The Morning Brew with Chris Bennett

Relationship Thursday: Comedy Tickets, Fire Safety & Holiday Giving

• Chris Bennett • Episode 168

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Relationship Advice Thursday brings cozy holiday vibes, real-life conversations, and a big dose of community heart.

We kick things off with another Hallmark Christmas Movie Review from Andrea, breaking down The More the Merrier — a hospital-set holiday romance packed with babies, blizzards, and fast-moving love. Hot cocoa ratings included.

Then it’s time for Relationship Advice Thursday, as listener Dusty calls in to serve as our advice expert. She helps tackle a situation involving phone-checking, trust, and boundaries — and scores two tickets to this Saturday’s stand-up comedy show at Rocky’s Cocktail Lounge in Show Low. (Only a handful of tickets remain at ChrisBennettComedy.com.)

Next, JD Pepper from the Timber Mesa Fire Department joins us with important holiday safety tips, covering smoke alarms, space heaters, fireplaces, and simple steps that can help keep families safe this season.

We wrap up with in-studio guests Kaylee and Ella from 3E Snacks, a local nonprofit that has previously been featured in the Giving Machine. While 3E Snacks is not part of this year’s machine, they stopped by to support and promote the Light the World Giving Machine, opening in Snowflake from December 18th through January 1st. They share why this experience is so impactful and highlight the local nonprofits featured this year — including food banks, senior services, and prevention programs — where 100% of every donation goes directly to the cause you choose.

If you’re looking for holiday comfort, honest relationship talk, safety reminders, and meaningful ways to give back in the White Mountains, this episode delivers it all.

If you enjoyed the show, follow the podcast, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review to help more people find the good.

SPEAKER_05:

From the Horn Auto Center Studios, Chris Bennett and the Morning Brew. And now it's time for Chris's wife to give us her Christmas Hallmark movie reviews.

SPEAKER_03:

We are reviewing The More the Merrier.

SPEAKER_05:

Ooh, the more the merrier. Alright, here's what I think this is about. I think this is about a guy who's a guest on uh Maury Povich or the Jerry Springer show back in the uh the 90s. And uh there's a bunch of women that say he is the father, and he does a paternity test, and it turns out he's the father of over 30 uh children, and he just says, the more the merrier. Am I right?

SPEAKER_03:

No, this is hallmark, not lifetime.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, I always get him mixed up. All right. What's the more the merrier about?

SPEAKER_03:

So the more the merrier is about a doctor that is covering the ER shift on Christmas Eve. Um, two doctors that are covering the night shift on Christmas Eve. One has been there for a while and is getting ready to leave, because that's what she does. And then the other is it's like his first day of work there. He's come from a different hospital. And obviously, there's gonna be a blizzard. There's gonna be not one, not two, not three, but four pregnant ladies ready to deliver. So they've got to juggle everything, and they are dealing with power engines, and it's a crazy hectic night, and in one night, they fall in love.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh my goodness. This one sounds uh kind of juicy.

SPEAKER_03:

It was pretty good. I gave it um three cups of hot cocoa.

SPEAKER_05:

Um three out of five. Okay, so that's kind of middle of the road.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, and uh, I'm looking at the cast and the uh nostrils look okay. The the casting.

SPEAKER_03:

The casting was great.

SPEAKER_05:

All right, perfect. Okay, and uh so my wife says, hey, if uh you have time to catch a Hallmark Christmas movie, go ahead and check out The More the Merrier. Thank you so much, my love. You are the best.

SPEAKER_03:

Thank you, bye.

SPEAKER_05:

Good morning. It's the morning brew with Chris. You are caller number one. Who's this?

SPEAKER_04:

Woohoo! This is Dusty Sanders.

SPEAKER_05:

Dusty Sanders, congratulations. You're gonna win two tickets to our comedy show Saturday night at 6:30 at Rockies. But first, you gotta be my relationship advice expert. Uh do you consider yourself a relationship advice expert?

SPEAKER_04:

Sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

I've been through a few of them. Perfect. Yeah. I think the more relationships you've been through, the more qualified you are for relationship advice.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, all right.

