Don't Even Bother

#17: Christmas Nostalgia, Holiday Traditions & A Little Chaos

• Katiuscia + Megan • Episode 17

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0:00 | 39:14

Christmas always comes with a mix of nostalgia, traditions, and a little bit of chaos.

Carmen is back this Christmas morning and we talk about the holiday moments that stick with us — the traditions we grew up with, the funny Christmas memories that never get old, and the chaotic energy that somehow shows up every year.

From viral Christmas moments to family traditions and everything in between, this conversation is a relatable dive into why the holidays are both magical and slightly unhinged.

If you love Christmas nostalgia, funny holiday stories, and real conversations about the traditions that shape us, this one’s for you. Grab some cocoa and get cozy!

00:00 Intro
01:05 Christmas Memes & Viral Moments
03:45 Christmas Nostalgia
07:10 Childhood Traditions
11:40 Holiday Family Chaos
16:20 Funny Christmas Memories
21:10 Holiday Stress
25:30 Traditions As Adults
30:15 Best Holiday Moments
34:10 Reflections
37:20 Wrap Up

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speaker:

Don't even bother.

katiuscia:

Oh my God. These pants collect everything and I feel like I just need to like jingle all the way home. Hold on. Oh my gosh. The struggle.

megan:

I'm

katiuscia:

gonna

megan:

jingle some of the way.

katiuscia:

You're gonna jingle some just

megan:

a little bit. Yeah.

katiuscia:

You gotta jingle hard. Yeah. So happy Christmas. Merry Christmas to say it. Merry Chrysler. That's my favorite. That is my favorite. Ry favorite.

megan:

That is a solid video.

katiuscia:

It really is. It's a legendary, it's classic. And I'll post it all the time forever. Yes,

Carmen:

please do.

katiuscia:

Yeah.

megan:

Merry crisis.

katiuscia:

Merry. But the Merry. So good. So Merry Christmas. I think it's, I love that.

Carmen:

I love that we can say that.

katiuscia:

Yeah. I love that. We can say that again. I love that. We can. Happy

megan:

holidays.

katiuscia:

I went to this thing a few weeks ago and I said, Merry Christmas to someone, and the guy looked at me and smacked his hand on the table and was like, happy holidays. Here's my view on all of this. If you have a tree in your house or if you exchange a gift, even if you don't believe in God and you don't look at the religious aspect behind Christmas, if you have those things, you can say Merry Christmas, because that's what you're doing. You're celebrating Christmas. I feel that most people just wanna get offended at the fact that the real meaning of Christmas is actually based in Christianity and there's like a whole biblical reason. Explanation and they just, they wanna shun that and really make a stance. But I'm like, did you get a present though on December 24th or 25th? Then you celebrated Christmas. Yeah, sorry.

megan:

Well, and whatever thing you worship that's not, Jesus isn't gonna strike you down for hearing the words. Merry Christmas. Like I have Jewish cousins, so if they come up to me and I see them on Hanukkah and they go, happy Hanukkah, I'll be like, yeah, you too, buddy. I don't.

Carmen:

Thank you.

megan:

Yeah. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not gonna get hit by a bolt of lightning right then and there. Get a grip. It's just,

Carmen:

I think it's this idea of everybody wants to put, they wanna put names on everything. Mm-hmm. They wanna label everything. They wanna have it contained in a box so it can make sense. Well, if you don't celebrate Christmas, if you celebrate something else. Go celebrate it. You have permission to do that. You don't have to stop me from celebrating Christmas or saying Merry Christmas. Um, don't,

katiuscia:

yeah, just'cause somebody tells you

megan:

Merry Christmas doesn't mean they're gonna break into your house and put up a tree, like a nativity in your front

katiuscia:

yard. Not gonna reverse Grinch on you, but in the spirit of it being actually Christmas, I think that we should talk about our either funniest favorite, mm-hmm. Most nostalgic Christmases in life. The funniest, whatever it is, it could be the most dramatic that you experienced once. And I have a former family member. She's still a family member. She just has chosen to not be a family member, but she's given some great, I'd say content, but I mean, she would say it's sad. Okay, so

megan:

before we do that, welcome Carmen.

Carmen:

Thank you. It's good to be here.

megan:

Yeah.

