Christmas & Hanukkah: How We Celebrate the Holidays
The holiday season is here, which means it's time to talk about how we celebrate, what traditions matter to us, and why this time of year can feel both magical and stressful depending on your circumstances. I'm Nicole, and I grew up celebrating both Christmas and Hanukkah. Jolene is Christian and goes all-in on traditional Christmas celebrations. Today we're talking about what the holidays mean to us, how we navigate the pressure and expectations, and why the spirit of the season matters more than perfect decorations or expensive gifts.
Jolene's Christmas is traditional. Stockings are hung by the fireplace, a beautifully decorated tree, carols playing, all the festive cheer you'd expect. Her home transforms into a holiday wonderland, and for her family, Christmas is both a religious celebration and a time for creating warm memories together.
My holiday experience growing up was a blend. We celebrated both Christmas and Hanukkah, which gave me this beautiful dual perspective on the season. I got to experience the magic of Christmas morning and also the ritual of lighting the menorah for eight nights. It was never about choosing one over the other. It was about embracing both traditions and finding meaning in each.
What Jolene and I both agree on is the delight of holiday decorating, regardless of what the decorations represent. Whether it's stars or angels, white lights or multicolored, menorahs or nativity scenes - there's something universally warming about homes lit up with festive spirit. The decorations, the music, the special foods - they create an atmosphere that transcends specific religious traditions and taps into something deeper about human connection and hope.
There is another side of the holidays, which we feel is important to address: the pressure. This is the time of year when people, regardless of financial standing, feel enormous expectations. The perfect decorations, the elaborate meals, the mountain of gifts - it all adds up, both financially and emotionally. For families already struggling, the holidays can amplify stress instead of bringing joy.
We recognize that not everyone can afford the picture-perfect Christmas or Hanukkah celebration that gets plastered all over social media. There are families choosing between paying bills and buying gifts, people working multiple jobs just to make ends meet who don't have time or energy for elaborate celebrations, and individuals who feel left out of the holiday magic because their circumstances don't match the idealized version we see everywhere.
The pressure to buy, buy, buy can completely overshadow the actual spirit of giving from the heart. Somewhere along the way, the holidays became commercialized to the point where it feels like you're failing if you're not spending enough money. That's backwards. The most meaningful gifts are often the ones that cost nothing - time, attention, presence, acts of service.
This is where compassion becomes essential. If you have the means to help others during the holidays - through charity, volunteering, or simply being there for someone who's struggling, that's the real spirit of the season. It's not about showing off your perfectly decorated home or your expensive gift. It's about recognizing that we're all part of the same community and some people need support.
Jolene and I both believe that the essence of the holiday spirit shines through when we focus on what actually matters: heartfelt gestures and genuine connections with loved ones. Whether it's singing carols (even if you sound terrible), sharing a meal together, exchanging handmade gifts, or just spending quality time with people you care about - that's what creates lasting memories.
The holidays are what you make of them. They can be filled with love, humor, and traditions both old and new. They can also be filled with stress, comparison, and financial anxiety if you let external expectations dictate your experience. The choice is yours.
What strikes us both is how much the holidays reveal about what we value. Do we value appearances or authenticity? Expensive gifts or thoughtful gestures? Perfect Instagram moments or messy, real family time? The answers to those questions shape not just how we celebrate, but how we live the rest of the year.
So as you navigate this holiday season, whatever you're celebrating, remember that it's okay if your decorations aren't Pinterest-perfect. It's okay if you can't afford elaborate gifts. It's okay if your traditions look different from everyone else's. What matters is showing up for the people you love, extending compassion to those who are struggling, and finding moments of genuine joy and connection.
The holidays can be both magical and messy, joyful and stressful, deeply meaningful and completely overwhelming - sometimes all at once. That's okay. That's human. And that's exactly why we need to extend grace to ourselves and each other during this season.
RESOURCES MENTIONED:
Jolene’s Sweater:
Sweets:
https://www.lifeloveandsugar.com/easy-lemon-bars-recipe/
https://www.loveandlemons.com/mexican-wedding-cookies/
https://onehotoven.com/pecan-tassies/
https://www.food.com/recipe/easy-homemade-almond-roca-106641
https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a62334590/holiday-haystacks-recipe/
https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/best-sugar-cookies/
Christmas Movies:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0356680/?ref_=fn_t_1
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038650/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110527/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319343/?ref_=fn_i_1
Good For The Soul:
https://www.instagram.com/rockyroaddoodles/?hl=en
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nicole: [00:00:00] She's a conservative and I'm liberal, and yet we've been friends for almost 40 years. Everyone says you shouldn't discuss politics, religion, or money, and we say, that's exactly what friends should be talking about. Join us as we tackle the conversations you're having in your head, but are too scared to say out loud, well, Merry Christmas, Jolene.
Jolene: Every Happy holidays, Nicole. All
nicole: happy Hanukkah. All the things. All the things that we all celebrate.
Jolene: that's what I wanna talk about today because I think, I think there's a lot that I would love to get your opinion on on the holidays and Christmas and.
nicole: Mm-hmm.
Jolene: that good stuff. So in, so this is a, a little more lighthearted and fun episode on, we've got to Talk and it's, I don't know that it's gonna have a political twist,
nicole: You never know.
Jolene: but maybe I
nicole: Maybe I think we, this is definitely a directive [00:01:00] from, from our lovely, lovely, uh, producer Brianna, who now, it will be summertime,
Jolene: Oh yeah,
nicole: in Brisbane, Australia, and that's how they celebrate their holidays.
Jolene: Oh yeah.
nicole: us to wear red and green, and it was not the easiest thing.
But you got a cute, cute, cute sweater, girl.
Jolene: Mary. Mary.
nicole: cute.
Jolene: Nicole, do you say. To people happy holidays or do you say Merry Christmas if you know they're Christ, uh, that they're Christian? Or do you say happy Hanukkah? What is your greeting during the holidays?
nicole: I feel like the Happy
Jolene: I,
nicole: thing is sort of being overly conscious, which honestly this liberal is totally sick of.
Jolene: oh wow.
nicole: that's probably surprising to
Jolene: It is.
nicole: I mean, happy holidays. Sure. Great. That's awesome. Here's the thing. I am half Jewish and half Christian, [00:02:00] so I like Merry Christmas.
I like happy Hanukkah. I like Happy Holidays, I feel like the Happy Holidays thing has gotten sort of a bad rap. Like we don't wanna offend anyone
Jolene: Mm-hmm.
nicole: I don't know why saying Merry Christmas offends anyone, and I don't know why saying happy Hanukkah offends anyone.
I mean, here's the thing. I live across from the stock exchange. And to give New York a, a big old shout out. Yes, we've got that Rockefeller tree that everybody goes crazy for. But I will tell you, y'all, you come to New York City and you come downtown to, in front of my building, which is across from the stock exchange, and we have the most gorgeous tree
Jolene: I would agree.
nicole: everybody knows about it. And they put it up, uh, usually it's around the first Thursday of December, they do a lighting ceremony.
