From Tight Budgets To Giving Back: Finding Joy In A Different Kind Of Christmas

The holidays can feel like a spotlight—on joy, on pressure, on loss. We open up about why Christmas sits at the heart of our family story, from the years when money was scarce and we re-wrapped forgotten toys, to the seasons when we could adopt wish tags and bless other families. Along the way we laugh about tiny trees and tall chairs, but we keep returning to the reason we celebrate: the birth of Jesus and the love that turns ordinary days into holy moments.

We swap favorite memories—barbecue Christmas dinners, snacks on Christmas Eve, Elf on repeat—and talk about how a blended family learns to make space for everyone. Traditions are anchors, not obligations, and presence beats perfection every time. If the season feels heavy, you’re not alone. We share how grief and gratitude can live together, how prayer steadies shaky ground, and why joy is a choice you can make even when happiness is out of reach.

You’ll hear practical ways to “be the gift”: offer a smile, push a cart, check on a neighbor, invite someone to a candlelight service, or simply sit and listen. Keep the main thing the main thing—faith, family, and a table with room for one more. If you need someone to talk with or to pray for you, reach out to us on social media. If this conversation encouraged you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review to help others find hope this Christmas.

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Transcript

Holiday Setup And Birthday Vibes

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Doing It Blind. Thanks for jumping back in and joining us. We're super excited to be with you. If you notice, I think there's a tree behind us.

SPEAKER_04 0:28

Yeah? Yeah, kind of a little bit. You have our little Christmas tree. These um chairs that we're sitting on are a little bit higher than than the tree, but you can see the top of the tree. So hey, we're just working with what we've got. And that's what we got.

Why Christmas Matters To Us

SPEAKER_01 0:46

The chairs are also a little taller, like higher than us. Like I feel like. I mean, they're kind of high. No? Yeah? Yeah, maybe just a little bit. I I like these chairs. They're super comfortable when we use them at the little kitchen island that we eat at. But to be honest, they're a little weird when you're just in the middle of the floor. Anyway, thanks. So anyway, moving right along. It is Christmas time. So uh we also celebrated another big thing recently. My birthday uh just passed. So it was a few days ago. At the time of this recording, it was a few days ago. And so that was really great. Lots and lots of fun. But we just thought we'd do something kind of fun today, a little bit kind of off script, a little bit more than very off script. Totally off script. Really, really, really. What's your favorite holiday? I'm super curious. So if you want to drop it in the comments if you're watching on YouTube, uh, or just check me out on you know, throw me a DM on one of the socials. Um, yeah, let me know what's your favorite holiday. Because mine is Christmas straight out. I I don't know what's your favorite holiday.

SPEAKER_04 1:59

Uh well, Christmas is my favorite, but yeah, I like Christmas just because you know, you get to celebrate um Jesus and you know, all of that stuff. I would say, you know, I like to get gifts, but the true meaning of Christmas is we celebrate um Jesus and his birth. And so yeah, that has to be probably my favorite.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

I mean, that is the true meaning, but if we're being honest, we kind of like getting gifts, dude.

SPEAKER_04 2:34

Oh yeah, all the time.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

For sure, for sure. Um even when it's not Jesus' birthday, we like to give we gave gifts on Jesus' birthday. How jacked up is that?

SPEAKER_04 2:46

I know, it's pretty good. That's kind of weird. We all we all sold his birthday.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Oh, that's jacked up. That's messed up. But it's your favorite because of Jesus' birthday and because gifts?

SPEAKER_04 2:58

Yeah, I mean, I like it's more I like to give. I like to give gifts. I mean, you know, I like to receive, but I feel like it's a blessing to be able to um give to somebody. I don't know why he's so I'm just giggling.

