The Ben Maynard Program
"Tell Your Story". Everyone has a story. Not just the famous. This is a guest driven program but when we are "guest free", It's just YOU and ME! I love music and we will talk a lot about it. Enjoy the ride!
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The Ben Maynard Program
EP. 115 IT'S THE CHRISTMAS SHOW 2025!
Holiday shows should feel like a living room: a little noisy, full of laughter, and anchored by stories that matter. This Christmas special does exactly that. We start with a simple question—what does Christmas mean to you?—and follow it into memories of ping pong tournaments in the garage, first stereos with eight-track decks, and the shared magic of waking up to a tree that somehow made a whole year feel brighter. Then we read Luke 2 and sit with the humility and hope of a child in a manger, letting the season’s center settle the rest.
Music is our throughline. I share a top-10 Christmas list built for feeling, not clicks: MercyMe’s towering take on God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Nat King Cole and Mel Tormé trading places for The Christmas Song, the Kinks’ irreverent Father Christmas, Bruce Springsteen’s joyful live Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, Alabama’s Joseph and Mary’s Boy, and Kenny Rogers’ Carol of the Bells. Each track earns its spot for emotion, story, or sheer delight—perfect for your own playlist overhaul. We also dig into Advent, daily reflections, and why small rituals help us slow down when the world speeds up.
Two guests join the celebration. Country artist Olivia Harms checks in from a twinkling tree to talk last-show-of-the-year vibes, cookie deliveries by “sleigh,” and her favorite deep-cut carol, The Gift. Then author and energy expert Chris Skates calls from Washington with a surprising thread: how AI is driving a new wave of nuclear energy, and why grid reliability will shape our next decade. He shares D.C. holiday plans—Museum of the Bible, vintage department-store windows, and the National Christmas Tree—then tells a gripping Christmas Eve story of Washington’s crossing of the Delaware and the battle at Trenton. It’s a reminder that courage and sacrifice sit beneath the lights we hang each year.
We close with gratitude, a nudge to love your neighbors now rather than later, and a full reading of ’Twas the Night Before Christmas. If you need a show that mixes faith, nostalgia, music, and a couple of tech hiccups we somehow survived, pull up a chair. Subscribe, rate, and share with someone who needs a little light this week—what’s your number one Christmas song?
Thanks for listening! Follow me on Instagram: benmaynardprogram
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I also welcome your comments. email: pl8blocker@aol.com
Hey there. Welcome into the Ben Maynard program. Thanks for being here. Today is a special one. Today is the Christmas show 2025. Can you believe it? I can't believe it. This is our third annual Christmas show. It's hard to believe. Man, where does the time go? I love it. This is great. We have a packed show. We have a packed show. So before we get into it, a little bit of housekeeping to take care of. As you know, this program is available wherever you stream your podcast, wherever it is, just search the Ben Maynard program. Boom, it's right there. Go with it. Subscribe to it. You can even download it. Okay. That's probably what you should do more than anything is download it and give me a five-star rating because I deserve it. I really do. Um, however, like today, today being the Christmas show, you're going to want to watch this, not because of only this right here, all this goodness, but other stuff that we have coming up too. And if you are watching, then you're watching on YouTube. So thank you very much for that. Uh just subscribe to the channel, all right? And that way, anytime a new episode publishes or drops, you'll get a notification. All right. Hit the notification bell as well. Give me a thumbs up and leave a comment. And uh I love your comments and I reply to them. So get it, get it done, okay? Last but not least, follow me on Instagram, simply Ben Maynard Program, all one word, or on the TikTok. It's uh the Ben Maynard program. All right. So there are plenty of ways to take in this show for your dancing and listening pleasure. With that, as I said, it is the Christmas show 2026. I'm so glad that you're here. I'm so glad that you're joining me, and it's gonna be some fun. Why? I don't know. Why? Just because it's that time of year. Everyone likes this time of year. It's a good, it's a great time of year. There's so much to be thankful for. And uh, I've got some good stuff planned. Uh, we've got um we have a couple of guests that will be joining us as well. Let me scoot up a little bit closer to the table. And uh yeah, so they're uh we're on a schedule here. So uh I gotta make sure that I hit my marks when the guests call in. So um let's get right to it. Oh, I guess before we do that, let me make sure that this ringer is off. Turn the ringer off on my cell phone because that would really not be a good thing. All right, so look, let's run it down. Let's run it down. First things first, it it like I said, this is Christmas, it's the Christmas season. What uh but what is Christmas to you? To you out there, the home and car listener. Um, you know, for me, it's a very busy time of year, and uh there's a lot that goes on. Um I uh I really enjoy this time um because it it's look, I know it's the whole cliche, oh, it's time to spend with the family and family time and blah blah blah, and this and that. And yeah, there's all of that, but there's so much more to it. Um, especially um especially for us Christians, there's a lot to celebrate when we hit the holiday season. And that starts really honestly, it starts with uh with Thanksgiving, being thankful for a lot of stuff. And we're not gonna go down that road right now because it's Christmas. But uh so there's a ton to be thankful for at Christmas and a ton to celebrate. What are some of the things that you do at Christmas? How do you celebrate the holiday with your loved ones, with your family, your friends? Um, it's just it's it's a great time. It's a joyous time. I love a chill in the air, whether it's in the morning, whether it's in the evening, all day long. I love all of it. I love the weather. I I just I like this time of year, period. I I love the fall, I like the winter, and I like the spring. I hate summer. I do. I just do. It's too hot and I'm too old. So um, anyway, so like celebrating Christmas as a kid, it was always something, something special, you know, uh hanging around the Christmas tree on Christmas, the evening of Christmas Eve or on Christmas morning, that type of stuff. You're opening up your presents because that's what you know. Unfortunately, I shouldn't say unfortunately, but um that's just what Christmas was to us as kids, and probably to many of you out there. Um but but as a kid, can you think back to what your favorite gift was as a kid? What was your favorite Christmas gift that you received from your parents? Um, I know for me, and uh I I know you guys, you guys all know I've got I've got siblings, and so um you've seen Brother Jim plenty of times on the podcast here. Um we didn't necessarily grow up together. I mean, he's a nine nine and a half years older than I am, but uh he was around the house uh a lot when we were younger. But um my younger brother Chuck and I, he's all you know, we're only two and a half years different. So there were some gifts that we shared. There were, you know, our parents bought us a gift that was for the two of us. And when I look back and I think back um to some of my favorite gifts as a kid, I remember Chuck and I, we got um our parents bought us a ping pong table and we set it up in the garage. We had a we had a three-car garage and we set it up on the two-car side, lots of room to spread out. And uh just, I mean, we would go at it just with you know, each other, our friends. We have just the massive, these massive ping pong tournaments, and it was just a ton of fun, just a ton of fun. I just think back on all that, and it's it's just good stuff, you know. Those those type of things bring back some great memories. Um and then there was one year, I think it was a different year than the ping pong table. It could have been the same year. I that kind of stuff I get a little mixed up on. But the year that our parents bought us our own stereo, man, that was it. Because you know what a music lover I am. Well, Chuck was also very much a music lover as well. I mean, we were and and that was we were early on in our love for music. So uh to get our own stereo, we didn't have to play our parents' stereo down in the living room. We had it in our bedroom. Oh man, that was just the best. Um, stereo, you know, a turntable and had it had an AMFM tuner and uh an eight-track tape deck. Yeah, an eight-track tape. Can you say that three times? Eight-track tape deck, eight-track tape deck, eight-track tape deck. Not easy. All you younger ones are like, what's an eight-track? Uh go look it up. So really, really good stuff. Um, really, really good stuff. Um, I just that you know, and then having your, like I said, having your own stereo, and you could you could go up into your bedroom, close the door, put on, you know, put on an album, sit there listening to it, crank it up. And it wasn't we didn't have the greatest of speakers, but you know, it's it served our purpose, I suppose, um, for being, I think, I think we were like um, I think I was like 11 or 12 