It Was A Pug In A Sweater

Merry Christmas!! This is this last live stream episode before Christmas is here. We'll have a very special "Ask Todd Anything" and Todd will issue a "See You Under The Stars Challenge."

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Transcript

Todd: 0:13

Well, hello everybody in Merry Christmas. This is the next to last episode of the podcast at the last live. Episode of the, of the podcast before Christmas. So, uh, glad you guys have decided to join us. Just kinda a loose format. Just ask me anything. I have all kinds of questions I'm sure to answer and, uh, some things to go over about, uh, Christmas clater for 2023 and, uh, everything, uh, to do. Well, I can't really say everything to do with that because I don't know everything about 2023 yet, you know, not to jinx myself, but when 2020 rolled around, I thought it's gonna be a great year. And it was a memorable year, but not for the reasons I thought it may be. But anyway, I've never been good. If I, uh, if I, usually, if I feel one way about a situation, it's probably best to. Uh, bet it's going to go the opposite way. This is kind of my, my lot in life, uh, so to speak, but it's good to have everybody here, um, before we get started, uh, too much. Uh, and well, I'll tell you what, I'll, I'll save that, uh, right now. But, uh, I just wanna let you guys know that, uh, listening to this on the podcast, Portion of it. I will be interacting with the chat, uh, more in this episode than I, I do normally, you know, every once in a while we have a episode that is, uh, heavy on the chat and other times I'll just kind of let it roll by as I, as I talk with somebody or, or you know, something along those lines. So, um, so we'll be more interactive in the chat and I want to encourage you, if you can, to join us live on YouTube and. Be a part of the live audience, so to speak, as we, as we learn, as we. Building a Christmas community on YouTube and on podcasting at the same time. So I just wanna say hello to everybody in the chat to my wife Holly, for being here and, uh, helping out as a moderator. Same to Ken, same to Roy Tech Troublemaker, who's been on to, uh, Arne and Doug. And Ben and Cherry of uh, pepper Tree Villa. Uh, thanks for being here, Jessica. Uh, being in the, in the podcast and Art To Matt, to Mikey. Guys, thanks so much for, for hopping in the chat and being so supportive. Uh, live with me and, uh, thank you. Thank you, thank you. So let's do a few ask me anything you guys can ask me. Anything you want. It doesn't even have to do with Christmas, and I will answer it. Even if I make up an answer. I will answer it. And, uh, I might even ask myself a few questions because I have a few questions that I think about often that are really frivolous and, and I always trying to find the right answer to. And we'll get to those. But, uh, yeah. Let's, uh, let's start with our first question. Uh, I did get a question on Facebook. I did not type up a card here, but it was from Ken. He wanted to know what my favorite, uh, Christmas or holiday food was, and that is hard, hard one to answer. Well, I love cookies. You know, but I, I take a great ham over a great cookie though, so you know what? It is probably my favorite thing that I look forward to the most around the holiday season. Sweet Potato Cresole. I just love it. I only eat it around the holidays, usually Thanksgiving, maybe a little bit on Christmas, but Dagummit, that's what I look forward to each and every year. That's the thing that, it's like when I think of the holiday season, it's like the instant. Watering in my mouth. I love a great sweet potato casserole. My mom makes it, it's almost like a sweet potato pie, except it has no crust. Instead of marshmallows on top. It's like pecans and I don't know, but it makes this hard topping of nuts and sugar, caramel caramelized on the top, and it's just absolutely. Delicious and wonderful. So let's go on with, uh, some other questions. One here from Jessica. Will you continue to do weekly podcasts in 23? Uh, yes and no. Uh, I will do weekly when we hit the bur month. Um, however, I will, I'm, I'm kind of weighing the frequency I should do 'em. I, I like doing the every other. However, when it, uh, when it's early in the year, it kind of, I feel like I'm stretching a little bit, um, to, um, you know, come up with things that I find interesting enough to, to hold people's attention. Um, I definitely will be weekly when I hit the bur month. I definitely will be monthly for sure. And probably what's gonna happen is probably gonna be like a frequency change. It's like, you know, once a. For a little bit, and then every two weeks for a little bit, and then once the bird months hit, then every week. So I have a feeling that's how it's gonna go. Kind of like a, you know how I always talk about the Christmas being a marathon, and then it turns into a sprint?, that kind of thing where it's kind of, kind of like, uh, you know, the closer it gets, the more and more Christmas clatter becomes available, because I have, uh, some other things I'm wanting to do