Speaker 1: Hete listeners. We are going to talk about the holidays.
Speaker 1: So if you have little people in your car that
Speaker 1: knows stand to personally or write hind letters, this might
Speaker 1: be one that you want to skip. Yeah, More, more, better,
Speaker 1: more letter.
Speaker 2: More, a little more better more. Uh.
Speaker 1: Welcome to More Better, a podcast where we stop pretending
Speaker 1: to have it all together and embrace the journey of
Speaker 1: becoming a little more better every day, or at least
Speaker 1: trying to. That's most of the Meryl and that's Stephanie
Speaker 1: Beatrice and here we are. Welcome back. What's going on? Man,
Speaker 1: you know, man about to leave? Just live in life
Speaker 1: and just in that. Uh. But I'm I'm more better
Speaker 1: at this time than pet times in the past. Okay,
Speaker 1: okay of keeping myself organized mm hmmm hmm. And I
Speaker 1: I've got all my packing pretty much done. Cool, cool,
Speaker 1: so that I can enjoy the weekend with the family
Speaker 1: and not spend all of Saturday and Sunday packing and
Speaker 1: stressed out and overwhelmed. I love it. I wanted to
Speaker 1: be really intentional about that because I'm not gonna see
Speaker 1: them for three weeks, and I didn't want the last
Speaker 1: two days, like the last weekend, to be that Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's organized. I was like, very on my shit, Oh
Speaker 1: my god, sure, I blocked out time to get the
Speaker 1: rest of my packing done. Let me tell you something. Okay,
Speaker 1: speaking of packing, when I told Brad this afternoon that
Speaker 1: I had to I was reminded him, well, I have
Speaker 1: to record at five. He got this look, blanched, he
Speaker 1: had this look on his fees and I was like,
Speaker 1: I already packed all your recording stuff. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: so I started drafting an email to you and everyone
Speaker 1: else on the team and I was like, hey, so
Speaker 1: I can't record today. And then as I was writing it,
Speaker 1: I was like, I can't do this. Her like he
Speaker 1: has to find he has to find it, like he
Speaker 1: has and he did. He figured out what box it
Speaker 1: was in, pulled it all out, set it all up,
Speaker 1: and I was like, delete email. If I have to
Speaker 1: record on that weekend, she's gonna be fuck, She'll do it.
Speaker 1: She'll be first. I would have done, and I would
Speaker 1: have been pissed. Yeah, I would have been. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: still a tag on my sweater. I just want to
Speaker 1: so I'm getting more better at not taking the tags
Speaker 1: off my clothes. Wow, it's a cute sweater though, thank you.
Speaker 1: It's very cute. It's like very I think it's like
Speaker 1: a Marino wool blend and it looks like vintagey like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it does. The sleeves are kind of this like belt
Speaker 1: not like it's like Dolman. I don't know what that's
Speaker 1: exactly right, but I don't you're asking the wrong person
Speaker 1: and more better. Today's pod is about one of my
Speaker 1: favorite topics in the whole Wide World and slash universe,
Speaker 1: getting ready for the holidays. The holiday season is my
Speaker 1: favorite time of year. It's the most wonderful time of year.
Speaker 1: Some people would say some people would say that, what
Speaker 1: do you think We can't we can't afford that. No,
Speaker 1: we can't. Don't do that. Cut Okay. I do love
Speaker 1: the holidays. I really love the holidays. I also sometimes
Speaker 1: get a little too stressed about them. Ah, yes, well
Speaker 1: you're not unlike what is it like? Forty percent of
Speaker 1: people go, yeah, I think we have like a yes
Speaker 1: here it is from the American Psychological Association. Forty one
Speaker 1: percent of people surveyed said that their stress increases during
Speaker 1: the holiday season. The APA also found that thirty six
Speaker 1: percent of people said the holidays feel like a competition.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I don't like that. I don't like that.
Speaker 1: This is specifically we're talking about, like preparing for the holidays.