The Dark Years And Re‑Gifting Wins

SPEAKER_01 3:17

What? I was just I mean, that is you're answering like if you were on camera. Well I am on camera. I mean, but if it was just you and me, like for real, for real. I'm just messing with you. She really does, like straight out for real, she really does like to give gifts. Um, case in point. Well, I can't tell them what I got for Christmas because I'm not supposed to know what I got for Christmas. I know what I got for Christmas already. And so she really does. She really does love to give gifts, and I love that about Berna, is that she equally loves to receive as much as she loves to give. So that's great. It's a lot of fun. I think for me, it yeah, Christmas absolutely, it's it's all about Jesus, right? The reason for the season, for sure, 100%. Like that's the whole thing. Um, Easter comes around and it's a big um, it's gonna sound bad, but it's a big church holiday, like a lot of people will celebrate it because it's actually the resurrection. We're celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ at that time, Easter time, springtime, but Christmas, it's how he got here, when he got here, why he got here. You know, it's just really the beginning, and and that's really great that you bring that out. Um, one of the reasons it's my favorite, too, as well, um, because I'm just gonna be completely honest, even though in my heart and in my mind, that is for sure the main reason, I go back to being a kid. You know what I mean? I go back to being a kid, and it's it's it's all that stuff. It's all the you know, hanging out with my family, and and I don't have as big a family as I had, you know, back in the day. Um there's just a couple of us left. And so, but I remember when I was young, when I was a kid, you know, we'd go over to my grandparents and everybody would be there, the cousins and the aunts, and like all the stuff, and it was just a lot of fun, you know. We they we go play football. I mean, we lived in Texas, so we'd actually go play basketball a lot of times because it was totally fine on Christmas Day to be wearing shorts and a t-shirt because it's just crazy hot. Uh anyway, but yeah, that was really being around the family, doing stuff, eating, having food is always a beautiful thing. Yeah, um, the gifts is great. I also love being able to give gifts, and really and truly, it's not always about the size of the gift or how much the gift costs, but there's a but a big butt.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

He's expensive.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

There's a big butt. I'm expensive. I'm not the only one that's expensive. But the thing is part of the reason that I also that I like Christmas with the gifts and all that kind of stuff is that Brenda and I actually used to have to re-gift stuff to our kids. Um, because there was now you're laughing. Why are you laughing? There the so the dark years, we'll call them the dark years. Um, there was there was a period of time during our life, during our marriage with our kids, where we weren't making much money at all. So we didn't have a lot of money to spoil our kids and get them all this cool stuff or spoil each other and get you know all this kind of stuff, you know. Um not gonna I keep wanting to say what I got for Christmas. One of the things I got. Um, I will tell you this at one of the things I got is Brenda got me a MacBook Air for Christmas. She got it for me early. Uh what, October? I got like super early. But I told her this is all I want. This is all for Christmas. So that's what we got. Um, of course, she got me some others. But what I'm saying is we didn't always have the money to do that. And there were a lot of years where um, wow, we we really struggled financially for a lot of different reasons. Uh, mentioned in the last episode, um kind of the dream of getting a motorcycle really got shattered when I had a wreck with my car and I started losing my sight. I wasn't able to work anymore. Uh the doctor wouldn't release me. Uh Brenda was able to work small jobs, things here and there. Um, and there's some reasons for that, and some reasons behind that, things like that. But we just didn't have a lot. Um, God took care of us. We were always, always, always fed. You know, we always had a roof over our heads. We always had a car, even if it was um, it was a piece. No, it's good. It was it was a good running car. It really was, but we kept having to fix it and all these different things, right? But we just didn't have a lot of money. And so during that time, we had to get super creative, and we found out that our kids would forget they had stuff. There was one year, what did we give you? Yes, was it a game?

SPEAKER_04 7:59

I don't remember.

