Anti-Anxiety Holiday Gift Guide with Crystal Flores

Do you find yourself stressed and anxious when it comes to giving holiday gifts? Have you lost the joy of the experience?

We sit down with financial wellness expert Crystal Flores to learn ways to stop the anxiety and disconnection of gift giving. Cyrstal explains how she gives gifts based on her values: thrift, creativity, connection, and environmental stewardship. When your values lead, the pressure fades and gifts start to feel like gestures of care rather than tests you can fail.
We start where stress often spikes: the workplace. Crystal shares how leaders can normalize no-gift policies. Crystal also offers a clear script for holiday bonuses or tips when money is tight, separating appreciation from price and protecting your financial health with honest, kind language. When giving obligatory hostess gifts, she offers respectful, low-friction choices like homemade granola and ethical treats, including fair-labor chocolate that tastes amazing (Tony's Chocolonely).
Crystal gets specific and suggests that for single parents and families, acts of service beat stuff: car detailing swaps, dinner drop-offs, laundry runs, and babysitting hours. For kids and tweens, she emphasizes how kids love volume when it comes to gifts.We also tackle the emotional side—anxiety, perfectionism, and rejection-sensitive dysphoria. If someone expects expensive items, Crystal shows you how to set boundaries early with a loving family note.
Leave the pressure, keep the joy, and make gift giving personal again. Discover your own core values and keep this process fun!

Gift of Granola

The original recipe came from Mark Bittman's cookbook "How to Cook Everything," but I've been making this for so long I've made it my own, and I don't remember his original instructions.

You'll need 2 big baking dishes. I use a Pyrex glass baking dishes. If you want to do one smaller batch, then halve everything.

Fill the dishes with:

4 cups rolled oats (not instant...too small)

2 handfuls shredded coconut (optional, but we love it)

2 handfuls of 3 kinds of chopped nuts (whatever you have on hand..so 6 handfuls total)

lots of cinnamon

a little salt

drizzle the whole thing lightly with honey or agave syrup (optional)

Stir everything together

Preheat oven to 350

Bake for 17 minutes (you could 15 or 20...whatever works for your particular oven...17 works just right in mine with two baking trays of this stuff), pull it out, stir it around, and put it back for another 17 minutes.  You just want to get everything toasted to get a crunchy texture.  

Pull it out, let it cool.  Add raisins or other dried fruit if you want.

Works well by itself, as a homemade cereal with milk, as a topping for yogurt or ice cream... whatever

Homemade Dog Cookies (20 minutes)

1 15oz can pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling

2 eggs

3 tablespoons (or more, if you like) natural peanut butter, make sure peanuts and salt are only ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour (you could use regular flour).  I just only have whole wheat in my pantry, so that's what I used.

Preheat oven to 350

Mix ingredients. It should have the consistency of cupcake icing. If it needs to be thicker, add more flour. If you need to thin it, add some water.

Form 1-inch rounds on parchment paper and put them into preheated oven for 12-15 minutes.

Allow to cool thoroughly before giving these.