Speaker 1: So I think that that's a good thing to talk about,
Speaker 1: like the feeling of getting stressed or the feeling like
Speaker 1: it's a competition. Yeah, how can we How do you
Speaker 1: actively avoid those things? What sort of happens when that
Speaker 1: starts happening to you? When do you start prepping, like
Speaker 1: holiday prepping? Like when do you start like doing or
Speaker 1: do you holiday prep? Do you prep at all? I
Speaker 1: do fly about the seat of my pants because no,
Speaker 1: because I've learned in the past, especially since I've had kids,
Speaker 1: there have been years where I didn't plan enough or
Speaker 1: prepare enough, and then everything was a fucking shit show
Speaker 1: the night before and I got sorry, allowed to dressed
Speaker 1: and overwhelmed, and I was and I just was like,
Speaker 1: I can't do it like this anymore. I I for me,
Speaker 1: do you mean like specifically, like food, Like what do
Speaker 1: you when you say like everything was ready? Yes, like
Speaker 1: food not coming together or like missing things or like
Speaker 1: just it being like you know, two days before and
Speaker 1: the store doesn't have shit, they're already sold out. Everybody
Speaker 1: like was more prepared than you, And then you're like,
Speaker 1: what the fuck is my backup plan? And then you're
Speaker 1: stressed and you're like everyone's gonna hate my Thanksgiving and
Speaker 1: regret saying yes to coming to our house, or like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's Christmas Eve and maybe we've had a
Speaker 1: lovely Christmas Eve, but now I'm wrapping fucking presence until
Speaker 1: he d never again. That was one Christmas and I
Speaker 1: was last year. I'm so mad at myself for doing it,
Speaker 1: And because then what do we do tiredesday? And how
Speaker 1: do you what do you do? Like this is a
Speaker 1: good rap, it's a good one. You wrap them when
Speaker 1: they arrive. So when they arrived presents, where do you
Speaker 1: we hide that ship? Everywhere we have, uh, we have
Speaker 1: like a little storage place next to our garage is
Speaker 1: kind of like a room with shelving. A lot of
Speaker 1: them go in there and we lock the door. I
Speaker 1: was gonna say, how do you keep them out? The
Speaker 1: kids don't really go in there, especially in the winter
Speaker 1: because like the bikes are in there, so like it's
Speaker 1: more of a place in the summer that they go
Speaker 1: into for like bikes and pool toys or whatever. But
Speaker 1: in the winter they kind of don't look in there.
Speaker 1: We also have cabinets in our garage that they don't
Speaker 1: really go into that we or like high cabinets up
Speaker 1: high places. And then we have those like uh closets
Speaker 1: that you see a lot in California houses where it's
Speaker 1: like the storage on top of the closet. Uh huh yeah,
Speaker 1: like the little doors. Yeah, we put we throw shit
Speaker 1: up there too because they can't reach up there, so
Speaker 1: we go for like up high places. Okay, sometimes under bed,
Speaker 1: but under bed is like always risky, tricky, yeah, risky. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Because I used to like pop the tape off the
Speaker 1: side and like slide the package out and open it,
Speaker 1: slide it back. That's how I read all of Anne
Speaker 1: of Green Gables before Christmas, Oh my god, because I
Speaker 1: opened it, split it out. I would read like during
Speaker 1: the day and then I would slide it back in,
Speaker 1: you know. And I feel like I should ask my
Speaker 1: mom where she used to hide our Christmas presents because
Speaker 1: I could never find where my mom hid our Christmas
Speaker 1: hand you should were really fucking good at hiding our
Speaker 1: Christmas presents. Fucking pissed, yes, if she would get so
Speaker 1: fucking pissed. And now and now that I'm a parent,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know if I would get mad
Speaker 1: or if I'd just be like, oh, it's such a
Speaker 1: bummer for you. It be a surprise. Yeah, I little kids.
Speaker 1: I still believe in Santa. So they're also not really
Speaker 1: looking yet. M hmm, do you know what I mean? Like,
Speaker 1: I do know what you mean? Like, and so is
Speaker 1: this is probably makes me so sad. This is probably
Speaker 1: his last year believing in Santa.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like right on the ver It's like right
Speaker 2: on the verge, more better, more better.
Speaker 1: So yeah, he's not really looking. He just kind of
Speaker 1: I mean we sort of tell him, you know that
Speaker 1: there's like bigger things we you know, me and Papa
Speaker 1: buy you the bigger things or whatever ever like kind
Speaker 1: of do that. But yeah, they're not really looking yet.
Speaker 1: So but yes, uh but we started this tangent on
Speaker 1: Uh oh, so it's all over the place, but I
Speaker 1: love it. It's all over the place. But I try to,
Speaker 1: you know, because now it's like mostly online shopping for
Speaker 1: the gifts that we do. So when the boxes arrive, uh,
Speaker 1: we might hide the box at first, but then we
Speaker 1: try to like wrap things right away smart so that
Speaker 1: that's it, just like in the box. Well, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I get rat first. Sometimes we keep the boxes because
Speaker 1: the box is being useful for hiding things. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I just try to wrap it and then hide it.
Speaker 1: And yeah, yeah, okay, this is good advice. You know,
Speaker 1: my mom does this thing that I work and hate,
Speaker 1: and she still does it. She is a bag person.
