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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 wants answers.

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Speaker 2: Now, I still remember even talking about it right now,

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Speaker 2: the feelings of peacefulness and the feelings of goodness.

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Speaker 3: I mean, it's so simple.

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Speaker 2: Bake some cookies and knock on a door, sing a

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Speaker 2: couple of songs, have a chat, and yet it's just

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Speaker 2: such a meaningful thing.

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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: Hello, this is doctor Justin Coulson, the author of six

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Speaker 2: books about raising happy families, and here for one of

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Speaker 2: the last times this year with my wife, Clylie thissus

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Speaker 2: Happy Families mum to our six daughters.

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Speaker 4: Today's podcast is all about the meaning and magic of Christmas.

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Speaker 4: It's my favorite time of year, and we decided that

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Speaker 4: we do something a little bit different in this episode.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so we've asked the Happy Families team to tell

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Speaker 2: us their most magical Christmas stories. They've recorded voice memos

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Speaker 2: for us, and I think things crossed that you're going

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Speaker 2: to love these stories.

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Speaker 4: Might find a bit of inspiration. Perhaps let's start off

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Speaker 4: with our longest serving staff member, Evelyn ev Makes Everything

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Speaker 4: look Amazing from Design Marketing and she does so much

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Speaker 4: in running our business. Her story is one that really

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Speaker 4: emphasizes generosity and sacrifice.

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Speaker 5: Hands down, my favorite Christmas as a kid was one

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Speaker 5: when we decided that we would forego our presence from

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Speaker 5: Santa and instead each of us chose a family to

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Speaker 5: put together a care package for. So we spent weeks

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Speaker 5: putting together gifts and treats and trinkets for each of

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Speaker 5: the families that we've chosen, And on Christmas Eve, we

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Speaker 5: went to each house and dropped off the packages that

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Speaker 5: we've made, knocked on the door, and ran so that

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Speaker 5: they didn't even know who the gifts had come from.

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Speaker 5: Looking back now, it's really obvious to me that the

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Speaker 5: families that we've chosen were actually in a better financial

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Speaker 5: position than we were. But our parents had given us

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Speaker 5: a real gift that Christmas was that we had the

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Speaker 5: opportunity to learn how to think about others before ourselves.

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Speaker 3: Isn't ev great.

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Speaker 2: Caroline is our customer relationships and business development leader. Caroline

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Speaker 2: is brand new to the Happy Family's team, just joined

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Speaker 2: in October, and she's made a great impact on how

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Speaker 2: we do things.

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Speaker 4: Caroline's story is all about family, the.

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Speaker 6: Meaning of Christmas for me is being with family and friends.

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Speaker 6: Having lived in many places around the world, I've had

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Speaker 6: the chance to see how different cultures celebrate. Most recently

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Speaker 6: memorable Christmas would be when my mom came to spend

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Speaker 6: Christmas with us in the Philippines. It was our first

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Speaker 6: one there and I found out at that time that

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Speaker 6: I was pregnant with our second child, so it was

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Speaker 6: pretty awesome being able to tell my mom lovely news

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Speaker 6: in person. On most recent Christmas, we were moving back

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Speaker 6: to Australia. We were lucky that my parents are more

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Speaker 6: able to fly up to be with us, and close

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Speaker 6: friends of ours also invited us over to their place

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Speaker 6: on Christmas Day as we hadn't had a chance to

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Speaker 6: organize anything at all, so that was a pretty lovely

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Speaker 6: day with family and friends.

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Speaker 4: Craig Bruce has only just come on board as part

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Speaker 4: of our team. He's our executive producer for the podcast.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Craig's a guy that I always wanted to be like,

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Speaker 2: like when I used to be in radio.

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Speaker 3: We were both in radio.

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Speaker 2: In a previous life, but Craig was kind of one

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Speaker 2: of the biggest head honcho. He's one of the biggest

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Speaker 2: radio mega stars in the country while I was up

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Speaker 2: and coming, and then of course I got off air,

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Speaker 2: but he was an absolute superstar on air, and I

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Speaker 2: just wanted to be like Craig Bruce when I turned

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Speaker 2: on the microphone.

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Speaker 4: Craig has four daughters and they feature heavily in his

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Speaker 4: favorite Christmas memories.

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Speaker 3: Four daughters our six.

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Speaker 2: Imagine if our two families got together, ten daughters running

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Speaker 2: around Holy Barley.

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Speaker 7: Every Christmas in our house is special. The kids are

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Speaker 7: older now, so there's a little less of that Santa magic.

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Speaker 7: But what we always do, and this is driven by

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Speaker 7: the kids, either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning, is

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Speaker 7: to sit down and watch old videos of previous Christmas days.

