Hope is Counting Down the Dayz....

Whats the deal with how one movie, one song, or one odd tradition can flip your whole season from hectic to happy? We invited Eliza to sit down with us and pull on those threads—sharing the holiday rituals we cling to, the ones we outgrow, and the playful twists that keep December fresh. From Love Hard and The Santa Clause to the eternal Die Hard question, we build a watch-list that blends nostalgia with discovery and admit to the classics we still haven’t seen.

We volley between Justin Bieber’s Mistletoe and the power riffs of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, while Italian records sneak in as unofficial “holiday music” because they scored our childhood kitchens. We tour neighborhood decor wars—blow-up villages, synchronized lights, and a skeleton house that changes costumes across the seasons—and laugh about the fine line between delightful and overwhelming. 

Then we get practical. Lists rescue our sanity, reusable gift bags save time, and wrapping hacks add joy without the 2 a.m. meltdown. We map out a lasagna Christmas dinner and a friendly “meatball off,” explain why Christmas morning at home lets kids actually enjoy their gifts, and share our secret-ruled games for adult children that turn small moments into family lore. We even look ahead to travel dreams—Bermuda, anyone?—and how to keep the heart of the holidays beating across multiple homes.

If you’re juggling traditions, schedules, and big feelings, press play and come plan with us. Subscribe, leave a review to help more listeners find the show, and tell us: what tradition anchors your season?

Transcript

Meet Eliza And The Show’s Vibe

Heather 0:01

Hey, how's everybody doing? It's Heather and Zia.

Zia 0:06

How are you?

Heather 0:08

Welcome to another episode of Do We Love That For You?

Zia 0:12

Do we? Do we? I don't know.

Heather 0:18

I want to introduce. We have a special guest with us today.

Zia 0:21

We do.

Heather 0:23

It's my daughter, Eliza. Hi. It's very nice to be here. Thanks for having me. Yay! She wasn't very fond of this. She thinks that we're a little weird for doing a podcast. I never said that. Didn't want to do it.

Zia 0:41

I never said it.

Eliza 0:42

I never said it. Those were she did never use those words, but I did not. Yeah. I'm happy that you guys are doing this. This seems you guys seem to really enjoy it. We do. Which comes across to the audience. I'll be the audience, and you're the audience. Yeah. I you can tell that you guys are having fun doing this. So we are. In support. Yay!

Heather 1:02

Yay! So this is actually episode four. So we started this like always on a spur of the moment. We've talked about that a couple of times.

Zia 1:13

Absolutely.

Heather 1:14

We explained out to everybody in episode one that it was us talking, and all of a sudden it was like, we should do a podcast. So here we are.

Eliza 1:22

Absolutely.

Heather 1:22

As we usually very spur of the moment. Exactly.

Eliza 1:27

Very spur of the moment.

Heather 1:28

Only way to do it. Um, and I remember when I told Eliza this, she goes, Okay. But then she listened to it and actually sent it to her college roommate. And what did your college roommate say?

Holiday Movie Night: Hits And Misses

Eliza 1:39

She said, We're shut the heck up. This is hilarious. And a bunch of like, why is it about New Jersey? That's great. She said it was really funny though.

Zia 1:54

That's great.

Heather 1:57

So Eliza came out to New Hampshire last night.

Zia 2:02

Um she's actually trying to go away.

Heather 2:05

I'm sorry.

Zia 2:06

Safe trip.

Eliza 2:07

Driving here? Yeah, I was driving in uh Vermont, and those people can't drive. So it was it was a little rough, but made it here in one piece, so that's worth it.

Zia 2:20

That's great.

Eliza 2:20

Other than that, it was a safe trip.

Zia 2:22

Yeah good.

Eliza 2:23

Um so we watched one of our favorite Christmas movies last night. It's a newer one, it's called uh Love Hard with Nina DeBrov and Jimmy O. I have it's really cute. Um he catfishes her, and then she goes to visit him for Christmas, and then it's Jimmy O. And it's not who she thought he was.

Zia 2:48

Oh my god. All right, I might have to take that, yeah.

Heather 2:51

Yeah, it's funny. It's funny. So we watched that. So, what are some of the other Christmas movies we frequent?

Eliza 3:00

The Santa Claus movies. Of course.

Heather 3:02

Those are those are a classic, a fan favorite, but not episode but not the third one, just one and two. The third one with Jack Frost. Have you ever seen that one?

