What do you do?
Work for work.
And they're like, "I
email and I meet it."
Now granted, I'm not very tall.
You're an anchor now.
You're an angry elf.
This is a man's job.
You're ostracized
because you're different.
I would be remiss if I didn't bring up
whams last Christmas.
You love it.
It's not usually, it's not
freezing cold, but like...
That's a Minnesota term.
Oh, you caught Voltron, did you?
Oh, you saw Voltron, huh?
Pretty often.
Intergalactic, and that's
what I'm gonna give you.
See, over here?
Fine, but right here.
This kid's dead.
My parts are not gonna look right.
One day we'll get a thing.
Dang, what were we thinking?
Welcome to the Mr. and
Mrs. English podcast.
I'm Megan.
And I'm Sean.
We're here to talk about the wild ride of
raising kids and
growing careers, keeping life
together in the middle of all the chaos.
So buckle up, because we're all in this
crazy journey together.
Bippity boppity boo.
What's a jingle bells?
Oh, good one.
That has some good
sounds on it right there.
Jingle bells.
Bells.
I love that.
Yeah, yeah.
Pretty soon you're gonna just start
caroling at the beginning of these.
That's all we need.
Here we come, the caroling.
I didn't see how long
you were gonna go with it.
That's why I was just on in the car.
Oh, was it?
Yeah.
It is officially, it's officially time.
I mean, I've talked about it.
Cheers.
Cheers to officially
listening to Christmas music.
Cheers.
I mean, and hot chocolate.
And hot chocolate in my bite me cup.
It's a gingerbread man
who's got his leg bit off.
That's why he's saying bite me.
It's very cute.
Yes, the double entendre there.
Oh, is it double entendre?
Actually, no, I don't think it is.
I just think that it's...
Are you insinuating there's a double
meaning behind this?
I think there might be.
Hey, you know what, I just figured out
this is the best cup ever
because it's on both sides.
Yep, it is.
All the cup time drink out of that I
want, like, when I want, back in the day
when I wanted like my employees to see
like this would have been perfect.
Yes.
But it's on the right
hand, it always faces me.
Right, so you thought
it was just that side.
Yeah, like I don't want to see it. I want
them to see me telling them to bite me.
Right.
I love that.
Yeah, it's funny.
Yours is double sided too.
It is.
Man, they really do have these Christmas
mugs down to a science.
They got to figure it out.
They do.
They got to figure it out.
One of my favorites was I had an employee
and hers really was one sided
and it said this could be wine.
Yeah.
Like, that was one of my favorites.
She's like turning it very cautiously in
a meeting that she
didn't want the person to see.
She turned, you could read
it and then she reversed it.
She turned it.
Just slowly but surely.
Yeah, just trying to be very not discreet
about it, just like...
Did one of her eyebrows on the video go
up? She just like saw it.
Ooh.
Maybe I should not.
She probably saw me laughing at her and
was like, "The audience needs call."
Too late. We all read it.
We all saw that.
I guarantee, no matter what, there could
be 20 people on there.
Someone's got a mug with
something written on it.
Oh yeah.
I'm going, "What does that say?"
What does that say?
Yeah.
Oh my.
This could be wine.
Yeah, this could be wine.
And this is an 8 a.m. meeting.
That is great.
Is this wine? Is this wine?
Never mind. I'm getting
too much into that one.
So we're back after being off for a week.
I think we skipped a week.
We almost skipped two weeks because of
one technical difficulty.
Right.
So really, I don't think we meant to skip
a week, but because of
technical difficulties.
I mean, who knew that you needed a
computer to publish a podcast?
Yeah.
I did. Now you know, I guess.
Pretty sure we all knew that.
Yeah. I'm talking it up to you.
I didn't realize it's episode 45.
And I'm going to quote someone now.
That's a bad luck number, dawg.
You know who that is, right?
Was that Michael Jordan?
That's Michael Jordan.
That's right. Exactly.
Yeah.
He came back to 45, obviously.
And then he put back on his Superman 23.
And the rest is history.
Yeah.
So I'm guessing it's the curse of 45.
So I mean, this just goes to show just
not only for the podcast, right?
Like I do all the editing and all that
kind of stuff on the Macbook.
Um, that's really have one.
Maybe people have
multiple home computers now.
Everybody has a computer.
Everyone has a computer.
All three kids are from school.
So they do your schooling on it.
You have your work computer.
Everybody's got an iPad.
Yeah.
So we have a lot of electronics.
The math is. Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, it's five times like three.
Everybody's got an iPad,
a computer and a phone.
Yeah.
So I mean, like, wow.
And it's not a surprise.
We bought Apple stock a long time ago.
A long time ago.
Like, yay, us.
Like high five to that.
Well, I mean, it's
not like it was the 80s.
I mean, that would have
been high five worthy.
High five worthy.
If we were buying stocks in the 80s.
Yeah.
Well, a we'd be older or we'd be, you
know, little dooky housers.
But anyway, that's right.
That's right.
I did not realize that portfolios were
built on stock equities and, you know,
market caps.
I thought it was built on rock and roll
because that's what cities were built
on. So that's right.
Obviously your portfolio should be too.
Exactly.
That was a stretch and you found it.
I appreciate it.
Oh gosh, I'm going to put your lay down.
So so but I just I cannot believe how
just frozen at least I was because that's
actually my work computer to.
Yes.
I mean, I'm self-employed now.
I've been for a while now.
So everything I do is on that computer.
Yeah.
Luckily, it's all backed up
to the cloud, which is new now.
Yeah.
Maybe it's not really new.
It's not necessarily another company that
we own stock of Amazon, one of the
biggest early cloud AWS anyway.
So I should know about
this, all this stuff.
I mean, we're
invested in these companies.
Anyways, I mean, it wasn't
it wasn't an issue of that.
It's just the screen.
Something went on the screen.
But I was out of commission for Friday.
I traveled with it to our oldest.
He had a soccer showcase in Phoenix.
Yeah.
I was actually FaceTiming you working.
