Thanksgiving, Traditions, And Tangents

We swap beloved Thanksgiving dishes, laugh about cranberry sauce wars, and share the rituals that keep the peace when families gather. The talk widens to seasonal blues, year-round generosity, and the parenting choices that make holidays kinder for kids.

• favorite Thanksgiving foods and recipe memories
• cranberry sauce opinions and stuffing preferences
• family boundaries for holiday travel and hosting
• gratitude rituals that deepen meaning
• seasonal depression and practical coping
• generosity beyond December and who gets help
• gift equity, Santa strategy, and kid expectations
• screen rules, safer phones, and hard talks
• cruise food adventures, budgets, and Buc-ee’s detour

Chapters

• 0:00 Mic Check And Topic Reveal
• 3:06 Thanksgiving Foods We Love And Hate
• 6:57 Family Gatherings: Drama, Boundaries, Peace
• 11:47 Hosting, Open Doors, And Giving Back
• 15:22 Holiday Logistics And Priorities
• 20:47 Traditions We Keep And Create
• 22:47 Gratitude Games And Trivia
• 24:42 Turkey Pardons And History Notes
• 26:47 New Traditions: Turkey Trots And Parades
• 29:07 Seasonal Depression And Coping
• 31:37 Buc-ee’s Detour And Road Trip Joys
• 36:37 Home Life: Pests, Repairs, And Chaos
• 40:07 Back To The Table: Stuffing Wars
• 43:17 Desserts, Nostalgia, And Recipe Swaps
• 48:27 Cruises, Food Adventures, And Budgets
• 55:07 Gambling Temptations And Boundaries
• 58:57 Generosity Beyond The Holidays
• 1:03:17 Santa Strategy, Equity, And Parenting
• 1:09:07 Screens, Rules, And Hard Talks
• 1:15:37 Wrap Up And Closing Prayer

Transcript

SPEAKER_04: 0:37

It gives me a headache sometimes. We're on.

unknown: 0:41

Oh.

SPEAKER_04: 0:41

I got you, East.

SPEAKER_08: 0:43

Moose made it on the podcast.

SPEAKER_04: 0:45

Make sure I got him. All right. So everyone knows what the topic is, right? Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_08: 0:51

I just found out. So did I. Well, she sent a text, to be fair. She sent a text and I read it, but I didn't know for sure that that was it. Yeah. You probably didn't read the text.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01

Well, I seen Thanksgiving, so. Okay.

SPEAKER_04: 1:04

That's about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:06

Thanksgiving traditions and what else, Beth?

SPEAKER_05: 1:10

Just what Christianity stands behind how behind it? Behind it.

SPEAKER_08: 1:17

I thought we were just talking about our favorite food. That's what I was going to start with.

SPEAKER_04: 1:21

So I should say we've got Michael back for the night. And then we've got little Easton. Yeah. And we have Lauren. Lauren. Yay, Lauren. Hey, Lauren.

SPEAKER_08: 1:31

Are you nervous, Lauren?

SPEAKER_06: 1:32

I'm a little bit nervous. Why? Because I've never been on a podcast before.

SPEAKER_08: 1:36

You gotta stay close to your microphone. You'll learn that. Because it'll either push it in your face or I'll yell at you.

SPEAKER_05: 1:41

Three years in. Yeah, don't touch it.

SPEAKER_08: 1:42

Three years in, and Beth still doesn't. She'll be talking like this. Can't figure out what she's saying. And don't touch any wires. Or buttons. Oh, you'll see Roger sitting there scraping this with his thumb, and then you hear it inside of the mic. I'm like, Roger, stop. That's why I actually stopped doing podcasts. I couldn't be in here with him anymore. I was like, I can't do it. He stresses me out.

SPEAKER_06: 2:02

It's quite different in the ears with these head notes. It is. I should ask you, is it too loud? No, it's fine. You sure? Yep, it's perfect. Okay.

SPEAKER_08: 2:07

We can make all sorts of adjustments.

SPEAKER_04: 2:08

Yeah. Yeah, I can try.

unknown: 2:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 2:11

Yeah. Might stop it. As long as it's a little green, as long as the green light's still steady.

SPEAKER_04: 2:16

Yeah, even if it I've learned if it's blinking, we're still good. It just blinks.

SPEAKER_08: 2:20

And I'm like, Oh, on the pad? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's because it's just playing, but it's like turned all the way down. Oh. Okay. Well. If you turn it up, it's still playing. Okay. All right. So Thanksgiving. My favorite part of Thanksgiving, mashed potatoes and stuffing. I'm a turkey guy, not a ham guy. Don't want anything to do with ham on Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_04: 2:37

Has anyone ever heard of dry corn?

SPEAKER_08: 2:39

No, and that sounds awful.

SPEAKER_04: 2:42

No, it's not awful. It's amazing. My grandma makes it.

SPEAKER_08: 2:44

I don't like corn.

SPEAKER_04: 2:46

Well, this is like it's like a mustard brown weird color. Like it is a process how she makes it. I haven't learned how to make it yet, but it it looks very weird and dry. That's what it is. Maybe hence the name dry corn. And people either love it or hate it. Like me, Mallory, my sister, and my dad, we all love it. And like she knows it's us three that likes it. So she'll like send us home with more of like the leftovers. That's probably my favorite because she doesn't really make it outside of Thanksgiving, I don't think. Let me know if you do, Grummo, because I don't normally see it.

SPEAKER_08: 3:22

Let's take a quick vote on cranberry sauce. How do we feel about cranberry sauce?

SPEAKER_02: 3:26

Well, it now depends. Yeah. On what? It depends on how you use the cranberry sauce.

SPEAKER_08: 3:32

You know how I use it? I open it, dump it in the trash, and then throw the can in behind it and move on with my day. It's nasty.

SPEAKER_00: 3:39

I've never tried it. I like cranberry sauce. I don't blame you.

SPEAKER_08: 3:42

Don't ever try it.

SPEAKER_00: 3:43

I never want to. It's very sweet. It's sweet. Is it?

SPEAKER_08: 3:46

It looked, I can't out of the can. I don't maybe if you make it fresh. It like jiggles and I don't know, man. I don't like jello, so I assume it's like jello. It looks like jello. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 3:56

Now I like a cranberry salad. Yeah. Like the cranberries and candles. Okay. So nut.

SPEAKER_08: 4:01

But that's not this giant glob of goo. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 4:05

This still has a ring from the cans on it. That's what I'm saying. Like the pumpkin filling, too.

SPEAKER_02: 4:11

I can't do that. I just can't bring myself to do it. Oh, you gotta have it in with walnuts and apples. Yes. All mixed together. A little bit of carrot. Best way to have it. Then you then you put in Jell-O.

SPEAKER_08: 4:23

Ugh. You know, I tried to name Emmett orangelo. Orange Jell-O. I did. I desperate. I thought it was a fun name. And you'll notice that his name is Emmett, so you see who won the battle. It's true. I tried Lemangelo as well. Lemon Jell-O. Didn't work.

SPEAKER_04: 4:45

Is that your two favorites?

SPEAKER_08: 4:46

No, I don't like jello at all. Jell- is nasty. Jell-O's disgusting.

SPEAKER_04: 4:50

I just thought it was a fun name. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 4:53

There's nothing good about Jell-O.

SPEAKER_04: 4:55

Have you ever had fruit in it? Like fruit cocktail? My grandma would put fruit cocktail in it.

SPEAKER_08: 5:00

My grandma made it something with like pistachios and like is it green?

SPEAKER_04: 5:06

Yeah. So I that's the good stuff. I make that, but it's not pistachio. It's like lime jello and oh crap, what's it called? Um, it's got pineapple in it.

SPEAKER_02: 5:18

Cabbage?

SPEAKER_04: 5:18

No, no, no. Cabbage. No apple.

SPEAKER_06: 5:21

It's like a fruitcake.

SPEAKER_04: 5:22

Yeah, kind of. Whip. It's got cool whip. It's like jello. And then you I don't know. It's it's really really good.

SPEAKER_08: 5:29

That's what my grand, I think it's the same stuff my grandma makes. No cabbage, though. I don't know where that's.

SPEAKER_02: 5:35

It's gotta be shredded up.

SPEAKER_04: 5:37

For what? Mine has pear juice and pears shredded.

SPEAKER_08: 5:43

Oh. Nobody can see my pear.

SPEAKER_04: 5:47

With a cheese grater. Oh my god. Out of the can? Yeah. Oh, that's nasty.

SPEAKER_07: 5:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 5:53

Oh lord.

SPEAKER_04: 5:55

Well, yeah. The the pear, I guess, like the pears that I had from Amish Country the other day, those would have been way too hard.

SPEAKER_02: 6:02

Oh no. Well, no, that that those would great, great. Those would great great. Oh, geez.

SPEAKER_04: 6:08

They were great, great.

SPEAKER_08: 6:09

They're great grated.

SPEAKER_04: 6:12

Well, it's Lauren's favorite holiday. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 6:16

Thanksgiving is? Yes. Really? Yes.

SPEAKER_02: 6:19

Interesting. We gotta leave because she's she she's she's bashful. Oh yeah, we gotta let her talk. Okay. You gotta jump right in. I'll go, I'll go all day. So yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_06: 6:29

My grandma always made the gravy from the from the turkey and its bones and all of that. And it was just she'd let it simmer on on the stove all day, and it was just always so delicious. It was my favorite part. Yes. And then she'd always make a ham and then she'd cut the ham up and make like a ham soup afterwards. Oh, that was just the ham bone? Yes. That was just it was always my favorite. And it's like the only time of the year that my family gets together and like is on their best behavior. So it's like always my favorite because it's we're all normal, you know?

SPEAKER_04: 7:00

It's funny you say that because one of the first years I was with Chase, like we were leaving one of his grandma's, and the brother's like, Well, this was a really good holiday. No one fought, nothing. I'm like, you guys should not be looking at holidays like this. This is terrible.

SPEAKER_08: 7:14

This is a highly rated holiday because nobody got in a fist fight in the front yard.

unknown: 7:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 7:20

Well, that's a good pull.

SPEAKER_06: 7:21

Yeah. Christmas is the worst. It's always something bad always happens. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 7:25

Well, I think Christmas, the emotions get high because everybody gets up too early, right? Like, especially if you've got kids, everybody's up early. Yeah. I need a nap by 10:30. Like that day stresses me out. The day's almost over. Right, exactly. By noon, I mean everybody should be going back to bed. Right. Anyway. So I get it. Like Christmas, something stupid happens because everybody's tired, everybody's grumpy. I remember my dad used to, like, he's still to this day, he would always make a big Christmas dinner, and we would go to like all of us kids with our own kids would go to their house. And inevitably, my sister would end up fighting with somebody, or my brother would bring one of his girlfriends. I my brother proposed, I hope he's listening to this. Proposed to a girl at my family's Christmas. We had never met her prior to this moment. And he proposes in front of everybody. You want to talk about weird, right? Like, come on, man. Get it together. Did she say yes? No. Well, she, I think she did. I think she did. But it lasted about 45 minutes past the Christmas. Here's the deal.

SPEAKER_02: 8:29

He didn't get up too early.

SPEAKER_08: 8:31

My brother asked me, he's like, hey man, will you go with me to pick her up from work? She had to work in the morning. I said, sure, yeah, whatever. So I drove him. And uh on the way up, he's like, I'm gonna tell you something before I tell everybody else. I'm like, what's that? He's like, I'm gonna propose to her at the at Christmas. And I'm like, you shouldn't do that. I was just like, I'm gonna you really shouldn't do that. And yet he did. And alas. And that's the end of the story, huh? Weird.

SPEAKER_05: 8:55

Nothing like putting her on the spot. Right.

SPEAKER_08: 8:57

That's what I'm saying. Like, why wouldn't she have said yes? That was uncomfortable. And it wasn't like it was her family, it was our family. So if she said no, what were we gonna do? Throw her out.

SPEAKER_04: 9:04

Right. Maybe that's why he did it. Maybe he's like, well, she has to say yes.

SPEAKER_08: 9:08

I can't tell you the number of times he showed up to my family's house with a girlfriend or a a friend, just another guy friend on Christmas to my mom and dad's house. Like he would show up to Christmas with extra people. We're like, Well, it's him plus one. We're we're opening presents, and this person's just awkwardly sitting there because they aren't included, obviously. That was weird. Anyhow, back to Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_05: 9:32

Or yeah, we had a family member that did that. My mom learned to buy extras. Have an extra gift.

SPEAKER_08: 9:36

Yeah, buy a backup.

SPEAKER_05: 9:37

Yeah, she's like, go get that gift that's back by the bed.

SPEAKER_04: 9:41

Especially like the white elephant ones, and you'd never know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 9:44

Yeah. Somebody got slippers and a blanket.

SPEAKER_06: 9:48

Talking about bringing somebody over for Christmas. That's one thing I do love about Thanksgiving is being able to invite because like the people don't have food. And I'm like, come on over, like everybody's invited, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_08: 10:00

I think the difference is is there are it's not a gift exchange. Right. So, like, as long as there's food, great, wonderful at Thanksgiving. And we, my family has always donated a Thanksgiving to a family in need. So we'll find, we'll ask around, and if anybody knows somebody, then we'll donate a basket to a family in need. We are we always have an open invitation at our house on Thanksgiving and on Christmas. There are people who have nowhere else to go. So if they're bored or just need somewhere to be, they're always welcome to our house.

SPEAKER_07: 10:27

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_08: 10:28

But but I've never had anybody take me up on it. And I fear that if they did, I would be like, What are we gonna do?

