For some of us, Christmas is stressful. For some it’s sad. And for some, it’s just a flurry of parties, baking, family adventures, and soaking in every advent moment. Today we want to share our traditions, talk through the Santa debacle, and generally just chat about Christmas.
For some of us, Christmas is stressful. For some it’s sad. And for some, it’s just a flurry of parties, baking, family adventures, and soaking in every advent moment. Today we want to share our traditions, talk through the Santa debacle, and generally just chat about Christmas.
You're probably gonna hate us, but we're conservative Christian moms. We're here to empower other conservative Christian moms to speak up, say what's true and defend their children's futures. Hey, I'm Amy and I'm often too serious. Mother of twins. I'm Candy Rose, and I'm the often two honest mother of three. And I'm Nicki and I'm the often two emotional mother of two It's Christmas, for some of us it's stressful. For some of us it's sad, and for some of us it's just a flurry of parties and baking and family adventures and soaking In every advent moment today, we wanna share our own traditions and talk through the Santa debacle and generally just chat about Christmas. So come and join. us I think we should start with our very favorite Christmas memory, I like that my eye is twitching. That's what I feel about Christmas enough. All right, I'll start my favorite memory growing up was every Christmas Eve we always did a Happy Birthday Jesus cake, and every piece of it had a scripture to go along with it. So we would take turns reading scripture, and then we'd sing Happy Birthday and we'd eat cake. I, that was my favorite. I love that every time people talk about having happy, happy birthday Jesus cakes. I'm like, you guys are so cool. That did not happen. I mean, our home was great, but like that was not a thing. I don't know why, but I don't have a ton of like past memories. I don't know if I just like block out most of my life, but I'm sure it was good, but it was just blocked. But I do remember being in Puerto Rico, so I was very little like five, four and um, a tradition they do, there was for three Kings Day., the De Los Rees, we would go collect straw or grass from outside and we would put it in, shoe boxes. And I remember, I must have been four, probably five, but. I remember waking up and they each, they bring you three presents. And there was a trail of, you know, the hay that you've gotten leading out the door. Like they'd come in and I just, I, I remember that being like, that struck my mind like the camels came with the three kings, Oh my gosh, that's so funny. I it, it's funny that you say that. A, I had never heard of that until like last year, and Millie talked about that and I was like, it's actually January 6th, but it's like part of the epiphany and it's Yes, the epiphany. Yes. Have you guys ever listened to, the band with a really tall southern. it's kind of an old school worship leader. He is really tall and southern and he's like known to be kind of super unattractive, but he's great. Okay. I'm gonna have to look it up and I'll say it later. But anyway, there's this, there's this like, this album I listen to live every year where he's talking about the epiphany and it's after January 1st, but he's like getting the crowd all excited cuz he's like, I don't know about y'all, but Epiphany's not until January 6th. So it's still Christmas time and they do like this incredible electric guitar Christmas thing. Any way. Okay. Please put the link in the show notes, so will, I'm hoping someone's listening to this going, it's this. Duh. Okay. Anyway. So I love, basically from September 1st on, I'm just in my happy place, like the fall and the Christmas and the whole thing. I think it helps my birthdays in December, so I always have really fond memories of Christmas. But also my late grandfather, he died in his sixties, so my mom was really young when he, when he died, and he was just, best. He loved Halloween., he had this Disneyland Halloween record, which I now have, and he'd put it by the door and play. It has like spooky, Mickey sounds on it, . So he'd do all this amazing stuff at Halloween. And then Christmas, he had the train under the tree and like we just did all the things. And so he made my mom love Christmas and that made me love Christmas and. I have a ton of fond memories of Christmas at their house, and it was like he just loved the magic. He also took us to Disneyland every year. Grew up For Christmas, not for Christmas, but just every year, like he always took us to Disneyland. He like, he just loved all the toys and the fun and the games and just, he was just fun and sounds like my kind of guy. Yeah, he's just, he was, he was also like very mechanical. Like he was always buying broken stuff and fixing them and like with duct tape and like making the electronics work and giving them to us, you know. Anyway, so I love Christmas cuz I love my grandpa. so wait, do you guys, are you guys already trees up and decorated then? Both of you? We