Finished cookie rounds should have the consistency of a thick cake

Transcript

Sponsor And Safety Disclaimer

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We are supported by the SOAR with Tapping app. Tapping is a powerful science-backed tool that calms your nervous system. I've been using Sore with Tapping nightly for insomnia, and I am sleeping well. Visit the Sore with Tapping app at Apple and Google Play Stores to start your journey towards freedom right from your phone. Welcome to Bipolar She. I'm your host, Janine Noel. The content of this podcast may include suicide. If you're ever in need of immediate help, please dial 988, a suicide and crisis lifeline. Today I have Crystal Flores, financial wellness expert, back on the show to talk holiday gift giving. Many of us may experience a lot of anxiety when it comes to gift giving or understanding that it is okay to not give gifts. For me, it can stir up deep fears of rejection. But Crystal brings to the show many ideas on how you can give gifts that reflect your values. And most importantly, she reminds us that this should be fun. And now on with the show. Absolutely. It's great to be here again. So good to be here. It's good to see you. I am excited because this is, it's funny. It's not supposed to be an intense episode. But for those of us who maybe struggle with anxiety or other mental health issues, what we're going to talk about can actually be highly stressful and can lead, you know, to a pretty unenjoyable holiday season if you let it get the best of you. So you are here to help me and others just find a way to make it through the holidays, do the gift giving in an anxious-free way and also a way that you know reflects core values. So I love when you talk about your core values and how that informs all parts of your life. So maybe you could remind our listeners who those are.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Sure. Yeah. For me, what comes up when I start talking about my core values are thrift, creativity, and connection. So those three things are always tied up for me. So when it comes to gift giving, to your point, Janine, I always go back to those. Gift giving for me is an exercise in connection. And at the same time, though, I always hold space for the fact that in this culture, we've created a lot of expectations, really heavy expectations around gift giving. Environmental stewardship is also another core value. So when it comes to gift giving, I always start with those things: creativity, thrift, connection, and stewardship. And usually I'll be honest, when I start, I really try to think about the person that I'm giving for and just close my eyes for a few minutes and try to step into his or her shoes and really think like what's meaningful for them. And then take that into a lens of, well, where does that intersect with my values? And I'll be totally honest. I mean, completely transparent. People who know me know that if I give a used gift, whether it's from a thrift store or from Facebook Marketplace, it's given out of a spirit of real love. And I recognize that that doesn't work for everybody. Sometimes people go into a thrift store and they get they get the icks or they really feel the energy from the person who might have used that object before. And I completely understand and totally respect that. So there are other solutions that are really budget-friendly and values-friendly. And so we can get into those. But you tell me in terms of where you want to start first.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

I thought we would start with those less personal gifts, maybe even starting with workplace gifts and philosophy, hostess gifts, these ones that are obligations at times and perhaps don't have that much meaning. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

That's the the sometimes those are the hardest and those are the easiest. I'll preface this all. If you're in a position of leadership at a company or an organization or your church or your nonprofit, whatever, please, please take your leadership position and use it to normalize what can be a really refreshing change for people around gift giving. So the last time that I led a team in a corporate environment, we were having a meeting in early, in early November. And I closed the meeting simply by saying, hey, everybody, we have some people who are new on the team. And I just want to remind everybody that in this office we don't do gifts. We'll be doing a holiday luncheon together later in the month and we will have that scheduled. And that was it. And you could see the relief wash over people's faces. So again, if you're in a leadership position and you can change that norm, go for it. But if you're not, and there is all this expectation, and the gifts don't feel super personalized. Number one, I give myself complete freedom to stick to a budget of$20 or$25 or even less if that's what feels comfortable. So number one, you've got to stick to something that feels comfortable for you. That is, it is okay to just give a gift card. It is completely okay. And when I give a gift card, it's usually Amazon or Target. I do remember when I was working at JP Morgan, it was it was the norm in that office for all of the VPs and higher up to give gifts to their assistant, but for assistants not to give gifts back, which felt totally appropriate. But I would watch these VPs give their assistance, I don't know, just really big gift baskets and things like that. And I thought, if I'm in a position of relative economic privilege relative to my assistant, I'm just giving her a big fat card to target. And she can with a note that says, this is a reflection of how much I value you and I want you to go use it in whatever way feels good to you. Whether that's she can use it for groceries, gifts, whatever she wants. So gift cards are totally okay. If it's just kind of one of those small exchanges, oh my goodness, my go-to gift for hostesses, office parties, anything that's small are Tony's uh Chocolone chocolates. I don't know if you're familiar with them.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

Yeah.

Budgeting, Gift Cards, And Ethical Chocolate

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Tony's Chocolone, I really love because they come in all different flavors, the bars are really big, but I was not aware until I started buying Tony's Chocolone that there really is a huge labor problem and a deforestation issue with cocoa production. So Tony's Chocolone is completely supportive of fair labor practices. They don't employ any farmers who who use child labor, and they employ farmers who use regenerative agricultural practices. So all that being aside, and you can still get a bar of chocolate. Like I can pick it up at the grocery store and it's like$6.50 for a big bar of chocolate. And those, and I'll make I'll make a stack of two or three of those, tie a ribbon on them, and that's good enough. And I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't welcome a big bar of chocolate.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

