Family, Loss, and the Magic of Christmas with Jess & Steph

Growing up, the magic of waking up to a blanket of fresh snow was unbeatable, but the struggle of shoveling and navigating icy roads was a stark reality check. In this episode of the Jesus Fix It Podcast, we reflect on those mixed feelings about winter's wonderland. We embrace the enchantment of snow days, where warm drinks and beloved holiday movies provide the perfect cozy escape, while also acknowledging the practical challenges the season brings. The episode is filled with personal stories that reveal the delicate dance between cherishing the beauty of a snowy Christmas and the longing for clear roads when the festivities come to an end.

As we journey through the nostalgia of Christmas movie traditions and family meals, listeners are invited to share in our love for timeless classics like "Home Alone" and hidden treasures like "Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas." Alongside these cinematic gems, we share heartwarming family traditions ranging from traditional feasts to uniquely personal celebrations. Our conversation takes a meaningful turn as we discuss the importance of embracing hope in every season, drawing strength from faith amidst life's ups and downs. With deeply personal reflections, we offer a prayer for resilience and hope, inviting listeners to find their own strength in the face of life's challenges.

Transcript

0:00:01 - Jess

Welcome to the Jesus Fix It Podcast, where we tackle life, the good, the bad and everything in between. I'm Jess, and together we'll explore how loving Jesus can help us navigate the ups and the downs, no matter what you're facing. Remember he can handle it all. So grab your coffee. Well, that's what I'm sipping on today. Settle in and let's dive into some real talk and uplifting stories that remind you you're never alone. Let's get it started. Tis the season. 

0:00:38 - Steph

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? In the lane... Okay, that's enough of that. Maybe snow is glistening. No, no. 

0:00:48 - Jess

I don't like that. 

0:00:49 - Steph

You don't like the snow? No, I don't. Am I alone here? But you like the bling? Yeah, and snow is glittery, but that's different, it glistens. 

0:00:58 - Jess

Okay. So one thing you may not know about, jess, is I love to look at the snow. It is so beautiful, especially when I don't have to go out in it, if I can be in my PJs and my fuzzy socks and just look out at it and just look at all of you guys driving it and playing it and all that stuff. I am so thankful my kids are grown and I don't have to pack them in their snowsuits anymore and go play outside in the snow with them. Yes, I am thankful that stage of my life is over. I am the snow Grinch I am. I think it's beautiful, I think it's pretty, but once the tire tracks get in it, oh it gets so gross and gray and just ugly. 

0:01:40 - Steph

I get you, I understand that, but there is just something the first couple of snows, yeah. Now, being from the north or coming from the north I'm not from the north, I don't know where I'm from, but anyways, having most recently lived in the north, I was expecting a lot more snow than we got, and we didn't really get a bunch. So it's like, okay, I can handle a little bit, yeah, but I don't want to get out there and do the shoveling. Yeah, as soon as there's any of it, like I don't trust myself to not go we and slide and slip and then crack, so I'm gonna be the one out there with the salt and the shovel and whatever. That's some good exercise though that's true. 

0:02:17 - Jess

Yeah, I shoveled for five minutes and about had a heart attack. I say that actually in the winter that's. One of the main causes of heart attack is, you know, people get out there and try to shovel. 

0:02:30 - Steph

They don't realize how heavy snow is, like it is super heavy. 

0:02:33 - Jess

Yeah, it's exhausting too. I cannot do it. I will gladly pay somebody to shovel for me. Yeah, yeah, snow, if I didn't have to drive in it, if I could just stay home and you know. But when you work on a morning show and you have to be there at the crack of dawn, so yeah, no snow for me. 

0:02:59 - Steph

No, I get that that, having previously been on one of those early show things, I my station was up a hill, oh, and I had a front wheel drive car. No, ma'am, oh, so many times I would try, I would gun it, I would hit, and it was on a curve. You had to hit the curve, hit going up the hill, and it was like nine, ten o'clock in the morning when the snow plows finally came through. There they're digging around my car because I have left it at the bottom of the hill and trudged my way up because you have to get there, and yeah, and then it made it worse because then they packed the snow around it from all the snow they shoveled or was plowing, oh man. So I totally understand both sides of it, but there's like when it's just the first fresh snow and it really does glitter and it's something magical about it, it is magical, it really is yeah. 

And the silence. I love that. I do. 