And then they also have a menorah and they have a Kwanza, [00:03:00] candelabra. Like it's, it's all of the holidays, all of the holidays all together in this, underneath this gorgeous, fresh. Well, it's not fresh anymore. It was donated, you know, tree.
Jolene: But it's real.
nicole: beau, it's
Jolene: It's, yeah. Yeah.
nicole: every year.
Jolene: I,
nicole: I love it.
I love it so much. And you don't have as many crowds
Jolene: mm-hmm.
nicole: if you're listening to this. Maybe you'll come down and see us, in, in the financial district. Uh, just bypass that old Rockefeller tree and come down and see us
Jolene: Because everybody's there at Rockefeller, so just keep going and go see the really pretty one.
nicole: go. It's
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: And I just love how they honor all of the holidays
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: they don't say happy holidays. They actually shout out to all the different holidays. Like, happy
Jolene: Oh, okay.
nicole: Hanukkah,
Jolene: Yeah,
nicole: Christmas. And
Jolene: yeah.
and you guys have a Christmas tree.
nicole: We do have a Christmas tree.
Jolene: Okay.
nicole: have a [00:04:00] menorah. so I grew up with both, uh, my, my dad Asa, my dad married two non-Jews, which we would call Asa. the second non-Jew converted. But we've always, I've always had Christmas trees in my life and, and so my dad as an adult has always had Christmas trees and we've always had menorahs, so I'm used to that.
Um, my mom made Christmas so special, you know, she made our stockings. Um, we'd have a beautiful food, which we can talk about all the foods. And just Christmas. The Christmas trees were just beautiful. We are a white light Christmas
Jolene: Oh yes. Yeah.
nicole: also an, we're an angel Christmas tree.
Jolene: Okay. Perfect.
nicole: Alright, and then, 'cause I wanna know all about your things
Jolene: Okay.
nicole: we, we would have a menorah and, you know, depending, Hanukkah doesn't, is not always next to Christmas.
It totally depends. It's between, [00:05:00] usually between Thanksgiving and the new year. And then I met Josh, and Jackson was 10 and they had never experienced a Christmas tree. And that first Christmas we lived in this huge loft with like crazy high ceilings. Josh was determined to make it a really lovely Christmas for me.
Jolene: Oh,
nicole: bought this Christmas tree and it's New York City, so they have to deliver the Christmas tree.
Jolene: okay.
nicole: tree was like 11 feet tall. It was in really fat, really huge in our little loft. And the two of them just stared at it like, what is a tree
Jolene: what do we do?
nicole: house? Like, what do we do? And I'm looking at them like, come on you guys. And they just were like, I don't even know what to do. So I got on the ladder and, you know, did the lights and all the [00:06:00] things and taught them about stockings, and so now we get baby trees,
Jolene: S
nicole: and we obviously do the menorah as well. I just found it hilarious 'cause I was like, oh, you guys have no idea what to do.
Jolene: what a Christmas tree is.
nicole: is this huge tree in our, in our house? Like, it was the whole concept. okay. Tell me about your,
Jolene: awesome.
nicole: you a white light? A loved a blink. I loved a blinking light as a kid too, but it was white
Jolene: Oh,
nicole: What were, what were your traditions?
Jolene: growing up we were multicolored lights.
nicole: Okay.
Jolene: but, but since I've had my own trees, yes, we've always, we've done white lights
nicole: Mm-hmm.
Jolene: and I don't think we do twinkling. I think it's always. I think it's always just steady and I'm the type of person
nicole: too.
Jolene: Yeah. And, and I want the lights on all day long. Like I have a timer on my lights,
nicole: so
Jolene: now I just want 'em on all the time.
Yeah, just let's plug it in and have it in [00:07:00] we have a star. We are star people. Yes. Yep. Mm-hmm.
nicole: So the liberal has an angel and the conservative has
Jolene: has a star.
nicole: I
Jolene: that interesting?
nicole: and liberals. Do you have DI wonder if that is a, I don't. I
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: of a cultural thing, don't you? Because my mom was southern. And they had angels. Like, I wonder where that comes from. The star versus the angel. Do
Jolene: I feel like we had angels growing up and I will tell you the reason that we have a star now is because it went with, with the aesthetic of the tree. So.
nicole: That's
Jolene: I mean,
nicole: the aesthetic.
Jolene: yeah. I mean, so if, if, yeah, an angel just didn't really go with the tree. So,
nicole: Mm-hmm.
Jolene: um,
nicole: get, do you get like a Douglas Fir or the ones that, I don't know what the, they're called. 'cause clearly we get Douglas first, but the ones that are separate,
Jolene: so for [00:08:00] years, okay, so for years we would go, when the girls were little, um, we would go out and find a tree. And that meant, um, you know, going to a lot where, you know, you would pick out your tree. Then that morphed into when we lived in Albuquerque, let's go out into the forest and cut one down. Well, yeah, but I'm sure it was illegal.
Like, I don't think we even, we were like, uh, I'm, can't you just, no, like, I mean literally went out and, and cut down a tree, which again.
nicole: not legal.
Jolene: I'm sure that was illegal. And I'm, I don't think that we even, like, I don't think that even dawned on us. So we have done that. We have gone to forest farms, I mean Christmas tree farms where you go and cut down the tree.
So we did that for, uh, for the rest of the time. and now that I'm working and have gotten older, I got a really nice artificial tree [00:09:00] last year. And let's hope this one lasts for several years. 'cause she's, she's a Butte. She's real pretty.
nicole: of this. I've heard about these artificial trees that they're, they're, I mean, we, here's the thing. We live in an apartment, so now we get those, like basically tabletop trees. our place is not big enough for a big tree and we travel a lot.
So
Jolene: yeah, yeah.
nicole: And, but I do hear that these artificial trees, we don't have any storage here, but you have
Jolene: Oh.
nicole: to store, stuff like that. But I
Jolene: I didn't even think about that.
nicole: And then you're not cutting a tree down.
Jolene: Right, right.
nicole: Where did you get your artificial tree? At? The Sam's Club.
Jolene: no, I did get, I did get my sweater at the Sam's Club.
nicole: Super cute. I really like it.
Jolene: shout out Sam's Club. I got this tree actually from like a professional, like a florist through my friend [00:10:00] and she was like, if you order, he's gonna put an order together for all of his trees. If you want, you and I can order ours right now and get it at his discounted rate.
And so we've got this, you know, fantastic tree for half the price that it normally would've been. And it's pre-lit, so it's already got the lights on it and everything. Like you literally put it together in three little places. Yep. And plug her in. And she's beautiful. Yes. Yeah. Like the really good artificial ones.
Yes. And then you load that sucker up with ornaments.
nicole: How big is this tree? Because you have a big old house. You could have a big tree.