Zia 3:12

Yes, I and I love him as an actor, but I did not like that part that he didn't. No, no, it wasn't it's not worth it.

Eliza 3:19

But the first one and the second one are really good.

Zia 3:22

So those are good ones. Yeah, well, our traditional movie since the kids were small was The Christmas Story. And I I literally just did it because um when Margaret was little, she just wouldn't sit still and it barely bugged my mom. So I was like, we're gonna watch this movie, I'm gonna make some snacks, we're gonna watch the popcorn being made, you know, the old school spins around, and you could watch the popcorn kernels popping. So we did that, and cheese and crackers put everything out. She sat there through the whole movie. We were quiet before bed. I was like, calm down, time to calm down. Awesome. So, yeah, so we we started it back then, and just to not really get my mom mad, just make the kids just sit there and yeah, so we always do we always do a Christmas story on Christmas Eve.

Heather 4:16

That's on Christmas Eve.

Zia 4:17

Yep, that's when we watch it. Christmas Eve.

Heather 4:19

Yep, yep. And I think back in the day, one of the channels on TV would do it as a like um marathon.

Zia 4:27

Oh, on a loop, yeah, absolutely.

Heather 4:29

I don't remember what channel it was. We don't have cable, but I I remember back in the day it did.

Zia 4:34

Yeah, and we also picked Elf when Elf came out. That was like one of our favorites.

Eliza 4:39

Yes. It's not one of my tops, but it's it's up there, it's good.

Zia 4:43

Yeah, yeah. He's so annoying, and we just annoy each other with the lines for a while.

Heather 4:49

So like, I know I love him, I love him. But here is the ultimate Christmas movie question. There's two movies that are always up to debate. Say anything, Christmas movie, not Christmas movie.

Zia 5:04

Oh, do you know Say Anything has a lot of meaning in this family, Heather? You may not know this.

Eliza 5:11

Really?

Zia 5:11

Yes, say anything. My husband, when we first met, said that movie is our movie. And I'm like, what? So I had never seen it. I watched it and I'm like, I never gave you a pen. I never gave you a pen. What the heck is that? What the heck? I'm like, how is this us? I've never given you a pen. And he's like, oh, the that's not it.

Eliza 5:40

And I was like, that's what I took out of the movie.

Zia 5:44

Yep. And he I actually bought it for him for Christmas one year because I was like so sweet. I don't know why, but still didn't give you a pen.

Heather 5:57

But I gave you this movie now.

Zia 5:59

Give you the movie with the pen. I don't know.

Heather 6:03

God's so sweet.

Eliza 6:05

All right, Eliza. Say say anything Christmas. I haven't actually seen say anything before, so we might have to change that while you're out here. Okay.

Heather 6:18

All right. Yeah, watch everybody.

Zia 6:20

Eliza will get the pen part. That's what she'll get out of that.

Heather 6:23

People now understand them. Yes, yes. Now, when she goes to give her boyfriend a pen next year, we'll know why.

Zia 6:31

We'll know why.

Heather 6:34

All right, and then of course, the ultimate question.

Zia 6:38

Oh god.

Heather 6:40

Die Hard.

Zia 6:42

Oh, Die Hard is definitely a Christmas movie.

Heather 6:45

See, Rich says it's a or my husband says it's a Christmas. Definitely a Christmas movie.

Die Hard Debate And Watchlist Homework

Zia 6:49

Die Hard is a Christmas movie.

Eliza 6:53

I haven't seen that one either, so we've got homework this giant rock. Um, and those movies never make it in.

Zia 7:03

Yeah, you you have homework now, see? We're giving her homework.

Eliza 7:07

Noted, okay. I'll add them to the list. Yep.

Zia 7:10

That's awesome. Let me know what you get for the takeaway on Say Anything though.

Eliza 7:14

I will. I will. Besides the pen.

Zia 7:16

Besides the pen.

Eliza 7:17

I mean, I've seen the scene where he like has the the note and he like drops it and like I've seen that part of it.

Zia 7:23

Right. But that's okay. All right. Yeah, yeah.

Eliza 7:29

Look at her.

Zia 7:29

See, it's like you let me know, Liza. You let me know.

Eliza 7:35

Okay, I will, I will, I will.

Heather 7:37

So, but Christmas movies always also means TV shows and Christmas music. You guys have any favorites of those either?

