Jordan: 0:00

this is the most divisive Christmas tradition out there. I think that I've seen new people get so hot about this Elf. Yes. And maybe we don't quite understand that because we haven't fully engaged with it as a tradition yet. Right.

Lindsay: 0:23

Hello, everybody. Hi. Hi. Happy Sunday. Happy

Jordan: 0:28

day. Do I look like a zombie? Do I look like a zombie? You sound and look a bit like a zombie.

Lindsay: 0:34

2 48 a. m. is when you woke up for the day? Yep. Oh.

Jordan: 0:40

Oh, yucky.

Lindsay: 0:40

So I'm feeling it for sure today. Yeah, but,

Jordan: 0:43

and my baby's feeling it upstairs. If y'all can hear a baby screaming in the background, that's my baby. Yeah. Um, he's uh, He's probably hungry. I don't know, I fed him pretty recently I feel like, so.

Lindsay: 0:54

I dappled into re listening to our self care episode.

Jordan: 0:59

Because I'm like

Lindsay: 1:00

trying to think like what I could do and remind myself of my own words and your words, too, of what I can do this next month. Yeah. Take our own advice. And so I'm curious, now that you have two, and I know that you're, you're eight weeks out from having him. Seven. Yeah.

Jordan: 1:19

Eight today.

Lindsay: 1:20

I think. Okay. Seven or eight. How are you feeling? For what are, excuse me, how, well, yeah. How are you feeling eight weeks out? You've gone back to work.

Jordan: 1:31

Yeah, I have gone back to work.

Lindsay: 1:32

And what are you doing for self care right now? I'm curious what you're doing like this. Cause, cause we talked about it in like six weeks. There's really not much you can really do, but like hit survival mode, just get through it. Yeah.

Jordan: 1:46

It has been a lot of survival mode. I think so. Oh God, that's a tough question to answer. I'm showering every day. You are, you've left the house to run errands like by yourself. Yes, I have. And that has felt like self care, you know, honestly work going back to work. I was nervous and anxious cause I had a really rough pregnancy at my work. Um, but if that felt like a little bit self care y, cause I got to go and experience like, you know, life outside of my couch. Yeah, it's just something you gotta just do. Yeah, so it's still pretty

Lindsay: 2:17

simple. Yeah, yeah. But

Jordan: 2:20

we are getting somewhere, like I feel, I've done yoga a couple of times. It's been like a slow, very slow progress back to kind of feeling like I can actually do a full practice. I'm still not like totally there. But I have done a little bit of yoga. I got um, Um, a like postpartum core and pelvic floor recovery, online program thing for myself as like a little gift. So I've been working through that a little bit, which is awesome. I feel it's so weird. I felt really connected to my core and pelvic floor when I was pregnant and I was doing a lot of like a big diaphragmatic breathing in conjunction with like pelvic floor and like TVA. Yeah. Um, activation work. Yeah. And I felt like I was super well connected. And then the first time I tried to do it postpartum, it was like, I couldn't even, no way. Like I couldn't make contact with those muscles at. Like I couldn't Wow like I

Lindsay: 3:19

couldn't feel them. It was so bizarre I couldn't you couldn't feel like below like further down past your abdomen. Yeah, I mean obviously I can like Yeah, that's so interesting cuz you didn't have a vaginal birth I know isn't that crazy so everything's like kind of further down past Or like in that C section scar area. So like the

Jordan: 3:38

TVA area, that, like the transversus abdominis is like your deep low core, if you don't know. But yeah, like I mean even below that, yeah, it was weird because everything, I mean everything shifts when your baby's there. It's in a different position. So if I was training my body in that like dropped kind of position, And then now that my baby's not there, all of the organs are just kind of, I don't know what, I don't know what it is, but yeah, it was a much harder to like get those muscles to do what they were doing before. I'm kind of working my way into it. So that's kind of part of my self care. I stop and do that in the mirror like every time I'm in a mirror. Wow. Oh, that's smart.