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Speaker 7: So we have four girls and they.

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Speaker 3: Just love it.

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Speaker 7: Watching them see themselves as young children and toddlers and

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Speaker 7: babies is fantastic. There's something just magical about it, and

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Speaker 7: I think every Christmas it kind of reminds us of

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Speaker 7: how lucky we are. You know, we see ourselves and

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Speaker 7: we are always surrounded by the people we love, and

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Speaker 7: you know, we're big animal lovers, so we see all

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Speaker 7: of our pets and seeing everyone together, healthy and happy

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Speaker 7: is pretty special.

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Speaker 3: Hey, Greig, thanks so much. For sharing that.

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Speaker 2: We've got a bunch of videos on our phones, but

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Speaker 2: we've never actually put it all.

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Speaker 3: Together like that.

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Speaker 2: I just think it would be so cool to watch

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Speaker 2: through the TV on Christmas Day.

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Speaker 3: Call tradition great Memories.

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Speaker 4: We'll be back with a few more just after the break.

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Speaker 1: It's their Happy Families podcast.

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Speaker 7: Our Screens Creating Tension at Home Tweens, Teens and Screens

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Speaker 7: is a webinar to guide families to healthy safe super

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Speaker 7: screen solution. Spy today at Happyfamilies dot com, dot au

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Speaker 7: slash shop.

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Speaker 4: It's a Happy Families podcast. We're getting Christmas inspiration to

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Speaker 4: make your family happier this Christmas.

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Speaker 2: And there are three more people in the Happy Families team.

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Speaker 2: It's amazing how many people are required to make Happy

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Speaker 2: Families work and we've had such an amazing year. We

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Speaker 2: are so grateful to our team for doing this. So

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Speaker 2: we've heard from Ev who looks after design and marketing

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Speaker 2: and everything. We've heard from Caroline who really does such

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Speaker 2: a great job with our customers and our business development

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Speaker 2: in terms of the speaking that I do around.

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Speaker 3: The country, and our executive producer, Craig Bruce.

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Speaker 2: We've heard from him, but now three more people in

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Speaker 2: the team to hear from.

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Speaker 3: First up, We've got Elizabeth.

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Speaker 2: Elizabeth is our admin and office manager, and I like

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Speaker 2: her story because she reflects on the difference that generous

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Speaker 2: parents can make when it comes to making Christmas magic

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Speaker 2: and memorable.

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Speaker 8: When I was little, my family didn't have a lot

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Speaker 8: of money. I was the younger of seven kids, and

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Speaker 8: my mum would get really creative with making their money

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Speaker 8: go far. And one year, right before Christmas, it was

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Speaker 8: actually around September October, my mum had booked a family

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Speaker 8: holiday on Stradbroke Island and that was going to be

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Speaker 8: our Christmas event for the year. We were going at

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Speaker 8: that time because it was cheaper than going at Christmas,

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Speaker 8: but none of the kids knew about the booking. And

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Speaker 8: one day on our doorstep, this hamper arrived and it

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Speaker 8: was this big surprise, and it had all these delicious

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Speaker 8: treats in it, and it had a special note saying

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Speaker 8: that something exciting was coming. And every day for weeks

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Speaker 8: we would get a new surprise on the door that

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Speaker 8: would lead up to telling us what was happening, and

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Speaker 8: we'd get different presents or different baked things, and it

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Speaker 8: was so exciting, and none of the kids had any

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Speaker 8: idea what was happening, but we would get new clues

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Speaker 8: every day, and eventually, when all of that ended, we

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Speaker 8: found out that we were going on the big holiday

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Speaker 8: to Shradbroke, which was a really big deal for our family,

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Speaker 8: and we all got bags full of presents and things

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Speaker 8: to take with us on the holiday. And it was

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Speaker 8: just the most amazing thing that my mum ever did

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Speaker 8: for us, because it was magical and it was all

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Speaker 8: about family, and none of us have ever forgotten and

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Speaker 8: we've never had anything as amazing as that.

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Speaker 4: What's so awesome about this is that the parents have

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Speaker 4: set acrificed and the kids actually recognized it.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what we all want our kids to do, right,

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Speaker 2: to remember that we gave stuff up, we worked hard

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Speaker 2: so they could have a magical Christmas. Okay, so Abby

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Speaker 2: is Evelyn's assistant. She's doing so many back end tasks.

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Speaker 3: It's amazing. Let's hear Abbe's story.

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Speaker 9: When I was about ten years old, a family friend

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Speaker 9: of ours, they rallied my sister and I to join

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Speaker 9: them in doing what is what we know as the

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Speaker 9: Twelve Nights of Christmas.

