Two Merry Widows and a Thrice Divorcee

Yuletide Tales of Love, Laughter, and Legacy

• Laura Mazelis, Brig Miles, Judy Beck • Episode 3

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With each unwrapped present and each lit candle, we reflect on the sentimentality stitched into every ornament, every replay of "Elf," and every loop of "A Christmas Story." Personal anecdotes, like my memorable trip to the "Christmas Story" house, form the backdrop of our shared experiences while we honor the poignant beauty of this time of year. Embracing family, cherishing friendships old and new, and looking forward with hope—this episode is a celebration of the love that defines our holiday season, inviting listeners to bask in the nostalgia and anticipation that comes with the end of the year.

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Speaker 2:

welcome back to two merry widows and a thrice divorcee. This is part two of our mini series and in this episode we will continue our candid conversation about our holiday experiences and how we navigate through the emotional challenges that come with it. So sit back, relax and join us for another heartfelt discussion.

Speaker 1:

Judy, why don't we start with you? My Christmases are wonderful. My granddaughter decorated my tree this year, which was fabulous having her there, and although I'm like Everly, you got to get a little higher on the tree. Oh, bleep said the name.

Speaker 2:

You can say her name, if you want to. How old is Everly? She's six.

Speaker 1:

Oh, and she is so cute. She wanted to decorate the tree, so just let her do do the whole tree, and we did have to come behind her and move some of the ornaments a little bit higher and everything, but it was. It's beautiful and it's on all the time and she just loves it. So it's a lot different having you know, I mean our family's a lot smaller now, especially with, you know, the the ex gone, and it's just more intimate with just the three of us at the house. And then Sonny came along and he now joins us and it's just it's. I mean, it's so peaceful and it wasn't peaceful before, oh yeah, it was more chaotic.

Speaker 2:

A lot of stress and it's just yeah, it's a vibe in the air.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it's just yeah, it's a vibe in the air. Yeah, and it's just yeah, definitely, and it's been so nice just to watch them celebrate the holiday and then celebrate my granddaughter. Because I don't, because they, you know, I don't. I try not to buy as a lot of gifts anymore Because I give throughout the year, so I feel like I'm constantly like getting them what they need or helping them with things that I just don't feel like. It kind of takes the surprise out of it.

Speaker 2:

You know. What's really great, though, judy, is when you come over and you give us a Christmas festival just on one of our little podcast days. We have so much cheese and shrimp and pumpkin pie to go.

Speaker 1:

John, it's wonderful. Well, I figured. Well, I don't know if I'll get to see you ladies when it is actual Christmas, so I wanted to celebrate with us today and share in the beautiful time, although people have no patience in the store. Why is why? Are people just so rude? Oh, my goodness, it's's like be thankful. I mean, I'm sorry the checker is talking to a customer, but you don't need to be mean to her because she's having a conversation. She's working on a sunday. Have you ever worked retail at a restaurant or have you ever worked retail during the holidays, whether it it be, you know, a grocery store or a retail store or anything else? It's terrible. People are just crazy, yeah, and they have no patience. And these people are behind. I've worked it. I've been there. I'm behind the counter. I am a human being. Just because there's a line, don't take it out on me. I'm working as fast as I can to help you check out. So be nice.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I'm saying I've been avoiding the stores altogether same. I'm just shopping online.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's why I said my it was funny because my daughter and I had that conversation because she put whatever she wanted for Everly she put in the Amazon basket and then I said, okay, well, if it's still in the Amazon basket, that means you haven't bought it yet. I'll buy whatever's left in there that you have picked out for her Cause all she wanted was Legos, lol, dolls and art supplies. So I went in and I bought all this stuff and Jordan, she was like why does anybody go to a store anymore? Because it's just, you don't have the hassle of it, but but get. I had to get my christmas shopping all done for my three grandkids and I might have a fourth before christmas. What, yes, I found out the other day.

Speaker 2:

Oh, no, tuesday well, how, how many times are you a grandma now?