SPEAKER_02: 10:35

Like You know you shouldn't have said that.

SPEAKER_08: 10:37

I know, right? We're gonna have a bunch of people show up. Well, we won't be home on Thanksgiving this year. So yeah, but I know where your dad lives. It's not my dad. I know where your grandma lives, dude. No, it's not gonna be at her house either. We're going to we go to Alyssa's family's on Thanksgiving. So we we does anybody else prioritize holidays? Meaning you So like my parents get prioritized holidays and then Alyssa's family gets prior to holidays.

SPEAKER_04: 11:00

No, but that's a good idea because the one Easter might have been last Easter. I was just like, I'm not I refuse to move Cooper in three locations all day. And my dad's like, you win some, you lose some, Sid. Like, we don't care. I'm like, yeah, but I don't want it to be every year. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_08: 11:14

So what we have done is her family always does a big Thanksgiving dinner at the Lions Club in Sheridansville. Shouldn't have just told Roger he's gonna show up now. Okay, that's close. So we they always do a big Thanksgiving dinner, so we almost always go there for Thanksgiving. My parents have historically stopped having Thanksgiving dinners because my brother couldn't come or my sister couldn't come or whatever, so they just stopped doing it. So we usually go to her grandparents for Thanksgiving and then we pack leftovers home for dinner that night. But then Christmas, we always we don't travel in the morning. Yeah, it's that's a no-fly zone. We don't, it's not negotiable, we don't talk about it, but anybody's invited to our house. So if my grandparents want to come, my parents want to come, my sister, my brother, any of those people, they're welcome. But we don't we don't travel on Christmas morning.

SPEAKER_06: 12:01

We do the same.

SPEAKER_08: 12:02

And I've got five kids, yeah, three smaller children, and you know, we want to be able to enjoy that time. Plus, I mean, once kids start to open gifts and there's stuff to build, like that's the rest of my day.

SPEAKER_06: 12:13

150 batteries. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_08: 12:16

We we uh we actually just take stock out in Duracell. Like we we just buy, we trade some stock in Duracell. That way at least we get some money back from the money we're spending. So we prior prioritize Christmas with our immediate family. And then this year my parents are having Christmas dinner at their house. So they'll come to our house in the morning, then we'll go out to their house in the evening. Yeah, but it will be low pressure, like my dad said, He's like, hey, if you guys can't make it till six, whatever. Yeah, we're it's fine. But it gives us an opportunity to get rested and everybody grounded because it's a big morning, and then head out there. But nap time. Yes. Now I I have to have a nap on Christmas Day, otherwise I'm grouchy. Which is normal, but I just I'm now I'm grouchy with a nap. I mean a little bit different.

SPEAKER_02: 13:05

See, you're always grouchy.

unknown: 13:09

Definitely.

SPEAKER_02: 13:10

Wow, bro. You're walking home. Hey, I'll take you home.

SPEAKER_08: 13:14

I'll take you home.

SPEAKER_03: 13:14

I'm just down. I won't take you home. I'm just barring. I'm just around the block.

SPEAKER_08: 13:18

Well, you're taking him to your house, though. You ain't bringing him to mine. He's sleeping out on a porch tonight.

SPEAKER_05: 13:22

He can snuggle up with Brooke.

SPEAKER_04: 13:25

Yeah, so you don't have to. I got my watch.

SPEAKER_08: 13:28

Oh, he's like, I got my watch. I'll call my mom.

SPEAKER_06: 13:32

Last year Adelaide got up around 1:30 right after Sansa had came. And we're like, as soon as we saw her, we're like, oh no, I don't think Sansa's come yet.

SPEAKER_08: 13:43

As long as you can catch them before they get to the tree. Now, I remember as a kid, we're not really talking Thanksgiving, we're talking Christmas right now, but I remember as a kid when we would wake up four or five in the morning, we would sit at the top of the steps because we had a two-story house, and we would like giggle and chit-chat and wait for my parents to allow us to come downstairs. And when we heard the coffee pot kick on, because my mom wasn't a coffee drinker, but my dad was, we're like, okay, we're on the right track, like it's gonna happen soon, right? My kids though, it's one story house, they don't even come back to the bedroom, they go straight to the living room. There's presence, it's time to get up.

SPEAKER_01: 14:17

Yep, you're you're getting off. I'll wake up at like maybe six, and then I'll be like, oh, it's Christmas morning.

SPEAKER_08: 14:23

Like at six or seven.

SPEAKER_01: 14:25

Six or six.

SPEAKER_02: 14:29

More on the six side and yeah, yeah, more on the six, less on the side.

SPEAKER_08: 14:34

But he doesn't, they won't typically wake us up. They'll sit and stare, and we also allow them to open their stockings without us. So they can see whatever's in their stockings and then usually a couple small toys, whatever they can hang out and play.

SPEAKER_04: 14:46

But like that idea.

SPEAKER_08: 14:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 14:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 14:51

Yeah, buddy. We talk about foods that your grandma only makes on my my mom, she makes these can or she used to make these candied candied apples. Oh you take red red cinnamons, and they gotta be Brocks. They can't be the jeepies. They can't be the cheebies. No, because they it it does make a difference in the taste. And then you put put them in a bowl, in a pan, heat them up, melt them, put sugar in there, and then you put your apples in there and leave them cook. And they get nice and red and cinnamon. Cinnamony.

SPEAKER_05: 15:28

That sounds like that. So did she do that for Christmas or for Thanksgiving?

SPEAKER_02: 15:31

Christmas and Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_08: 15:33

My grandma's is homemade noodles, and I love her homemade noodles. And there is always a fight at the end of dinner at grandma's house for who's taking the leftovers. Because grandma doesn't want them. No. Like somebody else, please take these. And it's always a fight. And does anybody else not use real Tupperware in the holidays? Like we get a Kool-Whip bowl or a butter dish, or sometimes you take it out in plastic bags. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 15:58

Plastic bags always for me. My mom's always not getting our Tupperware.

unknown: 16:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 16:03

I walked out of my grandma's house with a Ziploc bag of noodles, a Ziploc bag of mashed potatoes. Here's some turkey. You gotta do what you gotta do. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 16:11

Jarve's mom always made the best homemade noodles. So this Christmas we went there, and that's Clayton must have been about 12 or 13. So he was in his like chunky chunky stage. And so we were going home and it had snowed really bad. Well, we've wrecked. And the car went up in a ditch and on up on its side, and every Sarah's screaming and carrying on, crying, and Clayton's got the bowl of noodles going, the noodles are okay, the noodles are okay, holding them up. Didn't worry about the car, didn't worry about brother or sister's hurt or not.

SPEAKER_01: 16:43

The noodles are good. We're good. I do the same thing.

SPEAKER_08: 16:47

He would, he would save the noodles, save the food.

SPEAKER_01: 16:50

Yeah, I always need food for tomorrow.

SPEAKER_08: 16:53

Now, listen, this is a kid that will eat literally anything for breakfast. Like, there aren't breakfast foods for him. All food is food, right? Well, so he'll get up in the morning and be like, I want ramen for breakfast. Or he'll have whatever the leftovers were from the night before. Like that's he doesn't my kids do the same thing. He doesn't like categorize food.

SPEAKER_06: 17:14

Pizza?

SPEAKER_08: 17:14

Oh, pizza's our pizza.

SPEAKER_04: 17:16

Yes, me and him eat it. That's our favorite breakfast. Mine too. Mine too.

SPEAKER_08: 17:19

That's our favorite breakfast.

SPEAKER_04: 17:19

My the the thing I was talking about earlier, the dessert with the pears, it is called sea foam salad. Sea foam salad.

SPEAKER_02: 17:25

Oh, okay. Yeah, I've heard of that.

SPEAKER_04: 17:27

Uh-huh. It's got pear juice, lime jello, cream cheese, cream of oh no, it's either cream or milk.

SPEAKER_08: 17:35

I thought you were gonna say cream of mushrooms.

SPEAKER_04: 17:37

So did I. I'm like, there's no mushrooms and coal whip and pears.

SPEAKER_08: 17:42

So stop while you're ahead on that one.

SPEAKER_04: 17:44

Yeah, but we never knew what it was called growing up. So it was like, Grandma, did you make the green stuff? Like that's what we call it. The green stuff.

SPEAKER_08: 17:51

My grandma makes a Cool Whip dessert that has like a chocolate pudding layer, and then the crust, like the bottom layer, is made out of like crushed walnuts.

SPEAKER_06: 17:58

Mm-hmm, that'd be good. It is so good. So good.

SPEAKER_08: 18:01

Another one that we fight over at Thanksgiving at grandma's house.

SPEAKER_06: 18:04

The last couple of years with the kids, we've just been wanting to do it, like me, my husband, and our children. And we've like been trying to like perfect the foods that our loved ones, like the ones that we have lost. And my grandma, she used to make these white cookies that were like covered in a powdered sugar. They were like a ball. Yes. Russian tea cake.

SPEAKER_08: 18:22

Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_06: 18:23

What are they called? Russian tea cake.

SPEAKER_08: 18:25

Russian tea ball. Yeah. That would be the ball. Oh, okay. They do make them in, you can make them in a cake too.

SPEAKER_06: 18:30

But that was just always my favorite from her. And then my dad, he makes these weird little black olives, like covered in cream cheese, and then the walnuts. I was never really a big fan of it, but my kids, they love that. So we're just like trying to take on the traditions that my family always did, just together, you know?

SPEAKER_08: 18:47

Yeah, I think that's the beauty of Thanksgiving too. So I'm I'm not a traditional person, I don't particularly care for like one set tradition. So in the world of Christmas, what I have done is I have bought something that my kids have grown up with that I plan to pass to each one of my children. So for instance, I have a Polar Express that has just about every year that my kids have been alive has run around the bottom of our Christmas tree. Now, the tree changes, like so sometimes it's on the in the tree that's in the dining room, under the living room tree, like that tree changes. But that Polar Express is a staple of our Christmas every year. My leg lamp, obviously, because who doesn't need a leg lamp? And I mean this thing's full size, so it's it's a monster. Like it's looks like a big leg. Slightly ridiculous.

SPEAKER_04: 19:34

I was thinking I need to get one because my huge window, I can't put a tree there now, but I've got a nightstand right there, right in the middle of it. Like that needs a lamp.

SPEAKER_08: 19:43

That perfect spot. We buy a Swarovski Christmas ornament every year. So there that's we started when we got married. Alyssa and I started when we got married, and we buy one every year, and that's our kickoff to Christmas. So we'll go to uh Easton Town Center, go straight to the Swarovski store, buy our ornament, and then start Christmas shopping. In years recent, we've had to start shopping before then because there's not enough time. But so we've got that. What else do I have, Moose? Oh, our pickle. We do a Christmas pickle that we lost. I know, I think I know where it's at. We hide the it's only about an inch. Yeah, it's tiny little pickle, and we hide it inside of the Christmas decorations. Whoever finds the pickle gets an extra present on Christmas.

SPEAKER_04: 20:23

And that's German, right? I have no idea because my family did does it too, and it was on both sides of my like my mom's side and my dad's side. I'm like, well, we only have like one like similar background, and it's both German. So I'm like, it must be German.

SPEAKER_08: 20:38

So we do the pickle, and then there was I don't remember the other one. I don't remember. But we've all we've got something basically to pass down to each of the kids. They all fight over the train. Everybody says they're getting the train, they're getting the train. But anyhow, so not typically traditional, like other than that, there's really nothing in our house that remains the same for Christmas, and we don't go to the same places or do the same things or for Christmas. But Thanksgiving, again, I think the beauty of that is that you can be very traditional with it because it's a limited, it's mostly food.

SPEAKER_03: 21:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 21:11

It's not again gift giving and traveling and things like that. So I do enjoy that part of Thanksgiving. So that's really cool that you do that.

SPEAKER_06: 21:18

I think the only actual traditional thing that we would do on Thanksgiving was like the first bite rule, nobody eats until somebody says something silly that they've been grateful for about the year. So that's like I think the only thing that would pass over at the year. Yeah. But everything else is just that's a super cute idea.

SPEAKER_08: 21:33

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 21:34

It's fun.

SPEAKER_08: 21:35

We for several years, we didn't do it this year, and I'm not sure why, but we didn't. We did the Grateful Grateful Turkey. So Alyssa would draw a turkey on a brown piece of construction paper, and then she would cut out just tons of feathers, and every night at dinner, each one of the kids would say what they were thankful for, and we you couldn't repeat, and then we would glue it to that turkey. And so by Thanksgiving, that turkey was humongous to the point where you couldn't hang him on the fridge anymore. He was just too big.

SPEAKER_06: 22:01

I love that idea.

SPEAKER_08: 22:02

Yeah, that was a just a fun oh yeah, something to keep everybody kind of grounded in what we were doing.

SPEAKER_05: 22:08

So Beth. Trivia. Oh, my trivia.

SPEAKER_08: 22:11

Oh, you got trivia.

SPEAKER_05: 22:12

I do. She does. Unless you were gonna say something. Well, I was, but that's well, no, go for it. I was just gonna say growing up, we I always went to my grandmother's and spent the night and helped make the dressing and do that. The night before? The night before.

SPEAKER_08: 22:24

And you know why they did that? Get her out of the house so they could go Christmas shop.

SPEAKER_05: 22:28

Probably. Yeah. Then I you know, wake up in the morning, you wake up to the smell of the turkey wake you up, you know, cooking. But so we still get go to my mom's on Thanksgiving the Eve and Yeah, and still do that. Still do. We make the pies and we make the dressing and everything. And then it's toted to where whoever's whoever's toasting. So, but yeah. So I did have a few, like the first one was uh when was the first Thanksgiving celebrated?