Jolene: Oh, yeah. But you know what? We don't have a good place for the tree. Like we ended up putting it in the sunroom and so it's, I think it's seven or eight feet tall. so in, in the past, our Christmas trees have always been with the decorations, all of the ornaments that the girls have ever made.
So it's a cute homemade tree with all of their little things when they couldn't even, [00:11:00] you know. Scribble until they were older. Um, but then when we moved into our new house, I got a little selfish and I said, no, I want a, like a nice tree. And the girls were completely offended, couldn't believe. So we put, so we did put one tree in the basement that has all their cute ornaments on it downstairs, and then we have the pretty grownup tree upstairs.
nicole: do the same thing. They
Jolene: know,
nicole: trees. They
Jolene: I mean
nicole: aesthetic, Hey, there's no judgment here. There's no
Jolene: I know.
nicole: What about stockings? I love a stocking. Do you guys have stockings?
Jolene: We do stockings. Yes, absolutely. And the girls, even though they're all in their twenties, um, they still on Christmas morning, they want to have a stocking. Like there better be things in the stocking that Santa has left because.
nicole: my favorite thing as a kid, was the stockings.
Jolene: the stocking. [00:12:00] Oh
nicole: loved it. I loved the magic of it. Even when I knew
Jolene: yeah.
nicole: I still loved it. Did you put like
Jolene: Oh
nicole: the night before?
Jolene: yes. We always left cookies and milk out for Santa and some reindeer food. And so when they woke up in the morning, it was half eaten. Yeah. Yeah.
nicole: was the reindeer food?
Jolene: there was one year that we made it, and it's like a Chex mix and it's got glitter in it because they're magical reindeer. And so you had to put glitter in it and Yeah.
nicole: oh,
Jolene: Yes. Yeah.
nicole: if your parents ate the glitter or if they're like, hell no, I'm not eating that. I'm
Jolene: I don't, well, I think,
nicole: Uhhuh,
Jolene: yeah,
nicole: uhhuh Uhhuh.
Jolene: Yep.
nicole: You never saw that. You never saw the glitter food in the trash by accident,
Jolene: Right now, but I'm talking our tradi, like ours, like. As parents, not Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Not, um, um, we had stock, but yeah, growing up we always had stockings too. Yeah. when would you open presents?[00:13:00]
nicole: Ah, I know. That's a controversial
Jolene: Yeah. Yeah.
nicole: We, we were Christmas Day. a lot of times we had our like, dear friend and, and family friends, and the daughter is still one of my best friends who's in Portugal. Shout out Courtney. they used to throw an Christmas Eve party. So we would, everyone would go to this Christmas Eve party, then sometimes we would go to mass, believe it or not, we lived on an
Jolene: Oh.
nicole: the, the church was an Episcopalian church
Jolene: Hmm.
nicole: we would go to midnight mass sometimes, not all the time. My dad would stand on the back 'cause he was like, I can't, I can't take communion.
Jolene: want it. Okay.
nicole: was, well, the Jewish person, he is
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: it's not for me. But he would go, you know, we were a, we were a, any anything goes kind of family. sometimes we would finagle Tyler and I would finagle out one [00:14:00] gift
Jolene: Hmm. On Christmas Eve.
nicole: But then Christmas day was our, our gift extravaganza.
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: presents were never wrapped,
Jolene: Oh, he would just leave them? Mm-hmm.
nicole: you know?
And my,
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: mom was just so good at it. It would just, and my brother and I would sit, you know, we had this three floor house and we were in the, you know, lower the basement floor. And Tyler and I would sort of like wait to, to see when, when did we get to go upstairs? And
Jolene: Oh,
nicole: It
Jolene: it's magical.
nicole: I know. What about you for gifts?
Jolene: you know, we would always do gifts Christmas Eve and then go to church. Yep. Because, and I think as I thought about this, I think because Christmas Day we usually went to somebody's house to celebrate, like with the, with the extended family. So I think that's why we always did our gifts,
nicole: Okay.
Jolene: Christmas Eve and [00:15:00] then.
nicole: it be like in the afternoon and then you'd go to mass at like six
Jolene: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, okay, so growing up we would go to the Methodist Church and so it was, yes, you would go at night, you would go to church and it was usually a candlelight, even though they'd call it midnight service sometimes it was like at 10
nicole: yeah.
Jolene: and
nicole: at midnight
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: For
Jolene: Um, but when we lived in New Orleans
nicole: I know
Jolene: Oh, the big play?
Yes. No,
nicole: What?
Jolene: the
nicole: what is it
Jolene: yes. Um, the Nati. Like a live nativity. Yes.
nicole: yes.
Jolene: lived in New Orleans, you know, the Catholic churches are so fantastic in New Orleans that, um, we did go to midnight mass and it was great 'cause we could walk to church and walk back and that was so cool. That was such, that was a neat.
nicole: the Mu, the Music.
Jolene: And the music.
Yes. Yes. I know. I know. what else? Like what's the food tradition for you for Christmas?
nicole: ask about food.[00:16:00]
Jolene: You knew I would.
nicole: Christmas Eve, I, uh, we, I know we talked about our, in our Thanksgiving episode, the different regional things that
Jolene: Hmm.
nicole: occur and how, uh, both my parents, were raised in Texas and met in San Francisco, but I, so I have a lot of Southern influence, but I also, when it comes to it's sort of a, a, a mishmash on Christmas Eve, it's a very San Francisco thing.
We would always have cracked crab and fresh sourdough bread.
Jolene: oh, wow.
nicole: Right with lots of butter. That would be our Christmas Eve tradition. And then Christmas day, my mom was an incredible cook and my mom took dad's recipe,
Jolene: mm-hmm.
nicole: is a Jewish woman. made this amazing beef brisket.
Jolene: Mm.
nicole: And then my mom took the recipe and she would [00:17:00] make beef like a Jewish beef brisket for Christmas day. That
Jolene: Oh,
nicole: phenomenal. I think about it now. I'm just like, my mouth waters. Everybody would wit would be like, pat, I want your brisket. I want your brisket. And that was our Christmas day.
Jolene: so do you do it now?
nicole: I don't, you know what, it totally depends.
I know this is gonna sound, uh. I don't even know what it's gonna sound, but since we at this podcast sort of tell the truth,
Jolene: Hmm.
nicole: um, it's, it's been hard to create traditions with, even though I'm the stepmom. have been raising Jax with Josh for the last 13 years, um, and his mom is very prevalent in our li in his life. It's been hard to [00:18:00] create new traditions. even though he was 10, he was old enough that it's, it's hard
Jolene: Mm-hmm.
nicole: I know that there are things that in a good way have been influenced in. There are times now that he's like, where's the stalking? Where's the tree? Which is makes my heart sing that. that is now a part of his life. also because they're Jewish, creating a Christmas sometimes is really hard.