always decorate the day after Thanksgiving. I feel like Amy does it before, but we always decorate September. First she said U? No. Oh, no, no, I don't Like September 1st is a Halloween, right? So September 1st, I'm like, we're getting Halloween out. And then after Halloween, I used to be very strict about post Thanksgiving because, I don't know, it just felt like the right thing to do was to be strict about it, , but. Since having kids, it's a ton of work. It's so much work to get everything out and get it all up, and you don't have , this like focused weekend. You're not like, I'm gonna decorate for two days. You're like, I'm gonna decorate for like 30 minutes and then go be a mom for 10 hours and then maybe I'll have another 15 minutes. So I start a lot earlier. I, I put Halloween away and get Christmas out at the same time and it takes me like two weeks, but I want to be the Christmas person, but I think I'm like having a Baja bug couple of years because , I mean, we're a family of four, and so I feel like if you have one person that has trying to carry the Christmas spirit and then the rest of the people just don't care or a little bit ambivalent or they get into it, if you started it, It's always post wedding season two, , I'm a wedding photographer, and so it's always like, okay, You're ready to relax. You're not ready to like do the whole thing. That makes a ton of sense. and I'm like, let's go get a Christmas tree. And nobody's like, yeah. So I'm like, okay, then, then I, so I have to like really pull up my bootstraps and create the Christmas magic within myself. And so even though I love the Christmas magic, I think I'm just in a season and the kids are at a certain age. And, um, my husband, it's just not like, I don't think he really celebrated it. It was like the baby Jesus sort of thing, or they had a tree and stuff. But, i, I feel like I just am like, eh, it's, it's a day and I, I'll get into it, but I just later I think it's definitely something that's passed down. Amy. Sounds like had magical Christmas passed down. My mom and dad were really intentional about making Christmas magical. So yeah, it's like it's been passed down and now my kids are crazy about it. So are, I love it. I love the deco days, so sweet. Oh, I know you guys, you should talk about your post Thanksgiving tradition with your family, cuz I think it's the coolest. But I think the other thing is that Christmas has its season. So my grandpa died at Christmas time. Um, it carries a lot, , for all of us, especially for my mom and my grandma, right? So even though they still love Christmas and they get really into it, and like, we still do stockings for everyone, right? Like grandparents, everybody gets a stocking. It's a whole thing., I mean, I love them, but it's also really, you know, she cries a lot more during December and like I catch her remembering things and getting teary eyed and that kind of stuff. So, I think that life has seasons and that I'm sure I will have my own seasons of Christmas. Meaning different things. I hope nothing horrible, but I'm still in my thirties. You never know, so, right. It seems like a lot of people, either they tend to die around this time. I don't know if this is like true, but it seems like a lot of people are mourning. My grandmother died December 2nd. My dad's sister died when she was pretty young, a couple days after Christmas, and I actually remember. We flew out to go be with everybody and we got there super late at night and we were in Walmart, in Nebraska, for the countdown of New Year's Eve. So I think you're right now, as you're speaking about it, I'm like, oh yeah, this season does just carry a lot of its own trauma, so I wonder if that's kind of part of it., and I just didn't realize it until you said it, and I'm like, oh, it's just heavy. whether you lost somebody around Christmas time or not, it, because it is like a special time. So let's say when I lost the first person who meant really like something to me was my mamaw and even though she died in May, and this was, this was years ago, Christmas was still very hard for her not to be there because it's so special. So even though she didn't die around Christmas, it was hard to go through the holidays, which is about family. Yeah. And magic. And , she just wasn't, Sad Yeah. Yeah, it definitely amplifies the holes or the losses or that kind of stuff, I always wanted it to be magical though I will say I do have another memory of like laying under the tree and like looking up through the lights and just thinking oh, the lights are magical. I was a weird kid, guys, but no, it's so pretty. something similar. It is, done that before. I love you guys. Thank you. Thanks for not leaving me hanging. But yeah, we did all the Christmas stuff. I just don't remember it being like very central, but I believed in Santa until I caught my parents, I think. And I remember Oh my I remember being like, Whoa. And How old that's sort of unusual. I was like eight or nine, like I was, I was older, but I just remember being devastated. Like, Santa's