Favorite Family Traditions And Memories

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Gosh, I don't even remember. But we went through their rooms and and found out, you know, found a few things that they had forgotten about, and and we re-wrapped it and gave it to them. And you should have seen the expression and the look on my son's face. I could still see a little bit back then, and so he was so excited. Oh my gosh, I can't believe you got me this. And I it might have been, I want to say it was a game that he had before, but he just hadn't played it in so long. He forgot it was there. He was so excited to get it. And for Sarah, I she she kind of she knew, she she recognized it and saw it, but she also hadn't played with it. I don't think it was a basketball or something. I don't know, whatever. But the really cool thing, I think, now is that even though those times were really great, we didn't skip a beat. My kids didn't, I'm gonna brag on my kids for a minute. My kids didn't skip a B. Like Christmas time came around and they weren't upset because they didn't get the latest and greatest, the newest, whatever. They were just excited just to be with family, just to be with us, and just to have a tree. And and Bernath said, our tree is too short for you to see it. But I don't know why we're standing in it or sitting in front of it if we can't see it. Anyway, but so but they were just happy. We had a tree and we had lights and and we had stuff outside, and and we had food, and and and Berta would make the little stockings or whatever, and they were just excited. They just loved the season, they loved the the time together, and and and it wasn't always about the gifts. And even though we got gifts, it wasn't big, they were just super excited. And and and I love that because um, dang it, I'm gonna cry. Not gonna cry. I I love it, right? Because now God has really brought us to a point where we are, well, he brought us from man being broke and and and busted and not being able to do those kind of things for our friends and for our family to now we're able to do that. We're able to bless each other, we're able to bless our kids. We're able to go now to, you know, do the little adopt a family thing. You know, I don't know if you guys have have gone to Walmart or the different stores, or maybe your church has a Christmas tree uh out in front and there's some little gift tags on there where you can get toys and stuff for like some of the kids. Uh, we've been able to do things like that, and it's such a huge blessing to be able to um just be in a new era, you know. I just to be in that in that space of a blessing to someone that you know doesn't have or you know, they it's had a hard year.

SPEAKER_04 10:32

Um because we've been there, you know, and it wasn't always, you know, we didn't, I mean, especially Christmas time, your kids want to, they already have a list before you even ask them, they have a list, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:46

But my boy had a list six months out.

SPEAKER_04 10:51

He did. He knew what he wanted, and you know, and that's fine, but when you can't give them what they want, you know, it it's it's an eye-opener. Years later, we you know, we were able to, you know, do for our kids and now even now do for kids and our grandbaby, but you know, it's nice to be able to just go pick up carts from that tree and be a blessing to someone else. Um, and just remember where you came from that, you know, you didn't always just have it all. And you know, that, you know, Christmas, yes, we make it all about the gifts and we make it about, you know, what's the best gift I can give to my friend or, you know, to a coworker or whatever, but it really doesn't have to be that as long as you I feel like if you are um any little thing, like even just being kind to someone in the season, like pushing their buggy to their car, or wow, you know, just being nice when someone's trying to find a gift for that someone, right? Um, I feel like we get wrapped up in all the stress and oh, you gotta have a perfect Christmas and plan everything, and truly you can make someone's day just by being very, you know, being kind to them. Um so it doesn't have to always be about what you're buying, you know. It could just be about how you acting at the store when you're pushing that buggy, you're trying to run over every over everybody. Wow. So just remember that when you go out shopping, just be nice.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Wow. I I kind of I kind of love that. That's that's really good. So kind of instead of buy the gift, be the gift.