Real quick, like bonuses, the Christmas bonus, if you're in.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Oh my gosh, my throat just got tight. So the Christmas bonus, usually, if it's in some offices, like the norm is that you give cash or that you give a gift card, or you know, and if that's the norm and you have the ability to give, go for it. Do it. If you do not, you have to be really upfront with the person that you're giving to about how much you can do. And I think it's completely okay to give a smaller gift with a really thoughtful note that acknowledges your reality. And this is what's really critical with all of us. We've got to be comfortable naming what's real for us. So the note might say, Janine, I really appreciate everything you've done and how hard you've worked in 2025. Regrettably, the size of my gift, I feel like couldn't possibly reflect how much I value your work, but know that I am wishing you a very wonderful holiday season. That's a note that acknowledges your reality. It dissociates the size of the gift from the value that you place on that person. And workplaces are hard. Workplaces are really hard. And you also have to remember that, like in two months, most people aren't going to remember what they got anyway. Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

The other, this is not as stressful, but moving on to, you know, kind of less personal gifts, like a hostess gift or something, you know, that could be very generic, but at the same time be an expectation, right? Of a nice bottle of wine, a$50 candle.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

I feel like there's a whole subject of candle inflation. I don't know how that happened, but I do see candles that are ridiculously expensive. So when I go to for hostesses, again, I'll always revert to Tony's Chocolone because I can always get it at the grocery store. But I will also, and this goes for anybody who has pets. If people have pets, I won't necessarily give them a gift, but I'll give them something for their pet. And I've made homemade dog biscuits or homemade dog cookies that are really, really budget-friendly. And I know I sent you a recipe, so I'm sure we'll get that posted with the episode, but something for the dog, something for the house that's really simple. It can be as simple as fresh flowers or even some fresh produce from the farmer's market. Something really small is completely okay. Absolutely. And things that are homemade, again, this goes back to my values of thrift and creativity. So I remember one year, and I don't think I mentioned this to you before, but one year I just gave candied walnuts to a friend. I looked up a recipe for candied walnuts, and they were really easy. And I went with a big jar of candied walnuts, and she was super happy, and her family was happy, and it was great. And I didn't feel, most importantly, because this person was having an open house that was right around the holidays, I didn't feel that sense of, oh my goodness, my gift is less than what everyone else is bringing. That's also really important because we can show up at some of these parties and people are bringing expensive bottles of wine or enormous floral arrangements. And it's just whatever we give, it's really really does have to come from the heart. And it's gotta be fun. It's gotta be fun for the giver.

Handling Bonuses And Honest Notes

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Yeah, fun for the giver is a tough one. Yeah, it's a tough one. It's totally tough. I have so much anxiety around gift giving. And there's even, you know, a psychological term, often for people with ADHD, which is rejection sensitive dysphoria. So you're extra sensitive to any feelings of right, of rejection. It causes you delay, procrastination, perfectionism. And I think I have that when it comes to gift giving. Like I just feel so vulnerable because I've always, you know, been in a family where they can all afford to give much nicer gifts, but then I feel responsibility that it just takes the fun out of it. It entirely just drains the joy. And I just feel I never hit it right. And like even if I, you know, find a nice bracelet or something from from my mom at a boutique that is$100 or something, I always feel like she's like, this looks like a$25 gift. You know what I mean? So help me get into the holiday spirit, Crystal.