not real, or I, I don't think they even saw me. I just, you know, you can hear the noises and then you realize it's your parents and Okay, so if we're talking about Santa, my mom was really, really passionate about . She always taught us that there was no Santa, from the very, very beginning, there was never Santa. And she would explain to us who St. Nicholas was and where the tradition of Santa came from. But she was very clear there's no Santa, which. Is sad when I, It's so, sad. No Halloween, no I wasn't, yeah, I go through and hug I wasn't allowed to have any of the fun things. So when I grew up and had kids, I was like, I love you, mom. my, my kids are definitely getting Santa and Santa only ever brought one gift. Santa was not a crazy guy who brought a bazillion million All your wishes. Right, because my aunt and uncle, they did Santa with my cousins and Santa brought them literally everything they wanted. And I was like, what bad. am not getting my kids everything they want. Yes, Yeah. We weren't team that either. But yeah, I, I don't know. I think Santa's fun. But on another point, Nicki, my mom had a similar experience to you. So when she got older and found out Santa wasn't real, she thought it was devastating It's very heartbreaking. I think she just didn't want us to live through that, oh, that's, I, I can see that I still love the magic and I feel like with my kids, when, um, when Scott and I got married and we had kids, we had a discussion about it and he was like, whatever you wanna do, we never actually said, there's a magical guy. We never said it. We just let them. Intuitively, you know, like what their kids were talking. And then if they asked us , who's Santa and they're like, is Santa Real? And we're like, well, what do you think? We just always ask, we never lied to them, but we were like, what do you think? And they're like, I think he's real. And we're like, then he's real to you.. Like, That's what I always did too, the magic is in you. like, how did they, but how does Santa get in? I don't know. How do you think Santa gets in ? I would always turn the question around I don't know. They have the magic, They have the magic. And then when they got old enough, uh, Thank you, thank you, And then when they got older, kindergarten, first grade, whenever they got to the age where they like really wanted to know, they didn't want the, the circle. They didn't want like, what do you think? They wanted, answers. Then I was always like, okay, if you really wanna know, let's sit down and talk about it. And then I would explain how Santa was a fun I've, I still have not had the talk with my kids and they're 10 and 13, so I'm sure they must know. I just don't want to, every time they're so Is Santa Real? I'm being quiet cuz they're probably listening now . But I'm like, it's real if you want , I don't know. I feel like the magic of Christmas. First of all, obviously we're gonna bring it back to hello. We're conservative Christian moms. We believe Jesus. Absolutely. But there's just something really precious to me about childhood and keeping it pure, and I really reject everything that's going on with like, Childhood is a myth. Let's get rid of childhood. And so I'm like, clamping down on this is magical. You're a kid. We're gonna love this. We're gonna go ice skating, we're gonna build a gingerbread house, we're gonna do all the things even though I'm tired, because it's childhood and it's gonna be magical. Yeah. Yeah. So our girls, we had the same conversation, you know, about a year ago. Chad and I are like, what are we going to tell the girls and what do we think about Santa? And I was like, well, I don't wanna lie to them, but I also haven't grown up. Loving Christmas, but my parents kind of did something similar to Candace where they told us the history of St. Nick. And I never remember having some kind of Santa epiphany. I always knew that Santa was more fictional, like Santa was like something fun that we talk about. We pretend, but I never really thought Santa like brought gifts. We never had presents labeled as like from Santa. And. wanna say it was last summer. I'm sitting down doing Playto with the girls and we had just watched the Grinch, they found this, they found the movie, you know, it was the middle of the summer and they're like, can we watch it? Of course, yeah. Watch the Grinch. So she's talking to me, Morgan is, and she says something about, is the Grinch real? And I'm like, well, no baby. The Grinch isn't just made up. And somehow we got in this conversation about Santa and I'm. I just didn't even know what to say. Yeah. And I was kind Chad I was like kind of like, yeah, he's, he wasn't even there. He wasn't home. So I'm like, kind of like Santa. We pretend about Santa. And she was like, oh yeah. Okay. And so the other thing that was on my mind is that recently someone had said to me that when they were making this decision that they didn't want to have a moment when they were explaining to their whatever year old. About Santa and, and them being confused about Jesus