when we got that stereo. So and I had it for a little while, yeah. But it was it was great, absolutely loved it. So um, you know, getting back to celebrating Christmas, there's a couple things I want to do. I talk about it every year, and um however you celebrate it is absolutely wonderful, and I uh I want you to continue to do that. The one thing I don't want us to get away from and uh is is the reason, the true reason why we celebrate Christmas, and that is the birth of Jesus Christ. And being a Christian, it's very important to me. Um, Santa Claus, it's great. You know, shopping. Well, I don't know about shopping, shopping is a is a nightmare, but you know what I mean. All the Christmas movies, all that stuff is great. The Christmas songs, and I'm gonna get into some Christmas songs in a minute. All that stuff is wonderful, as long as we don't forget the true meaning of Christmas. And what I've been doing on my um on my TikTok account is I've been posting a video every day of Advent. Advent is the season of Christmas, it's the it's the the 25 days or 20, 24 days leading up to Christmas, 25 when you count Christmas. Um four weeks leading up to Christmas and the birth of Jesus. And so I've been posting a video every day reading a story of Advent. And uh, I think I day 10 was yesterday. So uh it it you would think that you know, like a five-minute video. Ah, who cares? No big deal. Man, what an undertaking. I'm committed to do it every day. There's nothing I can do about it. You can't skip. You can't skip. Otherwise, it's just it's you know, it's not gonna, it's not gonna be right. So uh I hope you guys out there are watching those videos. Um it's just something fun. Normally I would stand in front of my fireplace. I have the advent blocks up on the mantle, and normally I'd stand in front of the fireplace and and then just grab the book and read. Uh, there's a book that comes along with these Advent blocks, and I just read it. And if anybody's in the house, great. If I'm by myself, great. I'm just standing there in front of the fireplace reading it. Doesn't matter if it's morning, noon, or night. But I I wanted to have it uh mean a little bit more this year, so that's why I decided to take on that project and um and do it on on uh on the TikTok. So there you go. Watch for it, okay? Because there's 10 days right now. So um, all right. So what I'm gonna do here is bring to you the story of the birth of Jesus. It's right out of the Bible, it's in the book of Luke, and it's Luke chapter 2. So I want to read that to you and uh and and and hope that you it'll just resonate with you. It resonates with me. So it's just a it's a it's a beautiful story. All right, so here we go. And I haven't I haven't like really had a chance to go over this and read it beforehand. So let's hope I get it down just right. Okay, so take two. Here we go. In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while uh Corinius was governor of Syria. And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her first son. She wrapped him in cloths and packed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them at the inn, and there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be assigned to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloth and lying in a manger. Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests. When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. And on the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived. So there you go. The story of the birth of Jesus, yeah. And I like to read that every year. I like to get that across because it's a obviously it's a tremendous story. Oh man. So packed, and I'm I keep looking at the time here because somebody's gonna be calling in soon, and I gotta I can't be uh yammering away when they call, I gotta be ready for it. All right, so you know I love my music, and I have my Christmas playlist that I had put together a few years back, but going through a lot of that, I've in the past I've brought to you my top 10 Christmas songs, and I'm gonna bring it to you again. However, there's been a little bit of a change this year. Yeah, there has been. So I'm gonna present that to you right now. Um, and and and jot these down. Jot these down, put together your own Christmas playlist if you haven't, um or add it to your current playlist. Whatever. This is these are absolutely fabulous tunes. Some are I guess you would consider old standards, and some maybe not so much. So a new addition this year to the top 10 Christmas songs is at number 11. Right. Number 11. It's Celebrate Me Home the live version from Kenny Loggins. And my live version of this, there's there's a couple of live versions here, but my live version comes from the Mark and Bryan Christmas Show 1992. Absolutely dynamite version of this song, so passionate, so just you could you could feel the emotions pouring out of Kenny as he's really as as he's performing this. And uh for for uh for those of you who are don't recall or don't know, Mark and Brian were morning hosts here on our local rock station uh for 25 years. They've been they've been retired now for, I don't know, like 12, 13 years, something like that. But every year they would have a Christmas show and they would invite music get music guests to come on and perform. And this version here, like I said, it's it's from 1991 or 92. I can't exactly recall, but man, so good. But I will say this the closest version that I've that I've heard of this tune is Kenny's Kenny's live version from the album outside from the Redwoods. That's a live version, and it's good too, but nowhere near as good as the 1992 Mark and Bryan Christmas show version. There's just a tremendous sack solo that you just I mean, by the end of the song, my I mean, I had tears streaming down my face. It's it just it brings that much emotion. It's so, so good. All right, another new entry to the top 10 at number 10 is Carol of the Bells from Kenny Rogers. Man, it's so good. And I even tried to sneak stuff in. I was testing, I was testing music uh in preparation for this morning, but boy, StreamYard's just too smart. They're too smart, and they just they muted out. It's crazy. So I couldn't do it, but I would have played that one for you. It's so good. Kenny Rogers, Carol of the Bells. Then at number nine, there's Joseph and Mary's boy from Alabama. Um I just read you the story of Jesus, the birth of Jesus. So you can imagine what Joseph and Mary's boy uh what that encompasses. So good. It's so good. And Alabama, they're just such a great country band, as well. Love it. Uh at number eight, Santa Claus is coming to town by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Uh, this is a live recording from 1975. Uh, it's it's just it's fun. It's uh that that's the best way to just to describe it. It's just very fun and uh involves the crowd, involves the band, outside of the musicianship, of course. But man, so good, so good. Um and actually, it used to be higher on my top 10 list, but over the last couple of years it's kind of slipped a couple of positions. So sorry, Bruce, but still a great song, though. Uh at number seven, one that you may not be familiar with, but it's 'twas the night before Christmas, and it's from Gary Hoey. Now, Gary Hoey is a good is a is a uh uh musician, he's a guitarist, uh been recording for I don't know, 30 years at least, something like that. Um and every year he does a he does a show, he does a small tour in December. It's his ho ho ho uh ho ho hoe tour. So uh and and uh he doesn't always play this version, but it is so good. If you can just go, I'm sure you can find on a streaming service somewhere. Twas the night before Christmas by Gary Hoey. Very, very fun, very good. I love it. It's so great. And and I like it because it's just not, you know, so traditional. It's just it's great. At number six, a song I've really just dug for so many years, uh a little humorous, and that is Father Christmas from the Kinks. It's great, you know. Um The Kinks, Father Christmas. Go check it out. Go go look it up if you're not familiar with it. That's why I'm giving these to you so you can jot them down, trying to be a little slow on it. So I'll give you time to write them down and uh and add them to your Christmas playlist. At number five, we stick with some humor here. It was, I think, at number five last year as well, and that's yelling at the Christmas tree by Billy Idle. It's off of his 2006 album, I believe it is, uh, The Devil's Playground. And it is so good. The lyrics are so great, and it just it it screams of the drama that can happen around a household during the Christmas season, especially on Christmas Day. Oh, so good. At number four, the uh little drummer boy from Bob Seeger and the Silver Bullet Band. Um man, so good. It is so good. I love emotion, and it just you can feel it pouring through through Bob as he's delivering this song. It is just so, so good. Um, that's the best way I can describe it. Just so much true emotion in it. There are other versions of this song out there, and of course, the original, and I gosh, I should have looked it up. I cannot recall the like the original version that we probably all know. It's uh it's with uh, I think uh a young boys choir that's that's uh performing it. But I know Chicago did a version of this song, which is actually really good. Nothing like this one, nothing like this version at all. So so, so good. I want you guys to, like I said, add these to your playlist, but I want you to leave them in the comments too. I want you to tell me what you think of these particular songs. Then at number