Lindsay: 4:13

Yeah. Cause if you're walking by, yeah. And it helps. You're just doing it a few times. Then yeah, you're doing it a handful of times a day to multiple times. Yeah, totally. It helps to

Jordan: 4:22

look in the mirror. Like when you're pregnant and you have this big belly, it can, it's easy to see that it's moving the way it's supposed to when you're doing those kind of abdominal contractions when you're not pregnant anymore and like can't connect with those muscles. It sometimes really helps to look in the mirror. So if you're struggling with that, if you, yeah. And then also I've, yeah, I've been working through my, Yoga stuff that we haven't even talked about but I think Jordan has a business dude.

Lindsay: 4:46

Yeah

Jordan: 4:47

I actually I opened I so I started my LLC like a week before My kid was born and we literally were at the bank opening my bank account for the LLC the morning I gave birth What? I didn't know you were at the bank that day.

Lindsay: 5:02

You were like sewing his quilt that day.

Jordan: 5:05

I don't know what I was doing that day, Lindsay. But yeah, we went to the bank that morning. And opened up my, like I basically started a business the day I gave birth to him. That is an amazing story. It was stupid. Um, yeah, I don't recommend anyone do Like a business development plan in conjunction with the bank and you're like exhaling through your contract. No, I actually, I truly was clearly. I'm not even fucking good. He was, did you,

Lindsay: 5:29

could you even talk?

Jordan: 5:30

Yeah, I could. At that point I could talk through them, but I was like, definitely having to like stop for a bit to pay. It was like in the morning. I didn't go into the hospital till later in the evening, but wow. Yeah, they definitely, I was just at that point I was like, this is pro drama labor. I had had it. But I've experienced with that before, but yeah, geez. Yeah. It wasn't, it was full blown labor. But yeah, so I've got a yoga business. It's a online based, uh, right now it's prenatal heavy yoga content. I filmed, uh, and edited and produced an entire, an entire prenatal yoga course while I was pregnant with my second kid. So, um, yeah, it's really cool. You grinded it.

Lindsay: 6:10

I grinded it. You didn't, you didn't do it for both pregnancies. You did it for the second. Just one of them. Correct. Yeah. So the first one. And then you had to be like on top of your timing cause. Naps. Naps. Is that what you mean? Oh, because I have a hard deadline

Jordan: 6:24

of giving birth.

Lindsay: 6:25

Yeah. That and like where you're at, whatever stage you were in for, you had to be, cause okay, you did all the poses, you did all the sequences. Right. You had to. Do all of those classes in that time or in that stage of pregnancy. Yeah, I did. Yeah. To be safe, to be safe for yourself in third trimester. Right. Yeah. Right. And also to be safe for your own body too. Yeah. You grind it. It was, it was a solid, crazy effort. I was doing lower yoga, um, in one day. Then I shouldn't have been. Anybody, anything, just not pregnant. It was,

Jordan: 6:58

it

Lindsay: 6:59

was,

Jordan: 6:59

yeah, it was a good solid couple hours. Yeah. I only had, I only had my kids, my toddlers nap time. to record and everything. So yeah, it was logistically, it was challenging, but we made it through. Yeah. And I did it for my second kid because it was during my first pregnancy that I realized that there isn't really a lot of online prenatal yoga content that's specifically made for people who have a Like an already solid yoga practice. Like it all feels very third trimester. It all feels very beginner spec. Yeah. And I knew that my body could handle a bit more than like what you can handle in your third trimester or what a beginner can like, you know, or somebody who's new to yoga can handle. And I wanted to continue that practice, but didn't really know how to do it safely. So I was like, shit, I like, this is something that's like missing that I really wish I had. So I decided to make it for myself the second time around and for hopefully a whole bunch of other people who can benefit from it. So that will be coming out shortly. We're just working on our website right now. And you have your social. Yeah, my social. What's

Lindsay: 7:56

the name? It's a

Jordan: 7:57

Samara yoga, my surname, Samara and yoga. I'm at Samara underscore yoga on Instagram. If you would like to hit me up, that'd be awesome. I have a, Lots of tips on there, little mini practices, uh, yeah, it's amazing. Tips for all sorts of body ailments or, you know, just well being. Um, lots of it's prenatal specific, but a lot of it is. Good for literally anyone and everyone. Right, right. Yeah, pop on that. That's the beautiful thing about yoga.