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: So don't try to press it. So it's totally dependent. Um, maybe we'll do brisket this year. That would be a fun thing. We're gonna be in Utah and that would be a lovely thing to do.
Jolene: Oh,
nicole: just
Jolene: I would love
nicole: to like
Jolene: that. I,
nicole: to cook my mom's, my
Jolene: yes.
nicole: that was then my grandmother's recipe. It would be a
Jolene: And have your dad over.
nicole: Oh yeah. You know it, you know Bob, Bob loves the brisket.
Jolene: Bob.
nicole: [00:19:00] Bob,
Jolene: Bob's gonna love that brisket.
nicole: My mom also used to make a lot of breads, like, um, but like zucchini bread and
Jolene: Hmm.
nicole: and, we didn't have a lot of sweets,
Jolene: Oh
nicole: enough.
We, I mean lemon bars for sure.
Jolene: yes.
nicole: very Christmasy. I know. I think she used to make like Mexican wedding cookies, which
Jolene: Hmm.
nicole: like these little, they almost look like buttons. And
Jolene: with powdered sugar.
nicole: sugar.
Jolene: Yeah. Yeah. Yes.
nicole: you Tell me, tell me, um,
Jolene: Um,
nicole: were,
Jolene: Christmas Eve is always a soup night, so that's soup and, um, presents and wine and, it kind of just depends. We could do a gumbo and, and, and for some reason my mom would always have two. So it was like, you would have a, like a, a broth [00:20:00] based soup and a creamy soup or a, so I kind of, I guess I'd do that same tradition of like a gumbo and a broccoli cheese soup or, you know, something of that.
I, I love soups. So,
nicole: we would sometimes do a carrot ginger soup on
Jolene: Oh, okay. Carrot, ginger. Sure. Okay. All right. on Christmas Day then, that's your fancy Christmas night is the fancy dinner. And so, for us anyway, so it, growing up, if we'd go to somebody's house, it was the traditional ham dinner. Um, Turkey, maybe? Yes, hammer, Turkey and, um, like a, a traditional dinner.
But now since we've had kids and our tradition then is usually a surf and turf. So like Jeff will do either, like, we'll do a tenderloin or we'll do, um, I've done short ribs before so it's usually a beef [00:21:00] and then some type of shrimp or maybe some sea bass or something like, you know, fancy.
We do fancy on.
nicole: you're, are you hosting it this year at your house?
Jolene: I think it all depends on bowl games because with, if TCU goes to a bowl game and Houston and Arkansas's not going to, but yeah, so everybody is tied to, we've all got these ties and so it all depends. We don't know what our plans are at this time.
nicole: Okay. Okay.
Jolene: as of this recording, um.
nicole: to be flexible just
Jolene: Yes. Yep. Yeah, totally.
Um,
nicole: do you put your tree up, by the way?
Jolene: I gotta go back to the sweets though, because we are all in diabetic COAs for about three weeks of Christmas because there is so much sugar. Like you can't
nicole: sweets.
Jolene: I don't either, but we do it and then we just eat it and it's like, it's there. And so you have to, it's like you're forgiven. Like you, you have to do it [00:22:00] during the holidays.
And so, uh, if you don't feel good,
nicole: fa what is your favorite?
Jolene: so Jeff's favorite is pecan Tassies. Do you know what pecan tassies are? It's like a mini pecan pie, like in a, so you make 'em in a, in a, like a muffin tin and a mini muffin tin.
nicole: okay.
Jolene: And it's a, it's a crust. And then, um, and then you put a filling and it's, it's literally like a pecan pie.
nicole: Okay.
Jolene: And so that.
nicole: sugary
Jolene: Yeah. Oh, yep. Mm-hmm.
nicole: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jolene: Um, it's fantastic. And then I'll always make Almond Rocha, you know, like a, like a, um,
nicole: Almond Rocha.
Jolene: oh my God,
nicole: with
Jolene: yes, yes. With chocolate. Oh my gosh, my girls love that. So we make that every year. Um, those are like, those are two of the staples, but then Jeff likes, like haystacks, like with the chow meine noodles and chocolate [00:23:00] chips and yeah, I mean,
nicole: on,
Jolene: I,
nicole: on. Timeout.
Jolene: yeah.
nicole: about? What's a haystack
Jolene: Uh oh, okay.
nicole: thing? What is
Jolene: No,
nicole: Iowa thing?
Jolene: no. It's a universal, no, not ramen noodles, like, um, chopped suey noodles. So, you know, like the crunchy noodles you can get, like the crunchy noodles that you'd put on chopped suey. Do you even know what Chop Sue is? That's such a
nicole: I wait. It's such a seventies thing.
Jolene: Oh, totally, yes. Yes,
nicole: Okay, y'all we're gonna put this in the show notes because
Jolene: Oh, yes.
nicole: a lot of you don't know what a haystack cookie is. I can't be the only one that doesn't know a haystack cookie is.
Jolene: Mm-hmm.
nicole: this is a peanut butter haystack cookie.
Jolene: Yep.
nicole: But
Jolene: And butterscotch and, and chocolate chips. I mean, it's super simple. It's like a no bake.
nicole: it's like, oh,
Jolene: I,
nicole: no bake
Jolene: yeah.
nicole: butterscotch, [00:24:00] haystack cookies. What is your recipe?
Jolene: I think it's just peanut butter and chocolate chips melted together and butterscotch chips all melted together. And then you throw the chopped suey, chow meine noodles in there, and then you spoon 'em out and you let 'em dry.
nicole: Are you kidding me?
you do you.
Jolene: Um, oh,
nicole: Time. So that's Jeff's favorite is a
Jolene: that's one of, yes, that's one of his favorites. and then the other thing is sugar cookies. I mean, you have to do sugar cookies and decorate 'em. Yeah. Yes.
nicole: Mm-hmm.
Jolene: Yeah. There was a little controversy last year with our sugar cookies because you have to make, well, you have to make the cookies first and you have to let 'em cool before you frost 'em.
And I think we did this after the girls got home we made the cookies in the morning and then we all took a nap. Well, Jeff woke up before the rest of us, and so he went in there and started frosting the cookies. And I love him. You know how much I love him. They look like a second grader had done 'em.
And we all, we [00:25:00] all came out and were like, what in the world? What are these like? We spent all these time, all this time making these perfect little shapes and stockings and stars and all of the, and you've just ruined them with this horrible frosting job. And that's not something you can redo. So.
nicole: a minute, was he was, did you hurt his feelings
Jolene: maybe we did. Maybe. Yeah. We could have,
nicole: trying to be helpful
Jolene: uh, no, I think he just wanted to eat 'em. Like he didn't wanna wait any longer. I think that's,
nicole: gonna say that he ate them before they were frosted. He was just like, no, I
Jolene: no, he wanted them all frosted and,
nicole: of your family is like the most, uh, traditional in terms of the rituals that you do?