SPEAKER_08: 22:58

I don't know.

SPEAKER_04: 22:59

Well, think about Easter around Columbus Day.

SPEAKER_08: 23:03

You're asking like you're the one in school right now.

SPEAKER_05: 23:06

Nick be able to fire these. I know.

SPEAKER_08: 23:08

This like I don't I don't do history.

SPEAKER_05: 23:10

Six night it was sixteen twenty one. Sixteen twenty one. And it was called the first harvest celebration. Oh this one Nick would know. Who was the first president to declare Thanksgiving an actual holiday?

SPEAKER_08: 23:24

Lincoln.

SPEAKER_03: 23:25

Yep. That's what I was gonna say. I was actually say that, but I was like, Well, who was the first one to pardon a turkey?

SPEAKER_08: 23:31

Because that's an asinine. Oh, I didn't know there was a every year the president pardons a turkey.

SPEAKER_04: 23:37

Oh, I don't know.

SPEAKER_08: 23:38

Like pardons, like it's like a celebratory, like this turkey doesn't die. He goes to a farm and lives out the rest of his life because he's been pardoned by the president. Somebody's here.

SPEAKER_04: 23:48

So do they all these turkeys, do they all live together?

SPEAKER_08: 23:51

I don't know.

SPEAKER_04: 23:52

Do they all go to one same farm and like hang out? Like heaven, basically.

SPEAKER_08: 23:57

It's my wife. I wonder what she's doing.

SPEAKER_05: 24:01

The other one was who was the president that refused to make Thanksgiving a national holiday? What year? Do you know?

SPEAKER_08: 24:09

Grover Cleveland. Well, it had to have been before Lincoln.

SPEAKER_05: 24:12

It was before Lincoln. I don't have a year.

SPEAKER_08: 24:14

Van Buren.

SPEAKER_05: 24:15

Thomas Jefferson.

SPEAKER_08: 24:16

Oh, what a dirty dog that Thomas Jefferson.

SPEAKER_05: 24:19

He believed that there should be a separation between the state and the church.

SPEAKER_08: 24:24

Uh okay. Whatever. No, I mean let me back up. Not that I'm disagreeing with that because I first of all, let's we gonna do we want to get into this? Because I don't want to do this and I don't want to. First of all, it does not read separation of church and state. It's a separation of church from state.

SPEAKER_04: 24:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 24:44

Meaning that the church cannot be governed by the state.

SPEAKER_04: 24:47

Not the other way around. Not the other way around. Like everyone says.

SPEAKER_08: 24:50

Correct.

SPEAKER_04: 24:50

Oh, I probably wrote it down wrong.

SPEAKER_08: 24:52

No, it's how it's typically said. It's typically read. It's separate separation of church and state, and it's not separation of church from state. So the like and again, I'm not trying like we don't have to pay taxes. We don't pay taxes because we're a nonprofit. You do not have to file for a nonprofit status as a church to be a nonprofit. So long as you meet weekly, you are automatically considered a nonprofit. However, in order to like get tax exemptions and things like that, be able to prove that, it's best to have a 501c3, file all the paperwork on it. Now, that's not to say and and people get upset about that. Well, all of these churches, all of these people are, you know, telling politics what they should be doing in their lobbying and yada yada. Right. Because from a Christian standpoint, it's our desire to see Christ proclaimed to the world. We do that best through our political figures. Now, I also think that we can go too radical on the other side of that, and it gets dangerous either way that you go. So I think it has to be careful. You can come in.

SPEAKER_00: 25:59

Hi.

SPEAKER_08: 26:00

I see you. Hello. What did you bring?

SPEAKER_00: 26:04

Food.

SPEAKER_08: 26:05

Oh. What did you bring? Like what? Oh. Whatever. That's okay. I think I can. I think I can wait. Yeah, you're gonna be a good one. Speaking of hudgy.

SPEAKER_04: 26:17

I I made a new tradition for my family, and it's the 5K that I definitely prepared for.

SPEAKER_08: 26:22

That is dirty of you.

SPEAKER_04: 26:24

Are you ready? Are you prepared? No, no.

SPEAKER_08: 26:27

You haven't been practicing?

unknown: 26:28

No.

SPEAKER_08: 26:29

How do you practice for a 5K?

SPEAKER_04: 26:31

I will say I've done one before, but it's it's been a few years. Preo you just pre-Cooper and you can walk them. I'm like, worst thing, I'll walk them with the walkers.

SPEAKER_05: 26:41

So how far is 5K? Is that three miles?

SPEAKER_04: 26:43

3.1, I think.

unknown: 26:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 26:47

What time? What time does it start? Early. Oh, nine, that's not bad.

SPEAKER_04: 26:50

Yeah. So I was like, well, you're already up watching the parade anyway, you know? And yeah. I don't know. But I did get Mal to sign up and Colton. We were trying to get my dad to sign up, but I'm like, oh, he's gonna be because Cindy kind of took over like Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_07: 27:05

He's gonna be a good one.

SPEAKER_04: 27:06

She does not like cooking, so it's like already a whole ordeal. And like, oh, he's gonna be, yeah, he's gonna be busy. So I doubt he'll it'd be fun if he did, but yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_05: 27:15

Also you mentioned the Macy Day parade. I love watching that. And my grandkids, that is nothing. Really?

SPEAKER_08: 27:22

Well, excited about that as well. It's what you grew up with. I well, and I also think there's a difference too in that was the kickoff to Christmas. It was always the kick when you saw Santa at the end of the the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, that was the kickoff to Christmas. Then you started seeing Santa in the mall, Santa in the in the department stores, whatever. But no, that's not the case anymore. Yeah. We start Christmas in October. At the end of Halloween. Yeah. Because you're not selling candy for Thanksgiving. So it really does, it has shifted, culture has shifted so much to the consumer portion that we miss the feels. You know what I mean? The emotional part.

SPEAKER_04: 28:03

The only thing that hasn't shifted is the tree farms, and they need to. I'm tired of waiting three extra weeks compared to everyone else putting their Christmas tree.

SPEAKER_08: 28:12

Yeah, but you wouldn't want that tree three weeks early.

SPEAKER_04: 28:14

That's very true. Very true.

SPEAKER_05: 28:16

But everybody felt the need to put their Christmas stuff up early this year for some reason.

SPEAKER_08: 28:20

It's because Thanksgiving was so late.

unknown: 28:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 28:22

Thanksgiving really being so late, really messed late. Same day every year. No, it's it's the third Thursday. Yeah. Right. But it's the third Thursday came later because our first day of this of this month was a Friday.

SPEAKER_06: 28:34

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 28:35

So it pushed it back. Much closer to the end of the month than it normally is.

SPEAKER_06: 28:40

We always wait to decorate until after Thanksgiving, no matter what. I usually do, but I started.

SPEAKER_04: 28:46

I just started the past few years because I'm like, this seasonal depression, it's for the birds, and if I'm gonna do anything to make it better, it'll be pretty Christmas lights and all the fun magic.

SPEAKER_08: 28:56

That's a great fun like twist to this conversation. Seasonal depression's real. Yes, it is, and you don't realize it like even as a kid, it probably happens to us, right? Because you're stuck in the house now earlier. That's a bizarre, like when you start to realize that that's happening to you, that's weird. It's really strange.

SPEAKER_05: 29:14

You know, it gets dark so much clear and oh yeah, you know, that's why the whole time change thing.

SPEAKER_06: 29:20

You're lacking your vitamin D in the sun, you know, and because that's the time that we used to spend outside is after school, and now they they have to do their homework, and then already it's it's dark, and it's we are like wanting to go to bed, but it's six o'clock. So it's like you leave for you leave in the dark, you go to work.

SPEAKER_07: 29:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 29:41

Well, and it's like, I mean, I truly understand why they did the time change back in the day and stuff, but it's like now, I mean, it's it it's already shorter days as it is. Why make it even shorter? Right.

SPEAKER_08: 29:55

Okay, you ready? Yeah. I found out who the first president was to pardon a turkey.

SPEAKER_04: 30:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_08: 30:01

All right. So there's actually a list. Oh. So I'm gonna share the whole list. Abraham Lincoln in 1863 was the first unofficial president to pardon a turkey when his son Tad convinced him to spare the turkey's to spare the family's Christmas meal. So it was a Christmas pardon. Then in 1963, John Kennedy was the first president to be quoted using the word pardon for a turkey that he received. Ronald Reagan in 87 uh was the first to formally pardon in a joke the Thanksgiving turkey who was then sent to a farm. But George H. W. Bush in 1989 was the first president. To make the turkey pardon an official annual tradition.

SPEAKER_05: 30:39

Really? Yeah. Interesting. Listen, I can't get over the Bucky hat. I just noticed it.

SPEAKER_08: 30:46

The Bucky's hat? Listen, that was we had to stop at an extra Bucky's to get this bad boy.

SPEAKER_04: 30:51

An extra one? Yeah, so we stopped at three.

SPEAKER_08: 30:53

We stopped at one on the way down and two on the way home. Uh-huh. We stopped at the one. This has nothing to do with Thanksgiving. Why did you get us here?

SPEAKER_05: 31:00

I can't know, but I just like, what is on his ass?

SPEAKER_08: 31:03

We stopped at the one in Fort Lauderdale on the way home. Or no, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Daytona Beach on the way home. That thing was so busy you couldn't move. And so we grabbed lunch real quick and ran back out. And I was looking for just a plain Bucky's hat, but all they had were Christmas hats. So I bought the Christmas hat. Because I was like, I want a Bucky's hat. But it's like red and green plaid on the top, and then like Bucky has a Christmas hat on, and I don't really care for it, but I wanted a Bucky's hat. So we left, and as soon as we get back on the highway, it's like Bucky, 63 miles. I'm like, we're stomping at that one, too. So we stopped and ran in, filled up gas, got me a new hat, and off we go. So now Emmett's got my Christmas hat.

SPEAKER_02: 31:44

Those places are pretty cool.

SPEAKER_08: 31:45

They're amazing. I mean it's like it's like Walmart with gas. Exactly. You walk into the, if you go to the bathrooms. Have you ever been to a Bucky's? Been to a Bucky's?

SPEAKER_04: 31:55

I am sad we did not go when we were in Tennessee. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 31:58

Okay. So you uh you walk in. If you need to use the bathroom, you know how ladies' lines are always really long?

SPEAKER_01: 32:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 32:03

Not there. It may be a long line, but it moves quick. There's probably 40. There's probably 40 stalls in the ladies' restroom.

SPEAKER_07: 32:10

Wow.

SPEAKER_08: 32:10

Okay. The doors go almost all the way to the floor. There's only a tiny little gap, and it's like a hard door that closes, not those little latchy things like we've got here. All right. And above the door, it has a little light to tell you whether or not it's occupied. If it's red, it's occupied. If it's green, it's not.

SPEAKER_07: 32:23

Wow. Very cool. It's pretty fancy. It's pretty cool. Upscale baths.

SPEAKER_02: 32:26

Yeah. So then I have a question. Yeah. How do you know how many stalls are in the women's bathrooms?

SPEAKER_08: 32:31

Well, it was a guess based on how many are in the men's. Yeah. And the thing is, is the men's has urinals and regular toilets. And there's a lot of regular toilets in the men's rooms, so I can't imagine. But anyhow, they also have fresh cut brisket pretty much all day long. And so what do they yell, Easton?

unknown: 32:49

I forget.

SPEAKER_08: 32:50

Fresh brisket on the board.

SPEAKER_07: 32:53

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 32:53

Yep. And so then they'll be chopping the brisket and they're yelling all these things the whole time they're doing it. They make fudge every day. So you can buy fresh fudge every day. They have some of the best macaroni and cheese in the whole world.

SPEAKER_04: 33:04

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 33:05

And the home decor, second to none.

SPEAKER_04: 33:07

Dang.

SPEAKER_08: 33:07

Honestly. Did you see the wall of jerky? Jerky. They've got so much beef jerky. Yes. But but I would say of all of the things that I think is fun at Bucky's. You know what I'm going to say? It's the giant stuffed Bucky that they have. That sits in the back of the truck.

SPEAKER_02: 33:28

He's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_08: 33:29

Okay. So I was making a joke to the kids. I'm like, well, I wonder how much he is, and we're looking for a price tag. And one of the workers said, Well, he doesn't have a price tag on him, but I can tell you how much he costs. Sure. How much? Anybody want to guess? Because he's probably Buck ninety nine. He's probably what, four or five feet tall? I mean, he's big. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 33:47

He's big. And he's on like the back of a truck.

SPEAKER_08: 33:49

Yeah, he's big.

SPEAKER_01: 33:50

Oh, eight hundred dollars.

SPEAKER_08: 33:51

$750,$800. Anybody else want to guess before I tell you?$650.$5,000. Five grand. Wow. And I said to the kids, I'm like, when do you have to ride on the roof? Bucky's going home with us. Five thousand dollars is a small price to pay to have something so wonderful in your home, right? That's true. That's true. My wife made me settle for the hat.

SPEAKER_06: 34:11

Yeah. I don't know what a Bucky's is, but um, I was in Kentucky and they had a really cool gas station there while we're on this topic. It was a disco ball bathroom. Nice. They you go in there and it says, Don't press this button, and obviously you have to press it. It's mute. Yeah. And it just starts playing disco music. And I was we were just we were on our way through, and this was the coolest thing ever. We're all like recording.