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Speaker 10: And so basically what they did is they picked three

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Speaker 10: to four.

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Speaker 9: Families and we would together make or buy special gifts

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Speaker 9: that represented something to do with Christmas to leave on

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Speaker 9: these families doorsteps each night. So these gifts were homemade,

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Speaker 9: they weren't very special or amazing. I remember twelve bells

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Speaker 9: for their Christmas tree, maybe eleven candles, five mangoes, four

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Speaker 9: ginger beers, etc.

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Speaker 10: As it kind of moved.

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Speaker 9: Down so slowly to the night before Christmas, so our

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Speaker 9: friends would come and pick us.

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Speaker 5: Up at midnight.

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Speaker 10: And I remember thinking, at ten years old, like, oh,

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Speaker 10: this is so cool.

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Speaker 9: I can't believe my parents letting me do this. And

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Speaker 9: you know, the whole thing when I guess you're a

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Speaker 9: kid is at that point I didn't really understand what

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Speaker 9: the purpose was this of this was.

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Speaker 10: But you know, we were.

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Speaker 9: Commando rolling and crawling in the dark up people's driveways.

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Speaker 9: They weren't supposed to know who was doing this, and

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Speaker 9: obviously at nighttime, and as a kid, you kind of

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Speaker 9: create this suspenseful I guess idea that oh gosh, like

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Speaker 9: we don't want anyone to catch us, and you know,

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Speaker 9: at ten you don't really understand the meaning behind it.

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Speaker 9: But as the years and on, We continued doing this

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Speaker 9: with this famp, with these family friends, and they grew

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Speaker 9: older and they moved on, and my family continued the

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Speaker 9: tradition of picking a couple of families each year, and

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Speaker 9: I guess spreading this Christmas joy each night as we

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Speaker 9: drove around singing Christmas carols and the car staying up

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Speaker 9: way past our bedtime and spreading Christmas cheer. So as

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Speaker 9: I got older, I obviously understood more about who these

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Speaker 9: people were that we were picking, that were giving these

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Speaker 9: gifts to, and they were usually families.

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Speaker 10: That had had a hard year that maybe.

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Speaker 9: Weren't going to enjoy the Christmas time as everybody else had.

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Speaker 10: Maybe they were going through a trial or a hardship.

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Speaker 9: And so, as I said, my family continued it on,

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Speaker 9: and even now my husband and I we continue it on.

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Speaker 9: My husband kind of didn't understand it to begin with,

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Speaker 9: because these are memories that.

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Speaker 10: Don't only just come up at Christmas time. These are

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Speaker 10: memories that come up all throughout the year, even with that.

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Speaker 9: Family that we initially started with, at weddings, at I

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Speaker 9: guess funerals, that at anything, we bring up these memories

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Speaker 9: because they were so special and so memorable to us,

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Speaker 9: and it was such a great experience for me as

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Speaker 9: a child. It was an experience that I cannot fathom

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Speaker 9: Christmas being without. Now it's amazing and it's such a

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Speaker 9: time to spread joy and happiness to everyone.

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Speaker 2: Last up, our podcast producer Justin Roulin. I wish that

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Speaker 2: I could speak French so that I could just let

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Speaker 2: that roll off my tongue.

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Speaker 3: Justin Rulan, say hi, Justin.

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Speaker 11: Bonjour, Madame Monsieur Coulson, Joia Noel Bonnini.

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Speaker 4: Justin's story is pretty special. I won't spoil it. That

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Speaker 4: take a lesson.

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Speaker 11: So my most memorable Christmas was four years ago. My

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Speaker 11: daughter was born in October and she was actually born

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Speaker 11: with a heart condition that she would have died from

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Speaker 11: had she not been operated on at day nine. After

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Speaker 11: that operation, she spent a month in hospital and came

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Speaker 11: home late November. So that Christmas really drilled into me

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Speaker 11: the fact that Christmas is not really about the stuff.

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Speaker 11: You know, it's great to do presents and all that

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Speaker 11: with the kids, but it's not about the things. It's

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Speaker 11: about the people and really being thankful for people that

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Speaker 11: we love, being thankful for people in our families, and

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Speaker 11: just having my daughter home for Christmas. That really was

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Speaker 11: my most memorable Christmas.

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Speaker 3: Okay, Missus Happy Families, it's over to you.

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Speaker 2: I'm so glad we got to introduce everyone to our

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Speaker 2: team and I love their stories. But let's wrap this

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Speaker 2: up with a bang. I want to hear about your

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Speaker 2: favorite Christmas experience.