three, a song that goes back 40, I think 41 years now, back to 1984, and that is Do They Know It's Christmas from Band-Aid. And if you're not familiar with that, that is a uh a collection of artists from the UK. The song was written by Bob Geldoff from The Boomtown Rats, and the song was was recorded and and released to raise money for um famine relief in Ethiopia back in, like I said, 1984. So it's a tremendous song. It it uh, like I said, it's it's a collection of artists coming together. The Sting is on there, the the girls from Bananarama, members of Duran Duran, Spando Ballet, Paul Young, uh Phil Collins is playing the drums on it. Gosh, I'm trying to think who else is on this. So many, so many. Oh, Bono from U2, which actually he delivers probably my favorite line in the song. Uh, you guys got to go check it out. Just really, really good stuff. If you are not familiar with it, it's Do They Know It's Christmas from Band-Aid, and it's the original version from 1984. There was a remake of it, uh, or even a cover version of it probably 15 years ago. It's terrible. It's terrible. So um, yeah, it's terrible. That's one of my guests right there chiming in. Um, so let me let me hang on, let me give that guest a thumbs up and let them know I got their text and I got their message. All right, cool. So um, so yeah, the original version. That's that's the one. That's the one. Um at number two. Man, this version of the Christmas song was a standard. It is, and it is, it's a standard for many, many, many years. The the Christmas song from Nat King Cole. Everyone has to know that one. It's an absolutely beautiful version of the song. And I say version of the song because uh Nat King Cole wasn't the original artist. He didn't write the song. The song was actually written by Mel Tor May. And Nat's version was my absolute favorite Christmas song for many, many, many years. And then Mel Tor May came along, and I heard him perform this song on the Mark and Brian Christmas show, and it just floored me. Just floored me. So it kind of overtook that position. So at 2A is the Christmas song from Nat King Cole, and at 2, just a like a not even a smidge higher, is Mel Torme's version of the Christmas song. And what's amazing about that song, if you're if you're not aware, Mel wrote that song in the middle of July. So, in the middle of summer, how do you write a song about Christmas and make it say so much? I don't know how you do it, but he did it. And it's just it's it's uh it's a beautiful thing. It's it's an old standard, and uh man, it just brings back so many great memories as well. That Nat King Cole version, there's a whole entire Christmas album uh from Nat King Cole, just some great stuff. Uh I saw three ships come sailing in on Christmas Day, uh O Tannenbaum, which is Oh Christmas tree in German, and he sings the whole thing in German. It's great. So good. So, so so good. All right, anyway, moving moving on, moving along. The number one, number one song, and this one is for two years in a row. It is God Rest Ye Married Gentlemen from Mercy Me. There are other versions out there. This one to me is the absolute tremendous version. Um, it's it's it's the one, it's very powerful, brings in strings and orchestra, and it it just becomes very almost bombastic and heavy, and it's so so good. Ooh, let me shut that off. So good. So, you guys, if you're not familiar with that one, go check that one out as well. So that's that one rounds out the top 10 um Christmas songs, my top 10 Christmas songs, and I'll give them back to you really quick. Top 10 Christmas songs at number 11, celebrate me Home, live version, Kenny Loggins. Number 10, Carol of the Bells, another Kenny, Kenny Rogers. Number nine, Joseph and Mary's Boy, Alabama. Number eight, Santa Claus is coming to town, Bruce Springsteen in the E Street Band. Number seven, twas the night before Christmas, Gary Hoey. Number six, Father Christmas, The Kinks. Number four, Little Drummer Boy, Bob Seeger in the Silver Bullet Band. Number three, Do They Know It's Christmas, Band Aid. Number two A, two and two A, let's do it that way. The Christmas song from Nat King Cole, and then also the version from Mel Torme. And at number one again, God rest ye merry gentlemen. So yeah. Great, great, great stuff. We're on standby right now, waiting for our first guest to call in. But uh, can you I kind of tried to Christmas up the studio a little bit, probably the one and only time you may ever see the logo on the back wall covered up. That's gotta show. Come on, are you serious? But yeah, I okay. In all transparency, all truth, truth be told, in this situation, I grabbed the wreath off of our front door. Stole the wreath off of our front door and hung it up here on the back wall of the studio. So um, I just did it real quick. And then Catherine grabbed this little, this little wagon here with the uh, I don't know, pine stuff in it. And I think what those, I think those are like cranberries and pine cones and whatever. And she says, Oh, here, put this in the studio too. No, it's Christmas. So yeah, there you go. So a little, I you know, I wish I had more time. I probably would have thrown a little garland in here and maybe put a a tree in the corner behind me somewhere. Um, but just didn't have time to do it. At least look, I fixed up. I fixed up, I put on a collared shirt, I put on a tie for you guys. I figure you deserve it. So um, anyhow. So as as we wait for our um guest to to call in, every year uh I have read two well, I shouldn't say every year. Most every year I've read uh 'twas the night before Christmas to my family during like during our big family Christmas party. I'd sit down, pull it out, read it. The kids would be there, the grandkids. Well, I I think when I started reading it, I didn't have grandkids. So the kids were there, the nieces, the nephews, all that kind of thing. And uh it's because I love it. It's just a great story. Um and and it's just nicely written. It's uh it it flows very well, and it just become, you know, became tradition. So the last two years I've read it right here uh on the uh the Ben Maynard program Christmas show. That now that doesn't that doesn't roll off the tongue, it's just the Christmas show, you know, whatever. And and and I'm I'm debating because I've also taken this one here, the Polar Express, and read this to the family and and the the kids and actually the grandkids as well. But uh, and I love that. It's a great story as well. So I'm I'm kind of up in the air debating on which one I'm gonna read. Um so I'm not sure. We'll see what happens. Maybe I'll uh excuse me, maybe I'll uh I'll get some uh I'll get some feedback from our our guest or guests as they uh as they come in. We'll see what happens here. I'm kind of if you can't tell, I'm just kind of vamping here. And uh I'm gonna look something up real quick. And let's see. The let's look it up. I know, isn't this great dead air? Uh oh, wait, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, let's look this up. The I don't have my iPad in the studio um today because I didn't really think I was gonna need it. There we go. Here it is right now. Oh, June 2025. The average amount of money spent on Christmas. So this was this was uh this was put together in June of this year. It says uh it says Christmas spending for 2425, so it was based on last year, up to last year, is uh uh see is anticipated to increase with shoppers projected to spend an average of sixteen hundred thirty-eight dollars on gifts, travel, and entertainment, representing a 7% rise from previous years. Okay, notably 26% of consumers plan to increase their holiday budgets, with some expecting to spend up to$3,076, while millennials are set to boost their spending by 22%. Holy Toledo. Approximately 35% of shoppers intend to spend over$500, with 80% focusing on gifts and food. The total U.S. Christmas spending was forecasted to reflect a substantial investment with over 60% of budgets allocated to gifts. All right. Uh oh, okay. So some of the um some of the details, at least one of them, 44% of Christmas shoppers uh anticipate dividing their purchases equally between in-store and online shopping. And uh let's see. Yes, we covered that part there. Holy cow. Eight in ten people are looking forward to purchasing gifts for Christmas. Really? All right, eight in ten. Meanwhile, 79% are looking forward to spending on food, and 36% are likely to spend on alcoholic beverages. Oh no, that could get you in trouble. So you have to be very, very careful. Very, very careful. Let me uh let me uh do this right here, real quick. Let me send out this text. Uh let's see, uh, everything. Uh okay. Standing. Bye. Boom, boom, boom. Let's see what happens here. So uh yeah. A lot of money spent at Christmas. A lot of money spent at Christmas. But if I'm if if you're wise out there, don't spend so much on uh the um the alcohol. You know, kinda let's let's not get crazy. Uh oh, I don't see you. Wait, hang on. Why don't I see you? Why don't I see you? Hang on a second. Huh. I my guest says that she has been backstage for five minutes. Let's see here. I don't see you. Here's what I'm gonna do, people. I've never ever ever done this before. So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna hit pause and then I'm gonna straighten this stuff out, and then we're gonna come right back. All right, I'll see you in a minute. Are we there? We go. Oh, we're back. We're back after that short pause, everyone. But see, look, look on the screen, look next to me. Who is that? That's that's friend of the program, Olivia Harms. How are you, Olivia?