SPEAKER_08: 34:33

In the bathroom. In the bathroom. We went to Legoland many years ago when the kid when the two oldest boys were just little, and their elevator in the Legoland hotel is dance party. So when you get in and the door shut, like it's normal when the door's open, the door shut, the floor lights up and starts, and then music starts playing, and everybody dances the whole way up to your floor.

SPEAKER_07: 34:53

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_08: 34:54

So on the cruise, Adeline treated every elevator ride like a dance elevator. She danced in every elevator the entire time. All the way up, all the way down. She didn't care how many people. She didn't care who was watching. She danced every time.

SPEAKER_02: 35:09

Well, she'll never see them people get exactly.

SPEAKER_01: 35:12

There's an elevator on that ship, and they have a piano guy in there.

SPEAKER_08: 35:15

Oh, yes. Really?

SPEAKER_01: 35:16

And we wanted to go on it.

SPEAKER_08: 35:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 35:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 35:18

So there's a piano guy that travels around on the boat. He has a piano, great big piano on wheels, and he just pushes it to random places, and he'll take it in the elevator, and then he'll play while he's in the elevator and sing.

SPEAKER_01: 35:28

We saw a video of you singing with the piano guy.

SPEAKER_08: 35:31

He was my favorite. I loved him. That's cool. Yeah, I enjoyed him.

SPEAKER_01: 35:33

We were on a floor and then we saw him and we're like, oh, let's get on. It was full.

SPEAKER_08: 35:38

Yeah, it was full.

SPEAKER_04: 35:39

How big was the elevator?

SPEAKER_08: 35:40

They weren't very big, but the piano took up most of it. So probably only three or four people would fit after the piano.

SPEAKER_05: 35:46

So how did you survive this cruise and not get a job offer?

SPEAKER_08: 35:49

Well, so here's the thing. My wife and I talked about it several times. She didn't, she's having nothing to do with this. She wants nothing to do with this because it's a seven-month contract.

SPEAKER_04: 35:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 35:59

You're on the boat for seven months straight.

SPEAKER_04: 36:01

I've heard that. Wow.

SPEAKER_08: 36:01

No days off. You work for seven months and then you're off. I think it's six weeks they give you off in a row. And then you can resign for another seven months.

SPEAKER_06: 36:12

Lots and lots of money though.

SPEAKER_08: 36:13

Yeah. Well, she told me though she doesn't care how good the money is. She does she will not let me leave for seven months.

SPEAKER_06: 36:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 36:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 36:19

Unless you're taking two kids with you.

SPEAKER_08: 36:20

Well, probably all three. But I watched a video of a lady whose husband works on the cruise ship, and I think he's the cruise director, and so she gets to cruise with him. And she's allowed in both the staff and in the guest areas. So I thought that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_07: 36:36

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 36:39

Did you watch that one documentary about sketchy things going on in on a cruise ship?

SPEAKER_08: 36:44

Well, there were two. There were two documentaries about sketchy stuff on a cruise ship. One, the lady went missing, and the other one was just doo-doo.

SPEAKER_04: 36:53

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've watched both of them. I forgot about the doo-doo.

SPEAKER_08: 36:56

When we got on the on the boat, I was like, Lord, please don't let this happen. And when you learn how the boat works, you can see how quickly that could happen. Because everything is like it's it's like an airplane. Yeah. So when you flush the toilet, it's like high pressure vacuum like to flush the toilet. But your shower is the same way. And so when you shower, you can smell the gas, the sewer gas smell. Like I because I have a really heightened sense of smell. So that was one of my like biggest pet peeves. It was just, I felt like it always smelled like sewage. It didn't, but I always like nobody else could smell it. But I was like, you can definitely tell. And then when you get to a port, you have no idea what they're doing. But they're pumping poop.

SPEAKER_05: 37:39

But you can because you can smell it.

SPEAKER_08: 37:41

No, we didn't smell it. We were right next to it when we were getting back on the boat. It's this great big hose that runs up to the boat, and then they've got this big old tanker down at the bottom, and you know fully well what they're doing.

SPEAKER_05: 37:51

But would now see I thought I could smell it in our bathroom.

SPEAKER_08: 37:54

You may have been able to, but we didn't smell it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 37:57

Those heightened senses have them too. So I always smell it.

SPEAKER_08: 38:02

My wife's like, nothing in this house stinks. I'm like, something in here stinks. And then she finds a finds a rotted apple under the couch or something. I'm like, I told you something smelled.

SPEAKER_05: 38:10

It's always that potato.

SPEAKER_08: 38:12

We've got fruit flies right now. Not, I'm sorry, not fruit flies. I think they're gnats. They're not fruit flies. But we can't figure out where they're coming from. I thought it was the garbage disposal. It's not the garbage disposal. Now they're in the bedroom. Like, because they like spread out. So you get one floating around. I'm like, I'm gonna go crazy.

SPEAKER_05: 38:25

You don't have a rotten potato or anything.

SPEAKER_08: 38:27

No. No, we ate all the fruit, made sure there was nothing floating around that was can't find it, but it's like four or five of them. It's not like oh, there's gnats everywhere in the house, but it's enough to be annoying.

SPEAKER_05: 38:38

It's ladybugs for us right now. No, no, it's not ladybugs, it's stink bugs at my house.

SPEAKER_08: 38:43

Yeah, we we have been very fortunate. We don't have any stink bugs.

SPEAKER_04: 38:46

You know, mine is bees right now. Like since the cold weather has started, like we've been finding these wasps upstairs. And I'm like, they're dead, but I'm like, what?

SPEAKER_02: 38:55

Well, they're froze to death.

SPEAKER_04: 38:56

There was probably a nest in my house. I don't know.

SPEAKER_08: 38:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 39:00

I don't have no idea.

SPEAKER_08: 39:00

Do you remember when Jenny had all those bees in her wall? Oh no, thank you.

SPEAKER_04: 39:04

They're still in that house.

SPEAKER_08: 39:05

Yeah, no, thank you. Well, but it's painted now, so that makes it all better, right?

unknown: 39:09

Totally.

SPEAKER_06: 39:11

He said it's not the season to remove them yet. Oh, they're honey bees, weren't they? Yeah. Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 39:17

Well, now is the season to remove them.

SPEAKER_08: 39:18

Well, maybe it's not perfect season. Maybe it's not, but maybe now's the season to burn the house to the ground. I don't know. Because they it seems asinine, but anyhow, what are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_06: 39:27

We had a bad electrical problem last night, actually. And we woke up to the house smelling really, really bad. And so we shut it off and they were came and replaced a whole box because my husband was not happy. Yeah, he said, This is so dangerous, yeah, and you we cannot live like this.

SPEAKER_08: 39:42

So yeah, because you were there whenever I was trying to shut off that electric. Listen, Roger, you'll love this. Didn't know where the breaker was in the breaker box. There's one, there's like three breakers in the breaker box, okay? And they're all like wicked old wiring. So I'm like, I'll just touch the wires together to trip the breaker. Nope. That breaker just stayed hot. I just kept shooting sparks.

SPEAKER_06: 40:06

Well, that was the problem at our house. It the breaker was broken, so it wouldn't pop. It just sat there smothering all night.

SPEAKER_08: 40:12

Yeah, cute.

SPEAKER_06: 40:14

You're very well could have been a fire.

SPEAKER_05: 40:16

Yeah. Extension cords, probably.

SPEAKER_08: 40:18

Yeah. Yeah, I got oh, I got extension cords through the attic of this place all over the place. Yeah. Some of them, some of them are chewed through by the mice. So they're mouse is next to it dead, but it's fine. Like the cat. Like the cat on uh what's it called?

SPEAKER_04: 40:40

Margie. Margie's Margie's probably listening.

SPEAKER_08: 40:42

No, the one that's on National Ampers Christmas.

SPEAKER_04: 40:45

When the cat gets a cat, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 40:49

I just watched that the other night. It's a good one.

SPEAKER_05: 40:53

So what's your favorite food at Thanksgiving, Easton?

SPEAKER_06: 40:57

Yeah, back to Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_08: 40:59

Yeah, back to Thanksgiving. Way to pull it back, Beth. Good job.

SPEAKER_05: 41:02

Well, fried cat kind of my appetite.

SPEAKER_08: 41:06

Fried cat, that's his favorite meal for Thanksgiving. How'd you know?

SPEAKER_04: 41:09

I can see it. Actually, I can see Easton like grilling it himself. Probably.

SPEAKER_08: 41:15

Probably. Flip it by its tail.

SPEAKER_04: 41:16

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01: 41:19

Probably mashed potatoes and stuffing. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 41:22

He's only saying that because I said it.

SPEAKER_00: 41:23

Yeah. I was like, oh, stuffing. Stuffing's the best.

SPEAKER_08: 41:26

Stuffing is the best. Mom made us a what was it? It was chicken with stuffing and green beans. Oh, I've made it. It was like a casserole.

SPEAKER_05: 41:36

So good. So homemade stuffing or stoked? Homemade. Homemade.

SPEAKER_08: 41:41

Homemade.

SPEAKER_05: 41:42

Homemade. Homemade.

SPEAKER_08: 41:44

Okay, here's my deal. I don't know that I've ever had homemade stuff. Really? No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I'll bet you I'll bet your grandmother has made it. I don't think so. I bet so.

SPEAKER_06: 41:52

I don't like the celery though. Everything else but the celery.

SPEAKER_08: 41:55

See, that's why I say I've never had homemade because I have never had dressing that had stuffing that had celery in it.

SPEAKER_05: 42:02

Now why don't you like the celery? You don't like the celery. Just how crunchy it is.

SPEAKER_08: 42:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 42:05

See, now we always boil ours. Yeah, make it soft. Yeah. I think that would be good. We do the onions and the celery in the chicken broth.

SPEAKER_08: 42:13

Yeah. Yeah. I've never been a fan of celery at all. Like, why do you drink stringy or why do you eat stringy water?

SPEAKER_01: 42:21

It's just so crunchy.

SPEAKER_02: 42:22

You gotta have you gotta have celery and peanut butter. Peanut butter. No, the peanut butter.

SPEAKER_08: 42:27

It doesn't matter how many ants you put on the log, it is still nasty. I'll lick the peanut butter out and throw it away. I am not kidding.

SPEAKER_01: 42:38

And then raisins. Ants on a log. Ants on a log.

SPEAKER_08: 42:42

And then I would lick the peanut butter out and throw the celery in the trash.

SPEAKER_01: 42:46

Adeline would have to eat the celery for him.

SPEAKER_08: 42:49

I don't like celery. It's just a weird of course I'm saying that. I don't like fruits or vegetables at all. True. If little Debbie started making celery, maybe I'd try it, but until then.

SPEAKER_04: 43:00

I don't know. I feel like the stovetop is kind of dry, drier, I should say, drier than like the homemade kind.

SPEAKER_08: 43:07

But I think that's why I like it.

SPEAKER_04: 43:08

Yeah. I do like dry, like, but I also really like my grandma's moist dressing too. I mean stuffing on a regular just for dinner.

SPEAKER_06: 43:17

So do we.

SPEAKER_08: 43:18

We we'll have stuffing with there's uh another chicken meal that she makes. So we'll have so we eat quite a bit of stuffing. Stuffing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 43:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 43:25

Now green bean casserole. Thanksgiving. I'll eat it. Nope. I'll eat it. Yeah. I bring it to every everyone likes my green bean casserole, so I bring it a lot.

SPEAKER_08: 43:34

Well, young adult party, bring green bean casserole.

SPEAKER_06: 43:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_08: 43:37

You'll be my wife's favorite. She loves it. She can't make it at our house because I won't nobody in my house eat it.

SPEAKER_06: 43:42

Yeah. Well, I brought it to the Friendsgiving and it everybody eats the whole thing.

SPEAKER_08: 43:46

So I feed mine to the dog. Scrape it out and feed it to the dog.

SPEAKER_05: 43:52

Speaking of dog.

SPEAKER_08: 43:54

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_05: 43:54

Your dog? Yeah. You know, I finally replaced my furniture.

SPEAKER_08: 43:58

Because your dog chewed through it.

unknown: 44:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 44:00

Why would you ever do that?

SPEAKER_08: 44:01

I was going to say this too.

SPEAKER_05: 44:02

Rid of the dog first. Well, he's caged every day now. Telly he's too smart too.

SPEAKER_08: 44:08

But it takes him ten seconds to chew a hole in the couch. That's the problem. She stops and goes to the bathroom. There's a hole in the couch.

SPEAKER_05: 44:16

I decided I put my Christmas tree up in there in that room, and I thought, well, you know, it looks kind of naked, so I'm going to wrap a few gifts and just put around it. Just empty boxes. Yeah. Every one of them is unwrapped and shredded. I don't know what he thought he was going to get out of an empty box, but he's not going to get any presents under the tree. I can tell you that. He thought he was going to get some fun out of it, and he did. And the bows.

SPEAKER_04: 44:38

Listen, I made really pretty bows, and it took me a long time to make. Was he watching you do this to like wrap them and stuff? Oh, yeah. Oh, I knew it. Because if if he wasn't around, he wouldn't he wouldn't have even messed with it.

SPEAKER_05: 44:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 44:55

I'm surprised he hasn't tackled the tree. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 44:59

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04: 45:00

I don't think I'm gonna put ornaments like the ball ornaments on because we have a lot of like personal ones that are funny and stuff. Cause I'm like, we went into Walmart the other day and Cooper saw ornaments.

SPEAKER_08: 45:10

Oh yeah.

unknown: 45:10

Ball!

SPEAKER_04: 45:11

And I'm like, no, those aren't balls. Those aren't balls.