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Speaker 4: I'm going to be super cheeky. I have two.

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Speaker 3: You are always super geeky. I'm not surprised.

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Speaker 4: So my first one goes back to nineteen ninety seven.

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Speaker 3: We weren't even married.

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Speaker 4: We weren't even married.

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Speaker 3: There was no Missus Happy Families, but.

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Speaker 4: You came and spent Christmas with my family.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I was living in Mount Isa, I was a

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Speaker 2: radio and answer came and had Christmas with the Joneses.

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Speaker 4: You did, and as part of that celebration, we wanted

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Speaker 4: to do something really nice for my parents. You'd grown

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Speaker 4: up in a very different home to me, and my

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Speaker 4: parents had never really had a lot. And one of

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Speaker 4: the things that we talked about, obviously with you being

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Speaker 4: in radio and loving music, was that my parents didn't

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Speaker 4: even have a real like stereo system.

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Speaker 2: They didn't have a CD player. So it's nineteen ninety seven,

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Speaker 2: but they had not.

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Speaker 4: We just had a little portable one that we could

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Speaker 4: move from.

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Speaker 3: Ter didn't have even a half decent sort of sound system, and.

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Speaker 4: So you and I put our heads together and decided

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Speaker 4: we were going to buy them a stereo system, which.

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Speaker 2: Was a huge sacrifice because I remember, I remember when

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Speaker 2: I was working at hot FM Mount iSER and I

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Speaker 2: was also on four LM Mounteer as well as on

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Speaker 2: both radio stations, my annual income was just over nineteen

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Speaker 2: thousand dollars.

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Speaker 4: It was pretty tiny back then.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so we had to come up with

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Speaker 2: all of that money to buy a time student.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so I were a student and I was earning

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Speaker 3: twenty grand a year.

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Speaker 4: I wasn't really adding to the kitty at all. So, yeah,

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Speaker 4: it was a really big deal for us. And I

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Speaker 4: remember we didn't actually I don't think we even brought

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Speaker 4: gifts for each other because we spent it was everything

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Speaker 4: we spent what we you know, kind of had on them.

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Speaker 4: And for my mom and dad it was a really

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Speaker 4: big deal, like it meant a lot to them, and

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Speaker 4: at the time, while it was it was a big

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Speaker 4: sacrifice for us, I don't even think it really registered

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Speaker 4: to us just how big a deal.

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Speaker 3: It was, Oh no, it did to me.

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Speaker 2: That's still one of my favorite Christmas memories is giving

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Speaker 2: your parents that stereosystem because it occurred to me. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I came from a fairly affluent family and to be

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Speaker 2: giving something that seemed to me to be so basic,

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Speaker 2: so small, something that everybody should have, to your parents,

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Speaker 2: and seeing their overwhelm that we would give them something

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Speaker 2: so gargantuan, you know, like that that had a decade's

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Speaker 2: long impact on me.

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Speaker 3: I still remember it, and it's still magical.

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Speaker 2: Don't have a clue what we got that year, but

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Speaker 2: I absolutely know that we gave a gift that really.

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Speaker 3: It hit the spot.

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Speaker 4: My second one is completely different. Right, we had a

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Speaker 4: number of children by then, we'd actually just had baby

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Speaker 4: number four.

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Speaker 3: Wow.

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Speaker 2: So this is like two thousand and seven Christmas two

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Speaker 2: thousand and seven, and.

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Speaker 4: We found out that we were leaving. We'd lived with

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Speaker 4: all of my family close by, and all of a

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Speaker 4: sudden we were up and leaving and driving ten hours south.

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Speaker 2: As more, we've been in Brisbane for six years and

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Speaker 2: we're driving fourteen hours down to Wollongong so I can

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Speaker 2: start my PhD.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and what I loved about that Christmas was that

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Speaker 4: all of a sudden, all the agendas went out the

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Speaker 4: window for everyone because we knew this was a really

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Speaker 4: kind of big deal. We weren't going to see each

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Speaker 4: other and this kind of proximity again for quite some time.

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Speaker 4: And while there'd be family visits and stuff, this was

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Speaker 4: a very different Christmas. And so we talked about this

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Speaker 4: last week actually on the podcast. The day before Christmas,

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Speaker 4: we all got to get though my sisters, all the

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Speaker 4: girls in the kitchen, made our Christmas lunch for the

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Speaker 4: next day, and then the next day everybody showed up

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Speaker 4: and just the first time in I don't ever remember

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Speaker 4: a time where there just was absolute relax and calm

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Speaker 4: and nobody wanted to leave.