And you're like this just keeps going
blank every time I try to.
Yeah.
To do anything.
Yeah.
You restarted it because you know, that's
the first question you always get asked
by tech support.
Have you rebooted?
You're like, duh.
It has been for 20 years.
I think someone else said that.
I heard another
comedian say that same thing.
You know, that's a real thing where the
comedian is like, I'm sorry.
I'm like an IT person, but computers have
been around long enough that we all know
the very first thing
you do is restart it.
Yes.
So when I call you, we you should assume.
You should assume it got to the point
like at the time, like
back in a previous jobs,
I would call it because something was
wrong with my computer
and I would preempt the
I would preempt the question and be like,
I've already rebooted.
Yeah.
And and inevitably they do it.
They do it again.
And you do it again.
Yeah.
They want it done
while they're on the phone.
Yeah.
They don't trust you.
They don't trust you to hit the button to
turn it off and and
then hit the button to
turn it back on.
Did you hold it down for 10 seconds?
Did you do a hard reboot though?
I mean, there really is no other way.
Yeah.
I don't even know any work.
I'm a Mac guy now.
We may.
I made the switch to the personal to the
Mac book from from a desktop.
What a Windows version.
A PC.
Yeah.
Three years ago, maybe now.
Yeah.
I haven't really looked back.
There's differences, obviously.
But man, so so we don't actually have
those same things as
like a PC that control all
the lead.
There are similar functions.
Yeah.
But anyways, life came to a screeching
screeching halt, though.
It was my whole point here.
Yeah.
But I just started thinking about all the
things I couldn't do
because I work off of
that.
I keep budgets off that.
I pay bills off.
Everything goes through that.
Everything.
I mean, I'm I have that
computer attached to me.
Yes.
To run your business in our lives.
To run every year to run our lives.
Yeah.
So I mean, it's usually
it's on me everywhere I go.
I don't want to tell people it's in the
car because they'll break into the car.
It's never in the car.
It's never.
It's usually in the car.
Right.
Certainly not behind the driver's seat.
But it was a bit.
So.
So my point here is what a
nightmare not to have it.
Yeah.
Because I.
Oh, here.
I didn't tell the listeners.
I had to send it away.
They couldn't fix it.
So I took it to Apple Store
in Phoenix at a very nice.
It was nice to get to
go down this nice area.
We ended up eating down there and
spending some time down there.
And our oldest bought some clothes.
It was great.
Great little shopping
thing down there in that area.
It was really nice.
But they got it.
And they're like, oh, yeah, we're going
to have to send this in.
Like send it in.
Which it's new.
But that's not a personal computer.
Yeah.
I've never had to send in a personal.
Luckily I had the
warranty or whatever on it.
It's just over a year old.
It was probably like
a day over a year old.
This particular one.
Anyways.
But I just sent it in.
So I was without a computer.
So I was on a Friday.
It was.
He's like, you might
get it back by Wednesday.
And I was like, really?
Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
Yeah.
As our daughter would say.
Really?
Yeah.
Really?
I was kind of endowed on that.
And then I wasn't getting the updates.
Like it was supposed
to send out on Saturday.
And I didn't get the
update that it was sent.
But it did apparently.
And they received it on Monday.
Also, I did.
I got it on Wednesday.
Did I get it right before
Thanksgiving or right after?
I think it was right after.
So it was a full week.
It might have been Friday.
I think it was a full week.
But I was out on a
computer for a full week.
And there's only so much stuff you can do
from apps on a phone.
Only so much you can do.
I can't.
I'm a big Excel guy.
Oh yeah.
A lot of data kept in Excel files.
Yeah.
So here's my point.
Because I just realized I
talked for 10 minutes straight.
My point now is it was kind of nice.
Was it?
Not being tethered to it.
I mean, it was anxiety ridden seven days.
I was going to say, I felt some anxiety
levels there of like, I
don't even know if it was
just because you didn't have it or
because you weren't
making progress on things.
Or if it was just, addiction is probably
too strong, but
you're just so used to it.
I'm addicted, but that's just, we're
connected at the hip.
We talked about it a little bit a few
episodes ago, right?
Right.
We're not sleeping or
eating or watching soccer.
We're working.
Working.
Right.
Even if it's 15 minutes.
You, I mean.
Side track to the, to the
real I showed you last night.
I was like, this is you.
It is.
There's these stick figures.
Yes.
And they're, you know, it's on the
cartoon of stick figures.
I'm sure people have seen some of these,
but this one was hilarious.
And do you want to say
kind of what it was saying?
This is one stick figure asked the other
stick figure like, what do you do?
And they're like, for work.
And they're like, I,
I email and I meeting.
They're like, what, what do
you mean you email and meeting?
Well, I email, send emails, I receive
emails, I read emails, I respond to
emails and I meeting.
I go to meetings.
I sometimes set up a meeting.
It's like, no, but what do you do?
I'm not understanding your point here.
And the other workers just like, so, you
know, like matter of
fact about it, like, well,
I go into the, in the
morning, I boot up my computer.
I catch up on emails, email.
I respond to emails.
He's like, and then they're like, the
last kind of kicker was,
you know, and sometimes
if I'm, I'm feeling feisty,
I might email and meeting.
I might email while I'm meeting.
Yeah, it is, it is fabulous.
It is what I do.
Like it, it wraps up your life, wraps up
my life in a comical
satire of like 45 seconds.
Right.
Because if you really asked me what I do,
that's, that's what I do.
I email and I meeting.
Yeah.
So if you wonder what executives are
doing in a white collar
job in an office all day,
their email and meeting,
their email and meeting.
So funny.
But you do like, I'm, I'm similar in the
same way that even on
vacation, I do feel like
I want my computer with me.
Not, and you know that I'm pretty good at
when I'm on vacation.
I don't open it.
I don't, you're better now,
but it's a security blanket.
It's a security blanket.
That was addiction was not
the word I was going for.
It was a security blanket.
It's the feeling of it.