Zia 7:46

Uh, Christmas music, I tend to pull out all of my grandfather's Italian music at this time. Um, because he would always pull out like um his uh Lu Bante uh records and just to start singing those kinds of songs and you know, just Dominic the Donkey and stuff, and all of a sudden, you know, we start going, and then I got Papino Zuregil, and you know, what did Washington say when he crossed the Delaware? You know, so it just it just rolls on and it's just Italian music. It's really not Christmas music, but it is to me. Um sometimes that's what the good part is. Yeah, and I what it means. Some of my kids are like, you know, where where is Popino Zudigil? Like, where's the song? Because it's Christmas, you know.

Eliza 8:41

I like Mistletoe by Justin Buber. Okay. That's a good one. It's a modern classic, you know, just snuck it into everyone's hearts.

Heather 8:53

That is true though.

Zia 8:53

Mistletoe is a good song from him. I have not ever heard that, so now I have homework.

Eliza 8:58

If you like Jay Beebs, you're gonna like it.

Zia 9:02

I do not.

Heather 9:03

Okay, so listen to it anyway because it's actually a cute song.

Zia 9:08

All right. Well, I do listen to it. Uh I will listen to it because Eliza said.

Heather 9:14

Alright, there's your homework now. You got another homework too. Yeah.

Zia 9:17

Yeah, I have homework too. This is good. See that?

Heather 9:20

Bring on special guests now when we get homework.

Zia 9:23

That's right.

Heather 9:24

So I guess I guess my favorite Christmas song, honestly, is the I Want a Hippopotamus.

Zia 9:30

Oh, I love it.

Heather 9:32

Because I always wanted, like, I always picked a thing, and that's what I wanted as a kid for Christmas. It's like I'm nice. And and so it's like wanting a hippopotamus like reminds me of when I was a kid and I wanted that toy.

Zia 9:44

Got your mind set.

Heather 9:46

Right. And I didn't need 40 or 50 gifts. I was happy with one. Yeah. As long as it was this. So I think that's my favorite fun Christmas song. Yeah.

Zia 9:55

I feel like you have not changed with that.

Heather 9:59

No, I feel like I haven't either.

Zia 10:01

Yeah. We have um we have good expectations. Simple. Keep it simple.

Eliza 10:07

What about Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas? Dear God No. Annoying or so annoying.

Heather 10:15

So I'm okay with it as my first Christmas song that I hear.

Zia 10:20

Dear God, no.

Heather 10:22

And then I'm tired of it by the 80th or 90th time, and it's still November. But I'm good with it the first time. I'm like, yes, it's Christmas. That like brings out Christmas for me.

Christmas Music: From Bieber To TSO

Zia 10:34

If I hear her voice in any form, I'm just lost. Cannot with the Mariah Carey ever since she was young. I just have never been a fan. Um I don't know why.

Heather 10:46

Merry Christmas song. Well, yeah, I mean, she's our age, but that high note man.

Zia 10:51

Uh-uh. Nope, can't take it.

Heather 10:54

Can't do it.

Zia 10:55

No, I'm heavy metal, so I don't know. Really?

Heather 10:59

I never knew that about you.

Zia 11:01

Oh Trans-Siberian Orchestra, take it and look all the way. Yeah.

Eliza 11:07

Yes.

Zia 11:08

When that came out, I was like, where were these guys when I was little? What happened? Like, who didn't think about this when I was little?

Heather 11:17

Yeah. No, but I think what if you want to go down that road is the people who make their yards, those Christmas lights that go with the music.

Zia 11:25

We have a few around here.

Heather 11:28

You do in New York. I haven't found any here in New Hampshire yet, but my my brother-in-law, um, down he's in he's down closer toward New York City from you. Okay. Not quite in the city, but um, he's down that way and he does it with his family. He does it to their house. Yeah. And um, it's it's amazing. I love going down and watching it. It's it's just so fun.

Zia 11:51

Well, we have two houses that I feel like are at a little battle. Um, I don't know if they are, but I I love it because I get to see the good parts of the little battle going back and forth. Yeah, and one right now is my favorite because he has the Grinch. So he has little Max sitting next to him. So and they do those big blow-up things, you know, those oh, is it blow-up yards?

Heather 12:18

Is they all blow-ups?

Zia 12:19

Oh my god, it and they do it so nice though. So yeah, good. So I'm benefiting from the battle, whatever's happening between the two houses.

Heather 12:27

Oh, they so they're in your neighborhood, yeah.