Speaker 1: She loves a bag with tissues the oh, and I
Speaker 1: because of that, I grew up like our like desiring
Speaker 1: real wrapped presence with foes and ribbon and stuff. So
Speaker 1: it is it's way more fun to unwrap something, I
Speaker 1: think than to have some like tissue on the top
Speaker 1: of a bag. So but because of that, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm searching all Like I'm not even kidding you. I
Speaker 1: have like four or five rolls of Christmas paper in
Speaker 1: my laundry room right now that I've bought over the
Speaker 1: course of the year that are just waiting. Because I
Speaker 1: love wrapping presents. I like, I love the like experience
Speaker 1: of it. The problem is that in the past, I,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm new to having a kid, so like
Speaker 1: I just never had as much like stuff stuff to wrap.
Speaker 1: So that's good advice about wrapping them. Kind of as
Speaker 1: they come in and then hiding them. I think I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to hide them in the attic or something.
Speaker 1: But luckily it's pretty cold that that time. They're in California.
Speaker 1: The thingk's gonna overheat or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, like I said, especially like for littler things,
Speaker 1: if you just save one of those Amazon boxes and yeah,
Speaker 1: keep that get things and then put that like at
Speaker 1: the top of a closet. Thing, he just looks like
Speaker 1: an Amazon box, like yeah right, They're not gonna be
Speaker 1: like what's in there? Like yeah right, yes, that's good,
Speaker 1: that's good. I put the tree up on the if
Speaker 1: I was allowed to. I mean not that my listen,
Speaker 1: it's a partnership, my relationship as a partnership. However, however,
Speaker 1: not unlike the way that I don't want to hear
Speaker 1: the football game on every speaker throughout the house, he
Speaker 1: doesn't want to see the Christmas tree on November first.
Speaker 1: So there's a negotiation, a compromise that takes place. Christmas
Speaker 1: tree goes up on the day after Thanksgiving. When does
Speaker 1: yours go up? Same m Yeah yeah, this year, however,
Speaker 1: I will be away, So I have instructed my eight
Speaker 1: year old to as soon as they get home from
Speaker 1: their Thanksgiving trip, he needs to start bothering his father
Speaker 1: to get a Christmas tree. Nice? Nice? Would you guys
Speaker 1: get a real one? Yes? Wow? Does it last just
Speaker 1: last holiday season? Oh my god? I always kill my
Speaker 1: real ones? I always really, Yes, they dry the fuck out.
Speaker 1: There's well, you got a water, o girl. I have
Speaker 1: too many of these things going on, But you just
Speaker 1: have to water. I'm like, every four I listen to me,
Speaker 1: I'm saying this, And if my husband was here right now,
Speaker 1: he'd be giving me such a like, because you have to.
Speaker 1: He's the one, He's the one that remembers to water them.
Speaker 1: I mean they do get a little dry by Christmas,
Speaker 1: but I mean it's fine. A great dry Christmas tree
Speaker 1: still like holds up all the ornaments. You know it works.
Speaker 1: Do you have a I have a fake Christmas tree
Speaker 1: because I love putting it up and not worrying about it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I When I was a kid, I had these. We
Speaker 1: had this set of Christmas lights. If anybody could help
Speaker 1: me find these Christmas lights, I would be so grateful.
Speaker 1: They had a little box attached to them, and it
Speaker 1: was music that would play oh, like different Christmas songs,
Speaker 1: but just like a few bars of each Christmas song
Speaker 1: and then it would switch to the next and the
Speaker 1: lights would flash to the Christmas songs Breakin loved them
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. I would like spend I'm
Speaker 1: not even kidding you, probably like I could spend a
Speaker 1: good hour like looking at the tree, looking at the ornaments,
Speaker 1: like hanging them in a certain way, like making sure
Speaker 1: like the light was coming out through the back of them.
Speaker 1: Like I just fucking obsessed about the tree for Christmas.
Speaker 1: And I'm still the same way. Like I love I
Speaker 1: love putting the ornaments on it. I love taking everything
Speaker 1: out of their little boxes and rappers like I have
Speaker 1: all sorts of I have way too many for one tree.
Speaker 1: I have two trees now I might have a third
Speaker 1: tree maybe at some point. I have the Christmas leg lamp.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm talking about? Oh, yes, yes, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I have that lamp. Oh my god. It lives in
Speaker 1: a permanent spot in our house now, in the basement.
Speaker 1: Because last year I was like, yeah, no, I really
Speaker 1: love the slamp. Can we just leave it out all
Speaker 1: year round? Yeah? But I was like Charlotte's leaving in
Speaker 1: the basement. I decorate as much as I can with
Speaker 1: real greenery. But this year I bought these like really
Speaker 1: pretty I think they're Dutch because we're in Canada, so
Speaker 1: there's like all sorts of cool new stuff to bring with.