with, with Christmas clatter that I haven't done yet, and they're gonna take a little bit more time off camera to make 'em presentable, uh, on camera, you know, so having a a, an episode. over me, uh, every other week kind of might hinder that, but, uh, it, it remains to be seen. I will be around much more than I was at the beginning of this year. I, I, I promise you that because I will let you guys know. I normally take a break January, February. Um, but this year I will have one episode in January and it's gonna be a post Christmas blues, uh, roundup just to make sure everybody's okay kind of thing, you know. and, uh, and so I will be, I will be doing that mid-January, probably the Wednesday after Martin Luther King Day, whatever that is, is kind of what I have earmarked. But, uh, um, so that's not really a, a direct answer I don't think. But, uh, um, you know, I'll, I'll be taking some time off and, and doing some things, but yeah, we'll definitely be every other week. For most of the year, and then soon as late September, October hits, um, we'll be back every week again. Uh, for sure I have, I, I'm one of these guys that have a lot of irons in the fire and have a lot of ideas, and I think that everyone's great and deserves my full attention. And then I end up. I'm not really getting anything done, so I really have to remain, um, focused on things. So, um, but stay tuned to Instagram and uh, and Facebooking and I'll be letting you guys know. So let me rearrange this thing here. See, can you all, all art likes to, art likes to type big, so thinks he's all fancy with his reading and stuff. For those on the audio portion of the podcast, I'm sorry, you just have to listen to me mumble about things you cannot see. Alrighty. Art asks. I've started reading a, started my yearly reread of Christmas, Carol, and I've have you read the book and what's your favorite Christmas Carol movie adaptation. Yeah, I've read. Once. I'm not a big book reader by any stretch of the imagination. I've read it once, however, I do hear it every year. I, a few years ago on Google Playbooks, they had, uh, a Christmas Carol audio book, uh, narrate it by, um, Patrick Stewart for like, I think it was free. For like, a little bit. And so I, I nabbed it and got a copy. So I listened to Patrick Stewart reading me the Christmas Carol, uh, every year. And, uh, and so that's, that's what I, that's what I do mainly, but I, I did read it many years ago. My favorite movie adaptation, that's hard to press. I think the most nostalgic one for me is the one with. Oh, his name slips me now. Played Patton, um dang. Came out in the eighties. Um, George C. Scott. Uh, the CBS one for Joyce C. Scott. That's the one that kind of gives me the most nostalgic fills, and I probably would pick that one as my favorite. Um, but none of 'em really just stand out. I just remember that one every year as a kid being on the local CBSs station because that's where my dad worked and that's all we watched, you know? So, um, that, but that's the one I pick and, and that kind of ties into that frivolous question I always ask. And it's like, um, who's the next great Ebenezer Scrooge? You know, which actor should play Ebenezer Scrooge? And uh, I have a couple in mind. I'd love to see Idris Elba play Ebenezer Scrooge. I think he would be really great at it. Um, I think I would like Tom Hanks, but I'm kind of iffy on that., um, because I, I don't want him to Tom Hanks, you know, Tom Hanks it too much, if that makes any sense to you. I mean, I mean, he was a fantastic Mr. Rogers, so I'm sure he wouldn't, uh, I sure he would just kind of disappear as Ebenezer Scrooge. Um, You know, but those are kind of my, my two right now that I would love to see play. Ebenezer. Scrooge. If you guys have any other actors, uh, that, or actresses that you would love to see, take that role on, um, let me know. Ah, guys at Pepper Tree. Want to know with, uh, cookie day at your mom's this year? What is your favorite cookie? I'm a snicker doodle guy. That's my all time favorite cookie is just the classic snicker doodle. Uh, they're always my favorite. Uh, I mean, I like a lot of the other ones, in fact, uh, I like most of them there. There was one this year that I actually didn't care for very much, but other people did like it. It was a buttery potato chip cookie. Um, just, just something about the, uh, potato. Texturey Crunch in my cookie, I just was not a fan of. But uh, other people really liked it and, and uh, so I'm sure it's gonna stick around cuz I was in the minority on that one. But I'm always a, a snicker doodle guy and I really like the eggnog logs. Uh, I really like those a lot, you know, so, yeah. And then Holly asks, today I saw a ring of fire on, uh, pentatonics Christmas. Is that a Christmas song? I'm so perplexed. Yes. I'm gonna say it is. If you saw it on a Christmas album, I'll use the same logic I use for movies if it's, uh, you know, associated in Christmas any other way, it's a Christmas song, I will take it. It's more, it's just as Christmasy as, uh, jingle Bells is. And in fact, that's, um, ties