SPEAKER_00:I'm so good. Yeah, thanks for bearing with me. I don't know what happened. Maybe it's because I'm at the ranch. We can always blame it on that. We can always blame it on like being at the ranch.
SPEAKER_04:Let's blame it on the ranch then. Anyway, no, it's it's it's just it's it's good to see you. Um, it's only been a few weeks since I saw you last, but uh, but no, it is. It's good to see you and thanks for taking a little bit of time. I won't keep you for very long, just you know, I don't know, 10 minutes or so, something like that. Just real quick in and I just want to check in with you and and kind of see um what it is that you're doing right now. Because I think you told me you have a show tonight, right?
SPEAKER_00:I do have, yeah, we have a really good habit of like talking on show days. I like this. This is a good tradition.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we do. Um, so tell me uh tell me a little bit about what goes on. I see you sitting in front of the Christmas tree, so that's good. Yes, I I I was telling the audience I grabbed I grabbed the wreath off our front door and hung it on the back wall.
SPEAKER_00:I love it. I love it. Very festive.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. So um tell me what you have going on. What's your family doing? What are some of your traditions uh for for the Christmas season?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I'm really excited. Tonight is actually my very last show of the whole year. So uh it's a local show up in Northern California, and I'm excited to close out the year. It's been really good. Um, but I'm also really looking forward to you know doing like a baking day tomorrow. And then we always go and deliver treats to our neighbors and you know the other ranches around. So my husband and I will load up the sleigh with cookies and then I go go deliver some cookies and treats over the weekend. And then um following that next weekend we go up to Oregon to see my parents and and spend time on their ranch for um for Christmas and Rest of the holiday, but it's nice to have some downtime because I feel like I just go, go, go so much, and that it's so nice to finally be able to just like you know be calm, sit and have your coffee in front of the Christmas tree, not be rushing around so much and just spend time, uh, you know, with the quality people in your life. I think that's what the season is really all about is the time and the memories that you make. And I'm I'm looking forward to being able to do that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, sitting around with your cup of coffee like me. I'm not a much of a coffee drinker, but but I so I've got my hot cocoa mug.
SPEAKER_00:I love it.
SPEAKER_04:So it's just it's all for looks.
SPEAKER_00:All for looks.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Um, so uh if if okay, um, if I text you my address, you're gonna FedEx me a package of those baked goodies.
SPEAKER_00:You got it. You got it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah. All right. Oh, I love it though. That's great. And you have been incredibly busy this year. That's so that's so neat. Um now what oh I know. I had I had put together um for well to please myself, but also to share with the uh with the audience. I put together my top 10 Christmas songs.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, perfect.
SPEAKER_04:And and uh I ran them down actually while you were while you were waiting for me, while I was waiting for you, I was I was running them down. But um do you have a favorite Christmas song?
SPEAKER_00:I do, yeah. Uh my favorite one is not so well known. It's called The Gift. And uh my mom used to play it when I was young, and now I play it, and it's on, I think it's first on the Garth Brooks Christmas album. Uh, it might even be older than that, but that's where I remember hearing it. And it's just a beautiful story. Uh really, you know, like embodies what the season is all about and what a gift it is that Jesus came down to the earth to save us. And um great, great story song. And then, you know, there's like the other ones that we we love to sing and sing along with, but I think that one takes the cake as the number one spot.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, no, that's good. I I wrote it down because I'm gonna give it a listen and and and add it to my Christmas playlist. Uh it's a good one. Yeah, I I I put together a playlist now a few years back because I was like, when I'm at work, um, especially during this time of year, I I just I want I want to hear some nice Christmas music, something to just take my mind away from everything else. And so I had put this playlist together, it's like two and a half hours long, and uh yeah, no, it's it's it's pretty um, it's it's it's pretty uh pretty heavy. And so uh, but out of that, I get my top 10 Christmas songs, and um it's it doesn't contain all so many of the old standards, it really doesn't. And and look, I'm I'm much older than you, so an old standard to me is way, way, way back, you know, stuff that I grew up when I was a kid, it was being played around the house, like Nat King Cole Christmas. I mean, I was telling the audience that was my favorite Christmas song for many, many, many years. And um, and it and it's it still is actually it's number two on the list now, but but you know, Mel Torme, and I don't know if you've heard of Mel Tor May or you know Mel Tor May, but yeah, he wrote that song. Okay, I didn't realize that uh for all for years up until like 35 years ago. I had no clue myself, but uh he had performed it uh live on a uh Christmas show put together by uh uh my radio heroes, Mark and Brian. It was this was like almost this, I think this was around 1991 or 92. And that version there, that is my his live version, is my favorite version. People will have to seek it out. Uh because it I don't think you find it on any streaming service. You might have to look on YouTube for it and uh that kind of thing. I know, I know my boys put out, they put out a a Christmas CD 25 years ago, and one one of the discs had musical performances from their past shows, and it was on there. So at least I have that in physical form.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah, that's amazing. I love it. I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to figure out how to get my hands on it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, it's so good. But um uh another one of my favorites is uh well, the number one. The number I'll just get to the number one. The number one on my list is God rest ye married gentlemen. Oh such a good one. Mercy Me, though.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, the mercy me, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And what I like about it is that you know, they bring in the strings, they bring in the orchestra, and uh again, I told the audience I'm repeating myself, but it becomes so like bombastic and so big. Oh, yeah, so so heavy, and man, I it just that one just tears at me. It's so good, so good.