Lindsay: 8:27

Yeah, it's great. You can kind of intertwine it all. Totally. So, is this going to build into something more like, challenging courses and, Yeah. Yeah, I have big

Jordan: 8:36

aspirations for the future and like a subscription yoga studio that's not necessarily prenatal specific coming next. But yeah, so prenatal content. If you know anyone who's pregnant and wants to do some yoga, Yeah. Uh, that'll be there soon. Yeah. Awesome. Anyway, so I've been busy doing that. That's part of my self care too, somehow. I think. I don't know. I would say so, yes.

Lindsay: 8:56

Yeah. Well, cool. I was just interested. Yeah, I re listened to that because I was like, um, I'm kind of feeling like I'm getting lost in the, uh, preparation of the holidays coming up, the preparation of baby coming, I'm Birthdays. Birthdays. Yeah. I just have like, too many open lists. You know? Yeah. I get it. So I'm like burnt out like a lot. Yes. This whole last week, the only time that I really had to like to have adult conversations with anybody was the phlebotomist when I was doing my three hour glucose test. Unfortunately I didn't have that done. She was really busy that day too. She told me I had a blood draw that day too. Yeah. And then my, our couples therapist and you, but you and I were Marco Polo most for the most part. Yeah, I saw you at the office for a minute for a minute. Yeah for a very tired Yeah, yeah, but that was like the only like adult conversations I really had last week and I've been like just busy doing everything else for everyone else and for my house and for yeah everything else so I'm like, uh What,

10:01

what was my, what

Lindsay: 10:03

was my, what did I say back then? Shower. Oh, okay. And then I was like, get outside. But we're in Utah, you guys right now, the air quality, the air quality, I think it's like hitting national news right now at this point, so bad, I can't go outside. It's rough. And it's bummer because it's actually really nice weather. I know. We have some friends in Salt Lake City. mutual friends, Jordan and I, and they were like, you can taste the pollution. Oh

Jordan: 10:32

God. It is worse up there than it is down here. It's gnarly.

Lindsay: 10:37

Yeah. Yeah. So anyways, I was like, okay, well I just dabbled into that self care and I was like, I'm gonna ask Jordan what she's doing right now, now that she's, you know, But

Jordan: 10:45

yeah, I'm trying to think of anything else that I could tell you that I'm doing for myself, but it's, yeah, that's pretty much it. I guess like

Lindsay: 10:53

you're eating

Jordan: 10:54

well and drinking well. Yes. All those things. All those little things that I said are self care that you need to pay attention to like brushing your teeth. Yeah. That's what I'm counting right now. Yep.

Lindsay: 11:03

Good. Awesome. Well, yeah, go for it. We have a fun or yeah, we have a fun, uh, episode.

Jordan: 11:12

Yeah, neither of us have it in us to like, you know, get into any kind of like researchy anything. No. Because it's

Lindsay: 11:19

pre holidays. Yeah, we're flooded with like all the fun traditions that are getting, that we're just living out right now. We're living them out. We're learning about new ones. Yeah, we want to talk about Christmas, Christmas traditions and Christmas stuff. Yeah, it's so fun. This season. Yeah. It's really fun. Our daughters are two, well my daughter will be two next week. Your daughter is two. Yep. And it is, it seems way more fun than it did last year. Last year was fun. Don't get me wrong. But this year is just like explosion.

Jordan: 11:48

I could not agree more. I am so excited. I am so

Lindsay: 11:52

excited. Yeah.

Jordan: 11:53

We'll just, to give everyone like a little. Idea of what they're about to be listening to, I guess, could be nice to have. We're not going to structure this episode too much, but here's a little structure for you. We'll talk about our Christmas traditions. Yeah. And me and Lindsay looked into a lot of Christmas traditions that we think could be really fun either for us or if they don't work for us, for other people. Yeah. It's just really fun once you have kids to kind of like imagine what Your family's Christmas traditions are going to look like. Yeah. Yeah. So you can take some from the families that you grew up in, but you can also totally make it your own. Yeah. And that's so cool and

Lindsay: 12:26

fun. I think that's what's really fun right now too, is like we have these, you and I are in like a young family of our own and now it's like