SPEAKER_05:

So I'll read the story, and when we come back, Dusty, we'll get your advice, okay? All right, sounds good. All right, so uh the headline is how do I, 27 male, get my girlfriend, 25 female, to stop going through my phone? Here's the deal. Uh I'm looking for opinions on what to do. For context, my girlfriend and I have been dating for nine months. We live together, and everything has been great except a few nights here and there. And uh I get along with her family and she gets along with mine. The only issue I've accounted lately is that she loves going through my phone. Hmm. I I have nothing to hide, so she has my fast password and can access my phone with face ID. And uh the first time I felt uncomfortable by it, uh, when uh she confessed uh that when we started dating, she went through my messages to see what I was telling my friends about her. I found that pretty weird. I just don't feel comfortable with her going to my WhatsApp and reading through all my combos. I don't talk to that many people, but sometimes it just doesn't feel right. I have her password as well, but I never go through her phone since I trust her a hundred percent. I do get she got cheated on multiple times in the past, but I also feel like I have zero privacy. She she mentioned she's not doing it for lack of trust, but just that she liked seeing how I talk and interact with my friends. I have let her know I don't exactly feel comfortable with this, but she continues to do it. Would love any advice for this. What say you?

SPEAKER_04:

Well, I think you should just reassure her that you have nothing to hide. Uh, but tell her it does make you feel uncomfortable, and so you're gonna change your password.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, okay. All right. I think that's actually good advice, but this lady sounds a little uh a little psycho, like she might get upset by that. How would you handle that if she goes, Well, you must not trust me?

SPEAKER_04:

Well, um, you know, trust is a two-way street, and if she's thinking that she can't trust you and she's getting on your phone, then maybe you ought to look at her messages.

SPEAKER_05:

Mmm, yeah, and it's weird for be like, I trust you, I just like to see how you talk to your friends. That's weird. You guys gotta have like a little bit of separate lives. You gotta give them a little bit of space, and they've only been together for nine months.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, yeah. I I would definitely think uh if she gets mad at you that you might reconsider whether or not she's living in your house.

SPEAKER_05:

All right, Dusty says reassure her and uh change your password so that uh she stops going through your phone. Dusty, great relationship advice. And you just won two tickets to our comedy show Saturday night at Rocky's.

SPEAKER_04:

Thank you, Chris. I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_05:

You're welcome. We can't wait to see you. Doors will open at 5 p.m. Uh again, Rocky's is located upstairs from the Days In lobby on the deuce, and the show starts at 6.30. Eat before, bring your own food, and Rocky's will take care of the drinks. If you weren't as lucky as Dusty, get your tickets today at Chris Bennettcomedy.com. Only 12 tickets left. Dusty, what radio station hooked you up?

SPEAKER_04:

92.5. You know it. Thank you, Chris.

SPEAKER_05:

Good morning. It's the morning brew with Chris. Who's this?

SPEAKER_01:

Hey, good morning, Chris. It's JD.

SPEAKER_05:

Heck yeah, JD Pepper, our Fire Marshal with the Timber Mesa Fire Department with our Fire Marshal Minute. What safety tips you got for us today?

SPEAKER_01:

Hey, bud, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas out there. You know, everybody's going out and shopping, everybody's busy running around, getting stuff done. Man, I'll tell you what, this is the time of year where we make mistakes because we're just not paying a whole lot of attention. But in our district, Kimber Mesa, you guys have been doing so good. I'm so thankful. You haven't gone out on any on any major fires, no, no, you know, losses here in our district. And I thank you so much for that. And and think yourselves. Uh, look, check the batteries and your smoke alarms. It's the number one biggest thing you guys can do at home right now. Make sure your smoke alarms work. If they don't, please call me. I'll come out, or uh, my fire inspector, Captain Lucas Guy, will come out. He'll put them in. Um, or you can call, we'll have one of the engine companies come out and put a smoke alarm in for you. Please, that is the biggest thing on the list right now. Um, I hope by now everybody's had their chimneys swept. Probably a lot of people haven't been burning yet, but but listen, we got some cold weather coming in, I think, here over the next few weeks. So get those chimneys swept as soon as possible. If you don't, you are risking a fire in your chimney that may extend to your attic above your head when you're sleeping. And let's check those uh heating elements, those heaters that you have in your home. Um, the make sure they're away from your bedding, away from your curtains, uh stuff like that, guys, or use the uh oil-filled registers. Look, they may not seem as appealing because they're not all red and glowing, but I'll tell you what, they're just they're just as good. They warm up the home really, really well. Do these things, please have a wonderful, wonderful Christmas, a wonderful new year holidays. I love you all out there. Thank you so much for keeping us in the stations.