Zia 12:29

So they're in your neighborhood, totally benefiting from this, whatever it is. Yep.

Eliza 12:34

Are they playing music with it or is it just the decorations?

Zia 12:37

No, I haven't heard any music. Um, I feel like it's just been decorations. Um, they do it for Halloween. Yep.

Heather 12:44

All right, oh wow. Oh, they do it for all the holidays.

Zia 12:47

All the holidays, yep. Yeah, we very nicely too.

Heather 12:51

We have an incredibly gaudy house like two or three miles away that does all of the holidays as well. And it's so much, they don't have music or anything, it's just so full of decorations. Uh I took a picture um driving by at their Halloween display, and they have so much stuff in their yard that like uh you can't see anything. It's it's horrible.

Zia 13:20

They can appreciate it.

Heather 13:21

Yeah, it's become a sensory overload. It it really is. Like like I hate driving past it because it's just so much. I don't know if they do all the holidays, but we have a skeleton house a couple of miles away that does all the seasons with skeletons. Oh, that's awesome. Like for the start of school, they had desks in their yard and they had little skeletons sitting at the desk, and then that big giant skeleton standing there with like a uh sheet next to him on a tree, like he was at a chalkboard or whiteboard or something. So that's great. And now they're all sitting around a tree like in a like a campfire type setting for Christmas.

Zia 14:02

That is adorable.

Heather 14:03

Or holidays, I guess would be the term. Yeah. As your son pointed out, we need to specify holiday, not Christmas.

Zia 14:10

Holiday. Yeah, I'm saying Merry Christmas. Me too. What about you?

Eliza 14:15

Um, I I work in corporate America, so I stick with happy holidays.

Zia 14:19

Yeah. Yeah.

Eliza 14:22

But if I know the person and I know they celebrate Christmas, I'll say Merry Christmas.

Zia 14:26

I always say have a great holiday season because that protects me from Thanksgiving, you know, whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Because it is a season.

Heather 14:39

So talking about all this Christmas stuff makes me think about how do you prep for the season?

Epic Yard Decorations And Skeleton Scenes

Zia 14:47

Oh God, do I prep for the season? I don't know that I prep for the season. I sometimes I feel like I wing it, and then when it's crunch time, it's like 80 lists are being made. And that then, like my you know, like all of my little OCDs come out, and I'm like, oh my god, just get organized. Let's do it, you know. Um, I don't know that I have like a routine. Um, the tree just went up last week because uh some friends about it. Some friends, uh Heather, uh like, you better get that tree up, girl. Get that tree up. You gotta get that up.

Heather 15:26

Do you have grandkids? You gotta get that tree up.

Zia 15:28

Yep. So I do have to say, my one granddaughter did ask. I said, Oh, I love how daddy put up your tree, it looks so beautiful. And she said, You have tree? And I was like, I do, it's in a bag right now, but yes, I do have grandma does have a tree. I do.

Eliza 15:43

Grandma has a tree, I do have to, yeah.

Zia 15:46

I had she pushed me, and so did Heather to put the tree up. So amazing. It is up, yeah. It's a little um mixed, uh, because my grandmother was Jewish and my grandmother was my grandfather was Catholic, so I always wanted a blue and silver Christmas tree. Oh yeah, and white, like a white Christmas tree, which is weird for me because my favorite color is black. Um, but yeah, I have I do have a blue, silver, white Christmas tree. Yeah, you do.

Eliza 16:19

That's awesome.

Zia 16:20

Yep. Maybe I'll post oh yeah, go, yeah, we should put our trees up.

Heather 16:27

Maybe I'll post our trees. I'll I'll get our trees posted because props to our and I'm gonna have to do it like I always say producer. He was amazing this week, and he gave us or put us on all the social medias. Absolutely. So we have Twitter X, whatever that is.

Zia 16:52

Yep.

Heather 16:53

Um you like that? Sure, yeah. She's laughing over here. Um, he put us on Instagram and he put us on Facebook, so I've been putting some teasers out on that.

Zia 17:04

Yeah, I like the Twitter X because you know why? The X for Gen X. We are Gen X.

Heather 17:11

Oh, you just did the 6-7 hands. I saw it.

Zia 17:14

Oh, I did the I did pointees though.

Heather 17:16

Oh, with your fingers? Okay, I just saw the verb.

Zia 17:18

Yeah, I got enough of that at elementary school.