SPEAKER_08: 45:15

Be pulling them off and throwing them.

SPEAKER_05: 45:16

Yeah. You have to ask Margie about the ball, the Christmas ornament balls that I had.

SPEAKER_04: 45:22

Were they big?

SPEAKER_05: 45:23

Yeah, and they were all hand blown. Um Clayton had a waffle ball pad.

SPEAKER_07: 45:30

Oh.

SPEAKER_05: 45:31

And I was sad and I can hear him saying, listen to this. Listen to this.

unknown: 45:36

Boom.

SPEAKER_05: 45:38

Yeah, quite a few of them. He broke before I got in there. And he still laughs about it.

SPEAKER_08: 45:44

I had a friend that uh bought Faberget eggs for their Christmas tree. I don't even know what a Fabriger egg is, but they're really flown egg. They're not really super expensive, right? Yeah. So he had tons of Faberger eggs for his Christmas tree. His Christmas tree rotated. And he would only buy a blue spruce. He had to have a live one. It was only ever a blue spruce every year. It was ridiculous.

SPEAKER_04: 46:04

And it rotated too?

SPEAKER_08: 46:05

Yes. Yes. So it had a like a tree stand.

SPEAKER_04: 46:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_08: 46:09

The tree stand rotated. And sounds dangerous. It was, they were his trees were always gorgeous. So so beautiful. I mean, he would spend days hunting for a blue spruce. Like the right tree. He had to have the right tree. And he had a house fire and lost all those Fabriger eggs in that house fire. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 46:26

Your tree is so gorgeous. Thank you. I just I'm so jealous of it. It's white. It's so tall.

SPEAKER_08: 46:32

It's flocked. It's so there's a fun story behind that tree.

SPEAKER_05: 46:35

That's not the one you put up last year, was it?

SPEAKER_08: 46:37

No, because if you'll recall, last year we were moving in whenever Thanksgiving was coming around, and a couple of the folks who were at the house helping us move in put up an old tree because the pre-lit lights didn't work anymore, so they wrapped it in lights and made it so pretty. So I didn't like it because it was kind of small. It was only seven and a half feet. The ceilings are 10 feet in that room, and I was like, it's whatever. It's just okay. So I got on MacBed and I bought us a new tree last year. I didn't measure the ceiling first. Did you have to cut the tree off? No, it was 12 feet tall. So it didn't fit. So I had to take the tree back. So then my wife and I, with the kids, drove the Tesla to Hobby Lobby one night to just grab a few things. And my wife says, I love that Christmas tree. It's 70% off. I want it. They only had the one on display. Or so we thought. And I'm thinking, oh, we can probably fit that in the car, you know, out of the box, whatever. So the lady's like, actually, we do still have one in the box. I'll go grab it for you. So she comes out with his there was no way that thing was fitting in the Tesla. Now, we were at Hobby Lobby in Fairlawn. Because they were the only ones that had in stock an item that was supposed to be shipped to us that got lost. Okay. So we drove to Fairlawn, bought that, plus a hundred other things, plus a Christmas tree that didn't fit in our car. The next morning I had to drive back to Fairlawn to pick that tree up. So this is its first year in use, and it is a really pretty tree, but we also bought all new ornaments for it. It's red, green, and gold. So it's like very traditional. Um just speckles of red, not a lot of red, more green, more gold. And I got about sick of decorating it about halfway through, and I said, good enough. And that was that.

SPEAKER_05: 48:24

So is the tree white or is it just flocked?

SPEAKER_08: 48:26

It's flocked. So it's a green tree, but it's flocked. The nice part of that tree is that all of the branches, and I don't mean when they lay down or spring loaded. I mean like when they so you don't have to fluff the tree. When it when you take it out of the box and you set it up, I mean everything is perfectly placed. You can't even bend them if you want to, because they just snap back. So yeah, it's a really pretty tree.

SPEAKER_05: 48:47

We might be going to Hobby Lobby tomorrow. Last year I bought a new one and it was flopped in uh but it it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_08: 48:54

They're messy. They're messy. This one, this one wasn't too bad. When we put it up, it was messy. Vacuumed it up. We haven't really had any problems since. Is Sissy here? I don't know. I think that's what I taught her. If not, it's the ghost of a child.

SPEAKER_04: 49:11

Is she what's she doing?

SPEAKER_08: 49:12

She's in there playing on the blocks.

SPEAKER_04: 49:13

Oh. Let's hope it's not a ghost.

SPEAKER_08: 49:16

Oh, I bet it is. I bet she was, but I bet Alyssa was going out to see Jenny.

SPEAKER_04: 49:20

Oh, yeah. Listen. Yeah, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_08: 49:23

No, crazy is not the word for it. So Marcus's hand. Yeah. Has anybody seen that today? I'm not gonna show you the photos. But it's pretty nasty. Oh, today. You haven't have you seen today's?

SPEAKER_04: 49:35

She took a grinder to it.

SPEAKER_08: 49:37

Yes, an angle grinder.

SPEAKER_04: 49:38

Well, I I was messaging Jenny about those cardboard boxes. And I said, Hey, when you get a chance, can you send me a picture of those? I want to see if Chase has any at the garage. She's like, Yeah, hold on a minute. Like, Marcus just cut his finger out. Like, we're waiting on the squad. I'm like, oh my gosh, are you okay? And she's like, No, like the squad is coming now. I'm like, oh well, let me know if you need anything. Like, oh I'm like, you didn't have to respond to me right now.

SPEAKER_08: 50:00

Bro, bro calls me from the back of the ambulance. He's like, hey, Pastor Michael, I'm high on fentanyl right now. He's like, I'm in the squad on my way to the emergency room. And I'm thinking he's touched something or come in contact with fentanyl and is like, this is dangerous. He's like, no, I almost cut my thumb off with an angle grinder. He's like, and so they've got me hopped up. Now he's just chit-chatting, like, nothing's going on, just casual conversation. He's like, I don't know how people do this every day. It's kind of making me sick. I'm like, don't puke in the ambulance, man. They will not appreciate that. And I hear the lady in the background go, no, we won't. So he's texting me, like kind of keeping me updated. He and Jenny are. And at five o'clock in the morning, I get a text message from him that says, We're on our way back to the ER with Jenny. Her face looks like she got bad Botox. Now I'm like, oh man, let me know how it goes. Keep me updated. Yeah. But before I responded to the text, I had seen her Facebook post of her face, which was slightly swollen. And I was like, okay, that's not good. Yeah. Then he sent me a new photo.

SPEAKER_03: 50:56

I'm like, It's bad. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 50:59

Yeah. Like happened just like that. So, anyhow, they've got her on antibiotics, but she's been admitted to all or at to Union because they can't get her to Cleveland. They can't get a bed in Cleveland. Something's not just praying for her that my goodness. And then Marcus found out he has to have surgery on Monday to fix his thumb. So he cut a tendon. So they have to grin air and so yeah, I guess. I don't know.

SPEAKER_06: 51:20

Jenny was texting me today, well, voice messaging me, and she said, Hey guys. She said, They just gave me my payments. I'm gonna take a nap. And I said, Good night, Jenny.

SPEAKER_08: 51:32

Yeah, you take that nap, girl. You take that nap. But her face did look better today compared to yesterday.

SPEAKER_04: 51:38

Yeah, my grandma even texted me because Alva, she's like, I don't want Facebook. I don't want Facebook. And then all of a sudden she gets Facebook just to watch the reels. And then all of a sudden people are like, Hey, your grandma got a Facebook? I'm like, Yeah, she says it's just watch the reels. And then she texted me yesterday and was like, Oh my gosh, did you see Jenny's face? What happened? So I told her, and she's like, That's bad. So I'm like, I know where you saw that grandma.

SPEAKER_08: 52:00

No, okay, I'm gonna show you the best thing ever because tell me if it was the drugs talking. I don't know. Hold on, let me find my text message thread with Jenny because it was epic. It was epic.

SPEAKER_05: 52:12

She's definitely a little loopy too. Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. I'm just worried about it being done like in her job. Well, that's what I was worried about.

SPEAKER_08: 52:18

And an infection that close to her brain, like that travels faster.

SPEAKER_04: 52:22

Yeah, and it can go in your bloodstream. Like, let's just your kidneys and yeah, all of it.

SPEAKER_08: 52:27

I said to her, I said, it looks like you got hit with a baseball. She said, ha ha, Marcus punched me. He's and then she said he's got the wounded wounded hand to prove it, and then sends me a picture of Marcus with his thumb all jacked up and her face all swollen. I'm like, that's pretty funny.

SPEAKER_06: 52:46

She's taking it so well though. Yeah, she really is.

SPEAKER_08: 52:48

Yeah. And so is Marcus. He's panicked right now with his thumb. He's a little bit worried about like just the surgery. But fortunately, his boss has been wonderful to him. They got him an extra day of vacation and a sick day. So he got two days that were fully paid, and then they basically were able to roll him onto short-term disability. So he's getting 60% of his regular pay. So, like, that's thumb is good. I mean, that's gonna take a little time to run.

SPEAKER_04: 53:15

So that's what it did.

SPEAKER_08: 53:16

And then obviously needing to be able to care for the kids while Jenny is under the weather.

SPEAKER_05: 53:20

Well, Jarve's chewed up his hand before the grinder. Not quite like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 53:25

That little notch right there, I did the same thing here. And fortunately, I caught it before it got too bad, but it takes the meat. Oh, yeah. It cauterized mine. Like it was it hit so hard. I mean, it was deep, but it cauterized and it never bled.

SPEAKER_04: 53:40

So do we know what he was making? Was he his Christmas trees?

SPEAKER_08: 53:44

He was making the Christmas trees, but he was like texturizing them with some sort of like special blade on it, so it was like putting the waves in it.

SPEAKER_06: 53:53

Darn it, now I'm gonna have to buy a Christmas tree. I know.

SPEAKER_08: 53:55

Well, he said the blood stained ones are 50% on it. So Jenny said he was trying to sell them to the girl in the ambulance. It was still pitching sales in the ambulance. That's hilarious. We bought one for our house. They were really cute.

SPEAKER_04: 54:12

I want to buy one.

SPEAKER_08: 54:13

I don't know what we're gonna do with it though.

SPEAKER_04: 54:14

Put it on your porch.

SPEAKER_06: 54:16

There's a lot of soap on the porch.

SPEAKER_08: 54:18

Girlfriend. I got a six-foot nutcracker on the front porch. That's true. Put it out in the yard. There we go. Run a front of the porch.

SPEAKER_05: 54:25

Hey, did your wife go get flowers?

SPEAKER_08: 54:28

Two freaking bags. We got so many flowers. There's a lady in Janaton who was Dahlia's. Are they Dahlia's?

SPEAKER_07: 54:35

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_08: 54:36

Are you sure?

unknown: 54:38

I don't know.

SPEAKER_08: 54:39

I don't remember what they are. But she was giving them away. She was digging up her tubers or bulbs and was giving them away. And my wife is my wife's favorite flower. So she talked to the lady, made arrangements to go and pick these things up. She came home with two Walmart bags full. And they're huge, so you can cut them and make separate starts off of them. So did anybody see our zinnias last year? Our zinnias were literally pouring over into the backyard. There were so many of them and they were so big. So now she's got these dahlias that we're gonna also plant, and we're gonna have zinnias and dahlias everywhere. They're beautiful, but I mean seriously. Maybe you won't have to eat grass to mow. Maybe.

SPEAKER_02: 55:18

She'll just take putting them out in the yard. Yeah, just plant the whole yard.

SPEAKER_01: 55:22

We had some extra bags from the car. And she was like, oh, we didn't grab bags. She said, Easton, look in the back. I'm like, oh crap.

SPEAKER_08: 55:31

And we you can't do anything with them till spring, so now they just sit in the garage until springtime rolls around. I'm happy she enjoys working in the flower beds. It saves me from having to do it because I don't enjoy it. Although right now she's got a bunch of dead stuff in the yard. Stuff that she's clipped to like clean up the flower bed and threw it in the yard and then just left it. And now it's rained on it.

SPEAKER_05: 55:51

Me. Mine needs clips.

SPEAKER_08: 55:52

I haven't even got out there to get mine done yet.

SPEAKER_04: 55:55

Yeah, I still haven't cleaned up the outside, you know, to winterize it.

SPEAKER_06: 56:00

My host is all need cut back.

SPEAKER_04: 56:02

Yeah, mine too.

SPEAKER_06: 56:03

I only have one, but it's the weirdest thing, but the raccoons pulled up my flowers and ate the roots. Ate the roots. So I was like, I don't even have to do it. He already did it.

SPEAKER_05: 56:12

Yeah. Are you sure it was at the deer?

SPEAKER_06: 56:14

I don't I I'd assume it was the raccoons because that's all I ever see on the cameras, but yeah, I don't know. And I looked it up and raccoons like to eat roots. They'll eat the roots.

SPEAKER_07: 56:23

Yep.

SPEAKER_06: 56:23

So I didn't even have to do it this year. I was like, alrighty.

SPEAKER_05: 56:26

I have that antique wheelbarrow that I would always put my impatience in. And those deer would just go in there and they'd root and root and all that.

SPEAKER_08: 56:35

We the hostas on the end of the church don't survive because the deer come out and eat the tops off of them.

SPEAKER_05: 56:40

They get mine right there in town too.

SPEAKER_08: 56:42

Never survive.

SPEAKER_05: 56:43

Did you see them down at your end and come that way? I'm gonna shoe them that way. I thought she said she was gonna shoot them, and I was like, there's some good flowers down there. Leave mine alone.