Jolene: Patsy's probably the best cook of the girls. And so that's probably something that she, she would be like, no, we, we've gotta do it this way. So she's probably the most particular. But when it comes to our traditions, like what movie we watch, when and who has to be there, so like the [00:26:00] movie that we watch every year is The Family Stone, which absolutely hands down, best Christmas movie ever.
And we've always, the five of us watched, watched it this last year. Trey Patsy's husband got to watch it with us and this was before they got married. And this was kind of the test. If he didn't, I mean they got married in May and if he didn't, like, if he didn't like the movie, we could have called the wedding off.
We still had time.
he, he loved it. And he was emotionally moved by it. Because that's the other thing, like if you, if you, if that movie does not resonate with you, there's absolutely something wrong with you as well.
nicole: watching the movie or Trey
Jolene: Um,
nicole: if he
Jolene: no, we are all in, on the movie. We all cry at the same time. We cry like babies every year. it's a perfect ritual for us. And we're even to the point where we can, you know, say the lines as they're coming up. So, I mean, it, it may turn into like a Rocky Horror movie show [00:27:00] for us. I mean, like, we should all dress the parts and
nicole: Yes, for
Jolene: and just act it out. but yes, we were all very, you know, side eye and Trey to make sure that he was, that he was, he too was moved at the right parts and thought that the right parts were funny and all that.
Yeah,
nicole: will Jacob now be tested
Jolene: I know. So now it'll be Jacob's turn. And we'll see. We'll see if he passes. I hope he does. I like him.
nicole: too, 'cause I get to come to this wedding and I'm so excited.
Jolene: Okay. Wait, do you have movies that you watch? Do you have things? What are, what are the other traditions?
nicole: it was never like, let's watch this at this time. I know that we very much enjoyed, oh gosh, I always get the name of it wrong.
Jolene: it's a wonderful life.
nicole: It's a Wonderful Life.
Jolene: knew you were gonna say that.
nicole: loved that movie.
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: and it makes me cry every
Jolene: Every time.
nicole: it's more like when it's on, gotta [00:28:00] watch it.
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: Like you can't stop, can't stop, won't stop. Like, and then it's just, the acting's incredible. The message is incredible. you don't have to celebrate at all.
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: like, celebrating your life, being in the moment, appreciating the people that you love.
Jolene: Yep.
nicole: and watching it at such a young age, knowing those lessons. And what's also cool, I wanna say it was sh made in 1939. when you watch these older films and you think, oh, it's an older film, um, it's not gonna resonate. And you find out No, they have the exact same problems
Jolene: Yeah. No, isn't that true? I
nicole: it's, hold on one second. 1946.
Jolene: 46.
nicole: Yeah. Yeah, we'll put this in the show notes just for fun. Um, and of course, miracle on 34th Street, which is like old New York,
Jolene: Well, that's what I was gonna ask. Okay. What about Elf?[00:29:00]
nicole: Oh, I love that movie.
Jolene: I was just saying like, as a New Yorker,
nicole: that's a
Jolene: you need Yes. As a New Yorker, don't you need to watch Miracle on 34th Street and Elf and I mean all those New York based, I mean, what about, um, oh, what's the McCauley Kin? Um,
nicole: Oh, home Alone.
Jolene: Alone.
nicole: that was not my thing.
it's a wonderful life. Oh my
Jolene: Yeah. Yeah.
nicole: good. What a good movie. And I love Family Stone,
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: it's not like I have a, I sit down and it's, it's basically like your fear of flipping channels and you're like, oh, I love this
Jolene: Oh
nicole: It's like, it's like Wedding Crashers. If that, if that movie is on, I
Jolene: I'm not.
nicole: I have to watch it. I have to watch it.
Jolene: Um, okay. Here's a, here's a question. Do you make a Christmas list, and I mean for like Josh to get you things,
nicole: No.
Jolene: you saying, these are the things I would like for Christmas? Or do you ask [00:30:00] for Josh or Jackson to give you a Christmas list of things that they want?
nicole: is, this is gonna be, so not what people do, I guess. We don't give gifts anymore and we haven't for years.
Jolene: Okay.
nicole: reason we don't is because we travel.
Jolene: Oh
nicole: where we spend our money.
Jolene: yeah.
nicole: we want to do. And so we'll give gifts to Jackson. But in terms of it comes to me and Josh, whether it's birthdays or anniversaries or holidays, we, we definitely write each other love notes.
But the gifts, we don't
Jolene: Oh,
nicole: ' cause we're like, we, all of that, all the money goes to the travels.
Jolene: okay.
nicole: that's what we love to do.
Jolene: Yeah,
nicole: 'cause
Jolene: a great idea.
nicole: mean, for us, can get whatever we want.
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: and that's just the thing that we love to do together the most. And, and I guess it takes [00:31:00] pressure off of that.
Jolene: Hmm.
nicole: Um, not well at the beginning. We definitely, um. Would give each other gifts and they were thoughtful. But, but no, I mean, my, my brother's family, they are list, like, you name it, they've got
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: list, they've got all the lists. There's so many lists, and they have so many gifts under the tree.
It's kind of mind boggling. Like we are
Jolene: Oh
nicole: the polar opposite.
Jolene: yeah,
nicole: but that's okay.
Jolene: yeah,
nicole: what about
Jolene: yeah.
nicole: I mean, I would imagine that you guys, you have a lot of kids, a lot of, like, how do you do it so that you don't go broke? You have so many people.
Jolene: Well,
nicole: who has my friend Beth, shout out.
Beth, I love you. Christmas is it for them and they have four kids in their family, and then they're all married and then they have kids. And I don't honestly, like everyone gets a gift. I don't know how you
Jolene: oh wow. Yeah.
nicole: How do you afford it?
Jolene: Well, you put together a [00:32:00] list. No, I do. I, in fact, I get a, a legal pad out
nicole: Mm-hmm.
Jolene: start writing what I'm gonna get everybody and how much it's gonna cost and how much I'm gonna spend so that I know that if I spend $150 on Kelly, I'm gonna spend $150 on Patsy. I'm gonna spend 150 on Bobby. I mean, like, everybody's got the same amount.
So you keep it even. and then,
nicole: give to you too? Like
Jolene: yeah.
nicole: where you're like, we don't have to do this anymore, or not?
Jolene: Well, so this year I think
nicole: I just feel like
Jolene: it was really,
nicole: these days.
Jolene: I was just gonna say, and I think everybody is
nicole: bill here in, I don't
Jolene: ah, bad.
nicole: Our bill for July, which is normally if you do a summertime and it's hot and humid here and you do a summertime, it would be normally be under a hundred dollars, but summertime we'd be like one 50 if it was bad. 180.
[00:33:00] This was three 50,
Jolene: oh shit.
nicole: We live in a small apartment
Jolene: Our worst bill this summer at our house was three 50.
nicole: said, our expenses are much higher.