SPEAKER_05:

Thank you so much, JD, and uh all our first responders out there. And what is the phone number to uh call if people need help with that smoke alarm?

SPEAKER_01:

So you can call 928-537-5100 and just let the secretary, the the ed uh the receptionist there, just let her know what uh what needs to be done or what you'd like, and we'll we'll come out and help you out.

SPEAKER_05:

Heck yeah, thank you so much, JD Pepper, our fire marshal with the Timber Mesa Fire Department. I am so excited to have some guests in studio with me this morning. That's right, we have my best friends Kaylee and Ella Willis uh with 3e snacks, and uh they're here to talk about the snow, the giving machine. That is a Delight the World giving machine that is uh starting today in Snowflake going through January 1st. Welcome to the show. Thanks for being on the morning brew, best friends.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, thank you so much for having us, best friends.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, so um what's so cool is I've had a lot of uh nonprofits in to talk about the giving machine. For those of you that don't know what the giving machine is, it's basically a vending machine, but instead of getting yourself something uh to eat, you're able to get some life-saving items for uh people in need, and a hundred percent of those funds donated through the giving machine go towards that nonprofit and uh uh uh here on the mountain or globally. And last year, uh Kaylee, you're part of three e Snacks. You were one of the nonprofits in the giving machine. Tell us a little bit about uh what that was like.

SPEAKER_02:

Sure, yes. The last two years we've been in the giving machine, and what a blessing that has been for our organization. We actually I brought my oldest E, so our three E snacks is named after our uh three children, and this is Ella. Um, so we started our three E snacks uh when she was, what do we think, like 11? I think that's right or 12. She's 21 now, and so what a blessing it was for us to be in the machine. Um, it changed a lot, it changed everything that we could do. We were able to go out to more communities. Um, we were able to start in concho, which was been such a blessing. Um, the giving machine helped us reach so hundreds hundreds of more people.

SPEAKER_05:

That's it. And uh so 3e snacks, explain to people what 3e snacks does and who you help.

SPEAKER_02:

Sure. So um we provide weekends um food bags for kids in need. Um we found out that there was kids coming to school, you know, hungry on Monday. They were getting the school lunch and breakfast during the week. And so we were able to help bridge that gap a little bit. Um but as you know, it's our community that's made it happen. Um we may have started it, but it's our community that keeps it going. We're totally funded locally by our community. Um and and as you know, the White Mountains are pretty amazing, pretty amazing people that make things happen, and they did. Um, last year um we got enough money to uh run our program for five months. Oh my gosh. And we deliver 290 bags every weekend. So it's such a blessing, and and now we're coming in here uh with a different hat, and we've been able to be on um the committee. Uh my husband and I and and our family set up the uh giving machine yesterday. And so so exciting, so exciting to be here and to be able to talk about the you know the charities that are in it this year.

SPEAKER_05:

What are some uh local nonprofits that are in this year's giving machine?

SPEAKER_02:

Um, we've got some great ones, of course. Uh we have the Holbrook Emergency Food Bank, and I think you've had uh Mr. Mike Nilsen in. Yep. That guy, he's amazing to hear him talk about the people he serves and the things he does to serve them. You know, going places, meeting up with people, that's just it's beautiful. He's just such a kind man. Um and one of the things that you can buy with the Holbrook Emergency uh food bank is you can buy drinking water. Um, they're serving a lot of people that that don't have clean drinking water, and I think that just blows my mind. Right. You know, some of our neighbors don't have clean drinking water. So I love I love that that's one of the things that you can buy at the giving machine there with the Holbrook Emergency Food Bank. Um, the next one is Nexus Coalition, and you've met Vicky.

