Christmas with Melody and Candi (Part 2)

Join us for a heartwarming journey down memory lane as Melody and Candi share cherished Christmas memories in this special continuation of our festive series. Listen in as we recount the stories behind our most treasured ornaments, each one a symbol of a precious moment from our past. From Candi's childhood tradition of collecting ornaments with her mother to Melody's unique keepsakes made from her children's baby shoes and first haircuts, our stories will surely resonate with anyone who finds joy in the little things that make the holiday season magical. It's a sentimental reflection on how these tiny trinkets bring back a flood of nostalgia and remind us of the love and traditions that have shaped our lives.

This episode is a tribute to the sentimental side of the holidays and how even the simplest of items can carry profound significance. Whether it's a handmade ornament or a store-bought treasure, these decorations hold the power to transport us back to the warm embrace of Christmases past. And of course, we celebrate Jesus, the Light of the world and our only hope. So, grab a cup of cocoa, settle in, and let us take you on a cozy trip back in time, filled with laughter, nostalgia, and the heartwarming spirit of Christmas.

Transcript

0:00:00 - Melody

Hi, I'm Melody and I'm Candi and you're listening to Quirks, Bumps, and Bruises. So on this episode of Quirks, Bumps, and Bruises, it's actually part two of Christmas memories and just fun things to talk about with Christmas, with Melody and Candi here. And we even do a lot of this on our morning Joyride show each and every morning 6 to 10 on JoyFM. But we thought it'd be fun to just talk through some things and almost bring a tear to your eye, won't it? 

0:00:31 - Candi

Candi to think about your childhood. 

0:00:33 - Melody

Yes, all right. So do you have a specific ornament on your tree? That just means something so special to you that if it got broken, or if it got gone, or whatever the case is, it would really hurt your heart a little bit. 

0:00:47 - Candi

I have quite a few of those. Back when I was little, my mom and I. I grew up in a. My parents were separated, so I grew up with mom and my brother and we didn't have a whole lot of money. But every year we would go out and buy a Christmas ornament. So some days it was from dollar store or you know different things. Sometimes she had a really good Christmas and it would be from Hallmark. You remember that. 

0:01:14 - Melody

Oh yeah. 

0:01:14 - Candi

But we would always go and find Christmas ornaments and those I have all those now. So for every year I have those ornaments of me growing up and every year I put them out. And just the memories of you know, the one year I was all about basketball and so there may be a basketball ornament or different things and the dates are on there, but there is one that says mother and daughter on it and it's got a small teacup and a big teacup and that one's special, but they're all just really special. 

you know, when I was born my mom had gotten me my very first baby ornament. It has a little bunny rabbit on it, it's clear, and it says Jesus loves me. So it has 1984 on it, the year I was born. So that's pretty special too. I mean, I didn't think I was a sentimental person, but I think at Christmas sometimes I am Right, A lot more so? 

0:02:03 - Melody

Oh yeah, Because it just takes you back to a different place you know in your childhood. 

0:02:08 - Candi

So I have many of those. 

0:02:09 - Melody

Well, you know, ornaments are a big thing for me. I was a teacher so I ended up getting so many ornaments that my tree is just packed with ornaments. And then when the kids were little, it was called the Lindsey Stephen tree and so everything on that tree had to do with them. Sometimes I would even take their baby shoes, their first pair of shoes, and make an ornament out of those. Their first haircut took that and you can put it inside an ornament where you can buy it at a craft store. Oh yeah, so their haircuts became ornaments. If they did little projects, you know, at school that would go on there and then, like you said, baseball for Stephen, singing for Lindsay, different things like that, like a little microphone and so things to do with their life. We did that for 18 years. Do you still do that tree? When both kids got married, I took that tree and divided the ornaments and gave them to each child to have for themselves. Do they put them up in their home? 

0:03:10 - Candi

Yeah. 

0:03:11 - Melody

I don't know that Stephen puts all of his up, Lindsay’s very, you know how she is. 

She loves traditions and stuff like that. But for me personally and I've told this on the Joyride before, when I was in the sixth grade, I had a teacher named Janice Williams. I would love, love, love to know if she's still living where she is, because she is by far my all time favorite teacher I ever had. Have you tried Facebook? I've tried, I have tried to find her. But she gave me a egg, a real egg, and she blew the yolk out of it. You can put a pin in it and some. 