Speaker 1:

This will be four. Wow, this will be number four. But she wasn't due until after. She was actually due on my daughter's birthday in January. But the doctor her OBGYN said that she's definitely not making it 40 weeks. They think she's going to deliver by 37 weeks, which is three weeks away. So they're taking her, she's going in Tuesday for a checkup and they're going to see if she started dilating. And if she started dilating they might help her progress a little bit so that she can have the baby sooner than later. Because she is, her body is done being pregnant. She's like I'm done. I said I don't blame you, honey, I don't blame you so but we're all excited. So we're all excited and you know we're all excited about it. So I said I guess I got to go buy her a surprise gift in case we have an addition at Christmas. Wow Four, which I mean my brother's getting ready to have number nine. So I mean Is this?

Speaker 2:

the daughter that's living with you now is going to have the fourth.

Speaker 1:

Oh, no, no, no, my son's fiance is having her third, so yeah, she. No, my son's fiance is having her third, ok, so yeah, she has. This will be their third and Jordan has one.

Speaker 2:

All right, so there's a lot to be thankful for.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely Finally figured out what was causing my illness. My furnace Was. It was the CO2 levels were too high in the house and I think, by the grace of God, the company called and said, hey, do you need your furnace checked for the season? And I said, oh, absolutely, how much are you doing it for? They're like oh, $29. I'm like I can spare $29. He came in. He shut my gas off and said it is unsafe for you to have your gas on in your furnace. You had this and he showed me everything, the all the levels, and we had to open up all the windows in the house. My daughter and my granddaughter ended up in the er for three hours on oxygen because of her o2 levels and co2.

Speaker 2:

I mean co2 levels, yeah, o2 levels okay, so they confirmed that at the er that it was the co2 for her and she her, and she has asthma, and she has asthma.

Speaker 1:

And now we know why her asthma kicked in every winter oh, because our bedrooms my granddaughter and my bedroom is over the furnace. Okay so, and that's where all the buildup of the CO2 is. Yeah so, I have a furnace put in. On Wednesday Merry Christmas To me. Merry Christmas To me. Wednesday merry christmas to me. Merry christmas. I told my neighbor. I'm like well, I'm gonna be your neighbor for another 120 months. Well, but, yeah, so hopefully my granddaughter and I will now start finally feeling better, now that the toxins are out of the house.

Speaker 1:

Oh, you have asthma too, don't you? Well, I have bronchial asthma, oh okay, so I couldn't get rid of it. Now I know I mean, well, we had a lot to do with it, so I'll let you know how you're going to feel in a few months. I don't know, but my, my system purrs like a kitten. It's never been quieter. I'm like, oh, you're, you're the furnace.

Speaker 1:

Because it used to make this big backdraft boom because of the, the gas would build up in the, I think at the igniter, and when it ignited, it backdrafted. And to make this big backdraft boom because the gas would build up in the, I think at the igniter, and when it ignited, it backdrafted and would make this. It just made this boom sound. And, of course, my daughter's like that's not normal. I'm like, no, it's always done this since we've been here. So I don't know. No, that wasn't normal.

Speaker 1:

And my system was overheating. And he was just like, like, I will show you how to turn the gas back on and turn the furnace back on, but you can't do it while I'm in the house because I'm deeming it unsafe. And if you so choose to do it after I leave, that's on you. And I was like, oh no, I will not be turning it back on until we get a new system put in. And then the next, the next day, they came out and put a new system in. At least you're gonna have a warm Christmas. Yeah, actually it works so well that I had to turn my thermostat down. I was like it was roasting me out of there because it heats up so fast. I think gas heat burns more efficiently anyway than electric, but yeah, so it's just one of those things.

Speaker 2:

Now we're all going to get better and have a great christmas I'm so, so full from our feast right now that I feel a nap coming on.

Speaker 1:

Eat anything I think we're she didn't like brownies and cheese yes, she ate the homemade pie and a brownie, but we ate all the frozen shrimp. And we do mean frozen, and we do mean frozen, it was frozen.

Speaker 2:

Well, speaking of Christmas and keeping in this Christmas spirit, I tried to get some of the holiday stuff up, but we are still finding ourselves without a tree. Well, you had your lights out front yeah, that I put up yesterday. Oh, and you decorated your lights out front yeah, that I put up yesterday. Oh, and you decorated your jeep too. Yep, I decorated my jeep, but you know, al would have had it all up by the day after thanksgiving.