into one subject I'm definitely gonna be tackling next year is, uh, I'm gonna have a, you know, a list of. It's the top 10 like Christmas songs that aren't actually Christmas songs like Jingle Bells. So yeah, I'm gonna call it a Christmas song, mainly because that's a great song and uh, why not? So, hey Dwayne, thanks for hopping in here, man. I appreciate it so much. And, uh, Ken, ask what's my favorite Christmas album? From start to finish. Uh, I really like the Ingrid Nicholson, uh, songs of the season from start to finish is really great. Uh, Dave Barnes, very Merry Christmas is really great. Uh, start to finish and, uh, Mariah carries Merry Christmas from 1994. From start to finish is really great. Um, those are definitely. Contenders, it's hard for me to narrow down one, but if you had to make me choose right now, uh, pick only one. I take Ingrid Nicholson, uh, uh, songs of the season. If, if you had to, had to pin me down on one right now, the second. So yeah. Mikey, ask. If you chose one artist to listen to at Christmas, who would it be if you had, oh, if I had just had one? Mm. This is a good one. Cause you just had one. So you want someone who had a lot of Christmas songs, cuz you want to cover all those bases. But he had to, they have to have a voice that you could listen to. Hmm. I'm going bing CROs., and I'm gonna say that because of the variety of his Christmas songs, he had a lot of great ballads. He had a lot of great fun Christmas songs. He has a lot of Christmas songs in his, uh, on his list that he sung. Uh, and a lot of classics, Alzheimer's. And he, his voice will never get old or wearing on you. So I would go Bing, just because his catalog is so vast. I mean, you have fun songs like, um, you know, He's got that Scottish, uh, Irish Christmas song thing that's fun. And of course I'm gonna butcher this terribly, you know, but molecular maka is fun, but then he also has white Christmas and Silent Night, and it's beginning to look a lot like a Christmas and all the classics are covered. So I'd go, Bing would be, would be my answer on that. So, and Matthew asks, What is your favorite Santa movie? Santa Mine's, uh, the one in Magic Christmas. Well, my favorite movie Santa would. I like the one from, uh, 1940 Sevens Miracle on, uh, 34th Street. Uh, that's my favorite. He's, uh, so kind and not rough around the edges at.. Um, that's just, just my favorite actually, Oscar winning performance. So that's the one I'm on go with. So, and Mikey asks, what lights do you prefer for decorating for Christmas? Uh, just whatever I can find. I do like, like the C seven s, you know, the classic big ones and Inc. Incandescence, but, LEDs, in my opinion, have gotten so close to the correct hue of, um, incandescent lights that, uh, it's really hard to tell 'em apart. I know years ago that the LEDs were a lot harsher and a lot like bluer, you know, in, in hues and incandescents. They didn't have that warm warmness to 'em. And, and I, and I get it, uh, in cess are probably. Would be the way to go, but just from heat and energy efficiency and then things, you know, if you give me a great L E D I, I'm fine with it too. Uh, I will, when I buy lights, I will wander around the store and find an outlet to plug 'em in just to see, you know, what they look like on, because I don't wanna take 'em home when they'd be just terrible. So. All right, Arne asks, as a male, What's the heaviest Christmas package you've delivered? And the answer is 75 pounds because the post office will limit the weight to 75 pounds. If it's, uh, heavier than that, you have to find somebody else to take it for you, so that that will be it. There is a few times I think that people push that limit, but uh, you know, we don't, we don't see things that big and heavy very often and, uh, and, um, Not this, uh, last year in 2020, I spent most of the year like with a herniated disc in my back. So now I have a dolly. I keep in my mail truck a little fold up. One, I just wheeling things up and down people's driveways. I'm like, I'm not hurting myself again, because that was, uh, painful and agonizing, uh, to go through. So, but yet post office limits, limits the weight 75 pounds. So, Yeah, Ken wants to know as a male carrier, uh, do you have a dog chase story? I've never been chased by a dog. I, I have a few stories. Uh, the closest I've, I've gotten, um, close to being, uh, bit a couple times. Once it was the middle of winter and I was bundled up head to toe, just my eyes showing because it was so cold. And this guy was walking his dog. And this was a big monster dog, uh, pretty nice neighborhood of town. This dog was bred to, uh, hunt, but they took it to Africa with him on safari to hunt animals in Africa. And uh, we met at a corner. Of course, there was a building that kind of blocked our view from each other. And before I know it, the dog jumped. Bit at my chest, but luckily I had so many, it just got my coat, kind of ripped my coat a little bit because I had so many layers on. And, uh, and that was pretty terrifying. And the other time that I was clo, I mean, I, I have lots