12:35

we can create something of our Oh,

Jordan: 12:36

totally. And it'ss so exciting. So. Sweet. So yeah, what we're planning on this year is Adrian's parents are coming into town from the UK. So they'll fly in actually the day before Christmas Eve, which is kind of wild. And then Christmas Eve, we have my entire big, loud, crazy family. coming over to our house for a Christmas Eve party. Yeah, we do this every year. Uh, and Adrian's family is like very small and quiet, so it's going to be a fun little juxtaposition of, um, families. Have they, did they do this last year? Uh, no, this is the first time we will have ever spent Christmas with Adrian's parents. Okay. Yep. Got it. Yep. So, and I've only spent, you know, a handful of Christmases with my husband, despite being with him for like nine Yeah. So yeah, they're going to come here. We have a big Christmas Eve party here where everyone brings. Something for dinner. It's I guess they call that potluck now, but in the history growing up We would my family would go to the store when we were like kids and my mom would let us pick out One thing that we wanted to contribute to dinner so it ended up being like a really weird like mishmash of random shit and like candy and Yeah, weird stuff, but it was always fun to see who brought what, but now that we're all adults and we want to actually eat real food, it's a good time to like bring something really cool and fun that we wouldn't normally make. And then, yeah, we just kind of hang out. My mom does used to do pajamas for us Christmas Eve. She now does that kind of for the grandkids Christmas Eve. Um, very cool. And we do a little inter family, Intra family tradition. Mm-hmm Where we do handmade gifts for each other. Yes. So everyone in my like extended fam, not extended my. My nuclear family, but my childhood nuclear family, uh, draws names and does like a 20 or less handmade gift for another person. And that's super fun. We don't have tons of money in my family going around. So it's a really fun way to have as much fun as we would have buying gifts for each other. Some of the gifts that I've seen. That you guys have made

Lindsay: 14:31

are so unique. They're so cool.

Jordan: 14:34

They're so much fun. Yeah. And some of them were just hilarious. Like, yeah, we have a lot of fun with it. It's a good time. So, so that's what we're doing. Uh, Christmas Eve night. And then we'll wake up Christmas morning and do we're actually, because his parents are going to be here. We're going to do full British tradition Christmas day.

Lindsay: 14:51

What is

Jordan: 14:52

that? Except I think we're probably gonna miss out on the King's speech. I'm not sure what time that happens. I think it's in the morning. So that'll be too late for us. I don't know the British, uh, Christmas tradition. It's not too dissimilar to ours. So basically, well, and I don't, I can't speak for everyone in Britain. But what Adrian used to do as a kid was he would wake up, they would do stockings first thing. So that's kind of what we did in our family too. And then they would, and have a breakfast. And typically he said that his dad would have like a cake of some kind. His mom would have a grapefruit and I don't know, they'd have like whatever they'd have. And then they'd have to wait for their aunt to come over to do the King's speech. I guess it was the Queens, the Queen's speech at that time, the Queen's speech. And then after the Queen's speech, they got to open their presents. So Adrian, Hated the queen's speech. Yeah. I think that happens when we're sleeping luckily. So we won't have to do that. Um, Oh yeah. Cause they're on a shade to the king. Yeah. So we'll wake up, do stockings, do breakfast, probably do gifts right after that. And then, um, UK is basically our Thanksgiving.

Lindsay: 16:01

Oh, nice.

Jordan: 16:02

Like that's savory. Yep. Good. It's like Turkey. Cool. It's literally our Thanksgiving. Turkey, mashed potatoes, all that stuff. We're gonna do chicken instead because I'm not a big turkey fan, but Yeah, we'll make a big Christmas dinner. Probably do some Christmas pudding, which is like a like a rice pudding. Nope It's nope. It's UK called, people in the UK call pudding, called dessert pudding.

Lindsay: 16:23

Okay, I know this because I got my daughter a book called The World of Cookies for Santa Claus. Oh cute. And the pudding is in there for the UK. Oh, Christmas pudding. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, cool. Yeah. And then I haven't looked at all the recipes for each like little country that they mentioned is in the back of the book and I haven't gone through that. That's so true. I love that they include recipes like that. It's not quite toddler friendly, but you just look at the cookies. Yeah, fine. But that's a cool book that will