Eliza 17:21

I don't need I can't imagine.

Zia 17:23

You know, it does throw them off though. I had seen a a reel that said if they do six seven, you have to go like sideways and go eight nine. And they're like, What just happened? It throws them so off that they just walk away.

Eliza 17:40

Noted.

Zia 17:41

Yes, do it, do it, noted. Yep. Or you just start singing uh uh what what is the number? You know, eight, six, seven, five, three, oh, nine. Yeah, you gotta put that in there, and they're like, What are you talking about?

Heather 17:56

I did see one of your teachers at your school um when I I'm friends with shopping. Oh, no, was um, she did a it was, I guess, your 67th day of school.

Zia 18:09

Yes, yes, we celebrated the 67th day of school. Yeah, if you can't beat them, join them.

Heather 18:16

You know what? I saw her do that and I I actually laughed. I was like, okay, I'm kind of glad I'm not at the school this year.

Zia 18:23

Yes, yes. We decided, you know, a few of the classes decided that just let's make it annoying, you know. If uh they love it, let's do it. Um, we just had our rock rock setup, you know? Yeah, we just had our rock, paper, scissors challenge. Um, and you know, my boss uh is a lot like me, so like we get the crowd going and we know they're kids, you're there to have fun. So he's like, everybody quiet down. This is a serious moment for the last round, and then he's like, I need complete science, silence. And all of a sudden he goes, Six, seven, and that kids are all like, Yeah, so it's like those fun things, you know. We love to be there, you know. You got it's Christmas, they are on the edge. We have two more days. What is happening?

Heather 19:15

Two more days. You have to go back to work Monday and Tuesday to go back to work Monday and Tuesday.

Zia 19:23

A lot of the school dress districts are done to you know, yesterday. Yeah, we actually go back Monday and Tuesday. I can't imagine what it's going to be like, but we shall see. We shall see. We shall see.

Heather 19:40

That's I don't even put a movie on. Just put a movie on for the game. Yeah, no, there is gonna be some teachers in the school that are going to actually try to teach. They're gonna do work.

Zia 19:48

Yep, they're gonna try to teach. Yep, and and you know, if they're back on certain things, you gotta do it. But right, their minds are not here, they are in another. Dimension. Another dimension. Yep. I can see them walking down the halls and they're just like Christmas lights in there.

Heather 20:08

Oh, excuse me. Holiday lights in there.

Zia 20:12

Nah sorry, Christmas lights. I'm Italian. Come on, I'm Jersey and I'm Italian. Come on.

Heather 20:20

Oh my gosh. Come on. Come on.

Merry Christmas Or Happy Holidays

Zia 20:24

Can't get any more Christmassy than that.

Heather 20:28

Yeah. So back to the lists. I do.

Zia 20:31

Did you do yours?

Heather 20:33

I did. Well, no, that's a fib. We talked about doing lists yesterday, and I said I was gonna make mine, and I didn't. But I had a lot of things. I made enough for both of us. Yes. I but I already have the one list you had that you made last night, I had already made, which is the Christmas present verse people list. I did that because um normally my wrapper is sitting next to me, my my present wrapper.

Zia 20:59

Do you like it?

Eliza 21:02

I don't, yeah, I don't mind it. I like it. You get to get a little creative with with some of the wrappings. I try to make them look like things they aren't sometimes. Okay. Or add like the streamers and just have some fun with it. Yeah. I'll buy like bells from the dollar store and I'll take some jingle bells onto them. Yeah, my daughter does. Explain your wrapping.

Heather 21:23

Explain your wrapping.

Zia 21:25

My wrapping, I a few years back, I bought these reusable bags, and I wrote everybody's name on them when I was giving them to them. Well, they give them all back, and then I use them the next year. So I make piles of this is Zach's pile, this is Mikael's pile, this is Leon's pile, this is Star's pile, and I just you know, Alex is, and then everybody gets their bags back, and then they know that the red ones are this person's and that's cool. Yeah, and then I just stuff some tissue paper in the top and I'm done. Easy peasy. Yeah, yeah. Cause I mean, they they appreciate the packaging, of course. Um, my daughter star always beautiful packaging. Um, but like I'm like, there's so many people that I have to rap for. I just you know, I'm up until like four or five o'clock in the morning if I start late, just right rapping along. Yep.

Eliza 22:27

It gets tiring after a while. I do it in little spurts. Like every I'll do a couple here, a couple there.