SPEAKER_00:Such a classic. Yeah, that is a great one. That see, now you're inspiring me to go like listen to some more good Christmas music because I think everybody has you know their favorites, right? Like you have your top 10, I have some of my favorites, but I think the best thing is every year that it comes around, there's always something new, or there's a new take, like on a classic song, or you discover a new album. Uh, so it's like it's great. If you ever need any like country suggestions for country Christmas albums, like my top one is always gonna be uh Kenny and Dolly. They have Dolly Parton has a a country Christmas album with Kenny Rogers, and I remember like my mom would put that on, and my grandma when she was still with us. Okay, we would cook and bake, and like that's what I'll be playing tomorrow when I'm having my day in the kitchen, and my husband he'll just have to deal with it.
SPEAKER_04:Oh no. Well, I I didn't know that uh Kenny and Dolly um had a Christmas duet. I'll have to look that up.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's a good one.
SPEAKER_04:I've got look, I'm my um first off in my top 10, I have Joseph and Mary's boy from Alabama.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:That's that's so good. That's so good. Oh, and and it was a new addition this year was Carol of the Bells, speaking of Kenny Rogers. Yes, that is so good too. So many good ones. Yeah, I know. I got a little bit of my country in in on my uh my top 10 Christmas songs, but uh have you ever considered writing a Christmas song or or even putting together a Christmas album?
SPEAKER_00:I have, yeah. I mean, I have a couple Christmas songs in in the works, and it's something that honestly I was hoping I would be able to do this year, but then before I knew it, it was November, and I was like, shoot, I guess I'm a little late in the game because you know, I hadn't even had time in the studio to record them yet. So I think I'll just go ahead and record some Christmas music in the spring, and then you know, it'll be all ready to go, and I can put it out in 2026 because I love Christmas, it's my favorite time of the year. Yeah, and uh a Christmas album would be would be like the dream, you know, like the little country honky tonk Christmas. That's what we need.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, I love it, I love it. If you but you know, if you record in the spring or summer, you're gonna have to kind of dress up like you are now, probably have to throw a scarf on and just to kind of put yourself in the Christmas mood, you know.
SPEAKER_00:That's right. Yeah, I'll have to like really be thinking of red and green and jingle bell.
SPEAKER_04:So so you're taking the rest of the year off, and then uh I know you kick right up again next year, and uh um I'm looking forward to getting out and seeing you. I know you have that show in um in April um in uh Santa Clarita. That's at the Cowboy Festival. I think it's the 40th annual, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00:I think so, yeah. So this will be like so fun. If you haven't been, you're gonna have a good time. We're gonna finally get to catch up in person. We are, it'll be great.
SPEAKER_04:We are, and we'll have you back before then too as well. And then I I know you and I we've talked uh about it and maybe even doing something live where we can get your audience to participate and we'll do it up, you know. That was uh I'd love it. That was good. Um but uh I will let you go. Oh, no, no, before I do let you go, I have I do have an another another uh question for you. Okay. I I I read uh in the past, I've read stories to my um to my uh my family when we have our big family Christmas party, that stuff like that. I'll read towards the night. Usually it's towards the night before Christmas, because I just love the way it finishes off. Yeah, um, you know, uh, but um I have also read the Polar Express as that's another good one. It is. So I mean, I I don't know. What do you what do you what do you think? You know?
SPEAKER_00:Oh man, that's hard. I mean, the the night before Christmas is such a classic. I think that's probably the way I would lean. Um, but yeah, I mean there there was one, I can't remember what it's called. I'll have to like do some research now. You taking me back to my childhood and thinking of the books that my parents used to read me, but there was one about um like this grumpy old innkeeper, and my mom was so great. She'd like she'd do voices, you know, like she's one of those really cool moms that would like stomp, stomp, stomp and make all the noises. And anyways, so it was like no room for the at the inn, and it was the story of Joseph, Joseph and Mary, and like it was always made me laugh, and it was like such a great story. And so I think that one's probably my favorite. Um, I'll have to figure out what it's called and send it to you, but yeah, the night before Christmas is is always a winner, you know. Like it's just like the classic, it makes you feel good. You're like, Christmas is here. So you know, can't go wrong.
SPEAKER_04:No, it's it I like I it's just um I mean, because it's originally a poem, it's a very long poem, but it just really it really rolls uh well. It just uh um the alliteration is good. It uh I don't get tongue-tied when I read it. So uh it's all it's all good stuff. I I'm glad you said that because now I know which one I'm finishing the show with. So perfect.
SPEAKER_00:Good. Oh, I can't wait. I'm excited to tune in and listen.
SPEAKER_04:All right, well, listen, Olivia. I I you you got a show tonight. That's the one thing we're gonna have to stop doing is meeting on show day. It's okay.
SPEAKER_00:You know, I already have to get dressed up anyway, so it works out all right. Like, I'll be like, Well, I gotta get you know suited up for show day anyway, so might as well throw an interview in there.
SPEAKER_04:Well, yeah, and and speaking of getting dressed up, you're wearing something that your husband is not gonna expose your backside.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my gosh, yeah, no kidding. Yeah, we just got back from uh the national finals rodeo, and my husband, he's a great dancer, and I wore like this like silver, it's cute, it's like a little metallic dress, and yeah, he's fun, spun, spun. Next thing I know, the zipper blew out, and I was like, dang it, either I need to lay off the cookies or we need to we need to get the spinning in order, maybe not wear this dress again for if we get it repaired, we'll see. But yeah, that was a shock, not something I was planning on doing.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I I I saw that video and uh I saw you standing there in front of the mirror, and and yeah, yeah, no, you were you you were pretty exposed.
SPEAKER_00:Uh yeah, so thankfully we could just do a quick fix and it was all good.
SPEAKER_04:No, that's good, that's good. Well, um, listen, again, thank you so much. Appreciate it. You and your family just have the most wonderful Christmas. Um, and uh again, thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for having me on, and Merry Christmas to you and yours.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, all right. Well I'll I'll see you in the new year, okay?
SPEAKER_00:Deal.
SPEAKER_04:All right, take care now. Bye bye. There she goes, Olivia Harms. She is so awesome, she's just so good. She is, she's the best. And um it's it's just fun for her to uh for me anyway, to have her come and spend a few minutes with us talk about what she's got going on at Christmas. I was waiting for another guest. Uh uh, I may have to pause again and see what's up. Uh never ever have these issues. It's so weird. Uh let me oh, you know what I didn't do? I didn't um let me see. Let me see. Uh I'm gonna hit pause so you don't have to look at all this, okay? And we're gonna unpause it when we come back. See you in a minute. There we are. All right, so we're back, people, after that short pause. You know, we don't edit anything, so I had to hit pause on this one. Technical issues, been dealing with them all morning. And um, you know, I told you all before this podcast is held together by Scotch Tape and Chewing Gum. So, you know, you can see right next to me is uh our next guest. That's Chris Skates, for uh a previous guest um on the program. And uh Chris, what's going on?