I don't know how you do all that, Wow. And then she cut like a little oval in it without breaking it, covered the egg in red velvet and then the little oval part is covered in sequins and then I still have that egg and it is never broken. Oh my soul. And well, in the sixth grade I was 11. Wow. So I've had that ornament for a lot of years and I always hang it in a certain place in the back of the tree so that nobody will hit it, and I hang it down low too. So if for some reason it would fall, Because she had actually sewed a piece of thread in there that you could hang it, and I still hang it by that thread. That is so crazy. It's hanging by a thread. But that ornament means the world to me, so I would love to be able to tell her I still have that ornament.

0:04:41 - Candi

No kidding, she would love that. 

0:04:42 - Melody

I know. So ornaments are just kind of a big thing at my house. Now, going to something a little bit different, we use the word hope a lot at Christmas and we sing songs about hope at Christmas. So let me ask you, Candi, what actually is hope to you? What is the meaning of hope to you at Christmas time? 

0:05:07 - Candi

Well, you automatically think of the reason we as Christians celebrate Christmas. Yes, the toys are fun, the gifts and the tree and all those things, but you have to be reminded of Jesus and his birth and what that meant for so many. So he is hope, and I just think there's a special feeling that you have during Christmas when you know and you celebrate. I don't believe Jesus was born on December 25th, but we do celebrate it as that. So I think just hope was born literally on Christmas is what we celebrate. Yeah. 

0:05:45 - Melody

He is our only hope, Right? He's not just hope, he is the only hope that we have and a firm foundation on which we live. So that definitely is what we need to focus on during this Christmas season. Is Jesus, the hope of the world, the light of the world and the hope of the world. Now going back to something a little bit not as spiritual but fun to talk. 

0:06:09 - Candi

Talk about who is the best gift giver that you know I'm just going to shout out right now to you, melody, you know people so well. I've seen you not just me personally, because I've gotten some stellar gifts from you, gifts that I you don't even think about, that you don't even know you would want. You know what I mean, but I have seen you gift people things and you know them so well. For instance, can I share what you got for the staff here for Christmas, the team here at Joy FM? We don't have an oven or anything where we can bake things or heat things back up, other than a microwave, and you can't do that much. 

0:06:53 - Melody

We can't because of grandfathered rules about having an oven. 

0:06:57 - Candi

And it's awful, because this group loves to cook, yes, and like we'd love to bring in a little casserole or some cinnamon roll sometimes, but we always have to like, bake it at home and then bring it in and it's just never the same, never the same. So you typically will buy the staff here. You know a specific amount. Every Christmas, everybody gets something. Everybody gets something that pretty much the same thing, whatever. So instead of doing that, this year you took all of that and you bought the staff here. A ninja oven it's a countertop oven, so it's legal. You can plug it in like a normal plug and and all those things. And that is to me, it's just so thoughtful. Like I wouldn't have. Even that wouldn't have crossed my mind. But that is something that, a we really need. B we're going to love. C we're going to use it constantly. 

0:07:50 - Melody

So that's just, you're just such a great, I think, you just your mind, you're just, you have that, I think to be a really good gift giver, you have to really pay attention, like during the year, yes, and then I have to. I can't remember it, so I have to write it down. 

0:08:04 - Candi

I know right. 

0:08:05 - Melody

But that was something that I was actually on vacation and that ninja oven was in the condo that we were staying at, and the reason I loved it is we don't have a lot of space, no, so you can use it, but it is made for you to sit up on the side, so it just sits against the wall, it's kind of compact and doesn't take all your counter space, all the time you know. 

0:08:27 - Candi

Wonderful. 

0:08:35 - Melody

So, yeah, I can't wait for that first casserole from you. Candi, I know Now we got to cook. No, I'm so excited. 

0:08:37 - Candi

I can't wait. And this one does everything it bakes, it roasts, it even has an air fryer. That, and I've never had an air fryer. So that's just. 