Jordan: 16:49

grow with your family as you go. Yeah. That's super cool. Yeah. That, like, touches on another tradition I'll mention later, but that's, that's rad. Yeah, Christmas pudding is like a, I think it's like brandy soaked kind of date, like dried fruit cake, uh, that you flambe, like you, I think that's what it's called. You light it on fire. My brain's not working. And then you serve it with, like, brandy cream. It's actually really tasty. Oh, delish. Yeah. It takes a long time to make and you have to make it in advance, so if we get around to it, we'll have to. Yeah. Very fun. And that's pretty much it. It's pretty

Lindsay: 17:18

low key. That's really cool. Yeah, we, we do, um, similar to you, like we open gifts the 24th. Oh, do you, do you do all

Jordan: 17:27

of your Christmas gifts the 24th? No, not all of them, but like, Family gifts? Family gifts, yeah,

Lindsay: 17:31

essentially. And then Santa gifts and stockings, uh, Christmas morning. Okay. Yep, Christmas Day is very like just a relaxing chill day after the morning.

Jordan: 17:42

Yeah, that's how it should be I think. It's

Lindsay: 17:44

just kind of kids are occupied. Yeah, parents are tired. Sometimes we go outside for a walk or a hike. but yeah, I have, we have family coming in. Andrew's family is coming in. So they arrive kind of the week before Christmas, kind of sporadically. And then we have just events and fun things to go do. And then, um, yeah, Christmas, uh, Christmas Eve, we've What we've done with Andrew's family is we've always done like a charcuterie night. Oh, fun. Which is really fun. Cause it's like a easy dinner. If you will, you can continue to snack if you want to take a break from opening gifts or just step away or go get your, you know, fill up your plate again and come back. Yeah. and then we enjoy the evening. Opening gifts from each other. And then Christmas morning, it's Santa Claus is here, and this year he's, he's here for real, for my daughter this time. Yeah. She's gonna be so excited. So we'll have that kind of fun and set up for her. Uh, Christmas morning. I'm sure we'll have a big breakfast and then just relax all day long.

Jordan: 18:46

Yeah. Cool. So, pretty simple. Have you guys been talking to her about Santa? Does she, like, kind of have an idea of what that is going to look like? Yes.

Lindsay: 18:55

That's fine. We haven't, we, she's not understanding the concept quite yet of like him getting cookies. Okay. Um, but she likes, she says like Christmas cookies and she's, yeah, Christmas tree, Christmas tree lights and Christmas lights and Christmas this and Christmas that. Christmas boobies. Yes, she was. Or was it Christmas tree boobies? She was saying, she keeps saying mommy cover her boobies cause I'm, have you ever heard of the term naked mom? No.

Jordan: 19:20

No. No. But I think I can

Lindsay: 19:23

imagine what it means. If you grow up with a naked mom.

Jordan: 19:26

Yeah.

Lindsay: 19:28

Oh my god, I just googled it and like, You googled naked obviously. I just googled naked obviously. Oh my god. I'm looking for, no, I don't want to Google this. I want to. Oh my gosh. There's still like, okay, but is this not on what's the, what's the website where I don't, I don't know. Not Reddit, uh, urban dictionary. Urban Dictionary should know what this is. Oh my gosh.

Jordan: 20:04

I mean, I think, it's all in the name.

Lindsay: 20:06

Oh, no, my, my Google search is not turning out so great. This is not what I want.

20:14

Oh, dear God. It just

Lindsay: 20:19

means you grew up around your mom. Being naked. Being naked. Going into the shower, getting changed in the bedroom, you know. As it should be in my personal opinion. Yeah, it just helps with like, body image. For sure. And they're learning too. Body normalcy. Yeah, yeah. Comfortable in our house like it is what it is. Yeah. Of course. That's like the, essentially the definition. I was looking for actual definition, but you do not want to Google. Don't, don't Google that.

Jordan: 20:51

Or do, you know, if you need a little more fun this holiday season than you're currently having, why not?

Lindsay: 20:57

So she just always says, Mama, cover her boobies. Cause when I put my bra on, I say, Mama, you cover her boobies. And now it's a whole thing. It's at the dinner table sometimes. The other day, yeah, she was around Marco Polo, and she was Christmas tree boobies, and like She was shouting it over and over, it was great. Oh goodness, um, I don't know why, what got us there, but oh yeah, she just says Christmas everything, and so there you go. Christmas tree boobies.