Simple Hostess Gifts And Pet Treats

Homemade Ideas: Nuts, Fun, And Comparisons

Anxiety, RSD, And Making It Fun

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Okay. So first acknowledge there's all these expectations around gifts, right? We talked about that at the beginning. And also, there's also all these expectations that are created in consumer culture. And marketers are very savvy, they're very well paid, and they're very, very good at what they do. So recognize that you're swimming in a media environment and in a cultural environment where the waters are heavy. So acknowledge that first. But then I kind of I'll hold that and I'll set it aside, and I'll remember, hey, this is supposed to be fun. And if it's not fun, I'm gonna make it fun. And however my gift lands with this person, it is absolutely not a reflection of how much I love or do not love them. And gift giving can be hard, but that's why it always goes back to like really put yourself in that person's shoes and ask, gosh, what would be really meaningful for him or her? So I did this recently with a friend who who's one of those people who has everything, right? She lacks for nothing in terms of material goods. And she was having a birthday, and I thought, God, what am what on earth am I gonna get her? And she knows me, so she completely understood that the gift was probably gonna be thrifted, because that's what I love. So I walked into the thrift store and I gave myself an assignment. I was like, I'm gonna spend 30 minutes, I'm gonna go through this store, and anything that reminds me of her, I'm gonna put in the cart. And that's what it did. And about 20 minutes in, this was I was actually starting to get beef on because I would find silly hats and scarves and all kinds of just goofy things. And I just put it in the cart. It became a game. And 20 minutes in, I went through the houseware section and I found this amazing unicorn lamp. And I for her, that was perfect, absolutely perfect. So I plugged it in, they have a tester, you can check and make sure that it works, and it was in great shape. So I put everything back and I kept the unicorn lamp. And I think the unicorn lamp was like$7.99. It was just very, very reasonably affordable. And when I gave it to her, I wrapped it all up for her birthday. And by the way, yes, I do reuse gift wrapping because that's for me an environmental value. And I've never had anybody ever say, hmm, this tissue paper appears to have been reused. Like no one ever says that. But I gave her the gift and she was so overjoyed about it. She was super happy. And I told her, and I think also if you're gonna give a thrifted gift, I absolutely told her where it came from. And I was completely okay with that. And so that went over really, really well. But I think, you know, when we're thinking about how to give how to give well, it's really about stepping into that person's shoes. So for a single parent, I've done this once or twice before, but for a single parent, a Christmas gift that I once did was I switched cars with her for a day. I literally drove up and we emptied all the kind of the junk out of her car, stuck it in my car, left her with my car for the day. Then I took her car to go get washed. I've never had met a single parent who's like, no, don't clean my car. Like, you'll never find that. That was a great Christmas gift for her because it's not something that she would ever find the time to do. Babysitting for new parents, giving them a coupon. These people need a break. If they have a baby, they need a break. And really being willing to show up when they need that, I think that's huge. A pre-made dinner from Costco, a great, like also for a single parent, just saying, hey, I'm gonna drop off dinner, maybe even pick up, pick up your laundry and drop it back off with a pre-made dinner. That like that's huge for parents who are really trying to hold it together by themselves. A batch of children's books. Kids love volume. Like that's first of all what I've learned. Kids love volume. So it's not about sometimes getting them one gift, but little kids, they love to get, they think if they get 10 things, they're so excited. And a small stack of kids' books is very, very affordable, whether they're coming from the local library sale or from a thrift store. And that's awesome. For tweens, especially for tween girls, and you gotta check with parents before you do this. But I'll run to the Dollar General, which is not my favorite, not my favorite, like, you know, just buy a bunch of made in China stuff. But I'll buy them a small selection of nail polishes in all the tween colors. So the pinks, the purples, the sparkle, the sparkle, like all the things. And they love that. They think that's so much fun. And again, you gotta check with parents before you do that. And for anybody in my life who's a reader, and I have a lot of friends who are big readers, I'll give them a gift certificate to thriftbooks.com. It's used books, but they're all in really great shape. And I think right now, if you buy a$25 gift card, then you get a free book as the purchaser. So that's great. They also offer free shipping when the purchase is above$15. So for a reader, they can easily buy three or four books on a$25 gift card and buy whatever the heck they want to read. And I love that for people who are big readers. And you know, I'll be honest, like sometimes there are things that can be really, really simple. Really simple. Like a beautiful loaf of sourdough bread. Not kidding. Go to the bakery, get a beautiful loaf of bread, pair it with some peanut butter and jelly. Like that's I've done that before for a hostess too. Super simple, so easy. And last, you know, but not least, I'll I'll share this. I can only I actually remember five gifts that my husband has given me over the course of our relationship. Two that were really quite terrible, and three that were really wonderful. Out of the three that were really, really wonderful, one was my engagement ring, one was a chicken coop because he knew I wanted to have chickens, and the third thing was actually a love letter. And one year he had his business had really been struggling, and there really was no extra money for Christmas. And he wrote me a letter, not on fancy paper, in the introduction. He named what was real for him, and he said, I don't have the money for anything extra this year. It's been a really hard year, as you know. He said, So I want what I want to do is write you a letter and tell you why I love you and tell you about our dreams for our future. That letter meant the world to me. I still have it, and I loved that it was a testament to the fact that at least we had we had a relationship where he could he could be vulnerable enough to name what was real for him, and that meant so much.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

Absolutely. I don't want to jump into granola.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