And it's like, well, what if I need it or
what if someone needs
me right away or, you
know, it's like I could get to it.
Yeah.
I had to, even though I, I don't.
Well, it's just, you know, I mean, you're
blessed and cursed
with, we were both blessed
and cursed with jobs that, you know, at
times when I was still
at the bank 24 years, we
never took a vacation where I wasn't
walking down the street
or walking down the beach
on my phone.
I don't.
Talking about a deal, closing a deal.
Oh my gosh.
We would be on the ski slopes and you
would, it never failed.
Like when we were going on vacation with
credit, something would happen for you.
We were on a vacation
once when I was on heavy.
What was I on?
Oh, you were on oxytocin
or something like that.
Oxycot.
Were you on oxy?
Were you?
Was it not at that point in time?
I think that was for
your kidney stones, right?
It was my kidney stones, but I was like,
literally, you were on.
I was like dripping sweat.
Oh, you probably had, I don't know, a
tylenol with codeine or something.
I had something, and I, cause I told the
guys, I was like, I
mean, I was leading the deal.
Yeah.
Trying to get it, trying to get a pass
and credit committee.
And that's when we, we
had to keep it moving.
There was just all this time pressures to
these things as it is or were.
And I mean, I took that call.
I told everybody like, look, I'm in the
middle of dying from kidney stones.
I'm on day four of a kidney stone.
I wanted to die yesterday.
He's done past.
I'm on heavy painkillers as much as I
can, but I'm going to
walk you through, you know,
this, this $40 million deal real quick,
you know, as why I
supported, you know, once I
walked through this whole,
you know, this whole thing.
Oh my gosh.
But that's, but that's,
that was, I was talking about.
Yeah.
That was, that was kind of, that's the
one you guys almost drowned on.
Yeah.
That was, that was a, that vacation was
just doomed from the get go.
It was doomed from the get go.
But we got into that because we're
blessed and cursed with
these jobs that follow you.
Yes.
You don't, you don't close, you don't,
it's not a nine to five.
You shut your computer and
you just forget about it.
It's never like that.
We do work when we can.
And that's what you're saying.
I'm not addicted to my
computer by any means.
That's what I was saying.
It was really nice
kind of not to have it.
Yeah.
If I ever checked enough boxes where I
can put the computer away for an hour or
two, I try to do that as much as I can.
But my to-do list, just like I'm sure
yours is and everybody else that's
watching, everybody's got, whatever you
do, you've got a to-do list.
Oh yeah.
You got your own, you got a honey-do list
and you got your to-do list.
Yes.
And it's never ending.
It's just like a hamster wheel.
Yeah.
It's like Santa Claus's like
naughty and nice list, right?
You checking it twice.
Sometimes you have to, but
it just never ends, right?
Like the list never ends.
It's very long.
It's like the scroll.
It's a paper scroll
that rolls out the door.
Okay.
Bring him in the holidays.
Yeah, I know.
I love it.
That's great.
It's a stretch.
I'll give you that.
Yeah.
I don't know who's there.
And that's why it's like you do.
And it's like, you
know, I got a free moment.
I feel like I should do that.
You know, whatever that is.
Yeah.
This last week was Thanksgiving and you
had a couple of things,
which is always the case too.
I mean, it's just, there's always
something on the fire.
You know what I mean?
On the whatever or
something brewing all the time.
Right.
And I know you were thinking you're
chewing on something the whole time.
Like I gotta have to, I
gotta talk about this.
I gotta, you know, there's this one issue
I need to figure out how I want to
respond to it and talk through it.
You know?
And so even though you weren't on your
computer, you were
computing in your head.
Yeah.
Cause I don't, I don't.
How do you get away from that?
How do, how do we get
away from that as people?
Cause everybody does it.
It's, I mean, yeah, I don't, I don't know
how other people do it.
I, I don't know.
I mean, you're good
at compartmentalizing.
I think I
compartmentalize pretty darn well.
Um, yeah, when we were in Europe this
summer, I can tell you I
didn't think about work.
In fact, I remember being on the plane
and I was like, gosh, I really should
pull out and just finish
up just a couple things.
You know, I'll feel so good if I get
those last two or three things done.
I was like, yeah, I'm on an airplane.
I think I'm going to watch another movie
or, you know, and I didn't do it and I
didn't, I have no guilt over it.
I mean, it's not that I don't enjoy what
I do, but I need those times where I
completely shut it off.
Yeah.
And I usually do a pretty good job.
I didn't do as good of a job.
I don't feel like over this Thanksgiving
and maybe because there
was more downtime, I like
where could seep in a little bit more.
Yeah.
Cause we didn't travel, which gives us,
which gave us more downtime.
Right.
Usually we're just like,
okay, done with that trip.
I mean, I literally would have got off a
plane from Phoenix, maybe, maybe gone
home and then, and then got right back on
another plane to fly out to Minneapolis
if we did that this year and we didn't,
which was so nice to, not, not because we
didn't see family, but just because we
just weren't running.
Right.
And, and it's just been really excessive
amounts of running, you know, yeah.
Really since school started.
I feel like the summer
wasn't super busy, but yeah.
That's what I was thinking too.
That was kind of funny.
Um, I put a, I put a
post up on Instagram.
Uh, I think I said like three days and 90
seconds or something, like, you know, for
kind of our week of Thanksgiving.
And, um, when I was doing it, I was like,
man, I skipped so many things.
And there was a lot of
stuff in there that we did.
You know what I mean?
But I think people that are listening, I
mean, that are in the
same season we are too.
I mean, if someone followed you around
with the camera, I think we're going to
look back on these days and people that
have already been through these days.
I mean, we're going to, we're going to
look back on these days
and think, how did we do it?
How did we have energy to do it?
You know, cause most of them right now,
we're like, I'm so tired.
By the time we get to
nighttime, we're exhausted.
Yeah.
Sometimes we're tired
during the day, but it's just.
Well, and I, something's pushing us.
Something.
Oh yeah.
I think it's just
inertia at some point, right?