because a lot of these things feel mythical, right? Like unicorns Santa, the Grinch, uh, the Easter bunny, Jesus, like, it's all just conceptual in a lot of ways. And so they said, you know, I didn't want them to ever question, is Jesus the same as all these other things that we pretended were real, but really aren't? And so in that moment I'm like, you know, I don't want to add to that confusion, so let me, let's just, let's just be honest, but so I kind of was like, I hope it doesn't take, there they were only three, they're like about to be four in a few days, and so I'm like, I don't know, but. All season people have been coming up. Are you excited about Santa? They're like, yeah. And they know we've talked about it again since they know Santa's not real, but they still really get into the idea. And so I can tell they're still just kids. They love to imagine it. It's super fun. Um, and it hasn't taken away from the magic, but they do understand the saint is not real and they understand. They can't tell other kids Yes. And that is something send like the obnoxious kids. Yeah. So my mom had the same sort of thought, like I don't want them to think that I'm lying about Jesus if I'm lying about Santa, but I will tell you there was five of us, and not all of us were nice children. I'm not talking about me. I won't name who abort. So other siblings would go around saying you know, Santa's not real. I'm not gonna say who I think it is right now. don't. No guesses. No guesses. It doesn't matter. I love you all. I, yeah, I like Amy that your kids are still happy I love that they're into the magic because I know somebody, I won't say who right now cause I didn't get permission, but I just found out that the husband told their three year old without talking to them that Santa wasn't real. And I found out because I was like, are you so excited about Christmas? I don't even think I asked about Santa. And they were like, Santa's fake and he doesn't bring us present. And I was, yeah, Candace made a face. That's the face I was making. I was like, now you gotta talk to this kid.. When somebody asks you, you get excited. You don't say, cause like this three year old's gonna tell everybody. So I think it's maybe the way it's presented, it sounds like Amy presented it so sweetly and the girls are like, oh, Santa's still fun. I feel like a lot of little kids when you tell them Santa isn't real, it's fake, it's a lie. They're like, I don't know. It like somehow warps into this thing where you have to tell everybody, it's not real Yeah. like I didn't, I definitely did present it in a super soft, isn't it so fun to imagine Santa? We love to imagine Santa. And then this year during the season, we've told him about St. Nick and who he used to be and how great he was and how, we love to think about so I've definitely always been positive. But the other day Mallory was singing, she was singing a song. They're at that age where they just like make up songs about everything. And she said something like, I wish Santa was real Buddy's dead . And I was like, no, Oh my gosh. Please sound bite that That's so funny. Oh my gosh, she's my morbid one. Like she's the one who loves scary stuff. And so she just is so interested in the idea that Santa's dead because he used to live in 280 and . Like, anyway, So crazy. So, okay, so I grew up in a house where I thought he was real, and I deeply love Jesus. This kind of reminds me of like back to the Halloween conversation can you love Halloween stuff and still be a Christian? I think that there is a difference because we're living out our life every day as believers.] Somehow, I don't know, the Holy Spirit, or maybe it's one of those areas you have to like pray for yourself and figure out for your family what's good. Like everything. But I just felt like I never thought for a moment Jesus isn't real, if that makes sense. So I was just throwing that out there as I was processing. Like I Yeah. No, but it never happened to me. Right. And I, I think there's gotta be other ways to do it. We always did Santa, but I always taught the kids from very early on because a lot of the kids stories, movies, all the things have magic, right? And so I would teach them from the very beginning. Magic isn't real. It's very cool. It's very fun. But you know, witches, wizards, fairies, like all these magical things, they're not real. Well, I remember when the kids were little, this movie came out. And I think it was called Rise of the Guardians maybe. Oh, I remember Do you remember? It's, it was like all these fairy tale characters. So it was Santa the Sandman, the Easter Bunny, all these figures for different, holidays and I can't remember which one it was cuz this was too long ago. But one of them was like, wait, all these characters are not real because there's magical. So is Santa also not real ? And I was, Connecting the dots. I love it. So they figure, they figure it out? They figured out, right? They figured out. I mean, magic is not real and Jesus is not magic. So you have to like, they have to be