SPEAKER_01:I am uh just leaving uh Washington. I've been in some meetings this morning in my new job in the Trump administration, and uh I want you to know this will make you feel better. I was just in a meeting with some very high-level government officials who shall remain nameless, and we had constant technical difficulties with a streaming meeting where a lot of people were in in the room and then other people were streaming in, and we had a bunch of problems, so it's it's not just you.
SPEAKER_04:It's not not just me in Southern California.
SPEAKER_01:Well, listen, uh yeah, you're even the highest levels of the federal government can't get their streaming to work.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, well, you're your um your video is choppy, but your audio is great. Oh, you just dropped out. You just dropped out. All right, well, we'll we'll get them back. We'll get them back. Technical problems, you know. Look, in the age of of all this tremendous technology that we have, um cell phones and everything, we still can't get that stuff. We can't get cell phones and Wi-Fi dialed in. In 1969, we put a man on the moon, but in 2025, we can't get Wi-Fi cell service, all that stuff. We just can't get it dialed in. It's crazy. Crazy. So we'll see if we get Chris back in a minute. Um, I just wanted him for a few minutes. As you can see, he was driving. He was uh he said he was on his way back to um his apartment there in DC. And for those of you who don't know, uh you know, Chris was a previous guest. He was on he was on the show, I think, back in May, and he's an author. Well, he's like a nuclear physicist, and he's an author, and he's written books and all that kind of stuff. And um because of his expertise in in energy and in the uh the world of nuclear energy, Chris is now a part of the uh Trump administr uh administration. He's working in the Department of Energy. So let's uh let's see if we can let's see if we can get him back here. Uh let's see, y'all. Try uh again. You dropped out. Now I'm not pausing. Okay, there we go. Yeah, now I'm not pausing. Now we're just doing it all live. Ah, there he is. I think he's coming back in, people. I think he's coming back in. I'm looking on my screen here, it's it's looking promising. So let's see if we can get him back in for a few minutes. Yeah. See you and hear you. Uh no. I don't see you, Chris. I don't see ya. Yeah. I'm gonna pause one more time, folks. Sorry about that. It's only the Christmas show, right? I'll be back in a second. Oh, really? Yeah, no, you dropped out over here. So, you know, that's okay. Like I said, we're uh uh that's the beauty in all this stuff. And I would told the audience, you know, I mean, we 1969 we put a man on the moon with less technology than our cell phones have, and and yet we can't figure out Wi-Fi and cell service and all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_03:Just weird.
SPEAKER_01:Have you ever been to the Smithsonian insane capsule?
SPEAKER_03:No, I haven't been to Smithsonian. It looks yeah. When you look at that capsule, it looks like something you and you and I made in our garage.
SPEAKER_01:It's got all these old timey toggle switches on the control panel, and uh it's just it's as old school as it can be. And these guys went to the free. Oh are you hearing me?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I was losing, I was cutting your audio was cutting out, but uh I know we were getting the jig. Okay, all right. That's all right. That's okay. You know, we're gonna power through it. But uh just real quick, Chris. Real quick. Tell me what you got going on in the uh, you know, what's what's going on lately? Ah, you dropped out. I hear you. I'm sorry. I hear you. No, yeah. Well keep talking. Just keep talking.
SPEAKER_01:We can just do the audio if you want to keep going. You just keep talking. I got you. Uh so yeah, I'm I'm at the nuclear. Okay, I'm at the nuclear angle nuclear power. Yeah. And uh there's all kind of amazing stuff going on, most of which I can't talk about because uh we are in a worldwide competition on on nuclear technology. But uh it's fascinating. A guy like me from Little Hole, Georgia. Uh I used to I started my career in a nuclear plant at Georgia Power, and now I'm all the way up here at the highest levels of making decisions about uh the future of nuclear power, which is very encouraging, by the way. Uh spent a lot of this morning talking about nuclear fusion, which is like really futuristic stuff. Um, but yeah, there's some really good stuff going on. I've been invited to the White House for their Christmas party, which is gonna be really exciting next Saturday. Um, they probably have more than one. I'm probably at the junior party, but whatever. I'll take whatever I can get.
SPEAKER_04:The junior party.
SPEAKER_03:That's great. That's so good.
SPEAKER_04:That's so good. You know, um, you have to come back, you have to come back on the podcast sometime next year so that so we can talk about everything you have going on, you know, and and and the future of this stuff. And of course, you know, we're not going to give out any secrets, but you know what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. No, it's it's really uh cutting edge. I can very easily see our energy infrastructure being completely transformed over the next. 10 to 15 years. Where where we're I I can't remember the exact percentage off the top of my head. I think currently nuclear power is about twenty-five or thirty percent years.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, you you you cut out. I didn't hear what that percentage was gonna be. 80 percent. Okay. All right.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we're we're we're having a little bit of difficulty here, but that's okay. Like I said, we're we'll we'll try to power through it. Real quick, Chris, besides uh parties at the White House, hey buddy, can you hear me? Yeah, I hear you just fine now. I I don't know if you can hear me, but I hear you just fine. Okay, can you hear me now? Yeah, I hear you. I hear you. You're coming in loud and clear. Oh, but you can't hear me.
SPEAKER_01:You want me to run inside and get on Wi-Fi and call you back?
SPEAKER_04:That's fine. You can call me back because this is just fun. Yeah, call me back. Call me back. Yeah. There. All right. I'll send you I'll send you a text. I'll send you a text. Call me back.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Well, we're back again from another pause, people. Something we have never done. But I think we have our problems situated and taken care of. So let's bring back Chris Skates. And there he is, not driving, but in fact, in his apartment.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, from my inner layer, you see my Christmas tree back there.
SPEAKER_04:Excellent. Excellent. So uh we left off. You were you were trying to you were you were telling the audience a little bit that right now we're like 20 to 25 percent nuclear power throughout the country, and and in 10 to 15 years you thought we might be where? 80. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think it's really gonna grow. Um there there's just a lot happening, a lot moving and shaking. And what really drove it is AI. So you and I talked about it when I was on before, but just to refresh your audience's memory, I wrote a lot of technical papers and spoke all over the country pushing for more power generation way back in into the uh mid-90s when nobody else was talking about it. Everybody else was saying demand's gonna fall down and or go down, and we don't we need to start closing some of these coal plants and yada yada. That was really the consensus of everybody, even in the energy energy industry. And I said, no, demand's gonna spike and we're not gonna be ready for it. We need to be building plants, right? So I I I I was published on that in a lot of different outlets, mostly trade journals, where most of your audience probably doesn't read, but um, so now I'm I'm really happy but also frustrated that it took the AI Silicon Valley guys who weren't all of a sudden wanted energy for their AI centers to get people to wake up, and so now all of a sudden everybody's realized holy crap, we're on the verge of having blackouts, and I want to build my AI center. So now all of a sudden everybody wants power. So it's really revitalized the nuclear industry, and we can talk a little bit about what happened, why the nuclear industry went bad if you want to get into that much technical, but um it the energy the it it we're the winds at our back in in the nuclear space right now. And I hope that we don't have something to uh undermine that because I would really like to see some of these plants get built.
SPEAKER_04:Right, right. Yeah, no, I um we definitely you definitely have to come back in the new year, come back, talk about what it is you're doing uh in the administration and and kind of put let's put some focus on where it is that we we are now and where it is we need to go. We definitely got to set that up for uh for next year, okay? Yeah, let's do it. Yeah, yeah, definitely. And uh, but but back to back to Christmas, okay? Since this is the Christmas show. Um tell me about like tell me about what uh what you remember Christmas as as a kid.