Carmen:

So glad to be invited to be part of your cult.

megan:

Yay. Thank. Yes,

Carmen:

thank you. We love it.

megan:

And also for those who are not watching, there is a YouTube if you're interested in our Christmas drip, but Carmen is wearing the most unhinged llama Christmas sweater. I love it.

Carmen:

His name is Carl.

katiuscia:

Complete with tassels. And a poofy ball on the end of his

Carmen:

tassels in the appropriate places. I, I will say the poofy balls. Yeah,

katiuscia:

the TAs poofy ball. The tassels. It's, it's like a touching sweater, you know?

Carmen:

Yeah. You can touch it.

katiuscia:

I, I will.

megan:

And Katiuscia's wearing some obnoxious Christmas slippers that jingle, and I have a, a penguin sweater that I got as a legitimate gift from my Grammy, and then I refused to wear until I wore it, ironically. And now I just wear it because it's funny. But it's not really Christmasy. It just has a weird penguin on it.

Carmen:

I love it.

megan:

Which is not my style at all. Totally not. But, but I love it. We wear it.

katiuscia:

It's, it's tis the season.

megan:

I couldn't find a good diehard t-shirt that I really liked.

katiuscia:

Mm.

megan:

So I'm still on the hunt for one. I think I have found one. I just have to order it.

katiuscia:

Okay. Well that's,

megan:

so yeah, next year,

katiuscia:

next year on Christmas,

megan:

I'll have my die hard Christmas

katiuscia:

shirt on, on for her Christmas episode. Perfect. Well I'm still rocking Santa's slippers and a matching kind of matching Santa shirt.'cause you know why not for all your non Jesus people and just, you know, Santa, here he is. Christmas Best Christmases in your life, what have you, what would you say is, sorry, not best Christmases, but. Best memory. Noteworthy Christmases. Noteworthy Christmases. Let's do it.

megan:

Noteworthy

Carmen:

Christmases. Honor people mention Christmases.

megan:

I don't have a lot of them. There was one Christmas where my kids s saying, happy birthday to Jesus. Not on video. That's very cute. But generally, because my parents were divorced, we've discussed, I don't love Christmas. I love it for the religious aspect of it now that I'm a Christian, but my parents have been divorced since I was. Less than two years old, and so some years I spent Thanksgiving with my dad and Christmas with my mom, or Thanksgiving with my mom and Christmas with my dad, or some years both or some whatever. Sometimes grandparents were there, sometimes they weren't. There were no traditions for me, and so I don't have a lot of jolly Christmas memories. The one that I can think of from my childhood was I was at my dad's house and my dad's mom. Decided we were gonna have a wide elephant exchange except that she bought all the gifts and I went with her to Albertsons. In the eighties.

Carmen:

Nice.

megan:

And there was a Super bowl and a hairbrush and a loaf of bread and a six pack of O' duals and all these just unhinged gifts. And I was really the only person at this party who had any business needing a hairbrush. And I remember being pissed because I picked out the hairbrush and I didn't get it. I got the loaf of bread. Nice. And my cousin, who is only a year older than me, like we were in elementary school, he got this six er of O' duals and he was stoked.

Carmen:

Perfect.

megan:

I'm pretty sure all the cousins drank those because that's how our family is. But there's a picture of me holding the slough of bread with just obvious. Disappointment on my face. That is now one of my favorite pictures because it's so ridiculous.

Carmen:

Good memory.

katiuscia:

Has a good story, like a good story and a good memory attached to it though. So that's something you'll always remember. Yeah, I love, I love looking at old things for Christmas. What about you, Carmen? What's your,

Carmen:

oh gosh, I was lucky. So let me set the scene for you. Grandma and grandpa lived two miles away from us up this little narrow road. In filer, Idaho. We got a lot of snow when I was a kid. Or used right. We used to.

megan:

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Carmen:

I remember tons of snow and I just remember driving to their house on Christmas Eve. Snowbanks as high as you could see, just snow everywhere. They didn't plow the roads. You just, you got through, right? You had a tractor and you mm-hmm. You plowed the road yourself. And getting stuck was exciting. Probably not so exciting for my dad, but it was exciting for us kids. But we would get there and my grandparents, every Christmas Eve would throw the biggest party. I'm talking friends, neighbors.