separate. Yeah, that's good. know that Santa is my mom. Cuz my mom writes from Santa on all her presents. She's Santa. We don't buy anything. Like the Santa gifts come from my mom and they're like, Nina's, they've been saying for several years. Like, Santa's handwriting looks just like Nina's . So, so They're just giving you a hard time.. Yeah. Oh, Something else that I have always loved that's I also think is so nerdy, but I still love it, my mom has this painting. She always, it's like a cute little like painting of Santa bowed down. baby Jesus. Yeah. I've a lot in, I think in my grandpa's home, same thing. So the image of Santa bowed down to baby Jesus. And, and the conversation of which I've had with the girls too is like St. Nick served Jesus, Santa served Jesus. So I also love that. And I think I see in a lot of Christian homes where people are not explicitly saying, Santa's not real. There's definitely still. Explicitly Santa is serving Jesus. It's not, I think what happens in some homes, especially not Christian homes, is just that Santa is the whole thing, and that's what a lot of us are like trying to avoid. And there's a lot of different ways to do that. So I feel like it works. Yeah, I, I think there's lots of different ways that you can do it, and my mom has the same thing. I love it. It's like a little sculpture of Santa, like crying, bowing to Jesus. I beautiful. It's super beautiful. Especially, so I thought St. Nick was, you know, medieval times or later, but he actually was I think 280 ad, which means he was pre Catholicism, like he was not, I did not know I my mind, he was this very Catholic monk type guy. But my, I need to do more research. But hearing that he's actually from like 280 ad. I'm like, he's like a legit Christian. He's like a Christian, Christian, not just I don't know. So I think that's yeah, Yeah. That's very cool. I thought he Yeah. No, I understand. Yeah, I mean, that's like the contemporaries of like the people who were writing the gospels and carrying them. I mean, a little bit later, but not that much. So. know that he was somehow connected to the heritage of the apostles in a pretty direct way. So, That's I thought that was cool. Mm-hmm. That is crazy. Yeah. Chad taught me that Chad's always teaching these stuff. Manone. So I think the other thing that burns me out, I mean this is all worldly perspective we should get into like non worldly perspective is like the gifts I feel like that was like a big deal in our family. And so people over. Uh, what's the word when you. Go above the or above what you can, what you have capacity to do, like spending money when you shouldn't like beyond your means. Yeah, so I think I have that connotation with it too, that there's a hundred people in our family and I had to buy a hundred presents. And so I think only more recently God's been redeeming that and been like, Just be together. And so that's been a hard thing to , not, you know, there's just so many things that can be put on us. Are we allowed to be put on us that I'm trying to take off? And just remember Christ is the reason for the season. Not to try to sound like, cliche, but then it's like hard cuz I have friends that are like, it's another holiday that we hijacked. Some Christians don't even celebrate Christmas cuz. Pagan origins. So I had half my family stop celebrating Christmas. About six or seven years ago, it was very hard Oh we were in the midst of, of creating a kind of adult family traditions. Like when you graduate of being a kid and you have your own kids, then you get new family traditions, you know, because you're an all adults. And we were at the beginning of that and it was, I still remember the last Christmas we all spent together. It was so fun. And then it wasn't just Christmas, it was Easter. It was all, basically all the big holidays except for Thanksgiving. Um, and so, yeah, there's a whole thing, and I'm not gonna get into it because. We haven't asked about yeah. Like, I don't wanna be disrespectful or whatever, but, , it was really hard. It actually really destroyed Christmas for years., uh, Aww, Um, but, but some of that family's coming to Christmas this year, and I'm so excited. yay. Yeah, I'm, I don't know. I feel like the, like to what Nikki was saying, the whole point, at least in my heart and mind, is yeah, to be together to love each other family, and. I don't know the, the giving, the loving. I do know that people in my family get a lot of anxiety about buying gifts, and I try to always reassure them, you don't have to buy anybody a gift. Nobody cares. Just come and be, and if you wanna buy gifts, buy gifts. But if you don't, if it's giving you so much anxiety, don't do it. Mm-hmm. I, we've moved to a lot of family gifts like couple gifts or just ways to kind of keep it on the dl, but still. I think a lot of us love giving gifts, right? Like it's fun, but it's overwhelming and really expensive and hard to fit in your budget when it's all at once. And that's what's hard. But even like we have, there's 13 grandkids in our family, so when they're all