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: like, like everyone's feeling a little strapped. Like how do you deal with your Christmas shopping?
Jolene: Well, so we've said to the girls, because they're always all strapped for cash, and so we've said to them, you know, don't get us, there's nothing that, there's nothing that we need. So I mean, like I wanted.
nicole: I would
Jolene: Yes, I 100%. And so if Bobby's having to buy a plane ticket to get home, great. Spend that money to come home and let us take care of you.
I, I would rather do that than, you know, her. Spend a hundred bucks on something for me. I wanted a gold, a pair of gold earrings last year. And I, and I even said to the girls, I go, not like nice gold, like not real gold. I want you to go to Amazon and find like $8 earrings that were, I just need some gold earrings.
So, I [00:34:00] mean, get that type of a gift instead of like something.
nicole: you exchange lists so that people sort of know?
Jolene: Yes. And that's the problem. And I don't like that. And that came from Jeff's family, Oh, I mean, he will be very,
nicole: any creativity or anything.
Jolene: If you're gonna get it, just go get it. I mean, why? Well, like why Now, I will say though, I'm also very guilty, and this is when the girls were younger and living at home, starting in about October.
If they started to ask for like toothpaste, I'd go put it on your Christmas list. I mean, do you need deodorant? Put it on your Christmas list. Like that's a great stocking stuffer. And they would be like, no, not like, I need it now. And I'm like, oh God. So I kind of got to the point where ever, every time they needed something I'm like, Ooh, that'll be good for Christmas.
nicole: Mm-hmm.
Jolene: know that's not fair, but man, I did that. New shoes. They needed new shoes. Great Christmas gift.
nicole: Christmas. Yep,
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: yep.
Jolene: So
nicole: list thing, honestly, Jolene, I mean, maybe Jeff comes from a [00:35:00] bigger family too. Maybe it was easier, but I feel like this list thing is a little bit more modern.
part of it is sometimes you're gonna get a gift that you hate.
Jolene: Yeah,
nicole: part of, part of Christmas. You're
Jolene: but that's the thing. I would rather have a gift that somebody, somebody put some thought into and they saw it and went, you know what I thought of you when I saw that? And whether it is a coaster
nicole: Mm-hmm.
Jolene: you know, says something funny, then that's great. I think, yes. I think, I mean, we all talk about becoming less materialistic and,
nicole: Mm-hmm.
Jolene: spending that, that money that you would on somebody else who doesn't have anything.
I mean, should you, go and donate your time at the, you know, at a homeless shelter or a
nicole: a soup
Jolene: soup kitchen? Yeah.
nicole: Mm-hmm.
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: are your family like a Black Friday?
Jolene: Oh gosh, no.
nicole: Me neither.
Jolene: I couldn't. That sounds like the worst thing in the [00:36:00] world.
nicole: Hallelujah. This liberal and this conservative
Jolene: Ugh. Mm-hmm.
nicole: think it's gotten so outta control and now, like Christmas starts around October 1st, and Black
Jolene: Yeah,
nicole: starts around October 15th.
Jolene: a couple of Black Fridays. Yeah.
nicole: so like, it's so commercial and so consumer. It just grosses me out.
Jolene: But I do love that they've done small business Monday, and I don't know, you probably haven't seen this in Oh, okay. Good. Okay. That like, and especially when we lived in, in Wimberley, Texas, that was a small town instead of, you know, going to Austin or San Antonio, you know, the big stores and doing all of your Black Friday shopping, wait until Small Business Monday and support the small businesses.
And I mean you could do that online too, so
nicole: it was small business Saturday. I thought it was small business Saturday, cyber Monday, giving Tuesday. I mean, that's a thing. How many
Jolene: Oh, maybe it is. Maybe it is Small business [00:37:00] Saturday,
nicole: small business Saturday, I
Jolene: think you're right.
nicole: after Black Friday, and then they have
Jolene: And then it's Cyber Monday.
nicole: and then they have Giving Tuesday, which you don't have
Jolene: Oh sure.
nicole: because you're busy buying all the sales.
And then let's be real, everybody,
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: you end up buying so much stuff for yourself that you forget that you have a Christmas list to get other people. 'cause you're like, Ooh, those jeans are like half off. Do you, does that happen to you? Do you
Jolene: Well, I will get them and then I'll give them to Jeff and say, here's what you got me for Christmas. And he's like, okay. All right.
nicole: you go. There
Jolene: I mean, that's all right. Yeah,
nicole: wait. Let's go back to the first question you asked me. Do you say Happy Holidays? Do you feel that you're worried about offending someone? What do you do?
Jolene: it is so funny 'cause I always used to make a stance, take a stance and say Merry Christmas because I. Want you to have a Merry Christmas, whether you celebrate it or not, I am asking, I am telling you, I [00:38:00] want you, I want you to have a Merry Christmas. And then the evolution of things, I'm like, no, I don't wanna offend anybody though if they're not Christian.
And so I'll say Happy Holidays. in fact, I think it was the year that Target made, and this was probably, I mean, it could have been 20 years ago when Target made a big deal of their employees could no, could no longer say Merry Christmas. They had to say Happy Holidays. Do you remember that?
nicole: do remember that. 'cause maybe that's when it started
Jolene: you know, it was probably then that I made a firm stance, especially when I was in Target to say Merry Christmas to, you know.
nicole: to do.
Jolene: Me.
however, I think, so I don't know, probably the last 10 years then I've said happy holidays. 'cause I don't wanna offend anybody.
And
nicole: I think I have to, for the most
Jolene: just to make sure that everybody feels like I am, I don't know. I think I might go, go back to Merry Christmas though. I just, I don't know. if I'm at church, I'm gonna tell [00:39:00] somebody Merry Christmas.
nicole: Why
Jolene: I'm checking out at the grocery store, I'm probably gonna say Happy holidays.
Right.
nicole: I'm gonna guess there are not a lot of Jews in the Ozarks. Is that fair to say?
Jolene: I don't know. I guess I hadn't thought about it. I mean.
nicole: honestly, I, I do have friends that will say Happy Hanukkah to me. 'cause they know that that's part of me.
Jolene: Right?
nicole: So, and I think they're doing it. I think it's very sweet when they do it. 'cause I don't, I don't really identify it as Jewish necessarily,
Jolene: Mm-hmm.
nicole: it's very sweet when they do it because I feel like they're trying to see me.
And I like
Jolene: Yeah. Right. Yeah,
nicole: and if you say Merry Christmas to me, I like that too. In New York, a lot of Jews here.
Jolene: yeah,
nicole: in New York. And
Jolene: yeah.
nicole: Hanukkah. I
Jolene: But you.
nicole: seems to be pretty particular, like you'll know that this person is Jewish and you wouldn't necessarily say Merry Christmas to them. I don't think Jews would be offended. maybe what I'm gonna say I'm [00:40:00] gonna get some heat for, but as someone that is both Christmas has always seemed way bigger than the religion. It's been
Jolene: Hmm.
nicole: this seasonal. Holiday. I mean, it takes over everything.