SPEAKER_02: 56:58

Stupid deer ate all my horseradish roots or uh tops off. I mean, clear down clear down to the root.

SPEAKER_05: 57:03

Yeah, but you're in the country. We're in town.

SPEAKER_08: 57:05

Yeah, right. Well, you're barely in town. You're like edge, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04: 57:12

Yeah, yeah, and I was gonna say the town is cover it's like surrounded by all these cornfields. Like it's a village surrounded by cornfields.

SPEAKER_08: 57:20

Also, our town is not really a town, it's a village, like I said. It's more of a like stuck in the cornfield kind of situation.

SPEAKER_03: 57:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 57:30

At least you got power. That's true. Okay, and flushing toilets. That's right.

SPEAKER_06: 57:33

And then to that. And stray cats.

SPEAKER_08: 57:35

And stray cats. Oh. Did anybody notice that there's a bunch of porta potties outside of Menards?

unknown: 57:40

No.

SPEAKER_08: 57:41

I they can't figure out what's what's happening. Maybe they're maybe they're selling them. Maybe they were renting them.

SPEAKER_04: 57:47

I can ask my brother-in-law, he works there.

SPEAKER_08: 57:49

Does he? I I have to know. Like, are they gonna do a remodel and then bathrooms aren't gonna be accessible, so you have to poop outside? I'm just curious.

SPEAKER_02: 57:56

Like you'd think they'd wait. Well, if you wait until summer, then the heat would make it kind of smelly. Smelly.

SPEAKER_08: 58:02

But there's like five or six of them out there. Like there's a row of them, so something's happening. They're right against the bigger.

SPEAKER_06: 58:07

For the truckers. Maybe people that deliver stuff, maybe.

unknown: 58:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 58:11

Yeah, but they're not that nice for delivery people. I was on the side of the road, seven and a half months pregnant, trying to find a place to pee. That's why that Wayne Wright porta potty became my best friend.

SPEAKER_07: 58:26

That's so funny.

SPEAKER_05: 58:28

I don't know. I think I I I'd schedule my poops a little bit better and set up music porta potty.

SPEAKER_01: 58:35

Yeah, then it's soccer games. Oh. There's porta potties out there, and I'm like, I have to go to the bathroom, but I don't want to go in those porta potties. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 58:43

And those ones, they were really good about cleaning them regularly, but you just never knew what you were gonna find. No, I'm not a big porta potty kind of person. Yeah, I don't trust them. Yeah, this is a great Thanksgiving conversation.

SPEAKER_04: 58:52

Yeah, food to porta potties. Well, you always you always need the toilet after dinner.

SPEAKER_08: 58:59

Uh does anybody have special Thanksgiving pants?

SPEAKER_04: 59:03

No. I do, but these ones that I have on today will, and they might be pretty nice.

SPEAKER_08: 59:08

Yeah, I'm gonna definitely wear sweats because they gotta stretch. You know what I mean? You gotta have gibb. I used to wear jeans, then you'd have to unbutton the top button and maybe let the zipper down a little bit in order to breathe. Nah, I'm not gonna do that. I'm just gonna wear sweats. This is the first year that I've ever actually worn sweats or any type like I was always in jeans before. Morning, noon, and night. I get up in the morning, I put jeans on, wore jeans until I went to bed. Now I get home from work, pants are gone, sweats are on, baby.

unknown: 59:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 59:34

You know what that's a sign of? Old age. And you know what? I'm gonna get me some nice comfy slippers. And then I'm be really feeling it. Really feeling it.

SPEAKER_01: 59:43

Yeah, as soon as he gets home, he's like, I'll be in the bedroom getting changed. Yep. I'll be out in a second.

SPEAKER_08: 59:49

Yep. Sweatpants galore, baby.

SPEAKER_06: 59:52

Now that I think about it, I think I've only worn leggings and a long, like a dress for the last four or five Thanksgivings.

SPEAKER_08: 1:00:00

I joke with my wife pretty regularly. I'm like, hey, what size pants do you wear? Leggings? Because I mean my wife is almost always in leggings. She has a couple of pairs of jeans that she wears, but she much prefers her leggings. And they're comfortable. So why not? Yeah. Yoga pants, whatever. They're all comfortable.

SPEAKER_07: 1:00:15

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_08: 1:00:16

So at some point in life, you give up looking nice just to be comfortable. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 1:00:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:00:20

Like, I'm not chasing anybody anymore. Like at this point, like it jiggles when I jump. So like I ain't got I ain't gonna have no pride left. I have no pride.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:31

That's gonna be me after Thanksgiving. Yeah. Heck yeah. Oh, that's stopping.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:35

Oh, desserts. What do we like? Pineapple delight.

SPEAKER_04: 1:00:41

Pumpkin. I like the pumpkin roll.

SPEAKER_08: 1:00:43

Okay. That big question on the pumpkin roll. Cream cheese or buttercream? Cream cheese.

SPEAKER_04: 1:00:49

Cream cheese. Yeah. I don't know if I know the difference.

SPEAKER_08: 1:00:52

Oh, you would know the difference. You know the difference.

SPEAKER_04: 1:00:54

Okay, then I think it's buttercream. What's Pastor Holly's?

SPEAKER_08: 1:00:58

It's uh cream cheese. Cream cheese. Yeah. It's the only reason I'll eat it. But I don't know, like, if you buy it at Walmart, it's almost always buttercream.

SPEAKER_04: 1:01:06

And I think that's the one that I'm.

SPEAKER_08: 1:01:07

Oh, that's because I did. Okay, so you haven't actually experienced a real pumpkin roll then.

SPEAKER_04: 1:01:12

No, I have. No, you haven't. I've tried it with cream cheese and I don't prefer it that way. What? I don't know.

SPEAKER_08: 1:01:17

Oh, Lord.

SPEAKER_04: 1:01:19

Mine's peanut butter pie.

SPEAKER_08: 1:01:20

Oh, okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_04: 1:01:22

Aunt Kathy, I can catch her peanut butter pie.

SPEAKER_08: 1:01:24

I didn't know she made peanut butter pie. I'm gonna need to talk to her.

SPEAKER_04: 1:01:27

Her, so Chad, her son, they just bought I know, brickyard. Brickyard. Yes. And before all of her and Uncle Ed's fiasco, like they were like, hey, we're gonna have to have your, you know, pumpkin pie. Like, we're gonna have to start selling it.

SPEAKER_08: 1:01:43

Like, wait, pumpkin or peanut butter? You jump shipping. Peanut butter.

SPEAKER_04: 1:01:46

Peanut butter. Everyone's gonna have to know about these. And she's like, well, I could really I could do it, but she's like, I might have to stop making the crust and like just buy the crust. So she might start selling them there. I don't know.

SPEAKER_08: 1:01:58

Heck yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:01:59

But they're really good.

SPEAKER_08: 1:02:00

Yeah. Anyone else? What's your dessert choice?

SPEAKER_06: 1:02:03

Back to the tradition. My cousin Ariel used to make like a cherry dump cake. She'd just put like cherry filling.

SPEAKER_07: 1:02:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_06: 1:02:09

And then she would put like a cake and then butter on it and then bake it. You just put the cake mix on and then put butter slices and then put it in the oven. And it is so delicious. Wait. So easy.

SPEAKER_08: 1:02:20

Wait. Like maraschino cherries? No, like or like cherry pie filling. Cherry pie cherry pie filling. Okay, just pour it in the pan.

SPEAKER_06: 1:02:26

Yep.

SPEAKER_08: 1:02:27

Put cake mix on top.

SPEAKER_06: 1:02:29

Yep, a white cake box, a box of cake.

SPEAKER_08: 1:02:31

Okay. And then just like butter squares on the top so that it's interesting.

SPEAKER_06: 1:02:35

It's so good. And it makes it crumbly. It is very good. Interesting.

SPEAKER_05: 1:02:39

It is so easy.

SPEAKER_08: 1:02:40

I don't like cherries though.

SPEAKER_05: 1:02:42

You could do it with any fruit. Apple pie like your apple pie pie.

SPEAKER_08: 1:02:45

I think you missed my earlier statement where I said I won't eat fruits or vegetables. So I do like a Dutch apple pie.

SPEAKER_04: 1:02:52

So maybe with apples, that would be okay. That was try that. All your years work in an Amish country.

SPEAKER_08: 1:02:57

Probably.

SPEAKER_05: 1:02:58

Well, I think with the apple, a lot of times you can use like the spice cake mix and it's a few.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:02

Oh that's a good idea. That would be good.

SPEAKER_04: 1:03:05

My grandma makes the best lemon meringue pie, but she'll make it for more than just Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:09

Nope.

SPEAKER_04: 1:03:10

But we would just eat the filling, like the lemon meringue. So now she'll like sometimes just make the filling.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:18

Does she make real meringue?

SPEAKER_04: 1:03:20

She does.

SPEAKER_08: 1:03:21

I think. I wish mine would be.

SPEAKER_04: 1:03:23

I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_08: 1:03:24

Yeah, you said your wife doesn't like to make meringue. I remember us having that conversation at one point. Yeah. She I mean it's good, but Meringue is just whipped egg, right?

SPEAKER_06: 1:03:33

I know. Is that what it is?

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:34

It's whites. Egg whites. It's whipped egg whites. And a little bit of sugar. And it moves like jello. Yeah. Is that what you torch on the top? Yeah. Well, no, you don't torch it. You you put it in the oven.

SPEAKER_08: 1:03:43

Oh, oh, oh. That's what cooks the eggs. Oh, see, I would have been like I would have been out there with a blowtorch.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:51

No, that's when you cook it, that's what that's what makes it.

SPEAKER_08: 1:03:54

That's how you do it. I'm Gordon Ramsay over here. I do it my way, Roger.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_08: 1:03:59

That's also why we keep a fire extinguisher under the sink. You know what mine is? Has nothing to do with Thanksgiving. It's not traditional at all. Little Debbie's. Christmas trees. No. Although I do love those. Which by the way went to Target the other day to fill up my snack drawer at work. They don't they they're they were sold. Did not have any Christmas. I couldn't even find any of their Christmas snacks. Their little Debbie Christmas snacks. So instead, I bought a box of zebra cakes, nutter butters, and cosmic brownies. And I'm still on the lookout for my Christmas trees. So I'm gonna find some and dump them into my drawer. Nutter butters, they're good.

SPEAKER_04: 1:04:33

You like the pumpkin things too, don't you?

SPEAKER_08: 1:04:35

No, I don't like the I'll eat them. I'll eat them, but that's not my first choice. The strawberry roll-ups, like the strawberry with like the Yeah, those are my favorite.

SPEAKER_04: 1:04:43

Oh man.

SPEAKER_08: 1:04:44

I keep there's an emergency strawberry roll in my side table in the bedroom at all times. Because you never know at three in the morning when you're gonna want a snack, right? So I just keep one in there. Yeah. Uh mine is cheesecake.

SPEAKER_04: 1:04:55

Oh.

SPEAKER_08: 1:04:56

Plain. Plain plain homemade cheesecake. And don't try to pass, don't try to pass any of that crap that comes in the tub that you like try to split. It's buttery. Like, why is it buttery?

SPEAKER_05: 1:05:08

Yeah. My mom makes the best homemade cheesecake.

SPEAKER_08: 1:05:11

My mom makes a really good cheesecake, but it's hit or miss because sometimes it's super watery. So when you cut it, it like feels like it falls. So it still tastes good, but it's just the consistency is not quite right. But if you want my favorite cheesecake of all time, I prefer to buy cheesecake from Aldi in the individual slices. Delicious.

SPEAKER_04: 1:05:32

Those are so good. Yes. Delicious. The Dollar General Market actually has like Really? There's like three or four slices.

SPEAKER_08: 1:05:38

So it's original berry, strawberry, and like you lose me because I only want plain. And so I go to Aldi and I get the one that's plain, but then I eat it with my fingers. I don't even use a fork. No need.

SPEAKER_06: 1:05:50

Red Lobster has the best cheesecake. Yes.

SPEAKER_08: 1:05:53

We were just talking about going to Red Lobster because Easton has has a newfound love for shrimp cocktail.

SPEAKER_04: 1:05:58

Oh. Oh, I love shrimp cocktail.

SPEAKER_08: 1:05:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:06:00

It's great.

SPEAKER_08: 1:06:00

When we were on the cruise, we went to the main dining room for dinner each night, and you could decide basically what your what they call the starter, what your appetizer was, what your main course was, and what your dessert was. And you ordered everything at the beginning. And one night he's like, Dad, I'm gonna try shrimp cocktail. Go for it, whatever. If you don't like it, they'll bring you something else. Who cares? So they bring him shrimp cocktail and he's like, I really like this. And I'm like, no, you don't, you're just saying that. He's like, Can I get another one? Like, yeah, sure. So they bring him another shrimp cocktail, he eats the whole thing. I'm like, okay, bro, really like shrimp cocktail. The next night he orders a shrimp cocktail and then asks for a second. The next night, they just start bringing him two at a time because they're like, he's gonna eat it. So let me bring him two. On the last night that we were on the boat, he looks at me and says, Can I get a third one? Go for it.

SPEAKER_04: 1:06:44

So Benson's has the best shrimp cocktail and that Joe Tony's.

SPEAKER_08: 1:06:50

Oh, the the one I can't go back there.

SPEAKER_04: 1:06:52

Well, theirs was just like Is that the steakhouse?

SPEAKER_08: 1:06:54

Yeah. I can't go there.