I, but I, I told you over Thanksgiving,
well, over the break and,
and I took the full week off.
Um, you were forced to take
the, almost the full week off.
Um, you had a couple of things, but like
I took the full week off.
I had no problem sleeping
until eight 30 every morning.
Like, and it's not like we
were going to bed at one or two.
I mean, it was, it was
no problem to sleep in.
I was like, I'm just physically,
emotionally exhausted.
And all I wanted to do was sleep.
And so, um, I caught, I definitely caught
up over the break,
even if it was just like,
and now you're behind again here.
You know, like I'm just going to sit here
and do a Lego or I'm
not going to do anything.
Yeah.
Even just that.
Yeah.
We did a lot of Legos.
We did.
I started them.
I started them while you were gone.
We took family pictures and I guess that
I think I've already forgotten.
We took family pictures.
We actually took two
rounds of family pictures.
That's right.
So the first round is people that get our
Christmas card, they
know, um, maybe they don't
know, maybe, maybe everybody doesn't pay
as much attention,
which is probably the case.
But we do the exact
same picture every year.
Everybody's in the same spot.
We're in, we're nearly the same clothes.
These Megs and I are kids are similar.
We have the same cake.
We have the same flowers.
Everything's the same about it, except
the kids just grow and
Megan and I don't age.
Sure.
Obviously not.
So, so that, but
that's always a to do to do.
It's fun.
This year was better because I had a
clicker, which made it much easier.
Somehow.
That was a game changer.
I mean, and we've been doing this, this,
I think is our 10th
year doing it this way.
Yeah.
At least.
Yeah.
I think it's 10.
Our youngest was so
small when we started it.
Oh my gosh.
He was, yeah, he was,
he hadn't turned two yet.
I don't think he still
didn't even sit on the counter.
Crisscross applesauce.
He just sat there
with his legs like this.
You know what I mean?
Like babysit.
Yeah.
I don't know what that is called.
He was, or maybe he was too.
Was he too going on three?
Maybe, but anyway, I
mean, he's been 10, 11 years.
It's been a long.
He doesn't know
anything different for sure.
No, no.
And it's just the kids like it because it
is such a, it's a tradition now.
Yeah.
Well, then we get to let them like eat
cake with their hands and like, yeah.
Unfettered access to cake.
That picture never makes it like we take
like 60 pictures, you know, and, and
before this, what we were saying was, I
don't know how, maybe I'm just stupid,
but for the longest time, I would just do
the timer on the, on the iPhone or the
camera, I'd click it and then you get
five seconds to run back around.
Everybody's like, hurry, hurry, hurry.
Make her hand me my
drink and we'd be like smile.
And then I'd run back and I'd do it
again, like 60 times.
Oh yeah.
The clicker.
Yeah.
Game changer.
This year I got to find a Bluetooth
clicker for the iPhone.
So I just stood behind it.
Click, click, click, click, click.
We all these pictures were all just
barely moving our heads.
Oh yeah.
Except our youngest son.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
Apparently this kid, I would have never
guessed could, he is as still as can be.
I mean, the pictures, he almost looks
like he's Photoshopped
because he's not moving,
but yet everyone else has like these
micro movements as you flip through the
pictures and there is
not a single motion.
Yeah.
Anywhere.
Yeah.
In his body.
I'm like, yeah, it was a little weird.
One of them totally looked Photoshopped.
Yeah.
Cause he did not change everybody else
moved just that bit.
We'd go back and forth between that
picture and everybody's like, you know,
everybody just moved just a little bit.
Just a little bit.
He was just like Zach same.
It was weird actually.
Like, wow.
11 year old boy who can't like move,
who's like a statue.
He is the one I would have
thought could not do that.
Yeah.
So as we take all these pictures and one
of the pictures towards the end,
we tried to do silly ones and one of them
is always like there's strawberries
around the shred velvet
cake that has icing on it.
And so everybody's eating the
strawberries, the icing,
and then eventually they
started eating, you know, eating the cake
and it gets a little crazy.
We do it every year and that picture
never makes it for whatever reason.
I think it made it in 2020.
Oh, it may have.
Because it was just that one was
strawberries with stuff on them.
I tend to remember.
That one is, I think our daughter's kind
of like going after the cake in that one.
And so I think the cake has already been
messed up, but that was like the whole
theme of the picture.
I mean, it was 2020, which was just a
dumpster fire of a year.
So our picture, we try
to encapsulate that year.
Yeah.
And that was kind of a
dumpster fire of a year.
And that's probably the
only year that I made it.
It could be.
We even did it one year when, and this is
one of our only, we have a couple holiday
traditions, I guess, but this is one of
our main ones is taking this picture.
Right.
We even took it when we built this house.
We came over to this house
where the kitchen is now.
So we're exactly where we're standing
now, basically for the pictures that are
coming out for this Christmas card.
But it was in, uh, it was in a building,
you know, an unfinished house.
Yeah.
Totally under construction.
You can see the two by fours.
Oh yeah.
And in fact, fun fact for those who have
been getting our
Christmas card this long,
the tools that were all holding in one of
the picture, there were workers in the
house, like they were
spraying the insulation in.
And, and so the tools that we end up
holding in one of the pictures were just
the tools that the, that the people
working in the house were like, yeah, you
can take this for a minute.
And oh my gosh.
And then the kids were
like, can we eat the cake?
And we're like, no, cause of all of the
spray foam and the solution.
That was the one cake
that didn't get eaten.
No, that's right.
Went directly into the garbage.
That's right.
But I remember we had like
a plastic cup for the roses.
Like we still tried
to make the same scene.
Yeah.
We put, we brought a Yeti thing.
We brought a Yeti and we had folding
chairs cause no one
could sit on a counter.
Yeah.
So anyways, that's been fun.
So that'll be fun.
You know, as we, we kind of came up with
that idea, you know, 10, 11, 12
years ago, whatever it was, because it
would just be fun to watch the
progression of everybody growing.
So, uh, I don't know if a lot of people I
know know that that's what we do.