Speaker 1: And we bought these really pretty paper chains that I'm
Speaker 1: gonna make with my sister and hang those everywhere so
Speaker 1: we don't get meals everywhere. So we're gonna do that
Speaker 1: like watching Christmas movies, like you know, just like with
Speaker 1: a little glu stick or whatever. We get it out
Speaker 1: of the way. What about do you usually host Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: or do you Hell, the idea of cooking for more
Speaker 1: than myself and bread and maybe rads is so incredibly
Speaker 1: like hell no, like no, why would I ever reject
Speaker 1: anyone to this. This is not this is not my forte.
Speaker 1: Like I'm not gonna do it to prove something to myself,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like Matietuca, she lives in
Speaker 1: Sun Valley and my cousins live in Lacrecenta Andantros and stuff,
Speaker 1: and so we got Thetuka's house every year for Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: and sometimes we have the traditional stuff and sometimes we
Speaker 1: have more like Bolivian food. Yeah, same at Christmas, Like
Speaker 1: Christmas is usually like Bolivian food, like there's a lot
Speaker 1: of yeah, same Christmas. Eve was always like yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean we've talked about it, No chu wanna just being
Speaker 1: like very a big deal in our culture. But yeah,
Speaker 1: growing up, Thanksgiving was hilarious because my parents didn't you know,
Speaker 1: my parents came when they were teenagers, so they didn't
Speaker 1: grow up obviously with Thanksgiving, and so they every year
Speaker 1: it was just sort of like, uh, we're going here
Speaker 1: this year. It was so made up for like other
Speaker 1: people's houses and stuff, wherever they were, wherever they were invited. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then I think we basically asked to We hosted
Speaker 1: a few times, but every year it was just I
Speaker 1: didn't grow up with Thanksgiving feeling like a big deal
Speaker 1: holiday at all, because every year my parents were just like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, yeah, we're going They invited us, so
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna go over here, and I'd be like,
Speaker 1: who's that and they'd be like, you know, there's some friends,
Speaker 1: you know, so he goes in through my mie, you know,
Speaker 1: Like all right, yeah, oh god, that was actually really
Speaker 1: now that you say it, that that I just connected
Speaker 1: something for myself. I think I try to make the
Speaker 1: holidays really fun and nice and calm on my house
Speaker 1: because I hated when I was a kid being dragged
Speaker 1: to parties and stuff that I didn't know anybody, and
Speaker 1: I'd be like upstairs looking for a book and kind
Speaker 1: of stressed out because I didn't know any of the kids.
Speaker 1: And I have a hard I had a hard time
Speaker 1: making friends when I was a kid. So now I
Speaker 1: make the party come to me. Yeah, we have an
Speaker 1: annual holiday party. Have you been to it yet? I
Speaker 1: think every time we're here, I'm out here. It's really
Speaker 1: not saying one this year, so no problem. But we
Speaker 1: usually have like and we Brad and I plan for it,
Speaker 1: Like we have a plan of like what we're gonna
Speaker 1: do for food, you're gonna we have like a signature drink.
Speaker 1: We usually hire someone to help help with the bartending
Speaker 1: we have. You know, I go out and like go
Speaker 1: crazy for paper goods and I have like themed paper goods.
Speaker 1: And last year we had VS Tacos come and do
Speaker 1: catering for like two hours. I think we had Tacos
Speaker 1: in our front yard. It was pretty awesome, Like and
Speaker 1: I got that idea actually from Joela Trulio's holiday party
Speaker 1: a couple of years back. When you go, yeah, Taco Truck,
Speaker 1: they throw great holiday parties too. There's always say so
Speaker 1: much free parties. Yes, they really, some people are just
Speaker 1: My mom was a gifted hostess too, and I definitely
Speaker 1: picked up some stuff from her. I do like hosting,
Speaker 1: but I feel like I get more stressed out about
Speaker 1: it that my mom did. Like she just was good
Speaker 1: at it, you know, and she'll and I do like
Speaker 1: hosting Thanksgiving. I like hosting Christmas. I like doing the
Speaker 1: cooking so long as I am on top of my prep.
Speaker 1: The prep is everything, the prep no long as I
Speaker 1: make notes and lists and I buy my shit on time.
Speaker 1: See that's the thing that the phone is so helpful for.
Speaker 1: The notes app is a lifesaver, like making yourself notes,
Speaker 1: making yourself a list where like you check things off.