Everything becomes red and green and
Jolene: Mm-hmm.
nicole: and lights and, and I don't think Jewish people are like me. Like
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: don't,
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: like, yeah. I mean, I, I know growing up, like I felt very lucky that I got to celebrate both. I had friends that were Jewish and they were like, I wanna celebrate Christmas.
'cause I want, you know, you know, but then they're like, but then they're like, well, I, I get eight days, you know, and I get a gift, which is, you know, the, the parents were like, let's figure out how we make this seem. O okay, you know, but, but I don't know. I feel like America has made it more than, I
Jolene: Just a religious
nicole: the or Christians, those don't even celebrate. They're not necessarily thinking about Jesus and Mary and all the things that you think about. I feel like with this [00:41:00] culture, just where we are, we've become so hypersensitive about offending people that we end up offending people.
Jolene: Yeah. Right. when you say Happy holidays though, that includes Kwanza and, and Hanukkah and,
nicole: of course, of
Jolene: okay. Yeah,
nicole: I just think it's nice that people, it seems that people can be a little friendlier during that time.
Jolene: Right. Or nastier. I mean, if they're out shopping and they're, you know, dealing with crowds and I mean, that's the, isn't that the ironic part of Christmas and the holidays is that you would think, and I, and I do think, I think generally speaking, people are nicer and friendlier and, and a little more patient
nicole: the street and say, happy holidays, where at least in New York you would, that you'd never say
Jolene: never. Yeah.
nicole: then somebody would be like, oh, happy holidays. Oh, great.
Jolene: But I also think that the, that the holidays are a time of, of, of a [00:42:00] lot of stress and especially for people who are struggling financially and can't maybe give something to their kids. And I mean that you think, okay, that could be a really stressful time. I mean, obviously.
nicole: obviously it's very stressful. It's very stressful for people that don't have food, that don't have money, that don't have shelter. It's very stressful. Those
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: with their families.
Jolene: Yep.
nicole: thing, Jolene, that I, you know, there's a, and I think we've talked about this before, like I, I always crave having a, a big family and that you'd have traditions and those kind of things, but in some ways I do feel grateful in a weird way that I don't, because I also see the amount of stress.
You seem to be a
Jolene: Hmm.
nicole: that like, loves each other and gets along and all the things, but there's so many times I see people that are like, they're rolling their eyes and they're like, I have to spend this much money and I
Jolene: Mm-hmm.
nicole: mom or my dad and I have to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they're miserable.
And
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: so don't do it.
Jolene: [00:43:00] Yeah,
nicole: Why are you doing it?
Jolene: yeah, yeah.
nicole: but we as a culture do this all the time.
Jolene: Well.
nicole: have to, I have to, and I'm like, do you.
Jolene: You know, I think, um, isn't it Mel Robbins, who talks about the guilt associated, um, with, you know, your, your parents put a, a guilt trip on you. Well, I mean, you're not gonna come see me at the holidays or, you know, or, or maybe some on your, in-laws side or whatever. And it is, there is a lot of pressure.
And you are right. You have got to be able to say, no, this is, this is what we are doing for our family. And know, you know, that it, that it's important to understand what makes you happy. sometimes doing things for other people makes you happy and that's great. I mean, so, so do that. But, um, you know, not at the peril of, you know, stressing yourself out so much that you're.
You've gone into [00:44:00] a dark, deep place in the holidays.
nicole: Also it feels like if, first of all, like airfare, everything's more expensive,
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: and I kind of feel like if you made a choice to take some time to visit your family at another time of year versus at that time of year, and if you're like pissed off and resentful, then you're bringing that pissed off resentful
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: to, to the Christmas table,
Jolene: yep.
nicole: is not a lot of fun and not very kind and not very considerate.
Jolene: can we also talk about this for one second you and I have talked so much about social media and, and the pressure of social media, let's also take a a minute to recognize that the stories that people put on their social media don't necessarily represent. you know, the real true feeling of that holiday from that family, because I will tell you it's inevitable every year as we put the [00:45:00] Christmas tree up and put the decorations up, somebody gets so pissed off at somebody else that, I mean, there's a fight and nobody's talking and it's bad. And I'm sitting here going, okay, see, I had this whole beautiful vision of all of us going, oh, remember this ornament?
And, and that, and pretty soon, like some, like I think blood sugar gets low and, and people get cranky. And I'm like, what? How did this get So, and, and like Callie will say, I'm just gonna put the tree up by myself. I need you guys to go do stockings. I'm gonna do the tree. And then Patsy gets mad because she had a football game on that she wanted to watch while we were doing this.
And Bobby is trying to make everybody happy. And she's like, but I wanted to do this. And like all of a sudden everybody's mad at each other. But you know what, you know what picture goes up on the old Instagram is this beautiful, happy family around beautifully decorated tree.
nicole: Isn't that amazing? The smoke and
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: I love that you shared that. 'cause the smoke and [00:46:00] mirrors of social media gets even more intense at these,
Jolene: Right.
nicole: holidays and and to be fair, there's a lot of very lonely people at the
Jolene: Yeah, yeah,
nicole: and that's something to actually say to our listener and viewer, out for each other.
Jolene: yeah,
nicole: really look out for each other. Check on your friend. Check on your. check on your next door neighbor. Make sure they're okay, because the expectation is so high at these holidays to have that picturesque, that
Jolene: Yes.
nicole: when the, when the reality is there can be fighting and, and snide comments or whatever might be happening. But like it, this is really a time to check on each other invite people over
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: your hearts. And, because this is, this could be a really hard time for [00:47:00] people,
Jolene: Yeah. Totally. what a fantastic time also to give back, to give to those charities. That, and, and unfortunately, so many of these charities get extra funding. I mean, that people feel generous at the holidays and give, and the reality is they really need it back in June. I mean, there are so many charities that, that need help, and especially at the holidays to, to make sure that your, your kids in your community have gifts. if you wanna give local, that's the thing is, you know, look at those programs that are, um, helping those kids. Even, you know what, even if you don't, if you're in a, in a community maybe that doesn't have any programs or that you are not aware of, call a school, call an elementary school and say, you know what?
I got an extra 25 bucks this year. Can I, is there a family that maybe needs something that I could give them? What a beautiful thing to do for. For those who are less fortunate.
nicole: at the moment, we have a lot of [00:48:00] hungry people
nicole: it's important to remember that there are people that are much less fortunate than you and are struggling with the basic needs.
And if you can donate to your local food bank and help people, food to eat,
do you have a good for the soul?
Jolene: we need to put some recipes in for our show notes. Maybe that's the good for the soul. It's also good for the tummy or good for the hips or good for the thighs. Dunno. So that will be my good for the soul is, is some recipes. Yes. I will send those to you.
nicole: am, I Mine is, um, just snugly cozy. It's an Instagram handle
Jolene: Okay.
nicole: and it is the, the handle is Rocky Road Doodles.