Uh, and it's fun to compare them.
One of these times we're going to put a
progression of them on the card
itself, which would be cool.
Yeah.
Cause it's amazing.
I mean, it's really been in the last
three years where it's like, whoa, are
the kids because of the perspective
they're closer to the camera on the
counter, like are they too big and we're
too small and you know, it's just
crazy that they're at that age now.
Like they're, yeah, they're so big now.
Like two are taller than
me and one isn't far behind.
He's almost, you're right.
Now granted, I'm not very tall.
I know I'm sitting here, but kind of
short, but you can't
tell cause you're sitting.
Yeah.
Can't tell cause I'm sitting.
I will be the shortest.
You stand up.
She's just about three inches taller.
That's a, that's a funny,
you're going to call me an angry elf.
You're an angry elf.
If you know, you know, you know, you
know, you know in that one.
So we started off talking about how, um,
I am a little bit of a
Grinch when it comes to
listening to Christmas music.
Yes.
Cause our kids love it.
And they want to listen to it summertime.
And I am a Grinch about it because
they're like, it's the best.
It's so special.
Blah, blah, blah.
And I tell them Christmas music is
special because you only get to
listen to it for 30 some days.
You know what I mean?
If you were to listen to it all the time,
it loses its specialness.
That's why it's part of what
makes the Christmas season.
So special is has its own
music and yada, yada, yada.
Right.
Uh, and so the kids have really stretched
that this year to some degree.
Yeah.
I think I've been hearing Christmas music
from, but they're full in it now.
Oh yeah.
We're all full in it, which is great.
Cause I love Christmas music.
When did we get there?
Yes.
And then I'm ready to move on from it.
Once we move past it.
Definitely.
Yeah.
Just tonight, I was actually driving home
and, and some of the songs came on and
part of it is just those feelings that it
brings up that nostalgia.
I am sure that if the kids were looking
at me and I was just, cause I was just
driving and smiling because of the
memories and the feelings, the
those, yeah, Gene Autry.
Exactly.
Bing Crosby.
That's what I was looking for.
Yeah.
I mean, they come on and it's just like,
Oh my gosh, I'll be home from Christmas
came on and I actually never liked that
song as a kid, but I remember being in
the dorm my freshman
year, listening to that song.
Cause I was so homesick.
Yeah.
And you go home for Christmas.
No, I did.
It just happened.
It's like, I was
really, I was really homesick.
I wasn't really the Christmas
season when you're in the dorm.
Right.
And I was just, I was ready to be home.
Yeah.
And you know, it just, so many of the
songs take me back to
my childhood memories
and the driving to grandma and grandpa's
house in the snow, you know,
yeah.
Yeah.
It makes my heart happy to hear them.
And it puts me back in
that moment instantly.
Yeah.
So, I mean, I was
going to talk about that.
Like, what's your favorite ones?
What are the ones you grew up with?
Things like that, you know, because we
all at our age and
even above know all the
same Christmas songs, right?
There's, there was only so many Christmas
songs in the eighties and the nineties
that you would have grown up with.
Yeah.
Right.
All the ones that we just
talked about to some degree, right.
And like everybody watched the, the
Rudolph the red nose
reindeer special, you
know, or peanuts, the worst Christmas,
Charlie Brown, yeah.
Worst.
I never, I watched it once.
I was like, okay.
I watched it once.
I don't need to see this again.
Yeah.
Although I think I had the same feeling
about the Rudolph the red nose reindeer,
like watching that as an adult.
I loved Rudolph.
You did.
Oh, I loved it.
Yeah.
I could see as a kid, I watched it.
I think as a kid, as an
adult, I'm like, now we watch it.
It's hilarious.
Uh, well, no wonder we
have issues in society.
If this was the message we gave to our
kids, this is a man's job.
You're ostracized
because you're different.
Can we just hit pause and a dad banishing
his son because he had a red nose.
Like, are you kidding me?
It's pretty bad anyway.
Okay.
Yeah, that's pretty funny, but we all
grew up with the same
ones and you're right.
They're so nostalgic and now more and
more people are trying to put one out.
I mean, I was almost going to throw Jimmy
Fallon under the bus and say, even Jimmy
Fallon is I love Jimmy Fallon and I love
that he loves music so much.
Oh my gosh.
He's so passionate about it.
Yeah.
And he put out his own Christmas thing,
but I'm saying everybody's, everybody's
putting one out is my point there.
Yes.
Clay Aiken has one.
He knows that name.
I know my mom does.
She still loves it.
But, but there's been a
couple of gyms since then.
Not many gyms since the
ones that we grew up with them.
Right.
So you still have to pepper those in.
And honestly, even the ones where, you
know, the newer
artists and Kelly Clarkson,
Ariana Grande, like they put out
Christmas albums and even
they cover the old song.
Most of them, most of the
good ones are good covers.
Like Carrie Underwood.
I mean, all of them, you know, they cover
so many of those songs.
One of the very first ones
that was new was Mariah Carey's.
Yes.
Right.
All I Want For Christmas.
Yes.
That.
Which is now just, I mean,
it's clearly one of the staples.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Even that one.
How old is that one?
I mean, that's like 20 something.
It's like 96.
Oh my gosh.
It's older than 30 years old.
Yeah.
It's been around for a while.
Yeah.
So.
So what is, well, and then growing up,
obviously going to church and all that
kind of stuff, a lot of the Christian
Christmas songs I grew up with too.
Absolutely.
You know, which are very nostalgic, but
we don't have many of those.
I don't even know where to find those.
Because one of my very favorite songs was
on a tape and I can't find it digitally.
It's the one that's, how's that song go?
Alvin and the Chipmunks sing it.
I want to train that loop to loop.
Oh yeah.
We had the album and the
Chipmunks version of it.
A couple other versions, but the one
version that I loved that I grew up with
on whatever tape it was, I cannot find.
I love that.
I thought you were talking a
Christmas or a Christian song.
And then I was like,
and I can't find it now.
No, sorry.