SPEAKER_03 12:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

I think I like that.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Yeah, I think I like that. That's freaking beautiful. Um, this is why I married this beautiful woman right here, is because she's so beautiful inside and out. Um, I I laugh and joke with people and say, well, you know, I met her before I made my money, you know, so I know I can trust her. Um, yes, that is a movie line. Um but actually, you know, yeah, we we actually met when I could still see, we met when I could still work. We met when, man, I was working two jobs. Well, the equivalent of three jobs. I was working a full-time job with overtime, plus time on the weekends, plus a second job over the weekends. I was, it was, it was stupid. The the equivalent of basically three jobs is what I was working. And we did all kinds of stuff back then. I, you know, it was just the couple, it was just the two of us. Our kids were super small, and um man, we'd go to Dallas because again, like I said, we lived in Texas. We'd go to Dallas, we'd go to Oklahoma City, we'd go to we'd go all over. We just didn't matter. You know, we had we had money and and we had stuff, but the stuff didn't matter as much as our relationship mattered, as much as the way we felt about each other and the way we felt about our kids, and the way we felt about each other's kids. Spoiler alert, we're actually a blended family. So when you guys get to meet uh when you get to meet my kids individually or collectively, we'll probably shoot if we can pull it off for Christmas, if we can get everybody here. Uh yeah, that would be great. But we're actually a blended family. And it's been a challenge. Christmas has been a challenge, Thanksgiving has been a challenge. Like it's it's but it's been 20 years.

SPEAKER_04 14:32

Every day. Every day it was a challenge sometimes.

Blended Family Challenges And Grace

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Yeah, sometimes, yeah. I, you know, um our daughter was still is pretty much like super just thankful and grateful and and just for whatever it it is or whatever it's not. She was always super grateful. My uh my son, he he liked the latest and greatest newest stuff. Like he really did. The newest game, the newest game uh um platform, like whatever, like just all the newest stuff, the great the best toys. Like he he was into all that stuff. But what I loved is that he actually also very quickly became the kind of kid that could want everything, but still be okay if he didn't get it. You know, and I I don't think I realized how quickly that happened until just now. But I want to tell this story real quick, just like super quick. My favorite Christmas memory, I think, of of our family has to be our first Christmas. And we weren't even married yet. Yeah, we weren't even married yet. Brenda and I had just been dating for a little bit, and so me and the boy, my boy, he's like yes, he loved him some Batman. That was his favorite. I mean, he he loved the Power Rangers too, but he he he was he was a Batman guy. And I'd come over and and and to to see Brenda and hang out, and and he'd be there. And a lot of times, a lot of times I would just sit and I would say hi to Brenda when I came in, but a lot of times I would just kind of just jump down and we'd start playing, right? Like, yeah, he just we just dug it. And so so we we we'd sit and play Batman and and and for for a little bit, he was always Batman, and I was always, you know, the bad guy or Robin or somebody, which I didn't bother me. I just this kid, he was about three. He was about three years old when we first got together, so it was about six. And so it was really, I thought it was great. I had so much fun, but I'll never forget the day I walked in, you know, I was like, Hey, what's up, little buddy? You know, I said, Yes, how's it going? I'm talking to him. And uh I was like, Oh, are you playing Batman? He's like, Yeah, cool. He's like, You want to play? I said, Yeah, let's play. He said, You can be Batman. I don't know if I cried, but I'm pretty sure I wanted to. Um, I'm an emotional guy more now than I ever was, but he was so it was so cute. I was so honored he would let me be Batman. So that year for Christmas, I got him a Batcave. And really and truly, it's just pretty much like a Barbie doll house, but it looks like a Batcave. You know, it's the same little fold out little thing that you would imagine, you know, from just a Barbie dream house thing. But I got him the Batcave, and it was so cool, he loved it. Yeah, I got we got him the little bat, the little utility belt, and it had the boomerangs and all kinds of stuff in it. So he he loved it.