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Speaker 2: There was lots of food, there was no agenda, and

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Speaker 2: we did We had a really nice family. It was

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Speaker 2: one of our better family moments, because up until that

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Speaker 2: time there had been some ups and downs.

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Speaker 3: Let's be honest. But it was a good experience, wasn't it.

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Speaker 5: It was.

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm going to just briefly share my favorite memory

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Speaker 2: of Christmas, and I've got a bajillion to choose from,

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Speaker 2: but the one that I want to share was another

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Speaker 2: one that took me by surprise. Your family does things

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Speaker 2: differently to mine. And I think we'd been married for

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Speaker 2: maybe two or three years, we had a couple of kids,

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Speaker 2: maybe we just had our third, we might have just

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Speaker 2: had Ella. And in the lead up to Christmas, I

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Speaker 2: think it was Christmas Eve, you said we're going to

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Speaker 2: go and sing some Christmas carols and I was kind

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Speaker 2: of like, huh. And we got our kids in the car,

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Speaker 2: and because we're part of a church community, you said,

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Speaker 2: we're going to go and knock on the doors of

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Speaker 2: some of the elderly people in our church congregation that

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Speaker 2: don't have family. And so we went and knocked on

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Speaker 2: their doors on Christmas Eve. It's like six o'clock at night,

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Speaker 2: seven o'clock at night. They'd open the door. And then,

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Speaker 2: as a family, which really meant you, me and our

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Speaker 2: eldest daughter, Chanelle, we sang and it was so awkward,

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Speaker 2: like I'm standing there a meter away from these people

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Speaker 2: who have just opened their door and I'm singing Silent Night,

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Speaker 2: or I'm singing away in a manger. And then we'd

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Speaker 2: sing one or two more songs. Then we'd sing we

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Speaker 2: wish you were Merry Christmas and a happy New year, and.

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Speaker 3: That was it.

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Speaker 2: But what was so interesting is once I got past

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Speaker 2: that first ten seconds of awkward to watch these elderly people.

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Speaker 3: Who were lonely.

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Speaker 2: They as they listened to a sing, their eyes would

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Speaker 2: get all foggy, their glasses would get all foggy, their

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Speaker 2: eyes would fill up with tears. They'd start singing along

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Speaker 2: with us, and then we'd have a little bit of

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Speaker 2: a visit with them and spend some time chatting, and

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Speaker 2: we'd give them the cookies or the gingerbread or whatever

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Speaker 2: it was that we made, and then we'd go to

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Speaker 2: the next home. Maybe we spent fifteen or twenty minutes

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Speaker 2: with each person, and we visited three, four, maybe five homes,

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Speaker 2: and then we went home. And I still remember, even

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Speaker 2: talking about it right now, the feelings of peacefulness and

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Speaker 2: the feelings of goodness that doing that kind of really.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's so simple, bake some cookies and knock

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Speaker 2: on a door, sing a couple of songs, have a chat,

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Speaker 2: and yet it's just such a meaningful thing. So that's

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Speaker 2: one of my favorite memories of magical Christmas. And I've

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Speaker 2: got you to thank for that.

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Speaker 4: Well, we don't do it every year, but I think

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Speaker 4: that it's definitely made it to the Christmas Wishless this year,

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Speaker 4: the kids have asked if we can replicate that one.

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Speaker 2: I think it's great that the kids are asking, and

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Speaker 2: I'm actually pretty inspired thinking about it. I didn't know

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Speaker 2: that you had it on our list, and I'm so excited,

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Speaker 2: Like I'm genuinely just talking about it right now. I'm

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Speaker 2: genuinely excited to think that we can go and do that.

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Speaker 2: So that's a great idea. We really do hope that

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Speaker 2: you've enjoyed the podcast this year. We have one more

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Speaker 2: podcast to go tomorrow as we talk not about what

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Speaker 2: I'll do better tomorrow, but.

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Speaker 3: What I'll do better next year.

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Speaker 2: We're going to have a conversation about our learnings from

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty and what we can take with us into

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty one. Please join us tomorrow for the podcast.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening, Thanks for your ratings and

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Speaker 2: reviews and helping people to find out.

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Speaker 3: About the podcast. We appreciate it so much.

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Speaker 2: We thank our team for doing such a great job

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Speaker 2: in sharing their Christmas stories, and especially to Justin rule

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Speaker 2: On from Bridge Media for the great production work that

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Speaker 2: is on the podcast, and for Craig Bruce, our executive producer.

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Speaker 2: If you'd like more information about how we can help

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Speaker 2: make your family happier, all the information that you need

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Speaker 2: is at happyfamilies dot com dot au