Jordan: 21:26

Yeah, my kid is, my kid's fully getting the Santa thing. She keeps waking up, and every morning she says, It's Christmas today! Oh, that's so sweet. Let's check your stocking, is it full? It's full. Oh, it's not. Oh, it's not Christmas today because Santa wasn't here. That's adorable. Yeah, it's really cute. Aw, did you

Lindsay: 21:44

guys have, did you get

Jordan: 21:45

her a stocking last year or

Lindsay: 21:47

this year?

Jordan: 21:47

We've gotten her stocking every year. This is the first year it's gonna be like, you know, interesting for her, for her to That's cool. The first year is obviously like what I'm doing for my son, Andy. Yeah. uh, chewy, like chew toy. Yeah. Is that what they call it for dogs? Teething to chew toy? Yeah, the teething toy, whatever. Yes. Yeah.

Lindsay: 22:09

Okay. So then, um, that's basically like my holiday, the couple days worth spending around. Christmas time. And then moving on to traditions, you mentioned your mom does like Christmas, Christmas pajamas for the grandkids. We do Christmas pajamas kind of like right after Thanksgiving so that like they can enjoy wearing them through the season, through the season. So my daughter, yeah, she has like two that two or three that we rotate through. Her size for every Christmas. Yeah, that's great. So

Jordan: 22:41

I love that idea. I don't, I make so much more sense than doing it because then you have it for the season. Do you know what I thought of today that I thought would be really cool? This is kind of a few traditions like mingled together, but I was super into it. So the day you get your Christmas tree, this is what I'm totally, what I'm going to do in the future. The day you get your Christmas tree, you decorate it, you know, you have the holiday music, it's all fun and whatever. That would be a really cool day to wrap. The pajamas and put them under the tree as like their first little gift that they can unwrap. And what I was thinking is we could make a whole night of it in my family like Do the tree, do some like songs, make some hot chocolate or have some other like Christmassy treat and then wrap the gifts, have them unopen their, open their PJs. We watch a little show together or a Christmas movie and then they take a little slumber party on our nugget pads under the tree for that first night. Oh, that's amazing. It'd be the best night ever as a little kid. Yes it would. Such a good opening to the holiday season. Yeah. Isn't that cool? I want to

Lindsay: 23:36

write that like freaking down. Rather than just say, here you go. Here's your pajamas. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just like tucked away, nicely washed. Yeah. And ready to get the

Jordan: 23:42

whole night of it. And

Lindsay: 23:43

it's like

Jordan: 23:44

that, you know. I love

Lindsay: 23:45

that. I think that would be so cool. We do live trees in our house and we get them right before Thanksgiving. We usually go like the day before or the week, depending on like the schedule of the place that we go. Sure. And we set it, we cut it. Yeah. Cut the stump set it up in the water and just like kind of let the branches come down for a day or two and Oh, that's cool. We've never done that. I would totally wait until like I'm ready to decorate it get the Wrapped PJs under good idea, right? Yes. Yeah. I was like,

Jordan: 24:14

we could combine all of these traditions into one awesome extra day. That's like Christmas B.

Lindsay: 24:20

Yeah. It's already so fun for the, to watch them play with the ornaments and like put up the lights and, yeah. Oh, my kid was, was so

Jordan: 24:26

excited this year.

Lindsay: 24:27

It

Jordan: 24:27

was such

Lindsay: 24:27

a, that's joy, fun. Super cool. So that's

Jordan: 24:30

the first cool little Christmas tree slash PJ tradition. Cool. That I would love to incorporate. Do you guys do any Christmas crafts? Um, no, but we, I, you know, I'm a, I'm an aspiring crafts person. Yeah. I'm not a crafty lady. Um, we do have like little hand print ornaments from my daughter and we will do them for my son's first Christmas. Mm-hmm And I love the idea of doing a new one every year, but I'm not sure if it's realistic for

24:56

me. Yeah.

Lindsay: 24:57

We just do like one. last year, I bought our family members. Well, grandmas. a frame. That has like the rubber band on the inside.