SPEAKER_01:Sure. And I'll tell you something that I'm having a lot of fun with right now. Yeah. Um, I was in the grocery checkout line and saw a special edition Life magazine, which I snatched right up and brought home. I didn't realize that this December is also the hundredth birthday of Winnie the Pooh.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, I didn't, I don't think I realized that.
SPEAKER_01:I didn't either, and I've been just devouring this magazine because you know I deal with such serious topics all day at my job. Yeah, and I'm in the administration, and that's like war without bullets. And uh so to come home and just read a little bit about Winnie the Pooh, because really when you look at the AA Milne books, uh the original books, they're really nice, sweet little philosophies about friendship and kindness and just all kind of really wholesome ideas. So part of my Christmas that I've I've really enjoyed getting back to my childhood and reading some of those excerpts from those books uh that I read, you know, my parents read to me when I was a kid. Um, but I remember one particular Christmas. I actually wrote a short story about this, it's kind of funny. I was so into Cowboys and Indians, and I was particularly into the show Bonanza. So this would have been about 1968. Yep. And Santa Claus brought me that year the best gift I've ever received or ever will receive of a bonanza haas cartwright uh gun set. So it was a cap pistol with real fake wood grips, it was a cap rifle, and it had a false leather gun belt with a steer head buckle. And then to go with that, my mother got me a cowboy suit, which was like black denim with red cowboy trim, and then white fringe, and these gloves that had fringe hanging off of them. The only thing was the cowboy suit was apparently made for Shaquille O'Neal because this thing was so much too big for me. It was like three feet of fabric was hanging off the end of my legs and arms. And my mom was like, You'll grow into it. I'm 62 years old and I still haven't grown into it. I don't even know where it is. Oh falling out laughing. Oh, geez. I had so much fun with those cap guns. And when I put that gun belt on, Mister, you better believe I was ready to go to battle with whoever.
SPEAKER_03:You were you were ready to go to work.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's great. That's great. What uh what uh what are your plans for uh for this Christmas? What's going on around the skates household?
SPEAKER_01:Uh I'm gonna be, of course, I'm away from my family while I'm up here, which is kind of a bummer during this. I did get to go home for a week during Thanksgiving and saw the grandkids and and spent time with my wife and kids. Uh I am going home uh the 23rd. So I'll actually be home from the 23rd through New Year's, and that's gonna be really nice. But actually, this Saturday I became a member of the Museum of the Bible here in DC, which is a fascinating place, really a world-class museum, and they're gonna have a Christmas uh thing going on this weekend that I'm going to where they're they're gonna be looking at some ancient historical Christmas celebrations, and then I'm gonna dart over to uh the Smithsonian American History Museum. They've got a display going of uh department store windows from the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Oh, how cool is that! Great, yeah, and from there, I'm gonna zip over to the uh national Christmas tree and get some pictures of that. So that'll be a good Saturday.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, that's awesome! That sounds so good. I'm gonna tell you this you have to stick around DC long enough for Catherine and I to get there because you're gonna be our tour guide.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, you guys come up.
SPEAKER_04:Absolutely, man.
SPEAKER_01:You can crash on you're gonna have to crash on my couch in the floor, though. I ain't giving you my bed.
SPEAKER_04:That's it's quite all right.
SPEAKER_01:But I do have a couch, I do have a I don't even think it's a pullout couch. I've never tried it, but uh yeah, it's a one-bedroom apartment, but it's nice, and it you're you can get right on the metro from here and go anywhere you want to go, and I can tell you what metro to get on and all that good stuff.
SPEAKER_04:Ah, that's great. That's great. That's beautiful. Um, do you have um and you probably don't have a lot of time for doing this? I don't know, but do you have like a Christmas playlist you have on your phone that you you get to listen to?
SPEAKER_01:You know, it's funny you mentioned that. I've got three that I've been really streaming. Uh I got really in the Christmas spirit the day after Thanksgiving. Usually I'm a little bit slow to catch up on Christmas. Okay, but this year I was really into it right from the get-go. I know two of these albums aren't that new, but I love uh Kelly Clarkson's Wrapped in Red Christmas album.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Um, I've been listening to every song on it. Michael Booblay, the master. I love that guy. He's got a great Christmas album that I think came out last year. And then there's one by the Gaither Vocal Band. And um I wish I could remember that song. They've got a song on there that's one of the most beautiful. All of them are great because their harmonies are so incredible. Yeah, but they've got a song on there, uh, something about sweet release. It's looking at the birth of the Christ child from the Old Testament perspective.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So it's it's the song is about how we've been waiting for hundreds of years for this moment, and now it's here in the face of this little baby. It's just a breathtaking song. I had never heard it before, and I've listened to that song probably 20 times already this week, and and still I'm not tired of it.
SPEAKER_04:Do me a favor, sweet release.
SPEAKER_01:I think okay.
SPEAKER_04:Do me do me a favor. Um, when you get a moment, send it to me, text it over to me. So I have it. Okay, great. That's awesome. That's that's swell. Um, yeah, you know, I I every year when I do the Christmas show, I put together my top 10 Christmas songs and that kind of thing. And you know, uh, the last couple of years, God rescue Mary Gentleman from Mercy Me is hit, it's the number one song on my list. It's just a great version of that song. It's just tremendous.
SPEAKER_01:But they're so they're so talented. You know, I need to give Mercy Me a chance. I haven't I haven't gotten over to them yet. Not because I didn't like them, just because I just haven't done it yet.
SPEAKER_04:But yeah, no, it's it that that particular song is so so so good. But but you know, because you and I we're really close in age, and uh around my house, um Nat King Cole was playing all the time. The Christmas song, his his his you know, one of his Christmas albums, and uh so that was always something that was around the house at Christmas time. A lot of Nat King Cole, a lot of uh I mean uh obviously the Christmas song, his biggest. Everyone and everyone goes to Nat's version of that song, which is tremendous. Uh, but he did uh a version of um uh Oh Christmas Tree, but he did it, he did O Tannenbaum, so he did it in German. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And uh, I was listening listening to the Apple holiday channel the other day, and they played that, and you're right. It's really, it's really good.
SPEAKER_04:So, and his and his voice is just so velvety smooth, yeah. Just so good, so good. So I just I love all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, do you have time for a Christmas history story?
SPEAKER_04:Chris, I got all the time for you that you need, and here's the beauty in this, people. Chris is such an amazing storyteller. So, so Chris, you take it away. I could because here's here's what happens when when you and I are finished up here, this is how I'm closing out the show. I'm I'm gonna read Twas the Night Before Christmas. Oh, great, and close out the show. But uh, we can always do with another good Christmas story. So give it to us.