Speaker 1: Sharing the list I think is really helpful too, because
Speaker 1: then you know, I started doing that a lot lately. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're not double buying, You're not like everybody knows what's
Speaker 1: going on. You know, Oh, what are you getting robs
Speaker 1: for Christmas? Like, well, she's already getting these things, so
Speaker 1: like keys, don't buy her anymore stuff like that, like
Speaker 1: she doesn't need it or whatever, you know, Like, uh,
Speaker 1: I think the notes apps are so helpful. I think
Speaker 1: also keeping in mind like when things need to happen,
Speaker 1: like before a party. I'm really yeah about planning because
Speaker 1: like so many days before you need to have like
Speaker 1: all of the you know, all of the food purchased
Speaker 1: and space made in the fridge. So like what are
Speaker 1: you gonna do first, Well, you got to clean out
Speaker 1: the fridge because like you're gonna need space for the
Speaker 1: trays and stuff. You need to pull out the trays.
Speaker 1: You need to like, you know, as long as you're
Speaker 1: like like you said, as long as you're on top.
Speaker 1: I'll write a schedule for myself too. Yeah, like the
Speaker 1: timing of things when they need to go in the oven.
Speaker 1: I need to write that so hard out because otherwise
Speaker 1: I will get distracted. I could cut off and then
Speaker 1: I put alarms on my phone to make it better.
Speaker 1: That's the thing that's like that is that to me
Speaker 1: would be very stressful because what I want to have
Speaker 1: happening when I have people over is I want to
Speaker 1: have a drink in my hand and my little slippyes
Speaker 1: on and no makeup on and I want to just
Speaker 1: be like hanging out. I don't want to be thinking
Speaker 1: about food I have with Thanksgiving. I feel like Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: food is pretty easy because I mean, once the oven
Speaker 1: goes in and just the turkey goes in the oven,
Speaker 1: it just is there. It's just there, and there's a
Speaker 1: lot of shit you can make, like the day before.
Speaker 1: That's what I try to do. I try to do
Speaker 1: a lot of shit the day before where it's like
Speaker 1: finishing in the oven. So I'm not cooking on Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: like I'm maybe making a quick thing or I'm also
Speaker 1: or like I'm not trying to make gravy. I'm ordering
Speaker 1: fucking gravy. I'm not making cranberry sauce. I'm like an
Speaker 1: ordering cranberry sauce and making dessert somebody bringing dessert or
Speaker 1: I'm ordering delicious dessert. Like I hear this, So I
Speaker 1: like try to simplify it because I do want I
Speaker 1: my mom could host and cook and do all the
Speaker 1: things and like still have a good time. I cannot.
Speaker 1: I have to. I can't be like working too much
Speaker 1: while there's a hang going on. Yeah, Like I want
Speaker 1: to be able to hang and like I'm also gotten
Speaker 1: better about Like last Thanksgiving, my friend my friend's Ricky,
Speaker 1: and Monica came over. Monica's grew a great cook, so
Speaker 1: I knew in my head. I was like, when Monica
Speaker 1: gets here, she's going to finish the green beans for
Speaker 1: me while I check on these things in the oven.
Speaker 1: And that's exactly as soon as she showed up. She
Speaker 1: was like, what do you need me to do? And
Speaker 1: I was like, I need you to finish the green
Speaker 1: beans and she was like great, and she like read
Speaker 1: the recipe and she finished it and it was like
Speaker 1: and then it was also fun to like be in
Speaker 1: the kitchen with her cooking, like because then that was
Speaker 1: a hang so, oh that's cool. I try to like
Speaker 1: prepare for those things too, like who can be my helpers?
Speaker 1: That that's really cute that I can hang out with.
Speaker 1: And also like I'm not doing all this year yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: myself and trying to like be a martyr at my
Speaker 1: thea's house. She's like doing it all and she doesn't
Speaker 1: want any help. That's how my mom is, so it's
Speaker 1: kind of like you can't really And also the way
Speaker 1: her kitchen is shaped, it's very like there's a clear
Speaker 1: captain of the ship, you know. Yeah, and so you
Speaker 1: can't really like get in there and get in the
Speaker 1: mix really, right, So you sort of have all the
Speaker 1: time in the world in your hands, which is like
Speaker 1: kind of nice but also kind of stressful because yeah,
Speaker 1: then it's like you don't have an activity other than
Speaker 1: like eating cheese and ruining whatever, you know, appetite you
Speaker 1: had for the turkey. Right, although this year, I feel
Speaker 1: like I want to try to bring some games or
Speaker 1: something for the kids to play because like they get bored.
Speaker 1: You know. Yes, that would be last year, Yes, that
Speaker 1: I didn't have enough activities for my kids, and I
Speaker 1: also there weren't any other kids for them to play with. Ye,
Speaker 1: so so they were like they were like this is
Speaker 1: this sucks? And also a Thanksgiving, did your family like
Speaker 1: have the TV on the football game? No? Okay, so
Speaker 1: that's what's happening in my thea's house, And that's really
Speaker 1: hard because it's the only big TV in the big
Speaker 1: center of the room. So like the kids can't like
Speaker 1: watch a movie or something like that. You know, it's
Speaker 1: like the adult males have commandeered the sorry to put
Speaker 1: everybody in a box like this, But that's what's happening
Speaker 1: at my Thea's house. Yes, and like everyone's watching the TV.