SPEAKER_05:

Yep, she was on yesterday. They do amazing things here in the White Mountains.

SPEAKER_02:

Amazing. Her and her team um are just phenomenal. They um help the youth in so many different aspects, but mostly some drug pre-prevention. Um, they try to get to the youth before they've been exposed um to all the things just to kind of give them some um teach them resilience. And some of the things that you can buy um for their charity, um, one of them that I was looking at was you can support um, so like they do classes and then they do kind of a graduation program, you buy a t-shirt for a kid. Um, they just have all these resources. You can buy um counseling, like just all these different things that are so great that are helping our local youth, you know, and that are touching, you know, that's helping generations. You know, if you can get the kids on the right track, that's gonna help their kids and their grandkids. So their impact really stretches.

SPEAKER_05:

That's amazing. And then there's one other uh local nonprofit.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep, um the Silver Creek Um Senior Center.

SPEAKER_05:

Yep, we had them in as well.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and if you go in there, you can just take a second to just watch those people. Um, the ladies in there, and and there's a few men, but they are just workhorses, they get it done, limited resources, and they just make magic happen. Um, one of the things that they have is uh mills on wills, and I think that's so cool. You can buy weeks worth of mills that get delivered to um, you know, homebound seniors, senior citizens. And another thing you can buy is fuel to fuel the vehicle that's gonna take it to them. So what a cool thing.

SPEAKER_05:

It is time for me to let my guests out of here. We have had Kaylee Willis and Ella Willis. Uh they are with uh 3E snacks and talking about the giving machine, like the world giving machine that starts today in Snowflake. And uh, you guys have big opening ceremonies, and it will be going till January 1st. And uh, what's your message uh to people to get them to go out and donate to the great uh local nonprofits that are in the giving machine?

SPEAKER_02:

Um, Ella, do you want to tell us about your experience of going to the giving machine?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, just like the magic. It is it is a magical Christmas um event, you know. Um every night there's gonna be performances, there's sometimes hot chocolate and you know, candy canes, Christmas treats, there's um things for kids to do. Um I actually went on a little, you know, a little date night last year with my husband, and you know, instead of us going and paying for something to go do, we went in and we went to the giving machine and we donated, and there was some beautiful music. Um and the fun thing about it is so it's a big vending machine, and there's some pictures of what you can get for people and like local chair in the local charities, the Arizona charities and international charities, and something fun is um in the international charities, um, you can buy actually like these little sheep. So there's a little picture of a sheep, and it's like fun with if you're with little kids, it's fun for them to do. You can just put in your credit card and it you put in the number and it drops down, and it is just so fun to see. And that sheep that you bought, um, there's no overhead, there's nothing, whatever you bought goes directly to um those actually go to refugees in um um internationally and at home.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep, and then we have our awesome Holbrook Emergency Food Bank, Nexus Coalition, and the C um Silver Creek Senior Center that are our local ones that are doing amazing things. So come out and support them. It makes such a big difference.

SPEAKER_05:

It really does, and the light the world giving machine is located at the Freeman Historic Pioneer Home at 110 North Main Street in Snowflake. Uh, you could donate 24-7, and the machines uh will be manned 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. And uh get out there, help our local nonprofits. Again, 100% of your donations goes towards helping that uh that charity. And uh as uh Ella mentioned, there's also amazing national charities you can donate to as well. So it is the Light the World giving machine starting today. Thank you so much, uh Kaylee and Ella for coming in. And uh I hope uh we're able to uh light the world with our giving machine this year.

SPEAKER_02:

That's awesome. Thank you so much for having us. It's always a pleasure. Thank you.

Contributor

Chris Bennett

Host