megan:

All of

Carmen:

filer. All the family? Yeah, all of filer. My dad worked for the Power. My dad, my grandfather worked for the power company, so he knew a lot of people and my grandmother worked at the little bank there, so she knew everybody that banked there in the town and they'd invite everyone to this party and they literally rolled back. The rug brought in live instruments sometimes, not every year, but they had this beautiful console record player and just play rec Christmas music, and we all got up and danced and it was the best time and they had a bar set up in the corner and it was just, there's snacks everywhere and people are taking shots and, but. The most exciting part of that as a kid was, uh, Santa finally coming in to put all the kids on. It turns out Santa was my mom, and I didn't know that for many years, and I'm still looking at pictures going, I don't know, maybe, maybe that was her, it was mom, but of course she had. And I remember thinking, gosh, this Santa has very pretty features. I was thinking pretty delicate. Yeah. And her hands were so pretty anyway, but Santa would come in and put all of us on his, her lap to just tell, tell Santa all the things you want. And there was a, well, it's a radio tower, but at the top of this radio tower. About a half a mile from my grandparents' house. There was a blinking red light and that was Rudolph. And you better be ready. Yeah. And then so that was, I mean, the best. Every year we did that and we'd all dress up to the nines. Even the kids would dress up for this and then. The next day on Christmas, we'd all get together early in the morning and be together all day and have a nice dinner that night. But again, it was a big deal and we would all dress up very nice on Christmas and. Uh, the conversation. Nobody had cell phones out back then. Right? You just, you were focused on each other and just having a good time together, going out and playing in the snow. I remember building tunnels and igloos and being able to do that right and running through these tunnels through the yard. Such a good time. And then it all just kind of came to a halt when my mother passed. I was 11 years old, but I think because. Had many years of not so great Christmases, but because I had that experience as a child, I try to recreate it now for my own children when they were young, trying to build those traditions. The time of getting together for meals, even when it's not Christmas, your Sunday meals. Those are a big deal, but just trying to recreate the traditions with the kids and they know that they can count on their stockings. They know they're gonna get the deviled eggs and the no baked cookies and the fudge and that we're gonna, they can count on us getting together every Christmas Eve. And so that's important to me. And it's so exciting, especially now when all of them have moved out. They're coming home for Christmas. And for me as a mom. Man, that that's the biggest gift right there, to have all the kids come home.

katiuscia:

So I miss the general vibe and just surrounding feelings around Christmas growing up. Mm-hmm. I see all these things online about now with ai, how they're doing. I saw one recently that was. Christmas Eve, 1983, and I look, and it was this house and it's the fireplace and the tree and the wood paneled walls.

megan:

Was it the brick fireplace that everybody had?

katiuscia:

Yeah. And it's, you just look at that and you think, my gosh, what a, what? A different, simpler, more beautiful to me time because it actually meant you were all. Present for your family with the conversation, with the games, whatever it was, I had that and all my family was together and my mom's the oldest of five, and so to be able to be there, and my grandma died when I was seven and a half, but my grandpa then it was, you know, we all went to his house and then there were stockings on his mantle. And then when we went back on Christmas day, he had put money in all the stockings and there were these little things that. You just have, you go to church that day. And then as, as we all got older, my uncle took it over at his house 'cause it could accommodate more people. And then he started doing, uh, we had a different name for it that I probably won't say on air, but he would do like a schedule. So hold on. It was Nazi family Christmas, but. It was really good.

Carmen:

Love that.

katiuscia:

So, mm-hmm. My uncle took it over because he had a big house that could accommodate everybody and because we were older and 'cause we needed to move more and all of the things we wanted to be outside. Mm. San Diego's always really good. Mid seventies for Christmas day. So that's pretty much what you're getting. No white Christmas there. But we would just do, you know, it evolved into something else where he would have these cool brackets of either Italian card tournaments, where then it would legitimately be the bracket to stuff outside and bringing back a, an aspect of childhood that you forget about in terms of relay or whatever it is. And it was fun, but it was always time together. And I, I love that. And I remember that so vividly, especially when I was really little. I was the only. Grandchild alive when my grandma died, so I'm the only one who knew her. I was the first and the best. Obviously now there's many of us, but it was cool being the little kid. My grandparents had this huge, you walked into their house and then there was the formal dining area and they had this huge village that was on the floor, and then layers of this. I don't know where the town was, but I really liked it. And just to be able to, it was like a reverse Barbie. You're not allowed to really play with it, but you can look at it and imagine and just play with the family going to church and whatever it is. But I loved that and I just, I think for me. The, the thing I miss most about even childhood Christmases is just the general feeling all over. You got outta school, you had a two week break, you got to do the things. Now, I don't wanna go to the mall. I don't wanna do anything. I just, I wanna be chill and mellow and I do like just being chill and mellow in my house. Now that's the new, that's how I've grown now, where I'm like, I just wanna be home. But I miss those wood pan, you know, you can just feel it. You can. Almost like know what it smells like. That linoleum that everyone had Oh, yeah. In their house. It was the orange, brown cream pattern that I've seen in so many things online, and I think that that was real. I remember that.

megan:

The formica countertops. Yes. Yeah,

katiuscia:

all of it.

megan:

I did spend a Christmas in Australia when I was in high school.

katiuscia:

Oh.

megan:

Oh. Which was an absolute trip to be in shorts and a t-shirt. It was 98 degrees. Wow. Santa surfs up on the beach. It's wild. It was so much fun and everybody we were staying at, it's called a farm stay and you just go and stay. This is like before Airbnb. That wasn't a thing. But you go to a farm stay and you stay at these people's house, you just join their family for like a week. And everybody in Australia on Christmas day drives to the relly's. You go to your relative's house, there's more traffic on Christmas Day in Australia than any other day, I think. And we drove like an hour and a half to these people's house and they wa they, it was this massive backyard. It was a barbecue. It was like what we would do for 4th of July.

Carmen:

But it was Christmas,

megan:

but it was Christmas day and I just kept going, but it was 98 degrees. This is weird. And they played cricket, which I still don't understand. And it was, that was pretty cool.

Carmen:

How fun.

megan:

But it's, it's weird'cause I don't, I don't love the cold, but I love Idaho'cause we have all four seasons. And so once you've spent a summer Christmas, it makes you appreciate your winter Christmas a little better. It was pretty cool.

Carmen:

One thing that Steve, my husband brought with him into the marriage was a Christmas village. Now, this is not just any Christmas village. This man knows every little. Building, of course, but every little tree, every little ice skater, every little thing of this Christmas village, and he, first of all, I'm not allowed to really touch it. I'm allowed to assist and maybe hand him things. But I can't set it and it's fine. I just, oh, it's so fun watching him. He, this year has taken it down and put it back up, no, less than three times, and I have a feeling of fourth ones coming this weekend, but it is, that's his tradition. That's his way of celebrating Christmas, is getting this village ready. The kids come into the house and they just go over to the village and they're just like, wow. So you've got this guy set up over here this year and it has a Christmas farm, Christmas tree farm that comes with it. And it has to be just so all the trees have to be set up. Just, you know, I had no idea he was so OCD until this Christmas village, but it is a tradition now and I didn't realize how much I love Christmas villages so much now, and he's very particular about the brand. Christmas village that he wants and he picks them out. He picks out buildings way ahead of time. So we're gonna get this one this year. We're gonna get another one this coming year. Yeah. It, it's, it's a whole thing.

katiuscia:

That's what I was gonna ask. Does he accumulate, does he add, does he ex, does his town grow? You know what I mean? Is it,

Carmen:

it does, yeah.

katiuscia:

Like a booming town where it's still growing or is his development slowed?

Carmen:

He started in college. With his two little buildings and it is expanded. He now has, well, two saloons. Of course there's a church in there somewhere. I try to add, add a bingo hole. Hole.

katiuscia:

Bingo. Oh, so hole

Carmen:

bingo, hall. Let's try that again. Mm-hmm. Uh, no I'm not, no. Mm. It's kind of like you've seen the commercials or the videos where the man is there with his wife at the produce and, and she picks out tomatoes and he puts them in the bag and he tries to hand her a tomato right outta the bag. And she's like, no, that's not good enough. That's me and my husband with his Christmas village. I'm like, oh, that's a cute little building. No, no. And then he'll go pick it out a couple years later. But

katiuscia:

I do love that he's been doing this for so long though.