Speaker 1: All the guys are watching sports and like the kids
Speaker 1: are bored out of their bourgs. So maybe one of
Speaker 1: my goals this year now that we're talking about it,
Speaker 1: is to prep some games and stuff for them to
Speaker 1: have like activities while the cooking is going on, so
Speaker 1: that they're also like not under foot and being like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean exactly. Yeah, I did the
Speaker 1: same thing. Like a couple of new board games. Board games, yeah,
Speaker 1: would be good or like new something like new and
Speaker 1: fun like or even like a craft sometimes is great,
Speaker 1: like yeah, you know or that have you seen that?
Speaker 1: It's it's a drinking game. Obviously you can't play the
Speaker 1: drinking game part with the kids, but it's like those
Speaker 1: little no, I'm just kidding. People do it at Christmas.
Speaker 1: I've seen tiktoks. Guys. I did take TikTok off my
Speaker 1: phone again, Okay they did. I did not update. Yeah
Speaker 1: for the following the TikTok journey. It is back off
Speaker 1: the phone. People are so mean about it. They're like,
Speaker 1: did you take TikTok? Like, clearly I put it back on.
Speaker 1: If I'm uploading a video. Okay, clearly it's on my
Speaker 1: let's try to use critical thinking. Come on. So people
Speaker 1: will take these like muffin pans or cupcake pans and
Speaker 1: fill them with a little rap, tiny little wrapped presence
Speaker 1: and then stick like a number on them. I think
Speaker 1: that's how it's played. But then you take a ping
Speaker 1: pong poll and you try to bounce it into the cup,
Speaker 1: into the muffin pan cup, and then whatever's in there
Speaker 1: you get to open, and that's your gift. Sometimes it's
Speaker 1: like a dollar bill. Sometimes it's like, oh, I love
Speaker 1: that's like a little toy or a keychain or something
Speaker 1: like something little and small, or like a piece of
Speaker 1: candy or something. And yeah, and like people will miss
Speaker 1: and then they have to take another turn or whatever.
Speaker 1: But I thought that would be cute. The ones that
Speaker 1: I've seen is like involving the whole family and then
Speaker 1: if you miss, you have to take a drink, right,
Speaker 1: which I thought was very clever as well. But may
Speaker 1: I'll do that for the whole family so that they
Speaker 1: can all play together, and then the guys that are
Speaker 1: watching the football game will feel like losers. I like
Speaker 1: this plan. Yeah, I like this plan. And if you
Speaker 1: want to have something for like when they miss you
Speaker 1: could do something like you have to run a lap
Speaker 1: or something. You have to run a lap, you have
Speaker 1: to do a silly dance or oh I like the dance. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh I love the silly dance. You have to make
Speaker 1: up a song about me, yeah, using the words beautiful, talented,
Speaker 1: and smart and not in that order. Go Kid's seven eight.
Speaker 1: Oh I love I love that. That's really fun. That's
Speaker 1: really fun. Yeah. I feel like the magic of the
Speaker 1: holidays is like individual specific to everyone. But I think
Speaker 1: the thing that makes me feel like the connection to
Speaker 1: home and like hunkering down and feeling like we're all together.
Speaker 1: You know, this has been a big one for me
Speaker 1: because we've traveled for some Christmases and I just came
Speaker 1: to the realization where I was like, no one is
Speaker 1: going to work as hard as I am to make
Speaker 1: the holidays magical for my kids. Yeah, Like it's important
Speaker 1: to me. I want to do it. I want them
Speaker 1: to have it. I want them to have those memories.
Speaker 1: And that just happens the most when we have Christmas
Speaker 1: at home and there is It's just something about waking
Speaker 1: up in your house on Christmas morning when you're a kid,
Speaker 1: and the idea that you know, Sanna was in your
Speaker 1: house the night was before, and like all that magic
Speaker 1: that is just hard to replicate when you're not in
Speaker 1: your house. Yeah, yeah, I can see that. I feel like,
Speaker 1: I don't know that I spent a lot of Christmases
Speaker 1: away from home when I was little. I definitely have
Speaker 1: as an adult a lot me too. Yeah, that's been
Speaker 1: my experience as a kid. No, it certainly has been.
Speaker 1: You know, for example, the last four months, I've been
Speaker 1: on this job and I've been here, and although we're
Speaker 1: so lucky to be all together in this lovely house
Speaker 1: that we rented, it's not our home. Yeah. And that
Speaker 1: mattress isn't my mattress, and that bed's not my bed.