Heather 22:33

Yeah. So but this year I'm the main rapper. Yeah. Because, you know, with not working and rich working and all that, so I've been getting all the presents and wrapping them. So I have to admit I miss my rapper. But but I'm having fun with it because you know, I do the same thing. I don't do the whole buying a bell to put on it. I just make prepos and ribbons and streamers and yeah, I do that kind of stuff. But yeah, um but yeah, I'm I'm doing all the main rapping. So I had already had that list done because I made that um to go start doing that. I started rapping about a week ago. Okay. Um and then we did uh we already bought Christmas dinner makings already. We're gonna do a big lasagna.

Zia 23:24

Okay.

Surviving School Days Before Break

Heather 23:24

And then um Eliza and Rich might have a meatball off. A meatball off. Love it. Um so we have to get I'll have to get the stuff for the meatballs. But so I have the Christmas dinner list is already done. So the only list I need to make is the what Heather has to do to get ready for Christmas. Okay. But we're doing Christmas weird this year because Eliza has her life in New York. So she's here with us, and we're gonna do half of Christmas on Christmas Eve, and then the rest of Christmas on Christmas morning, and then she's gonna go back home. All right. Um, and then we're coming out to New York on Saturday to do it with my parents, your grandparents. Yeah. And um, we're gonna hopefully get to catch up with um Rich's oldest and her family and um no second oldest, oldest girl. We're gonna hope uh we can catch up with her on Saturday after Christmas. So very nice. I have to make those lists still. Um, you know, and I gotta have the dog sitter list, and so I have a list of the lists I need to make.

Zia 24:28

Absolutely.

Heather 24:29

Always haven't made those lists yet.

Zia 24:31

Yeah. So I like how we keep saying lists. It's all the lists. All the lists.

Heather 24:36

Are you guys writing these lists down? Are they making sure they're on your phone?

Zia 24:40

No, pen and paper.

Heather 24:42

See my pad right here? That's where my lists go on that. I got a little notebook right here.

Zia 24:47

Eliza will love my notebook. Ready? Here's my notebook.

Eliza 24:52

That is so funny.

Zia 24:53

And you guys, you guys cannot see it, but maybe we can take a picture of it. But I do have my terrifier clown, and he is my little note keeper.

Heather 25:01

Yep, you'll have to get a picture of that.

Zia 25:03

Yep.

Heather 25:04

And um, I use just uh a long thin post-it book. Um and as a matter of fact, I have mess I have notes on here. This is our um something we'll talk about, so you should write this down in our future podcast one. Yes. On the back of my note is my our trip to uh Iceland.

Zia 25:22

Oh, yes, trips, yes, yes, we'll have to drop the phone.

Heather 25:29

No, and on the other side, oh, it was a game we played the other day. Okay. So the results of the game score keeping. Yeah. But yeah, so we do we do keep a lot of lists, so that's like our little mini idiosyncrasy OCD kind of a thing. Yeah, you keep your lists on your phone, right?

Eliza 25:46

Yeah, or in your brain. Keep it on yeah, I try I do it in my brain, I keep it on my phone, or I write it on my refrigerator. Oh, yeah. You can just write, you can use like exponent fridges.

Heather 25:56

Well, you have one of those. You have the dry erase board on your fridge, yeah.

Zia 26:00

Yeah, we have a dry erase board on our refrigerator um just in case somebody goes in the refrigerator, opens it, and goes, Nope, we don't have it. Write it down.

Heather 26:09

Yes, yep, yes, like orange juice.

Zia 26:12

I like orange juice. Orange juice is important.

Heather 26:17

Oh god. You weren't you weren't in the room yet, but Zia's husband was upset that they were out of orange juice.

Zia 26:23

Yes, he loves his orange juice. It's kind of like living with Tony Soprano, you know? Where's my orange juice? Where's the orange juice? Right. Right. Too funny. Yeah, we have um when uh so the family's coming over for Christmas Eve. And I kind of when the kids were little, I decided if they had kids or whatever, one day I was gonna do just Christmas Eve with them. Um, because I always felt like we were always traveling with the kids on Christmas Eve or Christmas, and when it was Christmas, it was so hard because we'd leave early in the morning to go either to the city or somewhere else. Like sometimes we travel up here if we were in Virginia, and they never got to play with their Christmas presents. Yeah. Or I would say you can't take that because you'll lose it and don't play with it in the car, and you can't bring it to share, and you know, and they're sitting there like I got a Nintendo cube, you know, the the cube, and I can't play it. What are you talking about?