Carmen:

Yeah.

katiuscia:

That's so cool.

Carmen:

Yeah. That it's just fun. So that shows his love for Christmas, which inspires the love in me and to, to make it real special for the kids. But, and someday we'll have grandchildren. Kids, I'm talking to you. My girls told me they're not having children when they were young. But I have hope. I have, I have a lot I'd like to share with grandchildren someday. And that Christmas village is one of 'em. So, you know, get on it.

katiuscia:

Good. But only if you're ready.

Carmen:

Yeah. Because I'm, I'm ready.

katiuscia:

She,

Carmen:

and I'm All that matters.

katiuscia:

She's ready. But only if you're ready. No, I think that there's, it's those moments where it like takes you back to childhood though. So even for Steve, it's probably, he's always wanted this and now he has this vision. Yeah. So you can't, you can't step into that vision if he has the way he sees it, and Yeah. The buildings and the businesses that he needs in order to make this community thrive. There are so many, so many different layers of that. When someone gets fixated on a Christmas village, my mom is like that. She loves her Christmas village, so I've had one growing up, but my grandparents was just very old school because it was so old and it was, I dunno, there was something different about the way they made things so many years ago to obviously now. But my mom had so many pieces of her Christmas village that she procured it. Like Mervin's.

megan:

Oh, I loved Mervin's.

katiuscia:

Yeah.

megan:

I feel like Kohl's is trying to be the new Mervin's, but it

katiuscia:

just can't quite get there. Kohl is a bit of a stress. I don't like Kohl's. I'm going, I can't get on board with Kohl's. It's stressful, but Mervin's

megan:

Mervin's was

katiuscia:

legit. Was legit.

megan:

Yeah.

katiuscia:

And that's where she got most of these things. So she has added to it, you know, over the years. Over the past, I'd say handful of years. She loves her Christmas village, and I just don't have the patience. I did when I decorated for Christmas though, and I told Megan, I put out my nativity set, okay, on a shelf near my fireplace, put out this nativity set and. It's survived so many years and it's still in a box, and I still have them when the plastic and every piece has its own container in the styrofoam holder case, whatever. So I put, you know, I take it out, it's written back in the day my mom had written in each slot, blue King, purple King Mary, she, so now you know where everything goes. It's perfect. The best part of it is that it survived a long time. I had one little mishap with, uh, the staff of one of the wise men, but it's been happily glued back and you would never be able to tell. But the best part is that when you open that box on the inside of the lid, the receipt is taped to it. Okay? Yes. 19.99, Price Club 19 94, 9, like the year 1994. Price club and I'm like, oh my gosh. And she got away with one break and it's still, but it's the best nativity set. I love it. So I like putting that out every year.'cause I think, yeah, this is,

Carmen:

yeah,

katiuscia:

really old. You're talking about a 31-year-old, right? Did we do math right? Yep. 31-year-old nativity set.

Carmen:

My daughter was born in 94. She's 31.

katiuscia:

That's crazy. So just those, those moments of,

Carmen:

yeah. Moments.

katiuscia:

Alright. What about if funny, did you have anything funny happen to you on Christmas? Funny. Borderline terrifying. Let's do that 'cause I, let's do funny. Could also be terrifying.

megan:

You want me to go?

katiuscia:

You have a funny one.

megan:

I do have a funny, okay, so we were given an elf on the shelf. I don't know that I would've bought one, but we were given it and so yeah, let's do it. And I've this year seen a bunch of things like we don't do Elf on the shelf because we're not trying to teach our kids about surveillance states, but let's be real, they're all listening to us anyway, so get a grip. But we had a blast with the Elf on the shelf for years and years. We had a really fun time, but as the girls got older. It was harder and harder for me because I am an old lady and I would like to be in bed by eight 30 or nine o'clock, and these children do not fall asleep by nine o'clock no matter what time we put them in bed. And so they're only a year and a half apart. And when the older one was in third grade, she snuck downstairs and caught me moving the elf, and she ran back upstairs. And so I thought, I was like, I think she saw me, but I don't know. And then she came back down about three minutes later, just sobbing her little eyes out, okay, I'm sorry. Here's the truth. But now you get to be part of the magic for your sister, and it was fascinating to sit there and watch the wheels turning in her head and watching all of the dominoes fall. Therefore, Santa isn't real. Therefore the tooth fairy is not real. For some reason, they never believed in the Easter Bunny. They thought the Easter bunny was probably a thing, but they knew that the parents hid the eggs. I don't know where that schism happened, but so she got to hide the elf for the rest of the year.'cause I was super burnt out about it. And this was like, she was still at school. Christmas break hadn't even happened yet. It was very early in December. So it was great to see the things that she came up with to hide the elf for her sister. So then the very next year, now the little one's in third grade. And Katiuscia's at my house. We're having a girl's night, we're eating pizza, we're watching movies, we're hanging out. So we put the girls to bed and older daughter knows that she has to wait until sister's asleep to come sneak downstairs and move the elf. Well, little sister was not asleep. So Katiuscia and I are sitting on the couches, big sister's in the kitchen doing God knows what with this elf. She's creating these elaborate schemes and we never, he was not. Making the messes that was not our kind of el'cause I do not wanna have to clean shit up later.

Carmen:

Yeah.

megan:

But she's creating some elaborate scheme and little sister comes down the stairs and looks at her sister and looks at me. I think Katiuscia was more traumatized than anybody else in this scenario

katiuscia:

because, well, I also saw she's, I was the first person she saw when she came down. So I think also my delayed reaction of. Holy shit. Like how do you, what's gonna happen? I'm not a mom. How's this going? Come down right now because she looks at me and then sees her sister, and I'm like, Hey, almost stuttering in. Fear me as

megan:

a adult. Well, she's adult like, oh look. Look over here, look over here. And big sister realizes that little sister's down there throws the alpha across the kitchen. And I was like, yes, the jig is up. I was so relieved. And, uh, so we have to sit her down and Katiuscia has to be there in this pivotal moment mm-hmm. Of, you know, disappointment and truth and all the things. It was hysterical to watch the trauma unfold between little sister and Katiuscia. And Big Sister was not as phased by it because she had just had this talk a year before.

Carmen:

Yeah.

megan:

So no big deal. No big deal.

Carmen:

Yeah.

megan:

And I lived through a life of trauma, so if this is the worst trauma, then good. Good on you kid. And so we told her and so now it's become this huge just joke of the family because now you girls can hide it for us.'cause I'm, I'm out. I have tapped out of the elf game. I don't have to do it anymore. And, but I think that really traumatized Katiuscia.

katiuscia:

It was just, it was that moment where you think, how can I contribute here in trying to minimize the. Freak out because she saw me and I'm pretty sure she came downstairs because she heard us like we were just talking downstairs. So it's probably, and she's done that before where it's like, people are downstairs. I'm not gonna actually go to bed. I'm go see what they're, oh, she fights.

megan:

That kid would stay up for three straight days.

katiuscia:

Don't wanna miss out. Yeah, they don't wanna miss out's. The FOMO

megan:

people are at our house

katiuscia:

and FOMO turned into. That being the end of her elf on a shelf thing. But just like, oh dear, what's gonna, I thought she handled it quite well. Like, uh,

megan:

she did, there were some tears into this day if I ask her about it.'cause it was just last year. She will tell me that the worst part was she doesn't like to cry in front of other people. So the worst part was crying in front of Zia Katiuscia,

katiuscia:

I mean. But you know, yeah. It was that moment of, holy shit, this is gonna be, yeah. A thing. And just to witness that and you're like, how is this gonna go down? All of the things. So it was really hilarious. I'd say. That was a very funny, sad, sad for your dog. Sad, yeah. But like funny to be the witness of it and just not know how it was gonna unfold. But I, I loved that your older one was just, she came down super quiet. She was so into it.

megan:

Yeah, it was like a record scratch moment though, when we all realized she was down there. And I will never forget the older one. Just hucking that up across the kitchen, like, I'm not doing anything. It was incredible. It was so funny.

katiuscia:

See nothing to see here. Her back was to it. So even for me to have that glitch of, 'cause I think that was our night to like watch Instagram hang out and have a beverage. So we were, oh yeah. Oh, there were

megan:

beverages in,

katiuscia:

I wasn't really all that. Quick enough where I thought, oh, pivot, like quick do something. There was no way

megan:

to hide that though.

katiuscia:

Hey, shocked, because you're, aren't you supposed to be asleep? Are you, are you dreaming? Do you need to be shuffled back? But it was just, everything was so open. So yeah, that was, that was a, that was a very interesting experience even for me. So it was funny. I'm glad that she wasn't too traumatized about it. It's not bad.

megan:

Well, yeah, and then we had to go through the same, all the dominoes are falling.

katiuscia:

Mm-hmm.

megan:

Oh, well the, if the elf isn't real, then therefore, are you freaking Santa? Yes, we are.