Speaker 1: And you know, the other day, Roz said, I can't
Speaker 1: wait to go home to my room with all my
Speaker 1: pictures on the wall, and I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: her pictures, like all the things that I hung up
Speaker 1: for her when she was a baby. You know, she like, yeah,
Speaker 1: mbers them and loves them. And there's something about I think,
Speaker 1: decorating your own home and I don't know, like the
Speaker 1: history of Christmas and stuff although we could probably do
Speaker 1: it more better on that, But there's something about like
Speaker 1: being home and that the time and the weather changing
Speaker 1: and the sort of the wheel of the year being
Speaker 1: on this part of like it's cold and the days
Speaker 1: are shorter, and you know, the sun's not up as long,
Speaker 1: and you want to be inside, you want to hunker down,
Speaker 1: you want to like, you know, get that and hold
Speaker 1: onto that, you know what I mean, like and hold
Speaker 1: on to it, honestly, because like there's there were times
Speaker 1: when there wasn't that much abundance during that part of
Speaker 1: the year, the year you were eating stuff that like
Speaker 1: you'd saved from the harvest and you hoped it got
Speaker 1: you through to the spring. Name your top three holiday movies.
Speaker 1: Top three go go ooh, ooh ooh, like just holiday
Speaker 1: or holiday, any holiday movie that you're you're top three.
Speaker 1: Like if I was like, can only watch three this
Speaker 1: season and you can watch them on repeat, you can
Speaker 1: only watch three? I mean Nightmare four Christmas is a
Speaker 1: big one in our house, and I have grown to
Speaker 1: really you love it. I love it and Axel loves it.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I used to be love actually, but
Speaker 1: that film has not dated really problematic but I will
Speaker 1: say I do enjoy watching it. I used to watch
Speaker 1: it every Christmas. I know, I don't I still do,
Speaker 1: I watch it. I do love it. There are parts,
Speaker 1: there's some really great parts in it.
Speaker 2: I know, I know, I know.
Speaker 1: But the whole end, it just happens. And the running
Speaker 1: through the airport, Yeah yeah, I get you there, I
Speaker 1: get you there. Okay, what else? What else? What that
Speaker 1: can be? Like a half choice? That could be an
Speaker 1: honorable mention, an honorable mention. I don't know why I
Speaker 1: can't think of Christmas movies. Oh home alone, love homelan Homel. Yeah.
Speaker 1: One to me is yeah, classic, classic, classic, Here's here's
Speaker 1: mine Elf number one Elf. I know, yeah, el Elf.
Speaker 1: I love Elf to the day I die. It's so
Speaker 1: freaking good. It's like the perfect story. What I want
Speaker 1: in my career is to do a Christmas movie like
Speaker 1: Elf that becomes this like iconic that is on my back.
Speaker 1: Plasic film like that would be a dream come true.
Speaker 1: Christmas vacation, another iconic Christmas vacation either it's okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's all right. And then a Christmas story. Christmas story forgot.
Speaker 1: I can never get into a Christmas story be completely honest, girl,
Speaker 1: I love it too much. I'm sorry here, you sorry, listen,
Speaker 1: and not everything's for everyone, you know, some people have
Speaker 1: tastes and some people don't. Ah, it's just so sweet
Speaker 1: to me. It's so sweet. And I loved when I
Speaker 1: was especially like as an adult, but even when I
Speaker 1: was a kid, the parts where he would have those
Speaker 1: like imaginary stories that he was telling himself, like his
Speaker 1: little imagination would go oh, and they would like cut
Speaker 1: to his like internal you know, monologue or story or
Speaker 1: you know, his little film. H oh. I just loved,
Speaker 1: I loved, loved. The only thing that bothered me about
Speaker 1: that movie as a kid. Side note was the mom's hairstyle.
Speaker 1: I was like, what is going on with your hair?
Speaker 1: It's like this perm. It's a very very eighties perm, okay,
Speaker 1: and it looks so anachronistic and it bothered the fuck
Speaker 1: out of me when I was a kid. And then
Speaker 1: I read as an adult that she insisted that they
Speaker 1: not do anything. She like brought her own hair person
Speaker 1: and wanted her hair the same way that she always
Speaker 1: wears it. Oh girl, and that's why it looks like that,
Speaker 1: and that's why it bothered me. Is that crazy? Isn't
Speaker 1: that crazy? Do you know what? Uh? Actually thought of
Speaker 1: another one that I loved just so much as a child,
Speaker 1: that I would look for and watch every year. What
Speaker 1: were those stop motion Rudolph, Rudolph and Frosty movies? Fucking
Speaker 1: obsessed with those animated Frosty one fucked me up? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that one is a little that one. Sad man. There's
Speaker 1: so many like sad Christmas movies for kids, like I know,
Speaker 1: usually involving snowmen like melt and don't get away and
Speaker 1: don't come back. They're fucking sad. I also love watching
Speaker 1: the Harry Potter movies at Christmas time. I love watching
Speaker 1: Harry Potter Christmas movie. I do too, because they always
Speaker 1: celebrate Christmas in them. Yeah, this is such a big
Speaker 1: deal in particularly London, I feel like, but probably all yeah,
Speaker 1: all of I mean all the UK, I guess believe. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that's the visuals that like put that particular
Speaker 1: specific sort of English visual of Christmas. There's a pleasant yeah,
Speaker 1: old cuddliness, the walking this, all the bows, like there's
Speaker 1: just certain little things that are yeah, really beautiful. I've
Speaker 1: been shopping online trying to find a giant bow to
Speaker 1: put on the front of our house because I've seen them.