Speaker 2:

And here I am. It's almost christmas. What we have a week and a half, maybe next sunday is christmas eve and we don't even have our tree. So, fresh or artificial, it's always artificial. It was always artificial, but I don't know what possessed me, but I felt I needed to get rid of the Christmas tree. You got rid of your Christmas tree, the one that he had in the basement. It was just after he passed. After he passed, I, just I, I, I couldn't face it. So I was like we're gonna either do something different this year or get a real tree. And which? Last year or the year before that, we did get a real tree and I did not water it properly. And my neighbor who is a ex-fireman, it's like you need to get rid of the tree and it's like it's only de 5th.

Speaker 2:

So I would literally spray it down, you know, with just a bottle and spray just to like keep it moist. But you know, some of our ornaments were destroyed because I watered them down. And now, especially when you first, when they're first cut, you first put them in water, they need to be watered. They do Daily, like literally daily. Well, I know that now. So what are you doing for our tree this year? I think it's almost too late. So we have.

Speaker 2:

We did keep Max's Christmas tree that we used to put here out in the hallway and put a little tiny gift under there. You know, the night before he got to open those gifts and we bought it at the Goodwill, al was there, so we were able to get the tree together. So we use that in the dining room now and it's really cute and the spacing is just right. And then we put it's so small that I can actually put the stand inside of a what is it called? A drum, a red drum with gold trim. It's really cute. And then we have a old-fashioned rocking horse that we put next to it. So it is quite sweet and traditional and, yes, it looks fake, but you know well, yeah, my dad.

Speaker 1:

Only reason why I ever had real trees was because my dad sold christmas trees. That was one of his many jobs throughout his career was he had a christmas tree lot and he did so christmas trees for 40 years and he the day after, from the day after Christmas till Christmas Eve. We would not see him because he would be at the Christmas tree lot 24-7. Pretty much. We were always the last one to get a tree, because we were we had, because Santa decorated our tree. It was amazing because we'd go to church and we'd come back and Santa had been there and our tree was decorated.

Speaker 2:

During the day.

Speaker 1:

We'd go to Christmas Eve Mass and we'd come home and the tree would be decorated, the lights would be on it and there'd be a few ornaments left for us to put on, but Santa had come and put the tree up. That was sweet, that was the story that was told to us, and I tried to carry on that tradition by having real trees at our house. But my first husband did not like real trees because he said they made too much of a mess. And that was when I went to artificial trees. So I mean I did have. I mean on and off I've had real trees here and there, but they are, they are messy.

Speaker 2:

They are messy. I vacuumed, like every other day. You could vacuum, yeah, Couldn't water. When Al and I first got together. He's Hebrew Christian, you know. So the idea of even having a Christmas tree in the house was a little like that's too much. I don't think I could do that, you know. But when Max came along he's like, well, I guess I could do a fake tree. You know, I'm not bringing an evergreen in here. Quote, unquote. Right, so what are you doing? I'm trying to figure out the alcohol percentage of eggnog Of this whole bottle. Let me see. Let me see. You can't see it. Yes, yes, I can. Is it on the neck?

Speaker 1:

yeah, no, it's right here. What are you trying to say?

Speaker 2:

right here in front of me that made with rum, brandy and blended whiskey. Is it delicious? It is delicious. 14.75 percent oh my gosh, is that a lot? That is a that is a lot. She will be spending the night at rich's house today I don't know christmas is.

Speaker 1:

I know it's different because I mean I don't have. I mean this is the first year that I will say I got multiple invitations to join multiple friends and family for different things. So it's been nice, like last night. Yesterday I went to a cousin's house that does an open house and she does the open house for her side of the family and her husband's side of the family and it was nice because I hadn't seen his side of the family in a long, long time. So it was kind of nice to kind of catch up and see how they're all doing now.

Speaker 2:

So do you think they weren't inviting you before? Because no, no, no like your husband?

Speaker 1:

no, no. So the last couple years, well, one. It got interrupted because of covid, true, and so in 2020, I don't think they had. I think this is the first one they've had since 2020. Oh, okay, because they didn't. I know they didn't have one in 2020 and I know they didn't have one. I don't think they had one last year and then the prior years, I think I. It was just, it was just a matter of timing and not being able to. I had other things going on or whatever, and I wasn't able to attend. But they're so generous, they had it catered. But they're so generous, they had it catered.