SPEAKER_04 17:32

And the Batman car.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

The Batman car. He had two Batman cars. One of them had a little motorcycle that shot out. Like it was so cool, anyway. But that was probably my favorite. I mean, maybe I shouldn't say favorite, but uh, it was definitely our first one. No, I think it was, I think it was my favorite one. He still liked to, we we came home actually after all that, and it had all the toys and everything. And uh I came over and and we played for a while. It was of course it was after Christmas, and I came over for a little while and we played and stuff, and then we just all fell asleep and took a nap. Well, we took a nap. But he used to like to sleep with his toys, so he had the whole Batcave, Batman, everything all out in the middle of the bed, and uh yeah, Dave wound up falling off the bed because there was no room left because it was it was it was Brenda, Isa, the Batcave, and me on the edge of the bed, and we were sleeping sideways, and so it was just weird, and I wound up falling off. That's that's that's not the fun part of the story, but but that was great, you know. And and I think Sarah got a little, uh gosh, was that the year we got her the little vanity thing with the mirror and all that kind of stuff? Yeah, that was really cool. Um, and Sarah, of course, because so Isaiah burnt us biologically, Sarah, mine biologically. And so Sarah had me for like the first five years of her life, and so she knew how to be a girl because she also had grandma and her aunts and cousins and stuff like that. But she also knew how to think like a dude, and that's that's my fault. So I really tried to kind of make sure we got the little things that would kind of help propel her, make sure that she wasn't one-sided, that she, you know, that that she found the stuff that she was into because she didn't always like hanging out with the kids or you know, beating up on the boys. She was good at that too, though. You know, so she liked girly things too, and so I tried to make sure she had whatever girly stuff she needed. So that Christmas, you know, Brendan and I actually went shopping for the kids together, you know, whatever. And and so we went and got them this stuff, and we got her cool little plastic vanity set where you sit at the table and it's got the little mirror and you can do whatever. And and that didn't fit on the bed. That didn't fit on the bed. But yeah, that that was probably my favorite one because this is the first one that we all kind of spent together um and spent it there with your family, and then we went to see my family, and that was really great. That was that was really great. So if I had to pick out a favorite, that would be it. That would definitely be it. Do you have a favorite Christmas?

Keep The Main Thing The Main Thing

SPEAKER_04 20:08

I don't think I have a favorite Christmas. I think for me, it's just I'd love to have um I would love to hit my kids over. And you know, they're grown up and doing their own thing. But when they're here, when they're off here, and Sarah, Sea, Jeremiah, when they're here, I just want to cook everything. Everything they like, you know, I just want to cook it and I want them to enjoy and eat and watch movies. And, you know, I'm not a big movie person, but I love Christmas movies. And I think the elf is probably like my favorite movie. It's so funny. Um, but I just love to have like I just love to have my family over. Um I love to go to a family, you know, to be able to just sit around and talk and laugh and do whatever, you know, eat our favorite food. We're always we're always around a table with my family. And definitely we will get up from the table and come back right back to the table. So we're always at the table. But um, I think for me, it's just like making those memories um that, you know, you go, you know, especially if you don't live close and you go all year without, you know, not really like visiting here and there. But like when it's Christmas time, I just feel like, you know, I want everybody to just have those moments of, oh yeah, remember when I used to go to, you know, my aunts and, you know, go see so and so. And like I just think that's really beautiful to have um, you know, the kids come out and you know, hopefully we get snow this year when they're here. But if not, it's after they land. It's yeah, after they land.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

After they land.

SPEAKER_04 21:55

Um, but I think for me it's just that like spending time, you know, family time. And now we have Jeremiah and he's still little, and we're, you know, the fun part is we get to shop for him for, you know, a little guy, and you know, and he's just full of energy and he he loves everything. He's he's very much like Sarah. He he's very content. And so, you know, he's not like, well, I want to, you know, buy the latest. He's really content with whatever you give him. And I think that's that's beautiful. And so so are my kids, but um I think for me it's just that, like making time, enjoying the moment, not really like, you know, and I think we get into the habit of being so busy that we forget to enjoy the moment, and we're just like in the busy, right? Like, I gotta do this, I gotta plan dinner, I gotta plan the gifts, and I gotta do that. And then we forget that we even what we're there for, like enjoying each other, enjoying time. Um, I think last year um or a few years ago, um, Isaiah's was here. He was the only one that was gonna be able to be here with Christmas. Yeah, and um we started Christmas with just reading, you know, the the story of Jesus. And I thought that was really cool because, you know, like I said, we forget like the true meaning of a Christmas.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:24