Lists, Trees, And Social Media Plans

Heather 27:26

You know, you gotta put it down and we'll be back for three hours or five.

Zia 27:30

Get in the car, get in the car. You can play with it tomorrow. You have you know, school break, but I felt so bad, so I was like, nope, everybody stays home on Christmas, and you have the kids play with whatever they have to play with, yeah. And I got you Christmas Eve, that's fine. Yep.

Heather 27:46

Yeah, and it's awesome. And I pretty much did that with you for the most part until you got a little older, and then we started going to grandma's house. Yeah, um, but she was older at that point, not as much toys and stuff, but yeah, um, no, I I completely agree with that. That if you want to see your grandkids, you go to that. Yes, yes, like unfortunately we're super far away now, but yeah, that's actually what I want to maintain.

Zia 28:15

Yeah, we actually do games for our adult kids. So, and we like theme it sometimes. So last year, or not last year, the year before we did um, oh, what was it? Um what the heck was his name? Oh my god, I'm drawing a blanket. Anyway, we did like a whole theme. Uh, one time we had a contract for them to sign, and it was in like six different languages, and they were sitting there like, we'll just sign it. We'll just sign it. We don't even know what you're saying anymore.

Eliza 28:49

Oh no. There's a contract like about what kind of gifts they would get each other for.

Zia 28:54

Nope, we just made them sign a contract that they were playing this game and it was gonna be done fairly and da-da-da. And yeah, there was like, yeah, and we posted it on the wall, and we and it was funny because there's like little things that they do that they don't know that we have in our mind that they have to do, right? So if they do it, they don't know what it is, but if I spot them doing it, they actually get a prize. Oh we laid out all these colored markers for the contract, and whoever signed it in the color we picked got a prize. Oh who won? Um, I believe well, Zach and Michaela came away with a lot of stuff that year. So I don't know why, but they actually keep all the little like one year we gave them little headbands to choose from. Um, whoever too chose the certain headband got a prize. Um pins. We did um Pac-Man pins one year, and we only called them by the pin that they had, so it was inky blanky, you know. Yes!

Heather 30:05

Oh, I love that.

Zia 30:06

That and then the next year we actually incorporated that because they had to remember what their name was the year before. Okay, okay. Some of them did, some of them didn't. But Zach keeps everything.

Heather 30:19

So he knew his name, of course.

Zia 30:21

He yes, and him and Michaela always come and they're like, with everything we've given them over the years, they put it on, and they walk in the door and they're like, it could there could be this could be a thing. They may want to see all the things that we have, so they come prepared.

Heather 30:40

We need to get their permission and we need to post a picture of this.

Zia 30:43

Yes, because it's like game on, we're winning, let's go. Yep. And uh we used to do um like bottles of liquor, and then they would sit behind the bottle of liquor. And one of the things was who's gonna break into the bottle of liquor while they're sitting there waiting for rules to be read.

Heather 31:05

And yeah, break and win, or did the not break and win?

Zia 31:09

The break and one. Yep. Nice, so like little little things like that, or if they do something while we're playing the game. Yep. Just they'll get something. They're like, What did I do? You don't need to know.

Heather 31:24

That is one of the greatest traditions ever. Yep.

Zia 31:27

So now we're gonna try to do it for the little ones. I've I got like two games I'm gonna do for the little ones so they can win some stuff. Yep.

Heather 31:35

They're still a little young to remember it from year to year, but Zach is their father, so they will remember it from year to year.

Wrapping Styles And Reusable Bags

Zia 31:43

You know, I have to tell you about that. We when I was watching my granddaughter, I well, both of them, but uh one of them is gonna be three. She's got the little memory in the discussion now, and she asked me for pumpkin pie and um apples, because I was gonna see her that weekend. I walked through that door, she's taking off my jacket. Okay, you stay, you stay, take the jacket off. And she was like, uh, you got apples? And I'm like, This was Thursday to Saturday. Wow. For three, not even three yet, right? Thursday to Saturday. Do you have apples? Yes, I got the apples. Uh, you got the pumpkin pie? Uh, yeah, okay, got it. So it was like that memory. I mean, I do have that memory of an elephant too, so it's a little, you know, that's crazy, but I that's awesome. Just hope that sticks, because that that was that's a hard, that's a long time for three-year-old. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So uh, so yeah, so um just uh these little mines, you know, gotta melt mind meld the mines.