I forgot about my granola. Yeah, so no, go straight to granola. Okay, so the other thing I also do, and I keep the granola, the granola stays in stock all the time. So it this works for hostesses, it works for pretty much anybody because basically everybody eats, right? Like I don't know anybody who doesn't eat. But I have a homemade granola recipe, which I actually adapted from Mark Bittmann's book, Um, How to Cook Everything. And I've been doing it for so long that I almost don't even think about it. It's always stocked in my house. But it's really tasty and really good. I know we'll share the recipe in the show notes, but the granola, the homemade granola is, I have never taken that to anyone and it has not been a hit. Never. So, and it's gluten-free, it's it's got rolled oats and nuts, and then you can put shredded coconut if if you like that, cinnamon, and then you let everything toast for about 30-35 minutes, and then you can throw in some dried fruit, and it's really easy for a hostess gift. It's super easy to package it into a nice jar or a little baggie into it and then put it in a gift bag. And again, I've never had anybody who said, Oh my gosh, that was terrible. Never. And you can use it as a homemade cereal, you can use it on top of yogurt, my husband will put it on top of his ice cream.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

But if someone feels that they still need to give things for the holiday and new things, you still feel that pressure, you know you're expected to give something of higher value. How do we handle the thingy need? Okay, the thingy things, yeah.

Thrifted Treasure Hunt And Reused Wrap

SPEAKER_01 19:18

So this is this is where the rubber of your values hits the road of reality. And this is where friction can step in. So if you are feeling all that pressure, like I've got to give a thingy, it's gotta be brand new, it's gotta come from a store, it cannot be homemade, it cannot be thrifted. Fine. It is what it is. What you do though, what you have, I think what I think we all owe to ourselves for our own personal financial health, which I'm a huge advocate for, is I think you've got to give within your means. And yes, if that means like, okay, fine, I'm gonna walk into TJ Maxx and I'm just gonna buy a thing off the shelf, fine, let it be. But let it be something that is with comfortably within your means. This is also where we've got to be real, and it feels a little bit daring to be vulnerable with the people that we are giving a gift to. And if you know someone has an expectation that they're gonna get a$200 gift and$25 is what's comfortable for you, then it's either got to come with a note or a verbal, a verbal delivery that says something to the effect of the size of this gift is not reflective of the size of my feelings for you. I love you so much. This is reflective of my current personal financial reality. And here's the word's really hard. If the recipient has a negative reaction, if I tell someone my personal financial reality means that gifts are a little bit limited this year, and that person receives that information and is condescending or rejects that, or that is great information. That's told me a lot about where that person probably should be in my life, which is probably not close to my inner circle, because people who are in our inner circle should hopefully be able to see us in whatever stage of life we're in, in whatever our circumstances are, and they should be able to love us. So this is where it can get hard, and this is where expectations and materialism and culture can really, can really challenge us. But this is an opportunity to sit firm and in your own values. And again, remember, like this is still supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be fun. So, you know, I think we owe it to ourselves to to take the pressure off. To take the pressure off.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

My family is quite big, and I have to transition to just giving cards, really. Like, I can't do the$50 gift cards anymore for birthdays, and you know what I mean? Absolutely. Absolutely.

Acts Of Service Gifts For Families

SPEAKER_01 21:59

I mean, you I think that you've got to do, and we all have to do first and foremost, the gift that you've got to give yourselves. Yourself is a gift of self-acceptance and a gift of honesty. If that's what's real for you, then let it be real and let it be okay. So I think we've got to set expectations sometimes proactively, and that's completely okay. So for me, if it were me and I were in those shoes, I think what I would do is send an email or a text message if that's if that's okay, if your family's great with text. That might say, subject line, you know, holiday gifts this year. And it might say, family, I love you all so very much, but this year has been really challenging for me financially. So gifts are going to be different. And you might go on to explain gifts, might be smaller or homemade, and then I might say, thanks in advance for your love and understanding. So you're setting the stage, you know, prior to Thanksgiving, if you send it now, that you're thinking about them, you love them, you will be doing gifts, but it's just not gonna look the way that it did last year. And I doubt that anyone, I doubt that anyone would ever come back and say, Well, my goodness boy, that's a real disappointment. They're probably not gonna do that. They're not gonna do that. If they reply at all, it will probably be, we completely understand and we love you. Or they might say, if you get a response from someone, if it were me receiving that email, my response would probably be, thanks for letting me know where you are. What I'd really like is for you to skip me as a recipient this year. Take me off your list and don't worry about it. Because that's an act of love coming back, saying, I see you and you're off the hook, Janine. So, you know, hopefully that's a response, but you know, there's nothing wrong with proactively communicating to people with where you are and what's real. Totally normal.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Yeah, that's great. That is really good advice. I'm just curious, what's a great gift that you recently received?