0:03:51 - Jess

Like I said, I love it when I don't have to go out in it. Now I have vacation coming up. I hope it snows because I'm going to have everything I need. I'm going to have all the food and I'm an early shopper, so y'all have fun with that out in these streets doing all your shopping and stuff. I am a planner so I've already pre-planned all my shopping and things. I've got all my food and stuff. So when I'm on vacation it's strictly going to be me at home reading my books and eating my cookies and watching Christmas movies. So it can snow, I don't care. That is beautiful, but by the time I come back in the seat and it's time for me to be on the radio and encouraging people again, I hope all the roads are clear. 

0:04:32 - Steph

Because they need the encouragement. 

0:04:34 - Jess

I don't want any more snow. That's how I am. But I will admit, when my babies were little and they used to at Christmas time and they and we used to say that our prayers at night. And I used to be sitting beside them and I'm like, ok, go ahead and say your prayers, and my youngest son would say, sweet Jesus, it's Christmas time and all I want is for it to snow. That would be so perfect. And I know, jesus, that Santa, he can drive in the snow. And I would just sit there thinking, jesus, why are you doing this? Oh Jesus, he's so cute and I know he's praying for snow and I know, god, you know how his mama feels. 

0:05:19 - Steph

But that is great, and I know he's praying for snow and I know God, you know how his mama feels, but that is great. 

0:05:25 - Jess

Oh, my goodness, Okay, moving on Okay. 

0:05:28 - Steph

You mentioned Christmas movies. When you're on your vacation, you've already got your food. We'll come back to the food, but movies, what are on your what's your list Like? Do you have one every year? You must. 

0:05:36 - Jess

Oh, okay, just you know the classics. 

0:05:38 - Steph

Of course, home Alone we watch all of them, except for that one the one off one. 

0:05:47 - Jess

Was it like Home Alone 3 or something like that? I mean, okay, but Home Alone we do. I don't know if you've ever heard of Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas. If you could see my face, I'm sorry, I have no idea. You have to look that one up. Emmett Otter's Doug Band Christmas, if you know, you know that is a Jim Henson classic. Have to watch that. Of course Charlie Brown. One other one If you've ever heard of the Preacher's Wife. I've heard of it. 

Yeah, the Preacher's Wife. So there are several versions. There's one, the Bishop's Wife. That's the old black and white version, and then Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington made a remake called the Preacher's Wife, and I love that, so I watched that. White Christmas is one. Yes, yes, yes, yes. So yeah, the Polar Express, my 21-year-old every year. No matter how old he gets, I have to sit down. Polar Express is not my favorite, but I have to sit down and watch it with my 21-year-old every year, and full disclosure. I have a book in my hand, but he doesn't care. As long as I'm actually just sitting there with him, he's okay. Okay, it's just quality time. That just counts as me being there. Even if I'm not actually in the moment, I'm still there and I've made the food. So, yeah, what about you? What are your favorites? 

0:07:08 - Steph

Well, white Christmas, that one is definitely there. But I will be honest, sometimes a few of the dance numbers I do fast forward through, yeah, they tend to just get a little bit much. Okay, are we done now? 

0:07:18 - Jess

Yeah, yeah, yeah I get that. 

0:07:20 - Steph

Yeah, there's a throwback, one from the early 90s called All I Want for Christmas. 

0:07:25 - Jess

Yes, Okay, I get that one. 

0:07:28 - Steph

My mom and I love that one yes. And we'll just randomly throw lines out from it and it's like Like in the movie, the one little girl starts singing have yourself a merry little Christmas. She's. Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Have yourself a merry little Haley. That's a very pretty song. Do you want to know the rest of it? Nope, have yourself a merry little Christmas. My mom and I will do that, sometimes together. So, yes, like that one, the Holiday, yes, I love that one oh my goodness. 

0:08:00 - Jess

Yes, I love that one too, and then, Don't Judge Me. Okay, please don't judge me. I can't wait to hear this Love Actually. Oh, okay, okay, yeah, yeah. 

0:08:10 - Steph

Okay, no, judge me here Again some fast forwarding. That does happen, yeah, on that one a little bit here and there. But yeah, yeah, I love that one. I mean, I just, I can like Hugh Grant dancing. Yes, just all the music Like there's, yeah, there's really good stuff, there are, so many there are. And then, oh gosh, I had another one and of course it just went out of my head how do you feel about Hallmark movies? They're done. So my husband thinks that Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Die. 

0:08:39 - Jess

Hard is a Christmas movie. That's how I feel about Hallmark movies too. Yes, die Hard is a Christmas movie. 

