seemed to be able to do was ever good enough.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then as I got older, that's when I realized that I was in the driver's seat.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: And like you're saying, I I could create my own reality here.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so one thing, and this was one thing I wanted to share, um, in case anybody else also is feeling stressed during the holidays, one thing that I changed is um is I I stopped doing cooking the whole traditional feast, you know, both for Thanksgiving and for Christmas.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: So um and it's a little bit easier for me because we don't have a ton of family that gets together, you know.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Right now it's just us, it's just my immediate family.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I was still doing the traditional foods, like everything my mom used to cook.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know, she was a home economics major, she cooked everything from scratch, and it was so wonderful.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: It was yummy, it was the house would smell delicious for days.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: But the problem was it took her all day long to cook all this food for everybody.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then as I got older, I was asked to come into the kitchen and also partake in the you know day-long cooking activities.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: And what happened was by the time dinner came, she was exhausted.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: She couldn't enjoy the moment with us, you know, um, and her time was spent in the kitchen, and then obviously, subsequently, my time was spent in the kitchen.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I carried that tradition on though, um, and when my kids were very young, and I remember it vividly, Joel.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: I was in the kitchen cooking, you know, all of the many side dishes and main course.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and I heard in the other room my husband with my children, and they were laughing, having a great time, right?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: They were playing games, and you know, he was chasing them around playing tag.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, wait a minute, I am stuck in this kitchen, slaving away for the whole day.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm totally tired now, and you're over there having fun.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like this is my memory.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it all of a sudden it hit me.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: My memories of my children's Christmases and Thanksgivings are gonna be me in the kitchen alone, slaving away, while listening to the laughter.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I actually stopped right what I was doing.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: I went over to them and I said, Hey, something doesn't feel right about this.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I want to be part of this too.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: I want to, I want to laugh and play with you guys.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: So it was such a beautiful moment, Joel.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: We sat together as a family, and even though my children were young, you know, they knew what they wanted.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I asked them, What do you guys really want?
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like for Christmas, and we do this for Thanksgiving too.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: What do you really want?
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what they said?
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: We want to play with you.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my even now, I'm like, I'm starting to tear up.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: They wanted time with their mommy and their daddy, right?
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: For children, that's often how it is.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: Time spent with them in the moment means love, right?
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: That is love for them.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what he was asking me.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: He was asking me just to love him.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so we changed our, we I let go of that old tradition and that moment.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: And we started a new tradition for our family.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so now what we do is we we cook a nice meal, but I mean, I cook every day, right?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we cook a nice meal.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that my children picked what we were gonna have.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, for instance, we'll have salmon for Thanksgiving.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they like to have things like prawns for Christmas.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: But but the point is, it's a meal that's wholesome, it's nutrient dense, and it doesn't take me longer than a normal day's cooking.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: That way I have the time and I have the energy to just be in the moment with them.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so we do we play all day long.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like on Christmas, I wake up before any of the kids.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm this is my husband's one of his favorite things about me.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, You're a big kid, like you get more excited than the kids for Christmas.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like, have you seen you probably haven't, but have you seen the movie Elf with Will Farrell?
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, okay, there's a scene where he he's an actual elf, right?
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a scene where Chris where Santa Claus shows up to the department store and he's screaming, he's jumping up and down, and he's like, Santa, right?
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's me.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like in fact, Santa came in our neighborhood um two nights ago on the fire truck, and I was recording my kids as my, you know, as they were watching Santa come through.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I it it just the spirit just comes over me.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: I start screaming, Santa, hi! Like so, anyhow, Christmas morning, I get up before the kids and I'm up, I'm up at least by 4 a.m.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm down at the bottom of the stairs with my video recorder, waiting until they wake up and I want to capture that magic on their faces when they come down, you know.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm up before them, we open our gifts, you know, first thing, and pretty much we just hang out and we play.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: We play with the toys they got, we play board games, card games, we play tag, you name it.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: But that's our new family tradition.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: It looks very different than what I had growing up, but we love it, you know, and and I keep pieces of it, like like this candle with the angel.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I keep pieces of my past um that I bring forward.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but like I said, my goal is to pass on that feeling and that magic and that hope of the holidays.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: And now that we have branched off from my traditions, I feel like every year we've accomplished that.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's that's profound power and and very helpful actually, because um uh because you you can actually you can actually become a regimented uh regimented slave, you know, to expectations.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, you have to just create uh those those places.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh, you know, I'm I'm I'm a bookworm.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: I I love books, and so uh now that you know that um a lot of times uh my my Christmas of course, you know, with the grandkids, uh we we played with them a lot, but um now lots of times, you know, they're they're older, and so they have you know they have their their more adult things.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so you know, I enjoy I always get a couple new books for Christmas.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's uh that's um one of my things.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I get to I I and and they're often books that I wouldn't buy for myself, you know.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh because of you know, I mean, if I if I want a business book, you know, I just get the business book.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: But um so these are always you know, a lot of them are history, different things.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so I I get to prop my feet up and just spend a couple hours Christmas afternoon reading, you know, and and don't feel guilty about, oh no, what am I not getting done?
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like I would on a nor on a normal day, on a normal weekday.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I I can't just sit here, prop my feet up and read, you know.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so, you know, I I think I think it's good to to um to have those uh spaces that we create uh for for our own you know rejuvenation.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I I call these you know things like that, I call them commas, you know, commas in life.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't always need to take a Disney cruise or a you know a great big uh uh hoopla, but we do need commas.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: And uh these provide us uh commas.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: So well, wonderful, Cena.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what else?
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: I was gonna say, and speaking of commas, I wanted we wanted all the listeners and the viewers to know how grateful we are that you tune into us every week and you you and you make this podcast and this video um possible.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: We're so grateful to share this space with you.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: And Joel and I are going to take a comma next week, right?
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna take a little break so that we can carve out that special time with our families.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then we're gonna join you again the first week in January for our New Year's special.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we have a little bit of um a surprise, talk about anticipation, right?
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: With all the negativity that surrounds us these days, Joel and I decided to um launch an entire episode just on good news, right?
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: Good news in food, good news in health, good news in just any area wherever we can find some good news.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I've challenged Joel to uh to just search for the good news and bring that to our listeners.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: So, our first episode of the new year, we're gonna start out with the bang and bring you all good news to start out your your new year in a positive light.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Cena, and thank you all.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh certainly thank you for tuning in.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening and Merry Christmas to one and all.