Um, and I know we get around family and we're all different and we have different opinions, and sometimes it's good and sometimes it's not so good. And so I just think that being able to just share memories, right? And be able to make those memorable moments where you can go back and say, Oh yeah, I remember when we went here, you know, like I think one of my memories is just my my sweat out, my mother-in-law, she used to always for um the 24th, Christmas Eve, we would just have snacks, you know. She's like, Oh, let's just have snacks and have like cheese and crackers and you know, smokies, and and I think we kind of pass that on to us. Like on the 24th, we just do snacks, we do hot chocolate, you know, we watch movies, and then you know, we typically like you know, figure out like what do we want to eat for Christmas, and it's not always um, we're very different, so it's not always like turkey and ham or you know, tamales if you're Hispanic or menuda posole, right?

SPEAKER_01 24:37

Oh, it's never turkey and ham.

Hope For Heavy Holidays

SPEAKER_04 24:39

So we usually just pick, like I think last year David and I did um a barbecue Christmas, and so yeah, um, we order things in and we, you know, I cook some and and so it was just neat that we don't make it like you know, it's just a different every year. So it's not like a tradition, we're gonna stick to this. And you know, I think one of the things that, you know, I've I want to pass on to my kids is that, you know, you just need to be content that you have each other and that you have family and enjoying the family you have because nobody's promised tomorrow. And so you don't even know, like, you know, just making those memories with your kids, with your family, with your loved ones, and even with your friends, people that have been your friends for a while, or if you haven't seen someone for a while, and you just feel like I haven't reached out to that person. I just feel like being that for someone, man, it goes a long way.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

So yeah. No, I think that's great. Um two things I want to add to that. One keeping the main thing, the main thing, right? Family, friends, food, all great things.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

The gifts are great, but the ultimate gift is the fact that for God so loved the world, that includes you.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

Maybe even especially you, that he gave his only begotten son, and the way he did that was allowing him to be born as a human being, as a man. So the celebration of the birth of Jesus is a story of true love. Just like we love our kids and we love our family and we love our friends, and we want to spend this time together and really enjoy it again with food and fellowship and gifts. How about we give Jesus a gift this year? You know, if if you're not a churchgoer, if you don't normally go, I I okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

But how about this year you try something different? How about this year as a gift go to church?