Yeah, that was more of a, yeah.
Okay.
I pivoted because it was on tape and
that's what brought it back to me.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Anyways, your favorite Christmas song.
Let's just start at the top.
Okay.
The top in this one.
I can't think of one to top this, but it
has to be done well.
And you need someone who
can truly, truly sing it.
Oh, Holy night.
That gets me every time.
Yeah.
You have a powerhouse singer.
Uh, I just, I don't
think you can beat that.
Like there's, I get chills, I get tears.
I get like every single time I hear it.
Yeah.
You.
Oh man.
You just made it really hard.
Cause there's some
really good ones like that.
Like it's really hard to
narrow down to a top one.
And I made you do it first.
I do think, cause that's been sung by
Celine's got incredible on Whitney.
Uh, Carrie Underwood's got it.
Josh Groban.
There's so many good
ones that sing that song.
You're incredible.
That one note.
I mean, geez.
Yeah.
Um, I would, I would be remiss if I
didn't bring up whams last Christmas.
You love that one.
I love that song.
I don't know if it's wham.
I don't know if they're the original.
Are they the original
or is that a remake?
No, that they were the original and it's
been remade like many
times.
Yeah.
I didn't remember if they
were the original or not.
So I do love last Christmas.
Uh, that's a good one, but I love, I
loved whams 80s songs
and their, their sound.
Obviously.
Um, what was the other one I
was going to say that I love?
It's not dominate the donkey.
Yule.
It's at the very worst
Christmas song of all time.
Wow.
The, like, yeah, they
called truly insensitive.
Like, I mean, they even do it with the,
like a bad Italian accent.
Like it's, it's funny.
It's really funny.
Um, I do love that Celine Dion one.
These are special times.
What's the one another Christmas?
Another year has gone by.
Yeah. I do love that one.
I love that one.
Um, that one's probably more, I was not
as big as like Oh, holy night.
Right.
I was, yeah.
If I go into like, if I had to only pick
one, I think that's the one that I would
pick, but I mean, I don't skip many songs
on the Christmas playlist.
I'm loving Kelly's right now.
Kelly Clarkson, last two are pretty good.
I mean, even she can't sing, can't make a
blue Christmas a good song.
That's, I mean, come on.
Everybody does that song and it's so bad.
Blue Christmas is terrible.
Yeah.
It's horrible.
I like white Christmas, but
I don't like the Christmas.
Like, yeah.
Like I'm not a huge fan
of Felice Mavi that either.
That one is not really.
Yeah.
I think that's a certain
genre that people like.
Yeah.
It's not quite my taste either.
Although the whistle on the Corona
commercials, I feel
like it just hits home.
I was like, Hey, I think this is my
favorite version of Felice Mavi.
And it was the Corona commercial where
it's being whistled.
That's funny.
Well, you know, there you go.
Hey, I thought what I like, I don't know.
It's a gateway song, I guess.
Yeah.
I mean, I, I just remember there, every
song I almost every Christmas
song comes on and I'm
like, Oh, I love this song.
I mean, I will just
belt out to silent night.
I remember sitting at
my grandparents house.
They had the Nativity scene and there
was, um, it actually had a music
box that played silent night.
And I musical, like just music.
It was a music box that you would wind up
and it would play silent night.
And I would sit in
their front bay window.
They had this big window and their
Nativity scene was set up in front of
inside, but you know,
like in front of the window.
And I would just sit there and I would
play the music box and just
listen to it over and over.
It's such a, yeah.
It takes me right back there.
Definitely a special memory.
Yeah.
So, but the one that got me tonight that
just made me smile was it's
beginning to look a lot like Christmas,
like the Bing Crosby version.
And maybe it's because we always spent
our Christmas in a
small town in the Midwest.
I mean, that was, it's
truly what he's singing about.
Like it is.
Where it actually is snowing.
It's snowing and you have the little
shops and you have that quaint feeling.
Yeah.
And that's why I love that we go skiing.
Yeah.
That that's our other kind of tradition.
We have a couple of traditions.
We go to see, we go see a Christmas show
and we eat, what do we eat at?
Hobachi.
We go to Hobachi.
It's always with my mom.
We have a great time doing that.
I think that's a ton of fun.
Yep.
And they put on a great show.
Fantastic.
Really incredible.
But then we go skiing because down here
in Texas, I mean, it
doesn't feel Christmasy.
Although Texas does in
certain areas know how to do lights.
House lights are pretty good.
I would say at least where we live in
Texas, I would say I
haven't ever seen someone rival
Texas in the Christmas lights.
Yeah.
It is.
They, they go all out.
Yeah.
No, I think they do.
Cause that's all we really can.
Although we have had snow a couple of
times the last few
years here, which is weird.
But yeah, so, so when we get to get away
before Christmas, we go on a ski trip and
it's in, obviously in the mountains and
it feels because then we are going to a
ski town and a little, you know, there's
snow on the roofs and they're all
A-frames and they're pitched.
And you know, that people are wearing,
you know, sweatsh, sweaters, you know,
that just cements the
Christmas season for me.
Cause it's like, you
know, it's a crisp air.
We both come from more cold climates
during this time and that cold air in
your lungs is, is, is winter.
You know, winter down here gets cold, but
it's not really until January for the
most part, you know,
and then it's just dead.
It's just cold and miserable.
Like, yeah.
Like awesome.
I, I don't know.
It's not usually snot freezing cold, but
like it's, it gets cold.
You're right.
And that's a Minnesota term.
Yeah.
How cold was it?
Snot freezing.
Like when you go outside and your nose
feels like full because every, it's just
frozen, like freezes the
contents of your sinuses.
If you know, you know,
That's crazy.
I don't know that one.
I can, I can imagine,
but I don't know it.
It's not a pleasant feeling.
Yeah.
It doesn't sound like it is.
I grew up with it though.
I mean, we don't get that.
It does.
People are always shocked
how cold it gets down here.
I mean, we've been in the teen.
I mean, we've been in the single digits.