Speaker 1:

They do cash prizes for games. They play left right center and they give everybody who wants to play the money to play, so you don't have to bring your own money. They're like here and they give you the money and you play left right center. My sister was a lucky winner this time. She won the pot and then the winner of the left right right center has to answer a trivia question and if they get that right, they get another cash prize envelope and then, and then they play. I think we did. Oh, they did Guess how many gummy bears are in the jar and that was a cash prize. And then they did.

Speaker 1:

My cousin is a. She loves knowledge and education. She's got four bachelors and three masters and she's just a brilliant woman and she's actually tried out for Jeopardy, but she played. They play Jeopardy every year and it's always the commanders versus the right. And then they split the teams up into and whoever wants to play on each team plays, and then they whoever wins, there's cash prizes. They're just so generous. And then they whoever wins, there's cash prizes, they're just so generous. And then they give us all door, they'll give us all goodie bags which has lottery tickets in it, and they even have little little pins made this year that said Merry Christmas from Frank from blank and blank, put their names on it.

Speaker 1:

And it's just refreshing to be around family, you know, and one, one of the I know they don't his side of the family doesn't remember me because it's been a long time since I've seen his side of the family. But you know, it was just funny because someone was like, oh, is this your mom? And talking about my aunt, I'm like, well, no, she's my, she's my aunt. Oh, it's your mom's, is your mom's sister? And I'm like, no, my dad's sister, but it was nice to be around family again and just to say hi and see all the cousins and it was nice. So.

Speaker 1:

And then we always do Christmas Eve. This year we're doing Christmas Eve lunch because everybody has so many family. I mean, like my brother has eight grandkids and so you know he wants to do stuff with his family, my son has kids, my daughter has kids, and so it's just like everybody has their own thing now. So we're like, okay, well, we actually were going to, we're considering doing Christmas Eve brunch or breakfast, but they moved, so I guess it is technically a brunch because we're starting it at noon and it's going to be like lunchtime foods and then Christmas Eve open for everybody to do whatever they want with their families or whatever. So that was kind of nice, sounds fun. I don't know. Bridget's mom invited me to her. She did and of course I hope you come with us. I will be, I will be making an appearance, ok, at some point, for sure.

Speaker 2:

Sounds good. Are you baking, are you cooking? I am not doing anything we do at my mother's house. We do a traditional German style lunch. Really it's kind of a luncheon and there's all kinds of German. It's kind of a luncheon and there's all kinds of German. We go to this place up in Baltimore and buy authentic sausages and liverwurst and breads and things, and so for lunch then my mother makes real German potato salad and real German sauerkraut, which is not anything like the American version, and so we have sausages and wieners and lunch meat sandwiches and sauerkraut and potato salad at my mother's house. And we usually do that during the day, so that's like after everybody has opened their presence with their own families at their own houses, and then we all kind of converge onto my mother's house. So that'll be fun. I'm looking forward to it. Food's always good. Does your mom have a house that you can actually entertain in, or is it one of those small little little places that everybody has to sit in the hallway?

Speaker 1:

Our house is a decent size.

Speaker 2:

It's not it's not huge, but it's not tiny. It's you know the way they. It's bigger than my house. Yeah, it's bigger than it's the way they used to make houses like.

Speaker 1:

I mean, it's a one-story Back in the 70s. It's a one-story Rambler?

Speaker 2:

Okay, but the kitchen is big, you know it has.

Speaker 1:

I mean that, yeah, and then there's plenty of room in the dining room and if it's a nice day we can sit on the back patio.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the room, the rooms are like that, it's a one story rambler, but that's, it's good sized rooms. It's not like smaller, yeah sized rooms. It's big rooms and it's not an open concept, but there's like one hallway kind of where everything converges, so it's nice. I mean it's big enough. There's usually about 15 to 20 people there. It's enough to hold the 15 to 20. Okay, yeah, is that what you did when MK was around? We've always done that. Yes, I've done that for Christmas. I've never done anything else for Christmas. We've always done that. And actually, mike's parents are German files. I don't know what the word is. You know how there's Anglophiles, like people who love the English. His parents were German files. They're like that about Germans because they used to live in Germany when his father was in the military.