Tween Kits, Readers, And Bread Bundles

SPEAKER_01 24:03

I can tell you right now a gift that I received, and it probably cost the giver like two or three dollars. I had a relative who was 95 and she passed away on Dia de los Muertos. So if you're Hispanic, we were really happy because that's the day when the gate between the world of the living and the dead opens. So we're really happy for Tia because we thought this is gonna help her pass more easily. And but it was a time of mourning. And I have a friend of mine who helps me, takes care of my critters, and I came back to my house one day, and there was a tiny, it's it's like two inches tall. There's a tiny little painted skull for Day of the Dead. And she just wrote a note that says, for you and your Thea. And it was so meaningful because it meant that she had seen how important that person was to me and my family, what it meant to us that she passed on the Day of the Dead. And it was so personal. And I can't imagine that she spent more than five or six dollars on it. You know, something you would buy at a at a roadside stand. I mean, just it's or at a flea market, really simple.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

So was gift giving ever difficult to you? Because you just Yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

It was okay. Oh my gosh. Yes. There was a period in my life, I'll be honest, when I was young, like in my late teens, early 20s, I had a Christmas list that was, I don't know, 40 or 50. Like, I wrote all these Christmas cards because I thought that's what you had to do, and I had to get them out, and they had to be beautiful. And first of all, I don't even do Christmas cards anymore because a long time ago I was like, this isn't any fun. So I'm not doing it. And no one has ever said to me, Well, I didn't get a Christmas card from you. What why? No one's ever said that. There was also a time when I felt all of that pressure about like, oh my God, here's this big list, and I I gotta get something for everybody, and it's gotta be cute and it's gotta be meaningful, and it's gotta be beautifully wrapped. And there hit a point though, where I just felt exhausted by the whole thing. And I just said, I'm not, I'm not, this isn't fun. I'm not doing this anymore. I'm not doing this.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

I love the scowl on your face right now.

unknown 26:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

I remember when I was little, my mom said to me, when we were picking out birthday gifts, like buy something you would like, buy something that you would think was fun. And so, but I think as adults, we have to step. I like this idea of step being able to step into another's shoes.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

Step into another's shoes. And if that doesn't work, again, like you can all the default for me is always Tony's Chocolone. Always, you can always default to the chocolate. Because again, to your mom's advice, that's something that I would love. And I've never given anybody a stack of a bar of chocolates. I've and and not have them be really joyful about it.

When New Things Are Expected

SPEAKER_00 26:50

I just saw online that you can make custom wrappers for Tony's. You can, yes. I'm sure that's not uh inexpensive.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

I'm sure it's not inexpensive. And again, like I'm always going back to that litmus test of make it easy. Make it easy. So what's easy for me is to go to the grocery store, buy three of the chocolates, come home, put a really pretty bow on them. That's easy. And I love easy. I'll love me some easy. There are enough complicated things in my life. Gift giving does not need to be on my list of complicated things. I'm not doing that.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Yeah, okay. You're giving you listeners permission to it is a hundred percent about being giving yourself permission to acknowledge your reality, to make it fun for you, to make it meaningful, to make it an expression of your values, whatever those may be.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

Give yourself permission and make it an experiment. And you can also you could just say, you know what, 2025 is the year of my gift-giving experiment. My experiment is I'm gonna give everything homemade this year, and I'm gonna see how that lands. Because you can always do something different next year. Worst comes to worst, buying the Tony's Chocolani, make some make some homemade granola, make the dog biscuits. Janine's got my recipe. I just recently made a new badge of these. My dogs love them, so and they're super simple. Like it's pumpkin, wheat, two eggs, and a little bit of peanut butter. So keep it simple. Keep it simple.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

If you got something out of our bipolar sheet gift giving guide, please share it. It is the season of giving, and for this indie podcast, stars, likes, subscribes make the season very merry. And as always, thank you for listening.