SPEAKER_01:So I'm in DC, uh, and all this happened in the immediate vicinity within probably a hundred miles of here, that I'm about to tell you. I'm I'm actually revisiting it because I'm I've been reading a book off and on when I have time to read leisure stuff about a founder that I knew very little about, James Monroe, who became what, sixth or seventh president of the United States. Yep, yep. But also, he was the one that did the Louisiana Purchase. Yes, he was really the mastermind behind it. Thomas Jefferson was the president, but he was working for Thomas Jefferson, and they were very good friends, by the way. I didn't realize that James Monroe fought in combat under George Washington during the revolution. So, one of the really understudied uh times in American history that we should all know more about is the Battle of Trenton. And and when Washington crossed the Delaware and it was freezing cold. But let me set it up though. Before they they made this amazing crossing, the logistics of getting a whole army across this river and with ice flows going down the river and snow on both sides is mind-blowing that they were even able to do it. Yeah, but they were his army was very sick. A lot of them had frostbite, very few of them had shoes. Um, their shoes had rotted away. And he wrote in his diary, just a week or so before Trenton, he said, I don't think anyone else in the in the country except me understands how dire our circumstances are. And he didn't mean just the circumstances of his army, he meant of the republic, of the survivor, the nation. And so he had a colonel, and I apologize his name escapes me right now, but the colonel wrote him a letter. He was like his adjunct, he was it was Washington's right-hand man, and he said, General, it is time something is done, something bold and dramatic. Our situation is digressing rapidly to total failure, unless it is rescued by some happy event. So Washington decided I'm gonna do the only thing I can do, which is attack. So here he is with the sick army, barefoot army, underfed, malnourished, and he's gonna cross the Delaware on Christmas Eve.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:In a driving snowstorm with little, literal icebergs coming down the river, hitting the sides of the canoes. They gotta get remember, they gotta get cannon and horses across. They had horses getting on barges, and they had to do it all without the British hearing them, who were a fort. So we at the fort, along with the British, were the Hessians who were brutal fighters, who were contractors basically for the British and and really tough fighters. But Washington realized something because he was also a student of history, he knew they would celebrate Christmas Eve, and he knew they would be drinking. So he crossed the Delaware while they were having their Christmas party in this driving snowstorm, and then when they got across the Delaware, the road from the riverbank to the fortress in Trenton was covered in blood because of the frostbite of the soldiers' feet. Oh wow, the ice and snow was cutting into their and blistering their feet so bad their feet were bleeding. Oh he marches them through the snow all night and then attacks. So it's not like they got there, took a break, and had a nice hot meal, and then it's like oh, they went right into combat. Yeah, and they turned the tide of the revolution by defeating the Hessians that night. The Hessians surrendered. And but James Madison, or excuse me, James Monroe was there and did all of that with them. So these are the kind of guys that made up this country's early history. We don't have that in our. I mean, I love President Trump, but he's he's not cut out of that kind of cloth.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know many of us that are. That's ridiculous.
SPEAKER_01:Hardly any of us are, and and yet the sacrifices that these folks made, and and Monroe had a lot, so did John Adams, had a lot of uh suffering within his family because he was had to be gone so much. They were really poor because they never paid these guys anything back then. The government jobs weren't good, weren't good paying jobs back then, but they kept serving because they realized they had the skill set uh to do what needed to be done. And and we're all here and enjoying freedom because of it.
SPEAKER_04:Absolutely. It was they didn't they didn't do it because they wanted to, they did it because they had to.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and it had to be done. And really, I don't want to, I don't want to in any way compare myself to them, but I'm 800 miles from my grandkids at Christmas for that same reason because I know a lot about nuclear power, and they need people that are dedicated and knowledgeable to be willing to serve in these positions. So, you know, here I am. I don't know how long I'll I'll stay. Uh I'll probably stay the whole administration, but I certainly hope so. I'm 62 and uh and a cancer survivor, and here I am up here fighting the good fight.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I love it, Chris. It's good to see your face, it's good to hear your voice, it's great to talk to you. Uh uh, you know what? I just I want to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas, and thanks for joining in. And you and I, we're gonna check back next year. We're gonna get you back on here and find out all the good stuff that's going on.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that'd be great. Keep on keeping on, Ben.
SPEAKER_04:All right. Thank you, Chris. Take care now. I will see you. Man. You know what? A lot of us we don't realize that or or or maybe remember that that crossing of the Delaware took place on Christmas Eve. And the foresight that wow, the foresight that they had, you know, hey, the the British are gonna be over there celebrating Christmas. They're gonna be busy drinking and and that kind of stuff, so we can catch them off guard. Wow, just absolutely amazing, absolutely amazing stuff. Um great to hear from Chris. It's so good. He's I told you, he's he's such a very gifted storyteller. He's you know, his books are out there. Look him up, Chris Skates uh books, whatever it is you want to. You can look them up, they're all on Amazon. Great, great, great stuff. And um I think it's gonna be such a tremendous help uh with our current administration. So we'll get him back next year, get an update on everything, and yeah, so good. Uh all right. Well, listen, we are right down here to the end of the program. So I thank our guests for being here, Olivia Harms and Chris Gates. And I just want to um, before I get into this story here of Twas the Night Before Christmas, I'll let you guys know I have two books of this story, and this is not the one that I normally read. The one that I normally read is much larger and it has bigger print, so it's easier to see. I don't need my glasses today. I'm gonna need my glasses, but before I get into this, I just want to uh again reiterate the reason why we celebrate Christmas and let's not forget it. Uh let's just love on each other. Love your families, love your friends, love your neighbors. Neighbors, love your community. Um, and um let's get it done. We you know, we always say, Oh, yeah, well, we'll, you know, turn it around in the new year. Well, you know, the new year is only uh a couple weeks away, but we can start turning it around today. Okay. Uh so with that, I want to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas. And uh I don't want to say happy new year because we'll be back. We'll be back after this show. This isn't the last show of the year, but a very Merry Christmas to each and every one of you, to you, your family, your friends, your loved ones, all that. And thanks for just sticking by me this last year. Um the audience grows not a lot, but it grows a little bit, and that's okay. Let's just let's grow it however much we can and um go from there, you know. Um, we just I just do what I do and I bring you guys along. There we go, a little bit better focus. I bring you guys along, and I love having you around. So uh again, a very Merry Christmas to each and every one of you, and let's finish this show up with a little story by my friend Clement Seymour, 'twas the night before Christmas. 'Twas the night before Christmas, went all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there. The children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads. And Ma in her kerchief and I in my cap had just settled down for a long winter's nap. When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, tore open the shutters, and threw up the sash. The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow gave a lustre of midday to objects below, when what to my wondering eye should appear, but a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer. With a little old driver so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be Saint Nick. More rapid than eagles, his coursers they came, and he whistled and shouted, and called them by name. Now dasher, now dancer, now prancer and vixen, on common on cupidon don't blitzen. To the top of the porch, to the top of the wall, now dash away, dash away, dash away all as dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, when they meet with an obstacle mount to the sky, so up to the house the coursers they flew with a sleighful of toys and Saint Nicholas too. And then in a twinkling I heard on the roof the prancing and pawing of each little hoof. As I drew in my head and was turning around, down the chimney Saint Nicholas came with a bound. He was dressed all in fur from his head to his foot, and his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot. A bundle of toys he had flung on his back and he looked like a pedlar just opening his pack. His eyes how they twinkled, his dimples how merry. His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry. His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow, and the beard on his chin was as white as the snow. The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, and the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath. He had a broad face and a little round belly that shook when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly. He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, and I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself. A wink of his eye and a twist of his head soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread. He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work and filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk, and laying his finger aside of his nose, and giving a nod up the chimney he rose. He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, and away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
SPEAKER_03:But I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight Merry Christmas to all to all good night.