Speaker 2:

They didn't have a lot of time in Germany. Yeah, so they did. So they really, when his father was in the military they spent a lot of time he was stationed over there and then after he retired, they would still go over and visit Germany like once a year and Oktoberfest and all these things. So they really really like like the German food and the German culture and all these things. So they really really like like the German food and the German culture. So they actually came over for a couple of Christmases to my mother's house and joined us.

Speaker 2:

I did not know that, yeah it was, it was, it was nice, it was really, it was really special, yeah. And so my mother asked me if I thought they would might like to come this year, and I said I think it's too soon yeah, but you know what?

Speaker 1:

you can always extend that olive branch and it's on them to. They're not ready they're not ready.

Speaker 2:

I saw them very briefly about a month ago and it was good.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it was, it was nice but, they're not ready for that well, we can take mike with us we can carry my with us, of course, the only thing mike would eat he's so hilarious. My husband was like he ate food like a five-year-old. It had to be burgers and fries tacos. He did love him some tacos I like to cook. Pop his own popcorn. He did make good popcorn. He would make us popcorn every night. We'd watch movies or whatever. He would make fresh popped popcorn, but no anything that had any kind of flecks of red or green or mushrooms. He wasn't going anywhere near it. A vegetable, a vegetable, basically Green, is gross. What is that? Is that green peppers? I'm not eating that. He was.

Speaker 2:

He was so funny so he would only eat bratwurst. So the only thing from the german luncheon he'll eat is the bratwurst. So my mother ordered eight bratwurst and I'm like, because she's forgetting that we upped the number of bratwurst for Mike and his father, but no one else really eats the bratwurst. They're good, I'll eat them. We'll eat them, but we eat. You know, you can eat bratwurst almost any time of the year, but we get Wienerwurst and you know, all these other kinds of sausages that you don't normally get during the year. Anyway, we're going to have a ton of Bratwurst.

Speaker 1:

So I'm excited to be able to experience some of these German Bratwurst.

Speaker 2:

Good. Well, there's Bratwurst, there's Wienerwurst, there's the Wursts, the Wursts, there Wursts. There's Liverwurst, there's Teewurst, all kinds of.

Speaker 1:

German things. I mean, I'm German on my dad's side of the family, so I don't know how German they are, but we have a lot of German in us. So it would be kind of cool to experience the culture, Because I mean her mom, how long has your mom been in this country? Oh, my mother's been here.

Speaker 2:

Fixed it. Years mother's been here six years and she still has a pretty good heavy accent with no but which, which no one in the family hears but other people do hear it.

Speaker 1:

I hear it I, because sometimes even I have I don't see difficulty understanding her, but it's I really have to pay close attention to what she says you're not the only one.

Speaker 2:

A lot of people will be like I hear an accent, where are you from? But we don't hear it. Well, you yeah.

Speaker 1:

I don't think it's very strong, do you? But does she even speak German to you guys, to the point where you understand?

Speaker 2:

She does not to us because my father didn't like it.

Speaker 1:

Really See, I would have loved it.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I'm mad now. Now that I'm 50 something, I can't speak german and she's, you know, completely fluent in two languages. Right? I'm not right, I'm a dumb american who only knows once. No one get offended, but no, I wished, uh, we had actually tried a little harder when we were younger, because I would love to be bilingual at this point.

Speaker 1:

But but we are not. My cousin took German in high school and she was fluent in it and she could read it, and from just one class Cause she took it hard, she took it all through high school and then into college. Oh okay, and even every once in a while she'll she'll be like nine, you know she'll say certain German words, and then it's like she probably can't now because she's been so. I mean, in high school. Of course it was an everyday kind of thing. I mean, she would even read like German magazines and stuff like that. She just was that caught up in the culture and the language. But but now every once in a while it's funny because I'll ask her I'm like, do you still remember any German? And she can say certain words and she'll say she'll respond certain things in German and I just think it's so cool. Yeah, because I don't remember very much. I would love to have spoke Italian, because my grandfather spoke Italian, but he never taught his kids how to speak Italian and he died so young, right that?