We have negative, we have negative wind
chill just last year, I think.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
We get cold here.
It does.
There were snow flurries just this week.
Yeah, that's right.
Yesterday there was.
Yeah.
Was that just yesterday?
Yes.
I feel like this is the earliest we've
ever gotten anything like that, but
Yeah.
We had a freeze just
two, just two days ago.
Yeah.
In mid December, which
is really early for us.
Yeah.
I mean, all the leaves
haven't even fallen yet.
No, they're still green.
Some are.
Yeah.
They won't, they won't.
You don't have 50% trees there.
50% leaves are down right now.
Right.
Um, so weird.
Yeah.
So, um, what was I saying?
I was talking about, well,
I got on a tangent there.
We don't have Christmasy
feeling here, but we go skiing.
So we get that Christmasy.
It puts us in them.
Anyway, so between, anyway, so between,
you know, Christmas music and kind of
getting out to the ski slopes and the
mountains with, with snow, I mean,
that though those two things for me are
some of the most Christmasy, don't get
me wrong, all the decorations and the
season and the other things we do, we
do a lot of cool things, but those two
things, uh, I think the most really
kind of just, what's the word?
I'm still in a Christmas mood.
I love it.
I love the giving part of it.
Like there's, there's lots of great
things about it, but those two things
for me, like see those still make it.
Yeah.
Christmas to me as an adult.
You know what I mean?
If you took one of those away, maybe not
so much the ski thing, but that does
really help.
It does help.
Yeah.
To just get in that wintery.
It's, it's like a, from
a Dickens novel, right?
I mean, it really is like, yeah, for me,
it's that, but honestly, the glow of
Christmas tree lights.
Yeah.
At night or in the day.
Inquiring minds want to know.
Usually at night.
That's what I would thought, but I mean,
they're kind of drowned out by, you
know, the sunshine in
the middle of the day.
I can imagine the
comments though, if I didn't ask.
So I know.
Inquiring minds.
Yeah.
Inquiring minds.
It, it honestly, it makes my heart happy
to see like, as I'm
going to bed at night,
I mean, I usually go into the room just a
little bit after you do, cause I'm
taking the dog out and stuff.
And when I close our doors and I'm just
looking back at the glow of the Christmas
tree and the, through the house, it's
just like, I love it.
It's on a timer.
So it turns off after I leave, but, um,
it's just, there's something so special
about that.
Yeah.
And it always has for me.
I loved playing the piano by Christmas,
by Christmas tree light, or like by the
glow of the Christmas
tree or reading a book.
Yeah.
To me, that's just
pure and utter like peace.
Like if I want to bring stress levels
down, I should just sit
myself by Christmas tree
and read a book or
play the piano, I guess.
Well, we just keep a constant
Christmas tree in the house.
Get a little pot.
We're just gonna keep it up all year.
Let's replant it.
Yeah, sure.
Sounds like a great idea.
That's going to de-stress you.
It might be worth it looking into it.
Keep, instead of, we should
have built a Christmas room.
To the spa room or, uh, what are these?
What is it?
A studio?
Studio.
Yeah.
We can put a Christmas tree back here.
This is my Christmas room.
Oh, that's what we
should have done this year.
We could have put a little
Christmas tree back here.
Oh, that little one.
Hey, something to look
forward to episode 46.
Dang, what were we thinking?
We're not going to pull that on, are we?
Yeah.
You're serious.
Okay.
We're funny.
We've never done anything back here for a
little bit of a prop.
You're right.
I thought about doing props back here in
the background, just for like a one off.
Like, did anybody ever notice like, oh,
hey, Voltron was, I saw Voltron was
behind you today.
Oh, you caught Voltron, did you?
Oh, you saw Voltron, huh?
Yeah.
That was Voltron.
You're right.
Yeah.
He made an appearance.
You know who Voltron is?
You should look him up.
It's pretty awesome.
Intergalactic.
And that's all I'm going to give you.
Uh, yeah.
Planetary.
That's a Beastie Boys.
Oh, it is.
Yeah.
Yeah. Uh, well here, last thing I know we're
getting close ski trip, returning to the
slopes on your rebuilt knee.
How do you feel after, if you don't know,
Megan blew out her tour of
meniscus port tour, her tour like,
I turn my meniscus, my ACL, I fractured
my tibial plateau and I brained my MCL
and LCL all on a nothing, a nothing.
Were you turning or
even just going straight?
You caught a tip.
I was, I was turning.
I mean, just like you do, like, yeah.
Yeah.
But it was nothing crazy.
It was just, uh, it was a blue run.
Yeah.
There's a word I'm looking for that I
can't find, but it was innocuous.
Yeah.
So how do you feel about your return to
the slopes, different slopes this time?
We'll probably never go back to those.
I don't know if the word
terrified is strong enough.
Really?
I am.
Excited.
Dreading.
It's like, I am, I am
so incredibly terrified.
Are you really?
I'm terrified.
Not because I think my
knee, my knee is strong.
Yeah.
My knee is really strong.
It feels strong.
Um, I am just scared at how easy it was
to get hurt and how hard the road was.
I had no idea.
I mean, I kind of felt it when I came
home and I was like, I feel like
I was returning home broken.
Yeah.
Um, and that's how the
dog treated me, honestly.
Um, and I just, I really
didn't have an appreciation.
For the road ahead of me.
It was tough.
Six months from the day almost till
you're almost back to normal.
Yeah.
But hey, if it happens
again, we'll go back to Rome.
Cause that was really good.
Apparently.
Yeah.
That was really good.
That was really good PT.
Like, uh, yeah, go to
Europe for a couple of weeks.
Um, you know, get lots of steps in 98
stairs in Santorini going up.
It was gone.
You know, like the squeak.
Yeah.
The squeak finally went away.
I, uh, it just, I'm terrified.
I'm terrified.
And I don't want to tell
the kids how scared I am.
I'm nervous for you.
And I, what I don't want you to do is
push something because you feel like
you have to let, you don't
want to let the family down.
You have to do it at your pace.