25:06

Did I tell you about this? And then Yeah, you did, and then you send like switch out the, yeah,

Lindsay: 25:10

you can switch out artwork and stuff. So that's essentially like one of my daughter's gift to them is like one of her artworks cute and then they just like put it their frame they already have at their house. And then. Yeah, and then we do it again, uh, for the following year, but then I just like incorporate like another Christmas craft to have in the house. So right now she's got like her little handprints in like three different shades of green that are like a wreath. Oh, cute. And so. That's a good idea. Yeah, we just do. Maybe I'll just

Jordan: 25:39

piggyback on all of your crafts, so then you can do, you can have the mental load of coming up. Yeah,

Lindsay: 25:45

I'll just like text you a picture, like this is what we did this year. Cool. Yeah. That's my plan. Yeah. That's a good idea. So that's kind of like another tradition is we're doing a Christmas craft with the other artwork piece that she's doing for family. Cool. To give. Yeah. Very cool. I love that. Yeah. Traditions we want to try. You probably have way more than me.

26:04

I have a bunch, but I don't want to try all of

Lindsay: 26:07

them. I'm just presenting some of them. What are, what's the, what's the top one?

Jordan: 26:11

Uh, so my favorite one actually is something that I found on Instagram, I follow this girl named, uh, raising humans kind. I like her. She's amazing. She's, Australian, I believe, uh, child psychologist. She has this whole thing around, like not wanting Christmas to be too much about consumption, but also, she, she says these really cool things. Like it's really important to have, to, You know moments of abundance and abundance is really important and it's really beautiful and it's mostly beautiful if it's also paired with Times of want right? Yeah, but we obviously we're not gonna like start with kids or whatever that's not what she's talking about, but she's saying like They spend the whole christmas season doing things that are like Moving outward or like being giving or kind and then there's the one or two days of of You Receiving, I guess, right? Yes. So their tradition is, it's kind of like an Elf on the Shelf ish tradition, where they have an angel called the Kindness Angel. And instead of, obviously, like, she'll be in a different spot every day, but she has these little notes that she writes. It's obviously it's the parents writing this. Sorry if that's a spoiler for little young ears. But yeah, basically there's like a little, a little note, which every day is a new kindness challenge. So it'll be something like help dad with a chore or help mom with a chore or write a nice note for your neighbor or your friend or tell your, it's something really simple, like tell your sibling something nice today or, you know, make a little craft for your grandparents. I love that. Or something I thought of, and it can be anything, like if you're gonna go out to a shop and buy a Christmas gift that day anyway, you make it, like, shop local, you know, support a local small business, like that could be a little kindness thing. Another cool one is Because being in the, like being present and enjoying people's company is an act of kindness. Some of them are just like, we're doing a family game tonight, like together. I love, I love, love, love. So that's a really cool idea. That's

Lindsay: 28:11

so cool. So just to piggyback off that, I saw something similar. But it was, you know, like one of those paper garlands that people make. Like a paper chain? Paper chain garland. Yeah. And then you write the kindness thing on the inside of the, of the chain. And then you just pick from the chain and it has that kindness, like, gesture on that

Jordan: 28:31

too. You could even mix that with Elf on the Shelf. Like the elf could, there's no one, I mean there is, there's a big, like, conglomerate saying that the elf needs to be the thing that's like, watching your kid to make sure they're doing it okay. But that could even be mixed with Elf on the Shelf. Yeah. Yeah. should we talk about Elf on the Shelf now since I just brought that up? Sure. So are you officially doing it this year or not? This is a hot topic. We are not doing Elf on the Shelf this year. Same. I've got enough on my plate right now. Having said that though, I, this is the most divisive Christmas tradition out there. I think that I've seen new people get so hot about this Elf. Yes. And maybe we don't quite understand that because we haven't fully engaged with it as a tradition yet. Right.

Lindsay: 29:12

I haven't even like looked at the box yet. They come in because there's a boy and a girl run, right? Right. I haven't even looked at the box. I Technically like is he truly he or she are they really truly supposed to show up like the beginning of them? Yeah, I

Jordan: 29:25

think that that's what it says like on december I don't know. I haven't looked either but I think the idea is on december 1st The elf, you know makes his way from the north pole to your house And he's watching to make sure your kid's behaving. We are not gonna play it with that Like narrative, I think that's, I don't know, I, this doesn't, I don't find it too unattractive, but it's just not really like my, my jam. But I do love the idea of like, I don't know, my sister's, has nailed her elf on the shelf game. Like she is so creative and so crafty and has done the coolest things for her kids and they love it so much. I've just watched this and she takes pictures. So I've got this whole host of like, ideas and I think that's part of the trouble that Parents have is like coming up with an idea. Yeah. And then executing it at the end of the night after kids go to bed.