of dog stories, but the other time I was close to getting bit was from a, a ROT waller. Um, there was a, um, a special needs boy that lived on the route I was delivering. And they had this, uh, rot waller that, uh, you. Just didn't like Mel men at all. And, uh, and they had one of those, uh, screen doors with the spring on it. It didn't really latch well. I, I delivered the mail and got back to the other side of the screen screen and I saw, um, this boy come out and get his mail and he went back in but didn't shut the door because he was just so excited because he had gotten a package in. And, uh, just a sweet boy, you know, it wasn't his fault. Well, that dog took full of, and he charged out the door. I grabbed my spray to spray it, but in my haste, I didn't realize that the spray was spraying directly to my hand. So instead of reaching out into the street and getting the dog with it, I just covered my hand in pepper spray. Well, luckily that was the hand that that Rott Waller was going for. So once his teeth got around my hand, He did, I guess he kind of sensed that pepper spray, so he didn't chomp down. Kind of scratched my finger with his tooth a little bit, but he didn't really bite me. But that's the closest I've been There was a, there was a blind wiener dog on one of my routes that used to always try to get me, but he could never find me. Uh, except one time he did get the end of my pants. Um, but it was, it was so hilarious, you know, cuz he was just running around the yard looking for me. There was a guy with a pit bull that, uh, uh, sprung out of the door and he had it bear hugged as the dog was like, flopping like a fish, trying to bite me. And at that same time he was telling me, uh, she just wants to play and lick you to death. But I really didn't believe him at the time, you know? And uh, and then one time I thought I had it cuz this dog came around the corner. Tearing it up. I didn't know what, it was just barking like crazy, come around the corner and it was a pug and a sweater, and so I knew then I was okay. You know. But, uh, yeah, those, I have a few more, but, uh, you know, just, it's, it's crazy life. I, I, I'm a, I used to be a real big dog lover and after nearly 17 years of carrying male, not quite the dog lover I used to be, you know, Yeah.. Oh man. Art wants to know what is an egg monologue and can we get the recipe? Yes, you can. And I, it's hard to describe. I do have a picture. Um, and it's, uh, it's just a little, they're probably the size. I'm trying to think of, of something that they're, they're rela that's relatively close to the size. You, you guys remember zingers, the snack cake zingers. They're kind of like that shape, but they're smaller than that. They're smaller than a zinger and they're kind of yellowish and they got icing on them, and they're like a great cookie to, um, dunk dunking this stuff. Like if you want got a coffee or a milk or something. They're just great for that. And uh, yeah, you can have the recipe in fact. One of the things I'm talking about for 2023 is the, uh, official cookie day cookbook. Now, I better, you know, I don't, I don't really like the name Cookie Day Cookbook. I thought about calling it the cookie day cookie book, but that doesn't, I don't know, something like that. You know, putting a, putting a bunch of recipes together of those cookies, so, yeah. But, uh, yeah, Dwayne says Kurt Russell is his favorite. Santa. I, I can't, uh, I can't blame you there. That's a good choice. That really is a good choice. And, uh, Ken wants to know, do you like being and David Bowie's version of little Dr. Little drummer boy? Yeah, it, it's fine. Little Drummer Boy itself isn't one of my favorite songs, um, so to speak. And. But it's fine. I don't get all warm and fuzzy about it, like, uh, like, uh, you know, other people do, but, uh, it's good. Um, It's worth a lesson to a couple times during the holidays, but, uh, but like I said, little Drummer Boy isn't, uh, necessarily one of my favorite songs, although my favorite version of Little Drummer Boy is by, uh, Lauren Daigle. So if you guys haven't heard that, check that out. That's really good. So here's Mommy la la popping in. I'll be on her channel here shortly. And, Uh, uh, Holly posted that link in the chat earlier if anybody wants to hop over there, uh, uh, and, and check that out and be at the top of the hour. So, yeah. And, uh, man, I, yeah. Blind Wiener dog.. Yeah. Uh, I don't even remember zingers. You know, one thing I really miss is zingers are now hostess owned by hostess. I miss his, I missed when they were Dolly Madison and had the peanuts on them. That's what I miss, you know, and, uh, not mainly, not any cuz they tasted any different. I just kind of miss seeing the peanuts on my snack cakes for, for some reason so, But, uh, yeah, a cookie day cookbook, something like that. Uh, yeah, it's definitely gonna be a cookie day cookbook. Probably like 60 to 70 cookie recipes I'll have in there. I think. I think over the years, I think we've done about 55 different cookie recipes, plus two. There's some others I'm gonna