Speaker 1: I've seen other people do it, and I'm like, that
Speaker 1: is such a great idea. I love that idea so
Speaker 1: much so, but I haven't found anything good. I decorate
Speaker 1: the inside of our house so much for Christmas, Like
Speaker 1: it's just everywhere that I'm pretty sure David's probably relieved
Speaker 1: that I'm not going to be here this year to
Speaker 1: do it. Yah, yeah, he might. He might be to
Speaker 1: decorate this year for Christmas. Oh, speaking celebrating, Brad just
Speaker 1: brought me a little glass of prosecco to toast the
Speaker 1: end of the time here. Nice, thank you baby. That
Speaker 1: is so sweet. It's really funny when he does something
Speaker 1: that he's like kind of proud of, Like when he
Speaker 1: walks away, he kind of like swaggers. He's got like
Speaker 1: a little a little thank you. It's very It's quite
Speaker 1: attractive to me. That is attractive right to Canada celebrating.
Speaker 1: Here's to Canada's your show, cheers, do you start on yours?
Speaker 1: It's gonna be really fun and exciting. Thanks girl, I'm excited,
Speaker 1: nervous and all the things you feel before you start
Speaker 1: a show. Yeah, well you feel those things afterwards. Too,
Speaker 1: which is really weird. I know, yeah, because then you're like, well,
Speaker 1: people gonna see it. It looks as good as it felt,
Speaker 1: all the real fury and matches up to the visuals.
Speaker 1: Oh what don't I don't know. Hopefully they can edit
Speaker 1: around it. Yeah. Yeah, it's gonna be great. No, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be great. It's gonna be so great, more better.
Speaker 1: Oh yay. Happy, happy beginning of the holiday seas, happy
Speaker 1: beginning of the holiday season. Make your lists, make your
Speaker 1: use your notes app, make your listen, check it twice. Okay,
Speaker 1: can your list and check it twice? Space things out,
Speaker 1: don't leave everything for the last minute. Play you can
Speaker 1: do it. You can do it. Got this, We've all
Speaker 1: got to do it. I find yes, I can enjoy
Speaker 1: the holiday season as long as I stay on my
Speaker 1: ship and stick to the list and stick to the operation.
Speaker 1: See to the list, and so you know, if the
Speaker 1: list fails you, there's always next year. There's always next year. Yeah. Okay, guys,
Speaker 1: keep hitting us up with your questions and leave us
Speaker 1: some voice notes and tell us what you want to
Speaker 1: get more better at. Because I feel like I'm ready
Speaker 1: for the holiday season. I'm ready to like start prepping.
Speaker 1: I feel I feel pretty good about it on the
Speaker 1: side too. I know to It's gonna be good. We'll
Speaker 1: see you next time, See you next time. Bye bye.
Speaker 1: More Bet Doude, you have something you'd like to be
Speaker 1: more better at that you want us to talk about
Speaker 1: in a future episode. Can you relate to our struggles
Speaker 1: or have you tried one of our tips and tricks?
Speaker 1: Suit us your thoughts and ideas at More Better pod
Speaker 1: at email dot com and include a voice note if
Speaker 1: you want to be featured on the pod. Ooh, More
Speaker 1: Better with Stephanie Melissa is a production from WV Sound
Speaker 1: and iHeart Media's Mikultura podcast network, hosted by me Staffie
Speaker 1: Beatriz and Melissa Kumero. More Better is produced by Isis Madrid,
Speaker 1: Leo Clem, and Sophie Spencer Zabos. Our executive producers are
Speaker 1: Wilmer Valderrama and Leo Clem at WV Sound. This episode
Speaker 1: was edited by Isis Madrid and engineered by Sean Tracy
Speaker 1: and features original music by Madison Davenport and Hello Boy.
Speaker 1: Our cover art is by Vincent Remis and photography by
Speaker 1: David Avalos. For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: See you next week. Saga by