Joy By Choice And Final Blessing

SPEAKER_01 27:11

Find a local church. I'm not telling you where to go. I if you live in Greeley or in the area, uh there's Mercy Church, but there's lots of other churches in other cities, other towns, even in Greeley, there's plenty of other places. But find a house of worship, find a church that you can go and celebrate the birth of Jesus. Give him that gift of just a little bit of time. We're gonna have a candlelight service actually on Christmas Eve. A lot of churches will. A lot of churches will have a candlelight service or some type of service. Some will have a big pageant, a big uh uh uh skit, play, what do you call it? You know, a big program, you know, and and that's that's great. Either one, if it's a big program, if it's a candlelight service, just find a place where you can give Jesus that gift of your time, right? Show him a little bit of love and reverence and and and and show up to his house that day. Yeah, I think that would be great. The other thing I want to say is we talked about all the fun stuff and our favorite, our favorite Christmas stories, but Christmas isn't always the joyful time for everybody that we would expect. If you're having a hard time in this season, just know that the whole point of this season is to show you that God loves you. You might not feel like it, you might not recognize it, you might not know it, but God loves you so much. And there are people that you may not even know, might not ever meet, that love you so much, just because you're another human being. I know at Mercy Church we pray for people, we pray for the community, we pray for people we don't know. Sometimes we're at the store, we're at football games, we're at whatever, and we're praying for people as we see them walk by, just quietly, not anything weird or nefarious, just man, Lord, just be a just just let them feel your love today, Jesus. That's probably the biggest prayer that we pray for a lot of people, just as we're going around and and and seeing people or knowing people are there. I'm not always seeing people, I don't see people, that's not how it works. But I'm just saying, like, because we love people and we love people because God loves people, because Jesus loves people, and so this might be a hard time for you. But I just want you to know that there are people that are thinking for you, thinking about you and praying for you right now in this season. I lost my dad the day after Christmas, several years ago, lots and lots of years ago now, but it was the day after Christmas, and my dad passed away first thing in the morning on the 26th of December. That was really hard. It was a very hard thing for me to go through. Um, but I had my family, I had God, I I had a I had a community around me, and I had people that I didn't even know were praying for me. Tell me, hey man, we're here for you. We understand it's hard. And I praise God because I know my dad made it to heaven. I I know that's where he's at, even right now. So I'm super excited about that, but I still miss him. And in that moment, it was still hard, even though knowing where he was gonna be and knowing that he wasn't gonna be in pain anymore, because my dad went through a lot physically and medically. But even though knowing he was better off and in a better place and he wasn't suffering, it was still hard for me and my family. So if you're having a hard time, I get it. I really truly understand it can be a tough time, it can be a tough season for some people. My dad had a really hard time, even when I was a kid. He had a hard time with the holiday season because he lost his dad around the holiday season. So I get it, I understand it's not always easy to be happy in this time, but joy transcends happiness, and we can find a reason to be joyful even right now, even if that only reason is to know that I am loved. And I want to know, I want you to know tonight, today, whatever time of day or night you're watching this, you are loved. God loves you and we love you. And as soon as we stop this recording, we're gonna be praying for you. And if you're having a great time in this Christmas season, man, be that love for somebody who's having a tough time. Like Brenda said, don't just buy the gift, be the gift. If you find somebody or you know somebody in your family, you run across somebody that seems to be having a tough time, give them a smile. Ask them if it's okay. If you, if you're a if you're a believer and and and you believe in God and you are you're a person of faith, a man, a woman of faith, ask that person, hey, uh you seem like you're having a hard time. And and I just want to know, can I pray with you for a second? And just help people through the season. If you're having a hard time, lean on somebody. Find a church, find a friend, find a family member. Don't isolate this this season, okay? Let this be a season of joy, even if it's a season you've got to crawl out from under the rock that you've been hiding under. And I have been there. But I love you and God loves you. We love you. We're praying for you in this season that you experience the joy that Jesus came to bring, that you experience the peace that passes understanding. All that means is it's peace that don't make no sense. Some people wonder how, man, how people ask me all the time. There's the whole doing it blind thing, right? People ask me, how are you guys so happy? How are you so happy? You can't even see the mountains in front of you. And I'm like, but I know they're there and I know who made them. I can have joy in every situation because I choose it. And it's not always an easy choice. But I choose it for me and I choose it for the people around me. I choose it for my kids, I choose it for my wife, I choose it for my grandson, and I even choose it for you today. I want to be a source of encouragement for you today, right now. If you need a talk, find me on social media, reach out, I'll chat with you, we'll we'll talk, I'll pray with you, whatever it might be. I feel like this episode is getting a little bit long, but I just want to tell you, Merry Christmas. It's not just something we say, but it's our desire and our hope for you that in this season you experience the joy, the love, the laughter, the food, the family, and the friends, everything that goes along with this season, but most of all, that you experience God in this season. So, with that, I don't think I have anything else.

SPEAKER_04 34:46

Nope. I don't, Ina.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

That's it for us today. Thanks for joining in. Oh I didn't even talk about how we wrap gifts blind. Anyway, it can it can work, it's not free. She knows. Why are you having to worry? I did my best. It was completely wrapped.

SPEAKER_03 35:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

Tons of tape. That's a story for another day. Thanks for tuning in, and you can make it. I promise, even in this season. We're with you. We're believing with you. Merry Christmas.

SPEAKER_04 35:20

Merry Christmas, everyone.