SPEAKER_04: 1:06:55

I don't know if I think it was just how big theirs were. Like I don't think it was It was like a jumbo shrimp. Yeah, it wasn't like amazing, but Benson's so I can't go back to Joe Tony's because the old loms.

SPEAKER_08: 1:07:08

Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, yeah, that's where you that's where you were choking and oh yeah. And my wife basically told me to knock it off. Physically choking on a piece of steak stuck in my throat. I'm gasping for air, and she's like, knock it off. Knock it off, people are gonna stay up. I'm over here right. So I grabbed my napkin, cover my mouth, stick my fingers in my throat, and pull this piece of steak out. And I'm that is so funny.

SPEAKER_06: 1:07:37

The same thing happened to Bobby, but with a gravy packet corner at Shoni's. And I'm like, stop it.

SPEAKER_08: 1:07:44

Like, what are you doing? Well, she's like, I thought you didn't like the steak and you were being dramatic. I'm like, bro, basically choking. And I was like, in the moment when it happened when I started to choke, I was like, this is it. I'm gonna die in this restaurant sitting here. There was no coming back from it. When I pulled that thing out, like I could see stars, like my it was traumatic.

SPEAKER_05: 1:08:10

So did anybody try snail?

SPEAKER_08: 1:08:12

No. No, we did not try Escargo. I tried lamb, which I had never had before. Delicious. Uh did you know that they give you mint gel? Gel? Yeah. Yeah. Did you use the mint gel with yours?

SPEAKER_05: 1:08:25

I tried it once and I did you use the mint gel with yours? With your lamb?

SPEAKER_08: 1:08:28

Yes. The lamb is so stinking good. Why anybody would want to try to top it with Colgate, I'll never know. Well, I it was awful.

SPEAKER_05: 1:08:36

I just couldn't get past that it was a lamb, a baby lamb.

SPEAKER_08: 1:08:40

Oh, I didn't care. They could have brought the whole lamb out to the table that night. It was yummy.

SPEAKER_04: 1:08:45

Could have brought the whole herd.

SPEAKER_08: 1:08:46

Yeah, it was good stuff. So I'd never had that before, so I ate that lobster, obviously, which I've had before, but it was okay. It wasn't great on the ship. You could tell it was mass cooked. Um, it was a little rubbery, but it was good nonetheless. Uh, what else did I try? I ate something different every night. I tried something new every night. But you should do. I didn't go with the S cargo. We had the option.

SPEAKER_05: 1:09:11

I I tried it. It was like eating snot.

SPEAKER_01: 1:09:18

I had red velvet cake. Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_08: 1:09:21

Oh, yeah. Yes, that was a that was an eye-opener for him with red velvet cake. Yeah. Did you did you try any oysters? Did it have any oysters? They didn't have oysters. That wasn't an option. We probably could have had we eaten off the boat at some point, but we didn't.

SPEAKER_05: 1:09:34

So the did they still have like the midnight buffet that has all the ice sculptures and all that?

SPEAKER_08: 1:09:41

No. So we would sneak down, not sneak, but we would go down to the pizza shop on the fifth deck, and we would just get, we would each get five five slices of pizza and take them back to the room, and that was our midnight snack. I just had when we got off the cruise, I said to my wife, if I never see another slice of pizza, I would be okay. I ate so much pizza on that cruise because it was right in the middle of the ship, so it was readily available. Emmett, I don't know how he eats hot dogs anymore. That kid ate hot dogs the entire cruise because on the boardwalk you they had a hot dog stand and you could get hot dogs all day long. And he would go out there and he would be like, Hey dad, can I go grab a hot dog? Like, dude, you just had lunch 20 minutes ago. He's like, Yeah, I want a hot dog. And he'd go up there and he'd get a hot dog, and he'd eat it, and then he'd go back and get another one. But he eats three all beef hot dogs at our house at any given time.

SPEAKER_01: 1:10:30

Oh yeah.

unknown: 1:10:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:10:31

For breakfast, we're like, no, not for breakfast. Lunch, we're like, How many hot dogs are you gonna get? He's like, three, my normal.

SPEAKER_08: 1:10:38

Yeah. And then he crushes the bun around the hot dog. Oh, yeah, that yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 1:10:42

I do it too.

SPEAKER_08: 1:10:44

Really?

SPEAKER_06: 1:10:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:10:44

What's the difference?

SPEAKER_06: 1:10:45

Well, I don't like condiments.

SPEAKER_08: 1:10:47

So I don't either.

SPEAKER_06: 1:10:48

So I just have to, I don't know, just I want it all the way around the hot dog if I'm gonna eat it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:10:53

Interesting. Yeah. Adeline wanted a hot dog, and she wanted a bun with it, and he already like squeezed it together, and she's like, What did you do to it? He's like, What I always do, I squeeze the bun together. We're like, Are you crazy? How do you do that?

SPEAKER_08: 1:11:14

He is Emmett is he's a weird eater. Very weird eater. But the cruise food is the best food. I don't care what anybody says, but that's mainly because it's free.

SPEAKER_05: 1:11:23

Yeah.

unknown: 1:11:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:11:24

You really can't go wrong. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:11:26

Well, and they 24-7. Yeah, pretty much.

SPEAKER_08: 1:11:28

Pretty much. We did learn that the day of our cruise, the day we boarded the boat, if you booked that cruise that day, so boarding day, it was$300.

SPEAKER_05: 1:11:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:11:42

So if you live in Fort Lauderdale or Orlando or any of those places that's a seaport, you could literally cruise. It cost us$3,000 to cruise. Now that was all five of us, and there were some extras and things like that in there. Cost us$3,000 to cruise. However, could you imagine being able to do it for$300 person? And kids sail free. Right. So it would have been$600 basically for that that trip for us. Crazy.

SPEAKER_05: 1:12:08

Yeah. It's anything that's not sold. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:12:11

Yeah, because they want to fill it. They might as well fill it if they're going to be able to do.

SPEAKER_04: 1:12:14

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_05: 1:12:15

But honestly, if you look at a vacation, what you spend on how where you stay, where your meal is.

SPEAKER_08: 1:12:20

Cheapest vacation we've ever been on. Even so I I guesstimate, and this would be hotel stays there and back, which we didn't stay on the way back. So hotel stays. Gas, the food that we ate on the way there and back, any of the stuff that we bought to take with us, probably even the extra suitcases we had to buy to come back home. Uh I would guess we spent no more than$5,000 on that vacation. So$1,000 a piece, and that's really fairly inexpensive.

SPEAKER_04: 1:12:49

Yeah, especially because it was longer than a week.

SPEAKER_08: 1:12:51

That's what I was gonna say. It was it was eight days we were on the boat, and then the drive there and back, we were gone for almost 14 days. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:12:57

Well, and then once you do a cruise, and then when you book your next one, you get Perks and Polaris. You get a cheaper rate.

SPEAKER_08: 1:13:04

We had one guy on our cruise. What was his name? Karaoke guy. What was his name?

SPEAKER_01: 1:13:10

Dan.

SPEAKER_08: 1:13:10

No, no, you're wrong, karaoke guy. The one that always went first. Artie. Artie was on the boat with us. He recorded every song he ever sang at karaoke with his GoPro. But here's the thing: I noticed that the GoPros were for sale on the boat. So I was thinking, that's interesting. I bet Artie's a high roller. He goes down to the casino and gambles. And so he probably cruises for free. He gets his room for free.

SPEAKER_04: 1:13:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:13:36

Gets all of the prizes and rewards and things like that because he spends all of his money in the casino. Would be my thought.

SPEAKER_05: 1:13:44

Yeah, see, that'd be one of my big fears with the way my husband lays casino.

SPEAKER_08: 1:13:48

Oh.

SPEAKER_05: 1:13:50

Because there's no regulatory out there.

SPEAKER_08: 1:13:51

So they it's not like we walked through the casino and I was like, nope, gotta go.

SPEAKER_04: 1:13:56

That's what I would have to do. Chase would be like, oh, yeah. But like, if we'll each give ourselves like a hundred bucks, nope. I'm like out in a minute. And then Chase is like, here, just have mine. Like, really?

SPEAKER_08: 1:14:07

Yeah, I can't.

SPEAKER_04: 1:14:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:14:08

I have zero self-control. Zero. Yeah. Yeah. I can't gamble. And I know I can't gamble. I can't even go to Chuck E. Cheese. I'll be pushing kids out of from in front of machines and be like, get out of my way. I gotta get me a spider ring. Ticket, ticket, ticket.

SPEAKER_06: 1:14:22

Gotta get me a ticket. Tickets, please. I've stopped going to gas stations because of the pool tabs. Those are just way too fun for me. So I don't do them no more.

SPEAKER_08: 1:14:30

I went to the bowling alley the other day and for Chris work work party and they had this machine.

SPEAKER_04: 1:14:38

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_08: 1:14:40

Yeah. And like it spits out a little card and you peel the card and you went. That's a pool tab. Yeah, pool tab. Okay. So have never seen those before in my life.

SPEAKER_04: 1:14:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:14:48

Joes. Little Joes. Big Joes. Had never seen those before in my life. But I watched a YouTube video of this guy who likes he took$500 into a gas station and he bought$500 worth. Are they a dollar a piece?

SPEAKER_06: 1:15:00

Yeah. Or up to five. Okay.

SPEAKER_08: 1:15:02

So he buys$500 worth and he's standing there pulling them, hoping to make his money back. He makes like$45 on his$500. I'm like, that is why I do not gamble. Like I don't like risk like that. Now I will invest in the stock market all day because I think that's fun. But yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:15:19

There's people that go and they will go buy a whole brand new role. Oh, yeah. Dollar lottery tickets, thinking paying five, six hundred dollars for a role.

SPEAKER_08: 1:15:27

And then I'm certainly gonna win something. Yeah. We so I when I managed the hotels locally, we had a gas station in New Concord. And so it's illegal for you to sell lottery tickets to yourself, right? So there's lots of regulations in the way that it works. But we found out that we had one girl working at the gas station who, when the role came out, she would scan it for the winners. So basically, she would take the roll and she would scan it, and when she found the winner, she would buy up to that point, cash in the winner, and pay for the ones that she lost on, right? And then walk away with whatever the winnings were. But she would ring them up in somebody else's number. So needless to say, not only did she get fired, but she got in trouble legally as well. And we didn't turn her in. The lottery called us. They're like, something's not right. You guys have a lot of winners very quickly, very rapidly, and it's always the same person. Same number, yeah. Yeah, the same cashier, the same, yeah. It was so it was yeah. Yeah. Wow. Big stuff.

SPEAKER_04: 1:16:36

Mom. Yeah. That was fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:16:38

We didn't really talk about Christian traditions in Thanksgiving, but save that for now.

SPEAKER_04: 1:16:42

Yeah, we knew this would be kind of something. Something a little something.

SPEAKER_08: 1:16:45

Yeah, especially when you put me in here. Yeah. Yeah, you never know what's going to come out of his mouth. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:16:49

Well, I think it's talk about Christian traditions. I don't know if it's really traditions, but I think people were more giving and more considerate of people's needs during the Thanksgiving. Yeah, but during the Christmas holidays.

SPEAKER_02: 1:17:01

Don't you think we ought to be that way all the time?

SPEAKER_08: 1:17:02

Oh, we should be all the time. And I think her your point is it is a point where we start to shine or we start to feel focused on it. But it is really odd that that's what then it that it only lasts for a couple months. Typically January 1st, it's over. Yeah. You know what's interesting to me is that we tend to want to give more in seasons when when help is available, right? So for instance, Share Christmas happens at Christmas time. Everybody, every church in the area, every individual wants to help support a family through Christmas. Well, here's the thing. What about birthdays? What about you know what I mean? There's other holidays that we should be helping with. And not that let me be clear that the church is not designed necessarily to be a charity. Right. So we want our money to go back into the community, but we want it to go back in large ways where we're helping mass amounts of people. We want it to help more people than not, right? Yeah. So like when the fires happened at JC and we were housing people here, things like that. But oftentimes we'll focus on what we deem is important, which may be Christmas or whatever, and there's already help available to people through Share Christmas or you know, the Salvation Army, all of the different places. But we miss those kids' birthdays or you know, it's really interesting. Yeah, it is. There was a conversation going on on Facebook. One of our young adult friends, as a matter of fact, said something about it's hard to determine how Santa delivers presents because just if anybody has kids, now's the time to either pause and/or mute while we have this conversation. Easton is aware, so we can have this conversation with him in the room. But my daughter, who's out there, is not. Anyhow. If you're a parent, does Santa bring all of the gifts to your house? Or does Santa bring a select number of gifts? In our house, Santa brings one gift for each of the kids. It is wrapped in special wrapping paper. It comes from the North Pole, and that is Santa's gift. Typically, it's whatever they've asked for on their Christmas letter to Santa, right?

SPEAKER_05: 1:19:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_08: 1:19:08

And we try to make that as simple as possible because we want our kids, first of all, to understand that Christmas isn't free. It costs money. And to also understand it's why we help other people. It's why we want to give to other people. Because when we can help another family, we don't need, right? We don't need all of the things. We have something every day, you know, we're we're blessed with good health, with, you know, warm house, all of those things. So we try to do that. But my wife doesn't stop there. Like my wife will turn around and you know, we're buying Christmas or birthday presents for neighborhood friends. And you know, we make sure that there are kids that come over that feel welcomed in our home at any given time. We during the summer months, there's almost always some random kid at our dining room table for dinner. He's still gonna be like, Hey, can so and so stay for dinner tonight? Sure. Right? Like they need to talk to their mom, make sure that they don't need to eat dinner at home or whatever. But and it's crazy how many of those kids are like, Oh, my mom doesn't care. And they don't even go home. They're with us for there are kids in our neighborhood that will be at our house for eight, 10, 12 hours. Never go home and check in. It's I mean, it's just wild. And not that that's a detriment on parents. I think it's it's just a different world. And so some parents don't operate like my wife and I do, and so we try to help beyond those seasons where help is available.