0:08:44 - Steph

I watched it for the first time last year with him. He was like this is what he's like. You made me watch the holiday. We're going to watch this. 

0:08:50 - Jess

I'm like all right fair. But then we had to watch all of them, okay. I'm like the holiday didn't have okay food. Okay food. Does your family cook a traditional meal for the holidays, like on Christmas Day? Do y'all do a traditional meal or do y'all just like think outside the box? 

0:09:08 - Steph

growing up, we, that was our time to get together with our extended family, which isn't a huge we don't have a huge extended family so we would go and visit, usually my one aunt and uncle, and my aunt married into an Italian family, so we'd have lasagna. Yeah, okay, and still, I mean my mama's lasagna is like, hands down, the best lasagna ever. But I don't. I don't like turkey. 

0:09:31 - Jess

Yeah, I'm not a big turkey fan, unless my mom does like a turkey breast or turkey hash or something like that. Okay, yeah. 

0:09:37 - Steph

But like I like a ham, I'm good with that, but like, don't come at me with some of those crazy sides. Yeah, no cranberries, no, nothing, I don't do cranberry sauce or anything like that. 

0:09:48 - Jess

Yeah, we don't do a traditional meal anymore, and that comes from when we were little. We used to have to go to like everybody's house. We would make our rounds. So we would get up Christmas morning, my parents would have us do the Christmas story. We'd go through that and then we could open our gifts. And then, after we opened our gifts, we had about 30 minutes to play and then we'd have to get dressed. Then we'd go to one grandma's house, then we'd go to the other grandma's house, then we'd have to go to the other grandma's house and we'd have to go to one uncle's house and we'd go to an aunt's house and then, before we know it, it was like seven o'clock, oh goodness. But it was the whole day visiting family, because you know you have to go to one side of the family, then the other side of the family, because you can't leave anybody out. 

I have a big family, okay. So my mom one day, you know her and my dad were talking, and this is ridiculous. We should just do something at home. It should be just like an intimate time and, you know, the girls should just be able to just play with their toys and enjoy the day. And so we decided that Thanksgiving was going to be the time that we visit with family, and then Christmas was our immediate family time, and since it was just our little family time, we could have a traditional meal or not, and so through the years we've just kept that going. We have a very traditional thanksgiving meal, but Christmas, if we want to have Chinese food, we'll have Chinese. If we want pizza, we'll have pizza. If we decide we want ham, we'll do ham. Um, I think last year we did. Um, we actually did have Chinese food last year so it's just a whatever that's usually just an intimate, just immediate family time for us. 

0:11:28 - Steph

Now from that, have you had any traditions that stemmed? That's just your immediate family. 

0:11:34 - Jess

Yeah, every year since my father passed away six years ago. So now it's just my sister, my mom, the kid's dad and my boys, and we all have Thanksgiving Christmas morning at my house because I have the kids. So everybody comes to us, and so their dad and I. We've been divorced since the kids were little, but we're still a family, so the kids will sleep at my house Christmas Eve and wake up with me Christmas morning, and their dad comes over when they wake up. They have to sit and wait until he gets there. He doesn't live far from me, thankfully, and so we all open presents together and we all have breakfast together and that's our thing. And Christmas Eve, if he wants to come over for dinner, he will, and some nights he's just some Christmas Eves he's just like ah, I just want to chill and enjoy the quiet because I know I'm going to have them boys on Christmas Day. 

0:12:31 - Steph

Yeah, for us it's Christmas Eve service candlelight, and like I know there are a lot of places that do it throughout the whole month of December, and great, whatever. For me, though, it's like it needs to be Christmas Eve, Like that's really just helps me set a tone of just being in the right mindset. Right, and that's important, and like I'm always bawling my eyes out because there's just something so special about Silent Night or oh Holy Night, acapella, oh Holy Night, oh Holy Night. Yes, holy night, oh holy night. Yes, yeah, yes, so I love that. And then, growing up, we always had a cake for Jesus because it was his birthday. So we would make a cake, and usually it was German chocolate, because that's my dad's favorite, ew, but okay, but yeah, we'd put a candle in it. We would sing Jesus, happy birthday. Oh, that's so sweet, yeah. 

0:13:21 - Jess

German chocolate was one of my grandma's favorite cakes. Oh yeah, she loved and I just never understood. Why do you got to put coconut in the chocolate? Thank you, why are y'all doing? 

0:13:31 - Steph

that I don't mind the whatever the saucy stuff around the coconut is, but why are y'all doing? 