Carmen:

Wait a minute.

megan:

And yeah. You know, and the two fairy and all of those things and, 'cause my girls would write letters to the elf.

Carmen:

Oh.

megan:

They would write letters to the tooth fairy. It was a whole production. So I'm so relieved that we are, that that chapter is behind us. It was great while we were in it, and I appreciate it, but I'm, I am too tired for that now.

katiuscia:

Yeah, it's, I could, I could imagine it being a lot, you know what I mean? If it's, if it goes too far and too long, it has to be a lot. I love the humor of the people that I surround myself with, so. My friends have my same humor. My family, the majority of them, with the exception of one, has the same, the same humor, this dark, inappropriate, random humor, and one person in our family could never take it. She thought that it was always directed at her. When it's like, just lighten up. Are you even part of this family? But then she imparted that on her kids too, to kind of not be as cool or just roll with it. Just deal with it. It's so easy. And I mean, many, many, a Christmas, she would end up, you know, something would be said in a joking manner that it would just be this flip out on her end. And, but it, but that's funny. What people don't understand is that. That's going to be funny if you have to exit the room and go lock yourself in another room because it's like really? I'm sorry. Of all the things, that's what you're gonna, okay. But she was obsessed with horses in a weird, weird, that's like a weird obsession. You don't own a horse. Why are you obsessed with horses? And we did, we, I got a really cool horse calendar, I think on Amazon. And I wrapped it and I put it under the tree with her name on it because she had been posting all this weird shit on Facebook about horses and just horses run Arabian horses running along the water of the same, you know, whatever it was, where it was just so. Weird with some kind of inspirational quote.

megan:

It makes me think of the chick from Dodgeball who has unicorns all over her house.

katiuscia:

So

megan:

that's what I'm picturing.

katiuscia:

So something to that extent where you're just, I don't understand the purpose of this. So she opened it and loved it for a second. Until she realized, well wait, is this supposed to be a joke? And it's like, it's not supposed to be a joke, but the fact that you automatically went there to think that maybe it's a joke. It's a joke. Actually. I'm just feeding your horse obsession freaked out. It caused this big thing. Like I said, she is removed. This is a member of my family who has removed herself and that's fine. You can't take a joke, you can't take anything. This is also, she's. She's a good cook. She is, but once on a Christmas. Okay. She made a chicken piccata. And the only reason I'm bringing this up, and I'm probably gonna get so much shit is because my family and I joke about it all the time, whenever I hear the words chicken piccata, because she made it and I cut into it and I look at my mom next to me and it's kind of pink. And I'm like, mom, I don't think I should be eating this. And sh my mom in Italian is like, quiet and eat it. We basically, we don't wanna make her cry. You can't say anything. We know how she don't. I'm like, no, I don't. I don't really want sashimi of and salmonella any, like all the diseases you could get. I'm not into this.'cause the outside looked perfect and my mom's like, no, no, no. And I, I'm finally, I think I had a small bite of the outer edge. Trying to keep it like where it's the most cooked of the breading. And I think my uncle's wife at that time looked and she's like, is that, are you, is that not cooked? Or something? And then the family member who made it freaks out starts the, I'm having problems with the oven. It was this huge drama thing. And every time I ever think of any kind of piccata, whether it's veal or chicken, I always am referred it to that thought.'cause I love a good piccata. But that was funny. Like I tried and I, I'm convinced she did it on purpose, but that

megan:

was, I feel like if I was having problems with my oven, I'd be like, yo, cut into that.

Carmen:

Yeah.

megan:

Make sure that's okay.