SPEAKER_06: 1:20:33

So in my house for Christmas, we like for Santa, we do like little gifts because I don't want my kids to go to school and be like, I got a brand. I got an iPad. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:20:43

Yeah, we're the same way.

SPEAKER_06: 1:20:44

And and par there are parents that do that, and then my kids will come home and be like, Mom, why do you think that Santa didn't give me an iPhone? I'm like, because we are as a parent, yeah, you know, we get you your special gifts. Yeah, yeah. You know, Santa doesn't make, you know, iPhones.

SPEAKER_05: 1:20:58

Like unfortunately, I've had to tell, I used to tell my kids, you know, Grim I have to pay. Yeah. I have to give Santa money. Yeah. So Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_08: 1:21:06

You know, that's another that's another good twist.

SPEAKER_05: 1:21:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:21:09

Yeah, the the big one for me is Santa always brings the toy on the wish list. Like last year, and and some years my kids will get me. Like last year, Adeline asked at the last minute for a summer McKinney American Girl doll.

SPEAKER_07: 1:21:20

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_08: 1:21:21

So we had to pay for overnight shipping for this doll. We had three days to Christmas, we had to pay for overnight shipping, and that doll didn't come on time. It was supposed to be delivered the day before Christmas Eve, and it didn't come on the 23rd. So we call them, we're like, the doll didn't come, we need this thing like ASAP. How do we make it right? They're like, okay, rebuy it. We're gonna give you overnight shipping, it's gonna cost you nothing for the overnight shipping, and then when the other doll comes, send it back to us. Freaking Christmas Eve, both those dolls showed up. Both of them.

SPEAKER_03: 1:21:51

Of course.

SPEAKER_08: 1:21:51

Both of them. But either way, she got her doll. But we're not typically like that. Like it would have just been something else comes from Santa. Yeah. But that one we were just hopeful that it would come. But the point is, is an American girl doll is not that they're not expensive, so I don't really like play it off. It's not like they got a yo-yo, but it's always like something that could be made in a workshop. You know what I mean? Something that Santa could make for that same reason. Like Santa doesn't make iPads.

SPEAKER_04: 1:22:16

No, yeah. Apple makes iPads.

SPEAKER_08: 1:22:18

That's they don't, yeah. And so, you know, but our house is so much different than the house of the friends that my kids have too. None of my kids have TVs in their bedrooms. Yeah, they don't have their own Xboxes, they don't have their own. These are family items. Now they each have a switch so that they can because they're handheld systems that they can play together. Yeah, but like big stuff is yeah, those are communal, you know what I mean? Like there's a TV in the living room, there's one in the family room, and if they want to watch TV, those are the two places that they can do it. Nobody's going to their bedroom to watch TV. Because then you never get them out of there. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_06: 1:22:52

Exactly. Right.

SPEAKER_08: 1:22:53

Right?

SPEAKER_06: 1:22:53

Like I admire that because my kids have TVs in their rooms, but that was because I didn't have a TV until I was 17 years old, and I wanted to give my family. Exactly.

SPEAKER_08: 1:23:03

And we were the same way. We had TVs, though. My wife and I both had TVs growing up. Yeah. And so looking at it on the flip side, like you didn't have it, so you wanted to give it. I had it and I knew what it did to me. Right. Yeah. I remember when I I got a DVD player for Christmas and I got The Patriot, which why my parents ever bought me that movie. Oh. Did you ever listen to listen to it on Surround Sounds? I love the movie. I think that movie is fantastic. I love it to this day. But they bought me that in the Grinch. And I remember watching those on repeat in my bedroom nonstop.

SPEAKER_07: 1:23:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:23:32

I didn't come out of my bedroom, right? Because why would I? Like I had everything I needed, all of the necessities. I could watch TV. I could do all of the things. And I, we didn't want that for our kids. And I remember talking to Alyssa not long ago. Emmett has a big bedroom in the basement. He's got the biggest bedroom in the house. And I was talking to her about getting him a TV, and she said, absolutely not. She said, if he wants to watch TV, the family room is right outside of his door. Yeah. He can go to the family room and watch TV. And then he can go back to his bedroom. He doesn't need his own TV. I was like, you know what? She's kind of right.

SPEAKER_03: 1:24:02

Right. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_08: 1:24:03

It's just, it's a it's a difference. And there's no right or wrong way to do it. You know, some parents let their kids have tablets all day long. We do not. Our kids get their tablets after dinner, or if like we're doing something, like we're doing a project in the house, they might get it early during the day too. But it's not unbridled and unvetted, and they get to have it whenever they want. I mean, all of their iPads, all of their tablets turn off at eight o'clock every night. Like that's shut off time. And just the way that we do it. But we also watch other people's kids who Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 1:24:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:24:35

You see it.

SPEAKER_06: 1:24:35

You know, YouTube can ruin a kid. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_08: 1:24:38

And that's what started it. Do you remember there were the YouTube videos that allegedly had that really creepy looking face that were like hidden in the city? I've seen them.

SPEAKER_07: 1:24:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:24:48

So I've never seen a video that had it. Like my I don't know that my kids ever saw it. But that was when my wife and I went, YouTube is no longer. Yeah. And they have YouTube kids.

SPEAKER_06: 1:24:55

Yeah. And oh, it's not any better. So we completely cut it out.

SPEAKER_08: 1:24:58

So we monitor their YouTube kids. Emmett, like Emmett has a cell phone now, and I had to fight Alyssa to let him get a cell phone. But it's truly, I think, is the name of the brand. And so it's a Samsung phone, but he can only download apps that we give him.

SPEAKER_06: 1:25:16

It's good.

SPEAKER_08: 1:25:16

He every text message that he sends is monitored through Alyssa's phone. If he sends something that is deemed potentially hazardous to him or somebody else, it notifies us.

SPEAKER_03: 1:25:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:25:27

Now, he can't say the word poop or fart or any of those things because it'll notify us. But it's very, very particular. But I will tell you that it helped us a lot in one of his situations. So he had a little girl that he liked, and I told him, I said, if you guys are gonna call each other boyfriend or girlfriend, that's fine. But we're not holding hands and we're not kissing, like you're too young for that. You don't understand that. Like we're not doing that. And he's like, Okay, that's fine, whatever. And so she stopped coming around. And I was like, Well, that's weird. So I asked him, I said, Hey, what happened with Tally? And oops, probably shouldn't have said that. And he gives me some BS story. And I said to my wife, I want to see your phone. So he's not around at this point. Like the story just didn't make sense. And I start reading their text messages. And I said to my wife, I said, Nope. He's lost all ability to like he can like a girl, he can think she's pretty, but we're not having relationships because he doesn't know how to treat somebody. And she said, What do you mean? And I let her read the text messages. And he was plain mean, just plain mean. That's not acceptable.

SPEAKER_03: 1:26:26

No, no.

SPEAKER_08: 1:26:27

So I made him apologize. I said, I want I expect you to apologize to her. I said, What you did was not not appropriate. I said, And I don't want you to just say, I'm sorry. I want you to explain why you're sorry and how you're gonna do things differently in the future.

SPEAKER_03: 1:26:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:26:38

So I asked him about an hour later, Did you apologize? And he said yes. And I said, Did you apologize appropriately? He said yes. I read the text message and he said, I'm sorry. And she said, for what? He said, for not being nice. I'm like, no, not acceptable. No that's not how we treat people. And now when she comes around, he is a jerk. So and it's age appropriate. Yeah. Right? So, like, to be fair, it's age appropriate. Like in that. They don't know how. Yeah. Right. He's and he's gotta learn how to do it. But at the same time, I will tell you this that the the birds and the beast conversation, not fun, right? But I did it. Like, yeah, did it, did it, like the whole thing. And it was a wild time because he had no idea. He didn't know. And if he would have like he had not not an inkling, not even the smallest, didn't understand any of it. So it was a like an eye-opener for me that he didn't realize it because it felt like he should. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:27:39

He did.

SPEAKER_08: 1:27:40

Yeah, it felt like but to realize that he didn't, and then to be able to be honest with him, and like now he like, hey dad, and he'll ask me questions. Yeah. And I'm like, okay, great. Like we're on the right track. It's still uncomfortable. All right. But that's a difference in parenting style. I didn't get that.

SPEAKER_07: 1:27:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:27:56

I got it in school. Yes, right. Same. Yes. Nobody told me about that stuff. I didn't understand it.

SPEAKER_06: 1:28:04

I'm I'm scared. Very scared of that conversation.

SPEAKER_08: 1:28:07

It's not fun. It's not fun. But it's different too, I think, personally, coming from a Christian standpoint, to be able to share biblically what we're talking about. Yeah. Not just like in the flesh.

SPEAKER_03: 1:28:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:28:19

We're able to. And we actually bought a book that was kind of a workbook for parents and kids to do together when you get to that age. He asked that we not do it together, but he wanted the book. So he at least had a point of reference.

SPEAKER_04: 1:28:35

Yeah. That's good.

SPEAKER_08: 1:28:36

So but those conversations are not easy. They're not fun, but they are needed because if we don't do it, they learn it from the work. And now he feels comfortable with that to come and talk to it.

SPEAKER_04: 1:28:48

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_08: 1:28:50

Yep.

unknown: 1:28:50

Oh.

SPEAKER_04: 1:28:51

Well, that wasn't Thanksgiving related. Meanwhile, mine I was watching And Lauren. I was listening to Pastor Michael Monday, and he was like, Cooper was in the bath like doing stuff, and I was getting ready, and Michael's like, hey men. And Cooper goes, Hey men. I'm like, what did you say? Hey man.

SPEAKER_05: 1:29:12

I've tried like four or five different times to listen to the service. And I try to do it when I'm at work. I when I listen to it through the on bus book.

SPEAKER_08: 1:29:25

Yeah. If your screen closes, it times out.

SPEAKER_05: 1:29:28

Yeah. And then I have to start over again.

SPEAKER_08: 1:29:29

So your best bet is to go to either the podcast or somewhere like that. And then you can't do that.

SPEAKER_05: 1:29:35

Yes. Because I'm like, well, I must have missed something. God thinks I need to hear in the beginning, because here I go again.

SPEAKER_08: 1:29:42

I always so like you guys release in advance.

SPEAKER_04: 1:29:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_08: 1:29:45

So I always listen.

SPEAKER_04: 1:29:48

To the one that we did tonight.

SPEAKER_08: 1:29:49

To the one that you recorded that night. Yeah. And it's the same way because like you wouldn't have access to that. But I open the app and I can listen to it. But as soon as my screen time's out, it stops. And so then I have to like I have to keep my screen awake while I'm while I'm listening.

SPEAKER_05: 1:30:02

So well, but it happens is I have to hit pause because my phones rang or something's come up where I'd have to make a phone call. You know. Yeah. If you just get on the podcast app, it'll be a lifesaver. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:30:13

To do that.

SPEAKER_05: 1:30:13

Yep. Yep. I'm excited. I might get to actually listen to podcasts for a long time.

SPEAKER_08: 1:30:18

I for a short while got really bad about not listening consistently. And then I'd be like, oh man, I missed two weeks. And I would go back and listen, but it's not the same.

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:30:26

Like for me, I want to. It's almost kind of like being on the in the know. You know what I mean? Like I want to know what happened. But now that you guys are releasing like a head, I don't feel so pressured because I know it's not. Technically live at that point, so yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 1:30:40

Bobby's been with listening to them every week and he enjoys them at work.

SPEAKER_08: 1:30:44

So it's nice, it's nice, it's something to listen to, and I'll be honest, I talk back to you guys. Like, I'll be arguing with you. Seriously. Seriously, I'll argue. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like, if I were listening to this episode and you said something about what did you the no the stinking buttercream filling up? I'd have been like, no, Sid, that's just nasty.

SPEAKER_04: 1:31:06

Well, there's times Aunt Tanya will be listening to it. She's texting you. She's texting me, and there's times where she'll get behind on because she has certain ones she listens to every week. And I'm like, gosh, how far behind are you? I don't want to remember that.

SPEAKER_08: 1:31:19

Yeah, especially when you guys are releasing a week. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_05: 1:31:26

Well who prayed last week? Who knows? I did, but Pastor Michael hasn't been here for a house. Oh, geez.

SPEAKER_08: 1:31:34

All right. I'll take my turn. I'll take my turn. Good. Take one for the team. Yeah, I'll take one for the team.

SPEAKER_03: 1:31:40

Alrighty. That's my turn.

SPEAKER_08: 1:31:44

Heavenly Father, we just thank you for our time together. And Lord, I pray that just as we've had this conversation, and while it hasn't been all about Thanksgiving, Lord, that it's touched somebody's heart or somebody's lives. Lord, I thank you for the people around the table, for their hearts, for their stories, Father, for their traditions. Whatever it may be, Lord, I pray that you just continue to lead this group, that you continue to guide them. Lord, allow us to just continue to be blessed through your word, through your fellowship. Lord, just allow us to continue to lift each other up in prayer as we're lifting up Jenny and Marcus today. Lord, I pray that you just continue to move through us so that we can continue to reach out to our community. Father, we thank you and we praise you. We give you all the honor and glory in the mighty name of your precious Son Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.