Heather 33:03

Yeah, that's crazy. So well, I want to thank Eliza for coming out to visit and joining us on the Saturday morning with our coffees. I don't have a coffee. I'm behind the ball.

Eliza 33:15

She is behind the ball on the coffee.

Zia 33:17

Yeah, that's okay.

Eliza 33:18

Thank you for having me on the show, guys. Absolutely. And like see the magic.

Zia 33:24

Ooh. Thank you for being our first guest, though.

Heather 33:28

Yeah, I feel so special. Oh so you're you get gifts from Charlie when you babysit, which is Charlie and your dog. We have a picture of Charlie on your on our Facebook. So you're our first guest.

Eliza 33:43

Wow. Yeah, I feel so special. Thank you.

Zia 33:45

Yep, and Charlie puts notes around the house when Eliza washes her. And it's like this is Eliza's room, and this is Eliza's.

Eliza 33:55

Exactly. No, it's the sweetest thing, actually.

Heather 33:58

It's really cute.

Zia 33:59

Yeah.

Heather 34:00

So, and on that note, we've had a couple other people ask to join us.

Zia 34:04

We did, yes. I've had my son-in-law as excited. He would like to join us. Yeah. Wow.

Heather 34:11

Yeah. Okay, very cool. Yeah. So we'll see. We'll get him on here in the next week or two. Probably not next week, which um we're gonna have to probably record on Friday because Saturday I'm going to New York. Yeah. So we'll be traveling at the time when we're recording. So we might have to do a Friday night recording. Yeah. Which means instead of getting our coffee, should we get a glass of wine?

Zia 34:32

Oh, I'm not a wine, maybe whiskey.

Heather 34:36

You do whiskey, I'll do rum.

Zia 34:37

I'm a Jack Daniels girl, sorry.

Heather 34:40

I'm a captain. I'm a captain girl, so but um but yeah, I think we're gonna have to do a Friday recording because I'll be traveling Saturday. We'll still have it posted Saturday.

Zia 34:54

Right.

Heather 34:54

But I think I think we're gonna have to do a Friday evening recording.

Zia 34:57

Yep, and I'll have to shout out. Sorry, gotta send a shout out. It is my son-in-law's birthday today, so happy birthday to Leon.

Heather 35:05

Happy birthday, Leon. And that's the son-in-law who wants to be on the we could have had him on today for some day.

Zia 35:14

He's actually traveling today with my daughter. So celebrating. Yeah, celebrating. Yep, they're going on their little ventures to uh celebrate the birthday.

Heather 35:24

Like this one sitting here.

Zia 35:25

Oh, yes, you and Star go on so many adventures. I wish I was like you. I just can't get the mom had asked if I wanted, you know, hey, go on our trip, you know. No, mm-mm, no. I thought she could come with us to Iceland. And she's she noped out. Yeah, no. I went to Egypt in two in 2010, and that was my goal to get to Egypt. Yep. And yes, now Michael keeps asking me, where would you like to go? And I'm like, home.

Heather 35:52

Well, we have to still do, we still have to do our couple's trip to Bermuda.

Zia 35:57

We do. I have to get my mom's ashes to Bermuda. Yes, I do.

Heather 36:01

You know what? Put that on the list for the for another conversation.

Zia 36:04

Yep, yep.

Heather 36:05

Because we we have talked about that a bunch of times that we got to get to Bermuda and we're working on that. Yeah, well, we just need to work it out.

Eliza 36:14

I mean, that's what we're trying to figure out to get there.

Zia 36:17

And we're trying to figure out boat or plane.

Eliza 36:19

I guess.

Zia 36:20

You know, yeah, right. So that kind of thing. Yep. But thank you for being here for our little coffee session.

Heather 36:28

I love this for us. Fourth episode. I do love this for us.

Zia 36:32

Yes, we do love this for us.

Heather 36:34

Do we?

Zia 36:35

We do. We do.

Heather 36:36

All right. So huh? I said amazing. Yeah. So instead of coffee next week, we'll have to have a little bit of something a little stronger. Celebratory drink. That's right. But otherwise, it was great talking to everyone, and we'll see everyone on our next episode.

Zia 36:55

Absolutely. Have a good day, guys.

Heather 36:58

All right. Love everyone.

Zia 37:00

Love yes.