pull from, I know Holly has this, uh, brown butter cookie that I wanna put in there and, and a few others. Uh, my, my youngest daughter Taylor, has been trying to, uh, perfect a sugar cookie recipe. So, and, uh, she's getting close to it, so I really, uh, uh, um, you know, if she gets that perfected, I, I definitely will have, uh, that in there or something, but, uh, yeah. Yeah, I've heard a little drummer boy from King and Country. It's really good. Really drum. Which is a good thing for being a little drummer Boy, it's really good live. I think they did it on like Jay Leno or something years ago, and uh, it's really good live as well. I really enjoy it. Yeah, the Lauren Day album is very, very good. Uh, very good From, from, from top to bottom. It really is. And uh, Arnie wants to know how many trees will you be decorating next year in your home? Well, this year we have one actually. We have more than I thought because my youngest, she has like three in her room. So we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. We have nine this year. Nope, 10. I forgot the nutcracker tree. 10. I think we could probably get to even dozen next year. What do you think, Holly? You think we can get to even dozen? No, I forgot the other one. We're at 11. Forgot about the kids tree. We're at 11, so even dozen. Just one more. Let's go for lucky. Number 13. So that sounds like a good plan. Lucky number 13. So yeah. Oh man. But, uh, yeah, I'm, I'm catching up to you guys. We have 11. Okay. Yeah, I think we could do 13. Yeah, we're catching up. We're kind of limited on space, so we're gonna have to get creative, um, need a few more kids to move out, probably to really get the trees in. But, uh, I mean, I got a whole basement. I can, uh, uh, I got a whole basement I could, uh, fill up with trees and I, we could probably get, well if you don't wanna walk around to very much, you know, make like a path, I don't know, we could probably get 50 down here, probably move out. All the furniture and stuff we get really go crazy and I probably won't get that in a yet. But, uh, guys, I appreciate all your questions. Kind of move on from, from the q and a part here. And I wanna talk to you guys about something and it's something I've talked about before and I just really want to challenge you on it. If you saw my thumbnail, um, I said something about the, uh, cu you under the Stars challenge and, uh, my friend Ken had introduced me to this, um, uh, tradition. He does where as, uh, Christmas Eve. Turns into Christmas day at midnight, he'd go outside and he'd kind of look up at the sky, up at the stars and take a few quiet moments. And we start doing that a few years ago. And it's just so wonderful and peaceful. And I know weather is crazy, is, you know, we're gonna be getting some crazy weather here locally. Uh, And temperatures and things. But I just wanna encourage each and every one of you, if you can, as Christmas Eve this year turns into Christmas Day at midnight, just to go out in your driveway or out on your patio or deck, uh, and take that, you know, extra five minutes or so and just kind of look. You know, look at the stars. If it's not cloudy, even if it's cloudy. Just kind of look up and see what you can see. And take a minute just to kind of, uh, you know, reflect on the year. You know, think about the year ahead, and then, uh, let Christmas be Christmas, you know, in that moment just let Christmas be c. and, uh, let that peace. There's just something about that midnight Christmas Eve and the Christmas day that it's just a little bit more quiet and a little bit more calm outside. And take a big, deep breath of that, that clean night air and just remember that, uh, we're here to, uh, serve one another and we're here to, uh, give a helping hand and give a, uh, little bit of hope. So guys, I mean, this year has been a whirlwind of a year. I don't wanna bring it up all the time, but I took six months off because, uh, last Christmas I got sick was Covid hard man. My wife, my whole family did. My mom and my sister. We lost an uncle in December. From it. We were sick as all of us had ever been in our lives, and it took a little while to get over and then some other things happened and. And once I launched and you know, relaunched in July and just kind of went, you know, straight ahead to this year. It has been such a miraculous year doing new things here at Christmas, Clouder, you know, building a community here on YouTube and on the podcast and then, you know, meeting and getting to interact with. New friends now, like, uh, tech troublemaker Roy and, and especially the uh, guys at Pepper Tree Villa. It's been an honor to, to be a part of their community and they've been so supportive. It's just, uh, it's been great to see and, uh, as I leave this part of YouTube here, guys, just thank you for another great year at Christmas Clatter. We will be turning five years. In May of 2023. And, uh, if you're listening on the, on the podcast, join us again as we journey to Christmas 2023 next year. And until I see you again, keep Christmas Hope alive. Every day.