Speaker 2:

he didn't get a chance to teach us any Italian. My oldest sister remembers. She doesn't really speak it, but she can. She remembers a lot from hearing it. She can decipher a lot of things that are being said, but she doesn't really speak it. But my other sister and I we actually, well, we lived in Germany for a year when I was younger and when I was, when I was five, I spoke five-year-old's level of German, but then when we came back here to the States, my mother would try to speak it to us to get us to be able to recall it, and my father would get mad. Well, I remember when we had come from Hawaii, so we went into Connecticut, you know, to live life next to the new London Navy base. I remember having to go to speech therapy. Why I?

Speaker 2:

still don't understand why we had some pigeon in us that we couldn't let go of. I don't know what it was.

Speaker 2:

I know, carol had some troubles because her, her top palate was tight, you know right. So she had trouble saying some things, but I I'm sure I put that teacher on some sort of like. I'm never doing this again because she's explaining to me. Okay, no, you say, you say choo-choo, train like choo-choo. I don't get what, I don't hear the difference. Or uh, what was the other thing that she kept saying? Did she say it like a New Englander? No, what was it? Well, you think she's like it's crayon, I'm like crayon. What's your problem? I always say crown, I say crayon. I say crown, crown, it must be like where we're from right.

Speaker 2:

My husband used to make fun of me so much. He was like what is it? What is that thing you color with? I'm like a crown. He's like a crayon. I'm like okay.

Speaker 1:

So crown, yeah, that's region. Then he used to always make fun of me because I couldn't say a few words. Oh, that one friend, that one friend and you. And you'd say towel, towel, towel, towel. How would you say it? Towel Towel? No, not towel Towel. Oh, I say ambulance. How do you say ambulance, ambulance?

Speaker 2:

Sometimes I have trouble with aluminum. Aluminum, yeah, sometimes I'll say aluminium. That's actually the funny thing. That is like a British like affect, because my first husband was Nigerian and they spoke, you know, british English because they were colonized by the British. So while their schools were taught in English, using like the British English, and he would say aluminum or whatever it is, you said minium, aluminum. However, aluminum, I don't, I can't even say it. Yeah, the way they say it, and he would say it was so funny one time and we're talking about first husband's, not second dead husband's, not living, but all mine are still living he was telling me something and he was saying something about it being. He said I can't even say it the way he said it catastrophe. And he was saying catastrophe, oh, okay. Well, it was a catastrophe and I was like a what catastrophe. I'm like a what Catastrophe and I was like a catastrophe. He was saying catastrophe, but because of the pronunciation I didn't understand him. But that's the way they would say it in England. That's the Queen's English.

Speaker 1:

So you were born in Hawaii, correct? Yes, and how many years did you live?

Speaker 2:

in Hawaii. I think I was there only until I was four.

Speaker 1:

Carol's little little so four, so you probably. I was just trying to think what kind of language did you, did you pick up? Because they have a lot of vowels in their language, in their yeah, in the words yeah, and I was out there for a very brief couple weeks and I couldn't say any of the stuff. I couldn't the street names and stuff like that.

Speaker 2:

I'm like, oh, I couldn't I don't know if I told the story yet, but we had to go to preschool when we were young. We just, we just got our place in connecticut. We were, you know, and so mom and dad put us into this church, preschool, right. And so they're like children, let's all do the hula for our big end of year extravaganza. And the looks on our faces when they showed us what they did for hula, we were just like this is the dumbest thing we have ever seen. Rolling our eyes back in our heads like this is an abomination.

Speaker 2:

You have to participate or you're in trouble Right, right, so we did it, but the whole time we were scoffing. Did you school them? Yeah, at the age of five, at the age of five At the age of five?

Speaker 1:

What do you guys do with your traditional Christmas movies and stuff like that? What do you? What do you traditionally? What do you watch?

Speaker 2:

The only thing that we traditionally watched was when we were the day after thanksgiving. We would put up the tree and then we would just put on elf. Oh yeah, elf is hilarious.

Speaker 1:

Elf is hilarious and how do you feel about um christmas story?