0:08:42 - Melody

I love it, we can make a little container of brownies, I know, and have them hot, we're going to get even fatter, I know. I thought about that because I don't think anybody's going to be roasting vegetables no, pretty sure. But yeah, I love to give gifts like that is the thing that I do love and I try to think of gifts that goes along with that person, maybe of whatever they're going through in their life. So what do you give that person that has everything? Is there a go-to gift for you when you just don't know what to get somebody? And let's take out gift cards. 

0:09:22 - Candi

Oh yeah, which I am one of these people that I actually love gift cards. I do too. I remember when gift cards first become a thing and people you can't give a gift card. That's so impersonal. I'm like now everybody does that and I love it because you can get whatever you want. I think people don't like it because they feel like you didn't put a lot of thought into their gift. But I'm like I would so much rather I get it. Yeah. 

0:09:48 - Melody

But I will say that I have heard that so many people that get gift cards never use them. They put them in their wallet or they stick them in a drawer, and that's why, honestly, companies love when people buy so many gift cards, because a lot of them don't ever get used oh wow, but I'm one, I will use every gift card. 

yeah, so I tell kids if you don't know what to get me, just get me a gift card, absolutely. And when I need something like, if you get me an Amazon gift card, I can get what I need when the time comes that I need it, but besides the gift card. So take that off the table. Do you have a go-to gift? 

0:10:24 - Candi

My go-to gifts would probably be like for girls, like bath and body work, things that hand soaps, body washes, things that you know everybody will use Probably something like that. 

0:10:35 - Melody

Or chocolate. 

0:10:36 - Candi

Anything chocolate Can't go wrong with chocolate. 

0:10:39 - Melody

You can't go wrong with chocolate. I was talking about gifts, because this is the time of year where parents like to give their kids, teachers, gifts. Would you like to know what not to get your teacher? 

and I can say this because I was a teacher is a coffee mug in that lid don't give a coffee mug, okay yeah, I, I know I bet I have over 100 coffee mugs that I've had to give like to goodwill or give away because you just cannot keep up with all of them. And I get that it's a good gift, especially if you put like a little gift card to get coffee in it or something like that. But just give the gift card. Teachers get a lot of those. Teachers get a lot of ornaments. That's how I ended up with so many ornaments, and I love ornaments, but you can only have so many, right, right? So I will tell you the number one, because we just talked about it. But the number one gift that teachers love is gift cards. Okay, that's the number one gift they want. 

I can see that, and it can be to like Bath and Body Works, where they can go pick out a candle or something they want, Starbucks or Starbucks so they can get coffee on their way to school, or Amazon where they can. So that is the number one thing y'all that teachers want Coffee mugs, ornaments, candles, any kind of knickknacky thing. Don't do it Just because you get so many. Yeah, not that it's not a nice gift, I'm not saying that, it's just that you get so many, it's hard to keep up with it. So just a little tip for you and I wouldn't know that if I hadn't taught school. Yeah, so well, we have. It's been so much fun. Candi, just talking about memories, and is there any kind of Christmas memory you want to get off your chest? 

0:12:20 - Candi

Anything you want to, I think so I don't know. I will say if you do a nativity scene at your home, you should not include the wise men in the nativity. They should be like. If your nativity scene at your home, you should not include the wise men in the nativity. They should be like. If your nativity scenes in the living room, they should be in the kitchen hold up, hold up. 

0:12:35 - Melody

So here at joy fm we had one morning we someone had put out this beautiful nativity scene, had the whole thing. Sheeps, you know, were in there and donkeys and animals and the shepherds and the angel and Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus and the wise men. It was all there on this beautiful table displayed so beautifully. Well, I come in the next morning and that scene had no wise men and Candi you had moved them. 

0:13:02 - Candi

I had moved them because they were not there when Jesus was born. They were not, you're correct in that, and they are in every, every nativity scene. Well, what would churches do if you? 

0:13:13 - Melody

didn't have the three wise men. I don't know. 

0:13:16 - Candi

I'm fine if you put them a couple miles down the road. 

0:13:18 - Melody

The gold frankincense and myrrh looks really good in that children's play it does. 

0:13:24 - Announcer

Thanks for listening to the Quirks, Bumps, and Bruises podcast with Candi and Melody. If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and share the podcast. You can learn more at joyfm.org.