You know what I mean?
And so I've already
talked with some of the kids.
You might be able to imagine whom about
this might be a little bit easier
of a year to begin with.
You know what I mean?
And we might be splitting up for the
first time in a while.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
So, yeah, I think it scares me.
I would have felt, and we tried to go to
veil and we know veil the best, right?
Like we've skied there so many times.
Yeah.
Um, you know, even among the whole, like
what I said about, I'm scared.
I'm going to, I could fall and just how
easily it can happen.
When you don't know a mountain, the fact
that you can get stuck or you can end up
on a run that you never intended to that,
you know, it's one thing when I'm like,
Oh, even last year, it's like you ended
up on a black diamond.
It's like, well,
there's only one way to go.
So whether I want to do a black diamond
right now or not, there's only one way
to go and I know I
can do a black diamond.
Right.
And so that has now been taken away from
me, that feeling of like, well,
whatever, it's only one way down.
I can do this because I don't think if I
end up on a black diamond,
I'm going down on my butt.
Like I'm not, I would not risk it.
Yeah.
I'm just, I'm scared and I don't want to
tell the kids how scared I am.
I want them to see how strong I am and
like, Oh, I can fight through and I can,
I can get over this.
I can do, I can do hard things.
You know, I can tell
myself that it's not a big deal.
And well, I can tell you, they don't want
to see you like that either.
So not scared.
I'm saying they don't want
to see you like you were.
Yeah.
They don't want to see you hurt and have
to go all through that again.
So I mean, be smart about it.
You know, if, uh, if this
isn't the year, don't worry.
So, but it's like, I do want to show them
like, Hey, you can, you can overcome even
when you are scared.
Yeah.
I'm terrified.
Is there petrified?
Like what else is worse than terrified?
Deathly afraid.
I don't know.
I don't envy your situation though.
But it also makes me more scared for the
rest of the family too.
Knowing how easily it can happen.
Well, it makes me nervous too.
Cause I mean, I think I went into it with
the torn meniscus
partially torn meniscus.
We didn't know it.
My knees been killing me for a year.
Yes.
After you had your surgery, I, since I
went in for my MRI just to see, and it is
partially torn, but I mean, half the
people that are watching
probably have a partially
torn meniscus too.
But it's like, what does that mean?
Does that mean it's
just a matter of time?
Does that mean just
one wrong little tweak?
I mean, cause last year I remember I went
down twice, I think, and I never fall
skiing, but I went down twice strictly
out of, I'm not going to fight it.
It's when you fight it that I feel like
you try to, you, so
like, I just went down,
put my feet up so I wouldn't get tangled.
I wouldn't get, you know,
that torque and I was okay.
But yeah, I mean, you know, like you
said, I mean, it's just, it's so
easy, you never know.
And it was on my mind last year.
It's on my mind this year after seeing
how much you went through that I don't, I
don't want to do that.
I've never been seriously injured.
I know knock on wood.
I know.
Yeah, they can't see you knocking.
They can hear this one.
Sounds like wood.
See over here.
But right here, this kid's dead.
I'm part of this.
It's not going to look right.
That's the other huge tradition.
Yes.
Christmas vacation.
All right.
Well, we should wrap this up.
We're trying to get, we can't make two
episodes out of one.
Yes.
So much to say.
Yes.
We had a lot to catch up on.
Yeah, we did.
We only skipped one week.
But one week's like an
eternity around here.
Like I said, that three days, 90 seconds,
we probably needed more like nine minutes
to get it all in.
But all right.
Well, our words of the week.
Oh, you already do.
Wrap up this last.
Okay.
All right.
I'm ready.
I took it.
You had yours.
I had to think about
mine just a little bit.
All right.
Ready?
One, two, three.
Thankful.
Okay.
Very close.
I thought you might actually be thankful.
Also.
I didn't say that
because I thought you were.
Yeah.
It's a week of Thanksgiving.
It's a week to be thankful for what we
have and we are blessed.
We're blessed.
Like, I think we're
same vein, just different.
Right.
Yeah.
Well, hopefully you guys feel thankful
and feel blessed as well.
Yes.
We appreciate you guys
tuning in when you do.
So all right.
Well, we will see you on the sidelines.
We'll see you in the gym
or we'll see you on YouTube.
We'll see you on the slopes.
We might see somebody on the slopes.
Who knows?
Yeah.
Not before next week though.
Oh yeah.
No, no, no.
He's, he's still got time.
Can't tell people.
We're back.
Unless we have a house.
All right.
We will see you guys next time.
Thanks for coming.
No, wait, wait, wait, wait.
That didn't make any sense.
Thanks for coming.
All right.
Let me try it again.
Hey, thanks for stopping by.
I don't have a good sign off.
I don't need, well, I just took it from
the cruise director.
I'm going to get it for a year.
Well, I know, but I say see ya.
See ya.
But it's not like, uh,
you know, what is pounded.
They get all, they get a whole thing.
Yeah, they do.
I mean, not that we're due
for it, but it's a thing.
It's a thing.
Yeah.
One day we'll get a thing.
We'll get a thing.
All right.
See ya.
[Music]
Here we come, my family.
Cheers to officially
listening to Christmas music.
It's episode 45, and I'm
going to quote someone now.
That's a bad luck number, dawg.
One stick figure asks the other stick
figure, like, "What do you do?" And
they're like, "For work."
And they're like, "I email and I'm
eating." Now granted,
I'm not very tall. You're an angry elf.
You're an angry elf?
This is a man's job.
You're ostracized because
you're different. I would be
remiss if I didn't bring up
whams last Christmas. You
love--it's not usually snot
freezing cold, but like-- That's a
Minnesota term. Oh, you
caught Voltron, did you?
Oh, you saw Voltron, huh? Pretty awesome.
Intergalactic, and that's
all I'm going to give you.
See, over here? Bye, but
right here. This kid's did it.
I'm parsnash tonight. Parsnash is not
going to look right.
One day we'll get a thing.
Dang, what were we thinking?