0:13:37 - Jess

that I'm like I don't need to floss my teeth while I'm eating my cake. Thank you very much. Yeah, yeah, this is just like my hope. No matter what you whether it's your family getting together doing things, whether you do things on your own I just, the older I get, especially after losing my dad, I just pray that people really slow down Because the season goes by really quickly. That's like one reason I went ahead and put up my tree super early, first time ever that I put up my tree before Thanksgiving and no regerts Because the season goes by by the way for all of you naysayers still thankful, still enjoyed the turkey, and you know what I still showed gratitude Good, because I'm a naysayer With my twinkling turkey. And you know what I still showed gratitude good, because I'm a naysayer with my, with my twinkling lights. You know what? I still celebrated Thanksgiving with my tree up. 

0:14:31 - Steph

I don't go dogging on the twinkling lights. Those belong up all year long as far as I'm concerned, because I did buy a tree that will stay up all year okay, okay, but anyway I digress. 

0:14:42 - Jess

But the season goes by so quickly and you get so wrapped up in oh, I got to get the gifts, oh, I got to do this, I got to decorate, I got to do this, I got to do that. But do you really get a moment to sit down and really think about gratitude, think about how God has blessed you this year? Do you really get a moment to think about the true meaning of what this season brings? Do you really get a moment to think about, okay, what can I be praying for for the new year? Do you really get a moment to just sit down and soak up the season? And in the hustle and bustle of it all, by the time Christmas Day comes, you're just like, wow, it's over, right, it's come and gone. I'm exhausted, I'm exhausted. I watched one Christmas movie, oh, but the movie I did see, I was too tired to really enjoy it. I was in the kitchen cooking. I didn't really get to enjoy the moments and I just pray that more people just can soak up the magic, the beauty, all of it. 

0:15:53 - Steph

That's just my prayer for people and you're coming from such a place of understanding the importance of being with loved ones. Having lost your dad, yes, you know, I'm thankful that both my parents are around, as I shared in a couple podcasts ago about my mom, and we didn't think that she was going to be around very long, so we never know when this could be the last one for anybody no, anybody. We don't know what our last day is, no matter what. But that's so like I love your heart behind that, because it is important to just take the time. Take. The dishes can get done later. The wrapping paper can be thrown away later. Let the cat play with it, because that's his favorite toy he got all summer, all season summer. 

0:16:32 - Jess

Yeah, yeah, I used to think before my dad passed away, I used to think when I would see people walking around looking all gloomy in November and December, I used to think oh, my goodness, this is the most magical time of the year. Why are you walking around with a long face? And my father passed away the day before Thanksgiving, oh goodness. And so I realized then, like you never know what people are going through, you never know what is hiding behind that gloomy face. You never know what's hiding behind a smile, right? You just never know what people are going through. So it could be Christmas Day and I could see somebody not smiling. 

And who am I to say? Oh, you're just a big old Grinch, right? You never know what grief they're going through. You never know who they may be missing. You never know who they may be missing. You never know. So don't just assume somebody is just being a Bah-humbug Grinch. You never know. So that's one thing the season has taught me not to judge somebody who's being a Grinch, and then also to pray that people can really get a moment to embrace what God has given us and to just embrace the season and embrace just the meaning of the season and to just pray for the upcoming season. Yeah, because there truly I know it sounds cheesy and it sounds like a cliche, but there truly is hope for every single season. Yeah, there's a lot of hope in the Christmas season, but there is hope in January. 

There's hope in February, because his name is Jesus. So, we have hope not just in this magical season we're in right now, but we have hope in every single season because of him, yes, so a Jesus fix it moment for today, wow you're really flipping it. 

0:18:24 - Steph

I think you just preached it that folks are going to take a moment and appreciate the moment that you're in and appreciate that everybody's story is a little different. It is and you don't know what someone is walking through that fake smile that is on somebody's face. 

0:18:42 - Jess

This is true because I'll tell you as we're recording this podcast today, this very day six years ago, was the day that I got a phone call Jess, your dad is unresponsive. I need you to come to the hospital right now. And today is the day, six years ago, that I found out my dad was with Jesus. It's also the day that I had just been released from the hospital from having a stroke. So all of that was going on six years ago today, and you know what God gives you the strength you need to press on and keep going. Nobody would have known that, but God. God gives us the strength we need. God gives us what we need when we need it, and I'm so thankful for that, and so my prayer is that anybody else who may be listening right now that God would give you that strength. And I'm going to go give a hug to Jess now.