at Christmas together, even the ones who weren't celebrating Christmas would still come later that day because they'd, they'd have presents, right? So the kids come and I remember a couple years ago being like, this is. No, we cannot do this. This is bad. It, it really bothered me a lot, but I don't know. I haven't, I'm struggling too with figuring out how to incorporate meaning and how to incorporate other than just in our conversations and, and stuff like that, but how do you get your kids to serve during Christmastime? How do you get them to embody and act out, I think is what I'm struggling with. How do you get them to like tangibly feel what it's really about? I Um, I think there's lots of ways you can do it. One thing that I have tried to be very purposeful about every year is, Either doing, I think it's called the Samaritan box, like the shoe boxes, or this year our church is doing the angel tree. I, every year around Christmas time, try to be really intentional about we're gonna find children either in the United States or in other countries, and give to them we don't want for our kids to grow and this, you know, it's all about getting gifts. It shouldn't be all about getting gifts. So every year we go around and find people in need and buy them gifts. And then also, I really love this. My mom did this and I carry on the tradition. Everybody in our house only gets three gifts tops. I think she got that from the three wise men, but it just serves to. Again, not put the emphasis on gifts. You're not getting a room full of toys. You're not getting an unlimited amount of gifts. You get three. And because we do Santa, they actually get one more. They get four because Santa brings one . But still, do that too. not a do like something you can wear, something you can read. I can't remember what the other thing is. And then a gift from Santa and then whatever else. Cause we just, you're right. It takes the focus off of what it's supposed to be on. I have distinct memories of. Going next door after Christmas and like comparing gifts and, oh, I got eight gifts, or, oh, I got like, those kinds of conversations. And so I definitely was like, oh no, we're doing a limit. And I heard about the, um, the snowman concept. Where there's three boxes stacked, so it's something you wear, something you read in a toy and then on top was the older. You can put money on it, but I freaking love the idea of the three wise men gifts, and I think I'm doing that instead because I because it's biblical. Yeah. In a way you could incorporate it. I don't know. It's just kind of cool. I love got three gifts. We should get three gifts also, Well, it's kind of cool if you don't do Santa and you're not gonna do the fake, cookies cuz your kids know that there's no Santas or you're not gonna bake cookies Uh, we still bake cookies and leave them out. even though all three of my kids know that there's no Santa. And they all make fun Don because they know, they're like, dad's gonna sneak down He's about Tohow. I love that about your kids so much. I just love them even more now, like, yes. I mean, we make cookies too and I eat them, but I respect that. I love that your kids are like, yes. and they also, I mean, now that they know the truth, they're always asking me questions and I'm like, well, yeah, dad eats the cookies. But after years ago, he tried helping me set up the presents downstairs. He was way too loud and I was like, nevermind, you cannot set up the presents. I set up all the presents, so I bring the plate of cookies up to him, he eats what he wants, and then I have to take the plate of cookies back down He trained you. He trained, he did that on purpose. Candy For real, for real. I have some friends who go, uh, serve food at the homeless shelter every Christmas day, and I'm like, that is goals. Okay. That is, I have all these traditions. I'm not even willing to give up to do that, but No, I was gonna say, as lovely as that sounds, yeah, that for me is goals. Yeah. I'm like, wish I was so altruistic. way better Christians than I am. That's awesome, but it's still blood, Lord. it's still a great idea. Amy, if that's something you wanted to incorporate, you could do it on another day near Christmas Totally. We absolutely could. It is not off limits, the, there's a center near us. We can all go do it together. We can pick a day and we can do Host a meal. The, I can't remember what it's called, the Brisbane Center. Let's go do Brisbane. Yum. yeah, For some reason. I love the box, like the Samaritan Box and the Angel, and I think all that's good, but in my mind for like bougie little children who already know what Target is, which I know I shouldn't be to at Target cuz I'm conservative, but like where else am I supposed to shop? Cuz Walmart's just as bad. Anyway, it's a zone issue, target. Wait, Walmart's bad. No, don't they both give to the same stuff. Don't talk, Leah, Don't talk to me about that. Okay. But, so I'm like, look, kids, let's go shopping and pick out toys. There's something about it that still doesn't feel like they're