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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is that no holiday is too small or too

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Speaker 1: random to celebrate. If you are enjoying the holiday season now,

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Speaker 1: you might think about how to carry that festive feeling

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Speaker 1: into some less festive times of the year. So. I

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Speaker 1: know some folks are a bit ba humbug about the holidays,

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Speaker 1: but a lot of people like them for a very

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Speaker 1: simple reason. It's nice to have an excuse to get

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Speaker 1: together with family and friends. Life has plenty of rough stuff,

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Speaker 1: so it is fun to be in a celebratory mood

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Speaker 1: during late November to early January. There are holidays left

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Speaker 1: and right for lots of different traditions, but many other

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Speaker 1: parts of the year don't have such obvious occasions. The

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Speaker 1: solution find very minor, silly or made up reasons to celebrate.

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Speaker 1: You don't really need a special occasion. You can create

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Speaker 1: a special occasion and make it a fun part of

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Speaker 1: your life. So, for instance, if you know you are

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Speaker 1: going to be feeling a little bit of a post

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Speaker 1: holiday let down, how about marking your calendar for January nineteenth.

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Speaker 1: Apparently that is National Popcorn Day. While I am quite

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Speaker 1: certain that this was created by people who make a

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Speaker 1: living selling popcorn, who cares celebrating it could still be fun.

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Speaker 1: For instance, you could mark the occasion, which happens to

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Speaker 1: be a Friday, with a popcorn and movie night, have

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Speaker 1: some neighbors over, and make lots of batches. You could

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Speaker 1: also decide to make an after work or after school

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Speaker 1: snack spread of lots of different flavors of popcorn. You

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Speaker 1: can order the flavors from a specialty store, or maybe

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Speaker 1: just buy several in a big grocery store in the

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Speaker 1: chip aisle, or make them yourself. I'm guessing you can

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Speaker 1: find recipes online for something caramel flavored, cinnamon flavored, chocolate drizzled,

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Speaker 1: paprika topped whatever. Or here's an idea, bring a tin

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Speaker 1: of popcorn to work and leave it in the break

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Speaker 1: room with a note that reads Happy National Popcorn Day.

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Speaker 1: Pack a baggy of popcorn in your kid's lunches with

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Speaker 1: a little note commemorating the occasion. Of course, National Popcorn

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Speaker 1: Day is just one example of what are literally thousands

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Speaker 1: of basically made up holidays. You could search around see

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Speaker 1: what others are celebrating. I know that the Wall Street

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Speaker 1: Journal's wine columnists have many times rallied people around in

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Speaker 1: open that bottle night, encourage people to actually drink that

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Speaker 1: wine that they had been saving for a special occasion,

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Speaker 1: which may or may not come. This Saturday could be

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Speaker 1: a special occasion. It is Saturday, after all, and you

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Speaker 1: can absolutely make up your own holidays. In January, my

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Speaker 1: family will be celebrating Gift Card Day, where we go

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Speaker 1: through and actually use whatever gift cards people have given us.

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Speaker 1: Why let the money sit on those retailers' balance sheets.

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Speaker 1: Given that there are so many options, you can be

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Speaker 1: strategic about figuring out which ones you're going to focus on.

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Speaker 1: For instance, maybe your family generally does something fun for

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Speaker 1: Valentine's Day, and then you also get together with family

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Speaker 1: for Passover, which starts April twenty second in this coming year.

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Speaker 1: This leaves a pretty big gap in the middle, So

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Speaker 1: you might come up with a fun reason to celebrate

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Speaker 1: something in mid March. Maybe you can create your own

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Speaker 1: mini cherry Bussom festival in honor of the blooming trees.

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Speaker 1: You get the idea. I know that the post holiday

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Speaker 1: doldrums will be settling in for a lot of people

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Speaker 1: and a little over a month. It happens. But you

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Speaker 1: don't need an official federal holiday to bring people together

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Speaker 1: or to do something festive. You can come up with

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Speaker 1: any reason. No holiday is too small. Life in general

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Speaker 1: is worth celebrating. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,

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Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura

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Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.