Speaker 2:

that's on the day of christmas and we just loop it all day long. I'll just leave it on max and I decided to go on a mid-Atlantic tour. I had to go to work and I ended up in Kentucky opening a store. Blah, blah, blah. So we went through, you know, dc, west Virginia, you know, we went all through that. And then we ended up in Ohio and we went to Cleveland After your husband passed this is before but Al stayed home because he had work. He couldn't go on an atlantic tour, you know right. So I took max because I think it was like the summer, he was out of school, so what are we gonna do with our kid? So I was like let's take him. You know this sort of thing and he still talks about it to this day. He loved it, which was awesome, yeah, but we went to the christmas story house and we toured the house and he actually crawled in underneath the sink.

Speaker 1:

I got pictures of him in there.

Speaker 2:

There was an actual Christmas story. Well, it wasn't. It was based out of Ohio, right, yeah. And partial filming was there, right? It wasn't all filmed there, right, he took a picture of him like that he's hanging up the lamp.

Speaker 1:

I was going to say what name was the lamp was there. He didn't stick his tongue on the lamppost outside. No, no, because that was at a schoolyard, if you remember correctly.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that is correct, that is correct, so that he got to see that Charles Dickens Isn't that? I thought, yes, no.

Speaker 1:

Christmas Story yeah, no. Christmas Carol yes, there's all kinds. We just thought that was the best movie ever and all day long it had a christmas story. Christmas story it had to be one in our house and anytime I would try to change it. He was like what are you doing? I still kind of he still has some of my christmas stuff. I'm a little bitter about that, but you know, should have taken it all when I left, but I didn't.

Speaker 1:

I never got it, but what is the one thing that you really miss the most that he has, and I made these beautiful Christmas wreaths and I had someone had given me these crystal glass angels and they were one was red crystal, one was white, clear crystal and I took those angels and I hung and I made, I handmade these beautiful Christmas wreaths with different poinsettia flowers and I hung and I made, I handmade these beautiful Christmas wreaths with different poinsettia flowers and I just. And then I had the angels hanging from the center of the wreaths and he never gave them back, man, and they're irreplaceable because they were one of a kind, because I handmade them myself. So but he always, he always admired my artwork and my craftiness, so I guess I should be flattered. I love that about you too.

Speaker 2:

It's fun to be creative. It's a great way to get your mind off of things too. I'll tell you that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I just went through and hung all my winter Christmas pictures, paintings in the house, took all my fall stuff down and put all my winter stuff up and my Christmas stuff up and I had this one. They made this like Charlie Brown tree Christmas tree. And I told, I said to my granddaughter I said what do you think of Nona's tree that she painted? And she said I could use some Christmas balls.

Speaker 2:

Christmas balls.

Speaker 1:

I didn't put any ornaments on it, it's just a ball play. I put in a pretty and she's like like be prettier if it had ornaments. She's still trying to.

Speaker 2:

she's still trying to well, still trying to be polite, she is, oh, but I am looking forward to it. You know Max is a girlfriend. It will be here, so that's exciting, that's new. It is new and I think it'll be nice to it's. She's a great distraction, so we're not always thinking about dad's not here, abel's not here. We're blessed that she's going to make the trip down here. Are you cooking? What are? You doing for dinner Christmas dinner. I don't think that we're ahead.

Speaker 2:

I think, last year we just did a week away. We did not have Dunkin' Donuts for Christmas dinner, Well breakfast. We did not have Dunkin' Donuts for Christmas dinner, Well breakfast. We were more about the breakfast. We loved the bacon and the French toast and the donuts. What do you eat at 6pm the leftovers. Well, we usually eat so much German during the day that that is our dinner.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's a lovely dinner. We just kind of pick throughout the day. I have to say that driving over here today and listening to some of the christmas stuff, I did get a little weepy, just because I don't know, life happens and it's just like sometimes it's unfair and sometimes it's whatever. But I'm just like I just didn't expect to be where I am now at my age, single again and no one to really share those moments with. I mean, I have great friends and that's kind of what gets me through is like I know I have you guys and I know I have you. Know I have a handful of really close friends that I know I can rely on, pick my spirits up, so which is nice because, lord knows, we all need that. But what's gonna happen in another 10 years from now? We're all going to be sitting here doing this podcast.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I have no idea what the future holds.