not gonna hand the toy to the child Yours are a little young. Yeah, it, it wouldn't make sense I don't think to a three or four year old, they would have to be old enough to understand we're sending this to another part of the world or I was just having this conversation with my kids the other day, cuz. We wanna do the angel tree thing. And Josiah was like, the Samaritan box is better because we're sending it all over the world. And I was like, maybe he has world missions on his heart. I was like, well this is what we're That's sweet. That's a good way to look at it. I'm like so skeptical of all those things. We have two children that we sponsor and we send them letters. We never get any letters back. I'm hoping that somebody's getting it, but I tend to be a little bit, Oh man. My brain is like, yeah. I'm I hope this is going to somebody. You look at all these corporations and they're very top heavy with like how much money that they're making. Same with the gifts. I'm like, I hope that somebody actually put these on an airplane and somebody got them. And so I've been trying to like have I heard of a family or the Hope House? Something a little bit more local. Yeah. Just because I'm very cynical. I think as soon as you become some sort of organization. People with money , it's, it gets ugly fast, so I'm no, I really love that we're doing the angel tree this year, and what I told Josiah was, you know, there's something to be said about kids that live in this culture that have nothing. Their parents can't even afford to buy them clothes because a lot of what we're being asked to buy is clothes that's sad. And I tried to explain it to the kids like, you have so much. We are so blessed. You have no idea what it is for your mom not to be able to buy you socks or pants. I buy a, I donate a bag of clothes a month. That's like we have so much excess that we're just like, so I mean, that's very sad We had this, um, mom and a couple of her grown kids come to worship practice last week and ask for prayer, and they needed money to stay at a motel., I said, you know, hey, please come back on Sunday, uh, cuz we could plug you into other resources. And sure enough she showed up and I was kind of surprised. I was like, okay. And I had her come sit with me and we were doing like this movie series. So the kids were sitting in with us and it was the second time I was hearing that sermon cause I was there for both, for I was serving. And the first time I sat through it, I'm like, that was fine, whatever. The second time I was listening to it through this woman's eyes. So here she's sitting here., she's in ratty clothes. She was walked in the pouring rain to get there, and I'm sitting with my kids who have multiple snacks in their hands. like, it just, I don't know the whole, I saw the whole thing through her eyes and it definitely made me feel like if only my girls knew what this woman sitting next to. Had experienced even that morning or even the night before on Thanksgiving, I don't know, it just really struck me what it means to be in the presence of people that are struggling with just basic needs because it's so hard to get past basic needs when you're struggling with them. So anyway, I think that was definitely ministered to me this week, especially in this admin season. Yeah. I don't know why that story's just struck me, but we've been talking amongst ourselves with our family about that kind of stuff. And I take comfort in knowing that the Lord is closest to people like that. The broken, the battered down, the poor, the poor spirit., and this is totally segueing into another topic, but you guys know Francis Chan, right? He wrote crazy love. Like he literally left everything to go live in China, You know where the most people don't have the most stuff because he was like, there are miracles happening there because they have nothing, and so the Lord is just moving. So I don't know. I don't know how it's related, but it just struck me when you said that, I was just like, man, like I'm not, I am so comfortable. And sometimes it's almost like you don't need God because you feel like safe in your comfort. And so to imagine every, every moment needing to rely on him, there's something precious there, even if it's scary. I I really love.. Something I love about this season, especially when we get to dive into Bible studies about it or like sing, I mean, I freaking love worship Christmas songs, I because I'm me too. the whole story of the Bible is just a story of God desperately trying to be close to his people. You grow up hearing, oh, the Bible's a love story, but then you realize, no, the Bible's a love story. It's legitimately just. Trying to be near, and then Christmas is this, it's a very real time where we get to remember like Jesus was as near as he could possibly be. God was as near as he possibly could be for the first time since, I don't know, maybe the tabernacle, garden. Oh garden, was like the garden. probably the garden. Yeah. Because then he was actually walking and, you know, and.. I don't know. There's just