Carmen:

Yeah, check her out. What do you say?

megan:

But to take it personally, that's

katiuscia:

no, everything was taken. So that's a wild. Personally, everything was taken so personally, so it's, you know, I have a happy

megan:

crisis.

katiuscia:

Happy, happy crisis. Indeed. So you think of these moments that those are memorable Christmases for maybe not the right reason, but memorable enough where it's so funny to me that I can think. Remember that time that my family member tried to serve me sashimi of the chicken sort. And I'm not even like a sushi, I don't like raw anything, raw chicken especially. But I do like my steaks medium little

megan:

chicken tar tar,

katiuscia:

little chicken tar tar that's only gonna make you chicken the ER on Christmas. So that was great. But what made it funny was the fact that she took it so personally. Oh, absolutely. Because for us who she's already. Freaking out. Anything that we make fun of,

Carmen:

she was ready to freak out at anything. Yeah,

katiuscia:

so those are good things. So I'm just, I love just a mellow Christmas though. It's my favorite.

Carmen:

Merry salmonella.

katiuscia:

Merry, merry

Carmen:

salmon.

katiuscia:

Salmonella

Carmen:

broke the horse's back.

katiuscia:

Serious. Well, many. Many things with, they're just so, but yeah, I'd say for Christmas it's the overall everything.'cause I had really good Christmases growing up, just being with my family and my grandparents and. And that was just, I think, such a different time where things were, you got excited about little things. I, I remember getting excited about like a Christmas flannel pajama, and I got excited about a certain stuffed toy when I was maybe four. You remember these moments of, okay, that's cool. And now as you're an adult, I don't have, obviously that same thing. And because I don't have kids, you have the kids so you can, and you had them little. So these are things that to make their Christmas fun, you'll remember those. The elf on the shelf is great and like you had great Christmas eves. So I just love that we have those memories. And a lot of people I understand don't like any of the holidays, right? They get very emotional. Whatever they've experienced in life, it's a really hard time for them. They didn't have maybe the best family unit and they, they hate it on so many levels. And those are the people who typically, that's when the therapists are really busy because there it's a lot, it's a lot of heaviness and stuff, so I understand that. Totally. And there's so much grace I give for, for us, for, for people who. You with your background, you with yours, me with mime. If you find the good moments or the funny moments, a loaf of bread and o' duals and an elf and your mom being Santa, there's things that at least we can look back on our youth and be like, Christmas was cool and I just hope to have. Chill, happy Christmases and be able to go to mass and hear some good songs and be able to sing and hear the story of Jesus. Those are all things that I love, just to be able to, it's once a year. It's once a year and I love it.

megan:

Okay, so I have said before, I was raised by wolves. I was not raised Christian. I mean, we celebrated Christmas, but it wasn't, it was a gift giving holiday. My, I had my Catholic grandpa, my Irish grandpa, but he didn't really. Go to mass. He deferred to my Grammy a lot, who is the one that bought me this unhinged sweater because she hated everything I ever wore. And she tried to take me to a church service once. It was like Methodist probably. And. I could not read the room, and I really didn't have a lot of chill at that moment in my life. I was probably eight or nine years old, and they announced that we're going to now sing Joy to the World, and I lean over to my Grammy and Whisper. I know all the words to the three Dog night version of Joy to the World.

Carmen:

I got this Graham

megan:

and she was so horrified with me in that moment. So inevitably, if we are at mass now, that pops into my head and the look of pure just horror on her face that I was going to bust out with Jeremiah was a bullfrog.

katiuscia:

Moments like this though, it's the things that we take and, well, you know, we always remember 'cause that's those, that's such a memory to have from Christmas and to just kind of carry with you and, and the fact that those memories are the ones that still make us laugh and giggle and stuff. But I mean, I'm, I'm happy we were able to do this today. Yeah. And kind of our way to celebrate Christmas with everyone listening or watching or whatever it is. And Merry Christmas. Mer

Carmen:

everyone.

katiuscia:

Merry Chrysler. Merry

Carmen:

crisis.

katiuscia:

Happy Christmas. Yes, and I think

Carmen:

everyone,

katiuscia:

yes, EV. God bless us everyone, and have a good day to everyone, except those of you who do stir up drama because you're crying about something, and then try to bring it down on everybody else and ruin the day. Go in a room and cry like a normal person. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.