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Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for the

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Speaker 1: time poor parent who just once answers now.

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Speaker 2: To get to a level three Christmas. Yes, we get

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Speaker 2: to spoil ourselves. Yes we sing all the songs and

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Speaker 2: remember the baby Jesus. But if we're going to remember

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Speaker 2: his life, the best way to remember his life is

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Speaker 2: to follow his example.

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Speaker 1: And now here's the stars of our show, My mum

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Speaker 1: and dad.

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Speaker 2: Only ten sleeps till Christmas Day, missus Happy Families. I'm

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Speaker 2: starting to feel the energy change in our family.

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Speaker 3: Are you prepped?

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Speaker 4: No, don't ask me if I am.

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Speaker 2: I was going to say, are you hello. This is

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Speaker 2: Justin and Kylie Coulson. I'm the founder of Happy Families

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Speaker 2: dot com dot you. We are your podcast hosts for

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Speaker 2: the Happy Families podcast and today a podcast with a difference.

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Speaker 2: A few months ago, we sought your feedback on how

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Speaker 2: it can make the podcast better, and one piece of

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Speaker 2: feedback came through many, many times, a surprising number of times.

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Speaker 2: We weren't quite sure what to do with it, because

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Speaker 2: we really are just here to talk parenting. But today

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Speaker 2: we're going to follow the feedback and do as so

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Speaker 2: many of our listeners have asked many people have included

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Speaker 2: to the fact that every now and again, Kylin and

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Speaker 2: I go to church. When I say every now and again,

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Speaker 2: I mean every Sunday, and we take our kids along

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Speaker 2: as well. And this is Christmas. And for the last

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Speaker 2: week or so, we've been talking about the meaning of Christmas.

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Speaker 2: We've been talking about what we're looking forward to for

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Speaker 2: Christmas and how we can help our families to have

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Speaker 2: a happy Christmas. Well, today we've decided that we're going

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Speaker 2: to go a little bit further. We're going to talk

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Speaker 2: about how to make Christmas holy for your family, because

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Speaker 2: this is something that we strive to do every single

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Speaker 2: year with our kids.

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Speaker 3: We know not everybody has Christ at the center of

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Speaker 3: their Christmas. But one of the things that I've really

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Speaker 3: appreciated over the years is having the opportunity to understand

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Speaker 3: and learn how other people do things. Yeah, it helps

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Speaker 3: me to be more respectful, it helps me to have

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Speaker 3: greater understanding, and it helps me to be able to

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Speaker 3: get connect with other people in a much more powerful

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Speaker 3: way as a result of that knowledge. So maybe Christ

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Speaker 3: isn't a part of your Christians, but maybe some of

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Speaker 3: the things that we share today will help you understand

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Speaker 3: how it is for other people.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and if you want to have a more christ

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Speaker 2: centered Christmas, if you want to tap into the true

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Speaker 2: historical meaning of Christmas, at least as it's been for

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Speaker 2: a very very long time. I know that there are

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Speaker 2: going to be some people who say, ah, historically, actually,

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Speaker 2: there's some intermingling of other traditions and other things in there.

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Speaker 2: We're just going to focus on the Christian aspect of

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Speaker 2: Christmas in this podcast because we know that there's a

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Speaker 2: lot of people who have that faith background and who

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Speaker 2: probably would like to help their families to have a.

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Speaker 4: Holier Christmas. So let's dive into it.

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Speaker 2: Last week on the podcast, I mentioned something called the

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Speaker 2: three Levels of Christmas. This is not a justing course

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Speaker 2: on original I actually found it from a newspaper editor

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Speaker 2: who wrote about it in nineteen eighty five in a

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Speaker 2: book that I was reading, and I think that it's

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Speaker 2: really really interesting. Levels of Christmas. Level one we'll call

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Speaker 2: this the Santa Claus level. It's the level of Christmas

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Speaker 2: trees and colorful gifts and candlelight and a table full

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Speaker 2: of prawns and seafood and salmon and and all of

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Speaker 2: the lollies.

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Speaker 3: When you were talking about over indulging at Christmas home.

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Speaker 3: I just knew it was going to be prawns.

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Speaker 4: I can't help myself. I really want to eat.

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Speaker 2: I shouldn't, but I really want to eat a lot

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Speaker 2: of prawns this Christmas.

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Speaker 3: Well, you might have to share them this year? Who

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Speaker 3: with maybe me? You don't eat prawns, you I have

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Speaker 3: since I started cooking them.

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Speaker 4: You have started eating prawns in the last year or so.

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Speaker 4: Are you saying that you like them.

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Speaker 3: Now when I cook them?

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Speaker 4: After all lifetime of.