Jolene: Uh.
nicole: Yes. Yes. People, little baby puppies, [00:49:00] puppies. They're based in Utah. Y'all. click on that follow button of the Rocky Road doodle and change your algorithm to all things dogs. There's nothing else to actually look at. Why bother with anything else? Forget politics. Forget all that stuff. Watch the puppies. They are so delicious.
Jolene: my gosh. Following right now.
nicole: I had to do this for my soul ' my algorithm is feeding so much politics and I need to look, I need to look at it.
I need to read it 'cause of this podcast. But I was like, what can I do for Nicole? And it's, look at some dogs.
Jolene: Okay.
nicole: Uh, would you rather,
Jolene: yes,
Would you rather re-gift a gift to someone that gifted it to you
nicole: Oh [00:50:00] my
Jolene: or, or get a gift from someone whom you did not get a gift for?
nicole: Oh.
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Would
Jolene: Yeah. That's a bad one.
nicole: Want to give a gift to someone that gave it to me
Jolene: yep. So a re-gift.
nicole: But the same gift.
Jolene: Yes. Like you've got this gift from somebody and you're like, I am never gonna use this. And so you put it and don't you have a, do you have a re-gift? Like cupboard? Okay. Okay. I don't either.
nicole: we're in a New York apartment. Yes,
Jolene: true.
nicole: Oh my gosh. Or get a gift from someone who I didn't give a gift to.
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: Honestly. I would get a gift from someone who I didn't get a gift to. [00:51:00] Because I could definitely make it up to that person by saying, I'd love to take you out to dinner. Let's, uh,
Jolene: Oh,
nicole: you know, thank you so much and I'd love to do something with you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. giving a gift back to the person that gave it to me
Jolene: but you did it on accident.
nicole: I know, but that seems so rude
Jolene: Well, it's rude.
nicole: So, yeah, I mean, I guess both are kind of rude, but I think I could make it up to that friend
Jolene: Yeah, that's a good point.
nicole: a gift.
Jolene: Yeah,
nicole: Yeah.
Jolene: a good point. Yeah.
nicole: ready?
Jolene: Yes.
nicole: Would you rather on a Christmas caroling tour for three days? Like you're gonna hang out with these people with Marjorie Taylor Green
Jolene: Oh my gosh.
nicole: or a OC or.
Jolene: Oh gosh.
I don't know.
nicole: I [00:52:00] know you are going to like go in a van with them, drive for three days and three nights. You're gonna hang out, you're gonna hang out in a Holiday Inn Express together. You are gonna, you're gonna like have dinner together. Then you're gonna go sing at all the towns, all these little towns.
Who's it gonna be with Taylor Green or a OC and why?
Jolene: Okay. Because I don't think a OC probably knows very good Christmas carols.
nicole: Oh my God,
Jolene: So I'm gonna say that she's probably not gonna be a very good member of this band.
nicole: Oh my gosh.
Jolene: Um, and Marjorie Taylor Greene has turned a new leaf. Like
nicole: I,
Jolene: all of a sudden,
nicole: with her. I
Jolene: all of a sudden
nicole: her.
Jolene: we have a new MGT
have.
nicole: spirit has, I don't know what's going on with her.
Jolene: That's what it is. She's been [00:53:00] moved by the spirit, and that's who I want. That's who I want in my band, in my Christmas caroling band Van. I
nicole: Oh my God. Listen, would be a really interesting experience with her. 'cause I don't understand what's happening. I appreciate it. I
Jolene: good for her.
nicole: it,
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: but I don't know what's happening.
Jolene: I think she's got some.
nicole: caroling tour with her and then find out
Jolene: I'll find out. Yep, that's exactly it.
nicole: her on the podcast and
Jolene: All right.
nicole: we'll see what's what, like how she went from the lasers
Jolene: Mm-hmm. Speaking sense,
nicole: Yes.
Jolene: being sensible.
nicole: I don't know. I don't
Jolene: Okay. Okay. I think maybe she's got some higher aspirations and somebody has finally gotten a hold of her and said,
nicole: I do
Jolene: girl, you gotta clean some stuff up. [00:54:00] Yep.
nicole: I think she knows exactly what she's doing.
Jolene: Yep. A hundred percent.
nicole: way smarter than people have given her credit for. it's interesting
Jolene: Yep.
nicole: because we're
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: whoa.
Jolene: The fact that she went on the view, the
nicole: know,
Jolene: how, how, the fact that the view would even allow her on,
nicole: See, that's what I actually like.
Jolene: yeah.
nicole: ' cause in a way what we're trying to do
Jolene: Yes. Good for them.
nicole: but like, good for them.
Jolene: Yeah.
nicole: she's, she's making the round. She's everywhere.
Jolene: Yeah. Is it a book to her? Did she write a book or something?
nicole: I don't think so. But you think, I think she's pissed off.
Jolene: Well, okay, great. Good for her. We all are. So maybe she is speaking for all of us.
nicole: sing with her.
Jolene: Oh God. We are gonna be singing,
nicole: knows how to sing too. [00:55:00] Anyway.
Jolene: oh, maybe.
nicole: Maybe. Maybe it could be the three of you.
Jolene: Oh my. Now there, now there's some fun.
nicole: There's some fun.
Jolene: And you could play the drums. It's me and you and the two of them.
nicole: boy. I'll
Jolene: Oh.
nicole: little drummer boy my three angels, my Charlie's angels,
Jolene: Oh, wait,
nicole: Marjorie Taylor Green, and a OC with the little drummer Boy.
Jolene: who's gonna be the lead singer?
nicole: you.
Jolene: Oh, it's gonna have to be me. Those two.
nicole: to be. Come on now.
Jolene: We couldn't let either one of them be it.
nicole: now. This is our show, not their show.
Jolene: Oh, that's true.
nicole: Alright. Um, listen, thank you, uh, Jolene, and thank you listener.
And viewer. And merry, merry Christmas.
Jolene: happy holidays to you.
nicole: holidays. Happy Hanukkah. Happy Kwanza, happy all the things. and please like and [00:56:00] subscribe.
Jolene: And please, if you are interested in being a sponsor, we would love to have you as a sponsor. So please contact us on our web pay, on our website, www dot we've got to talk.com and leave us a comment there and we will contact you.
So if you've got any connections, with a business that you think would love to sponsor, we've got to talk. Uh, we would love to talk to you.
nicole: yeah. So Jolene, I wish you a very merry Christmas.
Jolene: I wish you a very happy holiday.
nicole: Oh, look at that.
Jolene: Isn't that good?
nicole: That's good. That's good.
Jolene: And to our viewer too. Happy holidays.
nicole: holidays.
Jolene: Bye-bye.
nicole: Bye-Bye.
[00:57:00]