something so powerful about it. And then it always gets me thinking about the kingdom of God and the kingdom is here, but not yet. And when the Kingdom of God breaks through in miracles, it's now. And I don't know, there's just, there's so much about it. Yeah. It is magical, but you know, I guess, what's the word that we can differentiate? Yeah. It's holy. It's holy Yes. It's holy and it's good. I, I do love Christmas, even though I've been humbug. It's probably just cuz I'm tired, but bless the Lord on my soul. that is real. there's something to be said for like a simple Christmas. I think. Thank you, Amy. I'm receiving that do have no tree and I still have all my fall decor up and I feel judged. No, no one is judging you. Not at all. my pumpkins are still on the stoop rotting away. To be fair. So are mine. Oh, praise the I just threw mine away today. I feel better now. Thank you. Okay. I'm gonna let it go and I'm gonna start my Christmas spirit to now And, and because I do the epiphany, my stuff stays up till the second week of January. ah, do have a little bit that with you? The epi? I mean, we just talk about it. I haven't done the, I wish I had, but a lot of the Puerto Rican stuff I've kind of let go cuz I've married into American culture. But maybe this year we will, or next year, I guess. January, 2023, we're gonna go gather some hay. We're gonna put out a box and talk about the three I'm gonna have Millie come over and do it with my kids. Let's do it. I was talking to one of our team members who lives in Brazil and um, they don't do Thanksgiving there. And so I was like, Hey, you know, we're gonna be off. What are you, what are you gonna be doing? Since you're just gonna work through, because they take off during part of December. For nine days. He said, it sounds kind of boring, but we actually pray for nine days. And he's not a believer. And so I was like, okay. Waiting to hear what this meant. Yeah. And I'm like, that does not sound boring at all, but. No, but he is not a believer. not a believer, but in Brazil, you know, in a lot of other cultures, all of these kinds of holidays are built in. They're Christian or Catholic. So there's a lot of holidays in other cultures that are highly catholicized, and there's traditions that are related to religion. So in Brazil they pray for nine days, but what that, what that actually means, They have these specific prayers they pray each of the nine days. They do it in at parties in big groups and then there's like Carols attached to them and he said the kids get really into it because they will recite these prayers and then they get to sing like these really fun specific carols afterwards. And then they have this party and they eat and they like fellowship and they do it for nine days. And I was like, I wouldn't to do that . That sounds A nine day party? Is that what it is? A nine day party. Yeah, he said it's, uh, it's to prepare your heart, you know, for baby Jesus is how he described it like, but I'm like, that sounds great. Nine day party. Dang, Yeah. Yes. Can we do A birthday party for baby Jesus? You guys? um, yes, I have two other birthdays in December, but we can also do babies cuz he's the most important one. It's true. Happy birthday baby. Jesus. Should we all sing or does it not let us sing together?, we should, ah, I dunno how it'll come. first. We should all just do it. We'll do it in that, we'll, we'll record it separately and then put it like on the Instagram. So be prepared for some, conservative Christian Mom. Carols coming your way. excited. That would be so fun. Awesome. Well, Nicki, you are released from a complex Christmas thank you. I received that and candy. I hope that you enjoy carrying your plate of cookies up to your husband carrying them back down. know, Okay, wait, I. I have one question though. When do you guys wrap and put your presence out? the night before Christmas. Okay. So I wrap and put presents out throughout the whole month of December. Except my kids' presence, I do do them the night before. Yeah, I'm always miserable the night before Christmas. It's a long night.. I'm a procrastinator. It's not for me. Okay? So for me, it's not procrastination. Here's the thing, all three of my kids always wanna sleep right under the tree. So I'm trying to wait for them to go to sleep. I have lots of time to kill 'em, like, well, I as well wrap these presents, Wait. What about you? Okay. I have so many questions. we just hit our, our time No, I know, I know. We need to wrap up. Listen, I need to check things off the list, so I just wrap them as early as humanly possible. My grandmother, has already bought and wrapped all her presents. That's some of the blood that's in me. but your kids sleep under the Christmas tree. They, yes, every year That is I love your kids more and more today, like everything you've said today, I love your kids. I love them too. I feel like we could talk forever cuz this is the kind of friends we are. We gotta save some of this Christmas 2.0. You're gonna hate us, but. But you're gonna love us. Bye guys.