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Speaker 2: Not eating prawns, and now you want to You want

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Speaker 2: to share my Christmas You know what, it's Christmas.

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Speaker 4: I'll share them with you.

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Speaker 3: I even started eating olives, and I've determined that I

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Speaker 3: don't like green ones.

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Speaker 4: Right, Oh my goodness.

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Speaker 2: I see I've had the lines share of all those

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Speaker 2: good things for the last twenty plus years, and now

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Speaker 2: you're saying that I'm going to have to share them.

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Speaker 3: No, you can probably have all the olives, all right?

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Speaker 5: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Okay, Well that's that's the Santa Claus level. That's level

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Speaker 2: one Christmas. And you know what, I don't want to

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Speaker 2: take away from the diminish it at all.

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Speaker 4: We love level one Christmas.

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Speaker 2: That's what we've talked about all week on the podcast

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Speaker 2: and all last week, and that's what we're going to

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Speaker 2: continue talking about because most of the world really just

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Speaker 2: loves Christmas because it's Level one and it's a bit

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Speaker 2: of over indulgence and it's a bit of a relaxation.

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Speaker 4: It feels good to have a Level one Christmas.

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Speaker 3: Well, it also brings everybody together usually, yes, yes, the

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Speaker 3: Level one is all about bringing people together.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent. Now Level two Christmas changes things

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Speaker 2: a little bit. Level two Christmas is where we go

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Speaker 2: from the over indulgence and the Santa Claus and all

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Speaker 2: that kind of thing to the let's call it the

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Speaker 2: Oh Holy Night, silent night level. That's where we get

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Speaker 2: involved in not just the jingle bells Christmas carols, but

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Speaker 2: the really meaningful Christmas carols of the story that starts

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Speaker 2: now in those days there went at a decree from

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Speaker 2: Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. It's

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Speaker 2: the level of the crowded in and the silent holy

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Speaker 2: moment in a dark stable where Jesus came to earth.

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Speaker 3: The star Subia.

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Speaker 2: It is the nerd love, debous and I don't know

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Speaker 2: about you, but when I think about that, it starts

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Speaker 2: to transcend that level one.

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Speaker 4: Level one is fun.

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Speaker 2: Level one is delightful, and we can't get enough of

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Speaker 2: Level one in so many ways. But there is something

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Speaker 2: deeper about a Level two Christmas.

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Speaker 3: I really wish she hadn't to stop playing.

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Speaker 2: And I played David Archiletter as well, which one of

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Speaker 2: our children is going to be listening to this and

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Speaker 2: just going, I love David archilt She's like a David

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Speaker 2: Archer Letter for Life kind of fangirl creepy, totally. Actually,

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Speaker 2: you know what my favorite Christmas Carol is? Now that

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Speaker 2: we're talking about that level two Christmas and I'm playing

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Speaker 2: the Pentatonics version, I love this one.

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Speaker 3: These guys are amazing.

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Speaker 4: I don't know how to do this with their voice.

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Speaker 4: Married did you know that your baby boy walk on?

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Speaker 2: And so Level two Christmas is really about saying, let's acknowledge,

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Speaker 2: let's recognize that there is something transcendent, something deeper about Christmas,

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Speaker 2: and that's that's something that's.

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Speaker 4: Really really special. Level three is different though.

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Speaker 2: Level three is about saying that we can't leave Jesus

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Speaker 2: in the manger. He grows up, He becomes an adult,

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Speaker 2: he takes on the sins of the world.

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Speaker 4: He dies for the world.

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Speaker 2: And unlike Level one, where you kind of do get

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Speaker 2: sick of it, you can't live that life of over

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Speaker 2: indulgence for more than a day or two, but otherwise

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Speaker 2: you start to really really get sick. And even I mean,

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Speaker 2: I can't sing away in a manger for more than

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Speaker 2: a couple of weeks. Eventually I kind of get tired,

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Speaker 2: and I'm like, let's put that away for another eleven months.

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Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to next Christmas so we can do

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Speaker 2: it again. But the Level three Christmas is where we

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Speaker 2: we say, I want to focus on jesus gifts, the joy,

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Speaker 2: the peace, the hope, what.

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Speaker 4: The adult Jesus brings into people's lives.

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Speaker 3: Well, and I think if you think about the way

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Speaker 3: we celebrate one another's birthdays, there's obviously an acknowledgment that

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Speaker 3: you were born. And in our house we share the

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Speaker 3: birth story. Yes we do, yes we do, but we

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Speaker 3: celebrate the life. Yeah, we celebrate the life of the

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Speaker 3: ones that we love. And so at Christmas time there's

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Speaker 3: this wonderful acknowledgment that for us, a belief that Jesus

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Speaker 3: came to Earth and he lived this life that allows

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Speaker 3: me to live the life of privilege that I live

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Speaker 3: and understand who I am in relation to him and

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Speaker 3: how I want to live my life so that I

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Speaker 3: can be more like him.