Speaker 1:

I have no idea. I mean, it's a day-to-day thing it really is. But just being in the car by myself listening to Christmas music, it just hits you. I know it hits you, and I know it hits you and you can't help it.

Speaker 2:

You know what's crazy, though I could tell anybody who it was. But you know what's crazy, though it's like I'm not going to tell anybody who it was, but there are people out there who are like I'm not married yet, I don't want to die alone. Blah, blah, blah. And I'm like you can still be married and not die alone. There's no guarantee, 100%, isn't that the truth?

Speaker 1:

Well, that's what I was taught.

Speaker 2:

I don't know who I was talking to think about that.

Speaker 1:

But I mean, yeah, I mean we were I think we were just talking about it when we were having our christmas feast downstairs that there, I mean there's lone, there's loneliness and there's being alone. I mean everybody can be alone and not be lonely because they have like we have children that live in our home. We have, we have dogs. She has a dog. We have hobbies, we have hobbies. We have children that live in our home. We have, we have dogs. She has a dog. We have hobbies, we have hobbies. We have things that can distract us. We have work. She has her mother. I'm glad she's still with us. I mean, yeah, I mean, what are you gonna? I mean, but I don't think I would give up my independence just to have somebody in my life. I'd rather have people who mean they bring meaning to my life, and that's you guys and that's my. You know my kids and my grandkids. They bring me to my life. Those other people don't. There's people I mean I have family.

Speaker 2:

That doesn't bring meaning to my life but I think that's what happens when we reach 50s, we reevaluate, you know you know you go.

Speaker 1:

You go from having a circle this big to a circle this big. Yeah, you know it's you. We always tease. My circle's gotten smaller and a lot of people blame it on covid, which probably 2020, probably was the defining moment where people were like I need to cut out the frivolous and keep, just keep mine was the 2016 election, but go on, I mean everybody has their defining moments, but I mean I don't know what my defining.

Speaker 1:

I mean, I mean there was a lot of defining moments, a lot of eye-opening moments. I guess it's more, could be more descriptive. But you know, I feel I see the struggle and in fact it was so funny because my daughter last night said to me she was out, we were, we had gone to the legion christmas party and I met my daughter there with my cousin Lisa, and her and Sonny were there and our friends were all there and Jordan was outside talking to the gentleman and the gentleman was talking about his life struggles and how. You know his. He's raising his great-grandchildren because of addictions and different issues and families. You know the, the youth has had died off because of drug addictions and whatever, and now he's raising his great grandchildren, which is not where he wanted to be.

Speaker 1:

Blah, blah, blah, blah. And Jordan comes to my she says, mom, I have to realize now that even though I have my share of struggles, my struggles are not nearly as bad as other people's and I just need to be thankful. And I was like what? And then, lightning moment, you know, like who in the hell was she talking to?

Speaker 1:

For her to realize that, and I mean I mean I mean the millennials, you know, they just have a different way of thinking and sometimes she speaks before she thinks and she says some things that can be pretty heartbreaking and pretty disturbing. But at the same time for her to say, man, his life, his life is, he's a lot worse place than I am mom, and I realized now that I'm, I should be grateful. It was great. I was like that's wonderful daughter. I appreciate you acknowledging that Right yeah.

Speaker 2:

There's hope for us after all. Appreciate you acknowledging that, right, yeah, there's hope for us after all. Right, maybe, all right, we're at 47 minutes. Wow, we got a lot of cuts though. Yeah, yeah, just letting you know, though, that's all right. 47 minutes is good, yeah, and plus it's part of a two-parter, so it's literally way about half. Sarah outro, outro, outro, sarah outro. Say you're drunk. Did you understand? Yes, yeah, that was all one word.

Speaker 1:

To me, it's the 14 percent there was no bitch fest in here. We were enlightening and festive yeah it's worth a second bottle.

Speaker 2:

That's good. It's tasty, because I actually like it. This is the best eggnog thank you for joining us today. We are excited to keep going too. Our plan is to release a new episode every other wednesday. We understand that it may seem unusual to have a holiday episode during spring I mean practically spring but we are currently working through some technical issues and trying to streamline our workflow. We may not be perfect, but we are having a lot of fun being oh so very imperfect. I mean, what's wrong with that? Talk to you later. Bye.