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Speaker 4: That's beautiful, Kylie, that that's beautiful. I've never actually thought about that.

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Speaker 2: But every year when our kids have their birthday, we

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Speaker 2: tell them their birth story, we celebrate their birth and

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Speaker 2: then we celebrate their life. And so at Christmas, what

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Speaker 2: a perfect thing to do. That's how we can move

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Speaker 2: to a level three Christmas. We think that that's really important,

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Speaker 2: and so after the break, we're going to talk about

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Speaker 2: a few ideas we've got and some of our listeners'

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Speaker 2: ideas as well, about how to create a Level three

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Speaker 2: Christmas for your family while still enjoying Level one and

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Speaker 2: Level two.

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Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families Podcast.

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Speaker 3: For a happier family, Try a Happy Families membership, because

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Speaker 3: a happy family doesn't just happen. Details at happy families

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Speaker 3: dot com dot au. It's the Happy Families Podcast, the

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Speaker 3: podcast for the time poor parent who just wants answers now.

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Speaker 3: And today we're going a little bit rogue. We're sharing

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Speaker 3: our thoughts on how to make Christmas Holy.

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Speaker 2: So during the week, we've been in touch with a

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Speaker 2: whole bunch of people who listen to the Happy Families

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Speaker 2: podcast and we just asked them, how do you really

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Speaker 2: celebrate the meaning of Christmas? How do you bring that

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Speaker 2: into your family? And we had no idea what sort

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Speaker 2: of responses we were going to get, but we were

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Speaker 2: really surprised with the number of people who said, you, actually,

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Speaker 2: it's all about the true many of Christmas is all

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Speaker 2: about Jesus.

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Speaker 5: We are a Christian family, so for us, Christmas is

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Speaker 5: mainly about the birth of Jesus and celebrating that, and

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Speaker 5: on Christmas Day, we ensure that we go to church

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Speaker 5: in the morning one week get to spend time reflecting

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Speaker 5: on the gift of Jesus. The meaning of Christmas is

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Speaker 5: about Jesus and about the birth of Jesus.

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Speaker 3: We do have carols at church, so we try and

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Speaker 3: get the girls and our family involved in that.

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Speaker 6: It's actually really important to us that the commercial side

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Speaker 6: of Christmas doesn't overshadow what we're truly celebrating, which is

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Speaker 6: that Jesus is the savior of the world and that's

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Speaker 6: such a beautiful, exciting day. Yes, because of the presence,

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Speaker 6: but also because of what we're celebrating.

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Speaker 4: We focus on Jesus.

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Speaker 1: Well, we do give gifts to our children.

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Speaker 3: We use this as a time of giving back to others.

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Speaker 2: So let's just recap because our listeners have kind of

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Speaker 2: talked about a number of things that we were going

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Speaker 2: to say, and we might just add to that just

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Speaker 2: a little bit.

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Speaker 4: First up, carols.

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Speaker 2: I've already played a couple that are absolutely rippers because

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Speaker 2: they get.

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Speaker 4: To the very heart of what Christmas is all about.

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Speaker 3: We might not be able to sing those carols, but

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Speaker 3: one of the things that we love doing with our

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Speaker 3: kids is actually going around yes to people who are

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Speaker 3: maybe a little bit lonely, they don't have family around

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Speaker 3: them at Christmas time, and just standing on their doorstep

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Speaker 3: and giving a bit of a rap rap rap and

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Speaker 3: then singing a few songs for them.

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Speaker 4: But you're going to say it was singing a rap

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Speaker 4: rap rap.

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Speaker 2: So we haven't actually done that a lot lately, but

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Speaker 2: we used to do it a lot. I think we

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Speaker 2: could probably re reignite that again. There's something special about

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Speaker 2: knocking on the door of somebody and standing there and singing.

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Speaker 4: It's really personal. You're really opening.

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Speaker 2: Yourself up and it creates a lovely connection. The second

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Speaker 2: idea that I think is worth touching on is the Nativity. Kylie.

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Speaker 4: You love the Nativity.

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Speaker 3: So the Nativity would hands down be my favorite Christmas decoration.

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Speaker 3: I may have a few of them, and every.

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Speaker 4: Time I turn around, it's like, is that the same

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Speaker 4: Nativity we had last year?

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Speaker 3: And you say, hmm, well, we have the main one,

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Speaker 3: right my willow that is.

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Speaker 4: The willow Tree Nativity is beautiful.

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Speaker 3: And that's my pride and joy when it comes to Christmas.

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Speaker 3: I just love their depiction. But we also have our

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Speaker 3: little Fisher and Price one, yeah, which we've had pretty

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Speaker 3: much since the beginning. Yeah, because as soon as I

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Speaker 3: realized that babies and ceramics don't go together, I knew

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Speaker 3: that I could not could not have a Christmas without

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Speaker 3: them being able to touch and feel and be a

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Speaker 3: part of that process because it's such an important part

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Speaker 3: of what we believe and how we choose to live

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Speaker 3: our lives. And I wanted them to be able to

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Speaker 3: hold and use their imagination. And so the Fisher Price

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Speaker 3: Little Nativity is just beautiful for little fingers.

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Speaker 2: So we have some friends who have joined up with

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Speaker 2: other friends that they're not local unfortunately, so we can't

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Speaker 2: do it with them. But we know some families who

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Speaker 2: get together and they actually do their own Nativity at

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Speaker 2: or on Christmas or around about Christmas, where the kids

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Speaker 2: are acting it out and everyone gets all dressed up

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Speaker 2: and they really go to town with that.

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Speaker 4: That's probably taking it to the next level. It's like

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Speaker 4: level fifteen Christmas.

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Speaker 2: But one thing that we absolutely do is we sit

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Speaker 2: around the Nativity on Christmas morning and before we dive

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Speaker 2: into gifts or anything, the Sadu stockings have come out,

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Speaker 2: but that's about it. We open up Matthew and we

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Speaker 2: open up Luke and we read, now the birth of Jesus.

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Speaker 2: Christ was on this wise when as his mother Mary

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Speaker 2: was espoused to Joseph before they came together, she was

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Speaker 2: found with of the Holy Ghost, and we read the Nativity.

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Speaker 2: We read those first couple of chapters to really emphasize

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Speaker 2: the importance of this for our children.

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Speaker 3: And as some of our listeners suggested, number three is

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Speaker 3: attending church. Our faith, we actually don't have Christmas so.

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Speaker 4: We don't have Christmas services on Christmas Day.

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Speaker 3: On Christmas Day really aggravates me.

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Speaker 2: I've been complaining about this for the last I don't

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Speaker 2: know how many years, at least ten or fifteen years,

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Speaker 2: and we've actually tried to just organize our own on

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Speaker 2: Christmas Day a couple of times, which was met with

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Speaker 2: varying degrees of discouragement from the leadership. But what a

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Speaker 2: great thing to be able to go to church on

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Speaker 2: Christmas Day and make that the centerpiece of your Christmas,

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Speaker 2: or at least an integral part of it.

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Speaker 4: The last thing that.

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Speaker 2: I really wanted to touch on that sort of came

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Speaker 2: from the things that we've talked about over the last

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Speaker 2: little while and from our listeners. It's just the importance

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Speaker 2: to get to a level three Christmas. Yes we get

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Speaker 2: to spoil ourselves, Yes we sing all the songs and

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Speaker 2: remember the baby Jesus, But if we're going to remember

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Speaker 2: his life, the best way to remember his life is

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Speaker 2: to follow his example, and that's by serving others, by

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Speaker 2: helping others. And over the years, we've done all sorts

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Speaker 2: of things like having people in our home Christmas dinner,

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Speaker 2: Christmas lunch, and we know many people who actually give

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Speaker 2: up their Christmas to go and knock on doors and

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Speaker 2: deliver hampers and feed the homeless. And do all kinds

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Speaker 2: of meaningful service to those who are in need. And

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Speaker 2: to be able to take your kids along and to

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Speaker 2: do that kind of work, I think is just extraordinary,

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Speaker 2: so powerful, so service oriented and so giving, such so

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Speaker 2: big hearted.

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Speaker 3: That's my favorite part about Christmas, the opportunity to just

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Speaker 3: look outside ourselves and find those who need some Christmas cheer,

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Speaker 3: who need to know that they are seen, heard and valued.

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Speaker 2: We really hope that these ideas help you to invite

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Speaker 2: the spirit of Christ, the spirit of Christmas into your

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Speaker 2: home over the next week or so. Tomorrow on the podcast,

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Speaker 2: we're going back to level one. By the way, We're

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Speaker 2: going to talk about budgeting and planning for Christmas and

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Speaker 2: getting things right. It's actually going to be a really informed,

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Speaker 2: of really interesting conversation and we can't wait to share

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Speaker 2: it with you. The Happy Family's podcast is produced by

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Speaker 2: Justin Ruland from Bridge Media. Craig Bruce is our executive producer.

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Speaker 2: And if you would like more information about making your

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Speaker 2: family happier, we have got an enormous Christmas sale happening

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Speaker 2: in the Happy Family store starting tomorrow and going through

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Speaker 2: to Christmas Eve. Details tomorrow on The Happy Families podcast