Lindsay: 30:09

Yeah. Is a bitch. Yeah. Yeah. And if you're doing it all month or For the most part, yeah, most of the month.

Jordan: 30:14

Yeah. And that's another

Lindsay: 30:15

thing, you don't have to start it on December 1st. Yeah. You were telling me, you're like, I came across something that they just started like seven days or like, like a week before Christmas. Like you, or you could incorporate 12 days of Christmas, you know, kind of thing. Totally. Yeah. With Elf, that's whatever you feel like you're, or you need. Yeah, I'm on board with, it moves

Jordan: 30:30

a couple

Lindsay: 30:30

times a week. No big deal. Yeah. I'm totally on board with like. Seven days. Set your bar low. Yes.

Jordan: 30:37

That's all we're saying. Yeah. Set it low. Yeah. Well,

Lindsay: 30:41

so

Jordan: 30:41

he'll, he or she will arrive probably next year. Yeah. I think we'll start it next year too. Part of my, um, motivation for waiting was because I wanted to have like a funnier name. I don't think that my kid could give it a really funny name right now, but like my, my nieces is named shiny bum. And I don't know why, but that's something I've loved ever. Listening to her talk about shiny bum.

Lindsay: 31:04

So cute. That's the best. We do have a. We have a really interesting name for our baby in my belly right now from my daughter. She, this is kind of a little off topic, but just a silly name. Yellow Paint, poke Her last name is Poke. Yellow Paint. Yellow paint. Yellow paint. Love it. Poke It's a great name. And she strong name. She, she could not like saying it the other night when we're like, what's the baby's David Yellow paint Poke. That's so funny. Why so random? Random. Oh, I love that. Yellow's her favorite color and. I don't know. That

Jordan: 31:38

doesn't surprise me. She loves that color. Such a bright little kiddo. Yeah. That's so cute. Yeah. So Elf on the Shelf, maybe next year or the year after we'll be saying a very different thing about Elf on the Shelf tradition. But for me, I think it's just sounds like one of those things that's too fun. Yeah. To not try. Yeah. To not try. Why not?

Lindsay: 31:59

One of the ones I want to try is kind of like, Also bouncing off of your idea of the kindness is the reverse advent calendar. Oh yeah. So we've, I've never done an advent calendar in my life growing up. Never had that. Neither have I. So that's all very new to me. But the reverse advent calendar is something very interesting that I think I want to try when our kids are older. And this is, Essentially like a donation thing. So this is like for your kids to decide what to donate. Okay. Anything of theirs that's like, um, not broken. Not, you know, something that they Something that's donatable? Yes, something very donatable.

32:34

Books, clothes, toys. Toys, toys, toys, toys. I'll probably do it. I'll probably do everything. Yeah. Yeah.

Lindsay: 32:42

So you just do like the, um, It's a pre Christmas toy dump is what it is, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Essentially that. But then it also kind of teaches the kids about giving. Yeah. Which I love. Which, yeah, is awesome too. So I do want to try that when our kids are older, like reverse advent calendar. Like I think it's just such a beautiful thing.

Jordan: 33:00

And we're not probably, ironically we have an advent calendar upstairs, but my, my mom got it for my kid. I didn't buy it. That's not something that I'm attached to, but I did talk about what we're doing for an advent calendar last episode, the book thing. Yeah. So cool. I love that. Which if you didn't listen, it's like you wrap 12 or 24, whatever you can commit to Christmas books. Like a new book to read that night for bedtime or whatever.

Lindsay: 33:24

I love that idea. Yeah, that one's really cool. I'm excited to start that one.

Jordan: 33:29

Something we have actually done in years past, we didn't do it last year I don't think, but is um, for Christmas dinner every year to do a different dinner from around the world. Like a different traditional Christmas type dinner or holiday dinner. we've done like, pozole I think was like a Mexican tradition in some parts of Mexico. Yeah, we've done a few really cool ones. So this year it'll be British, but uh, the following year maybe it'll be like, you know, Chinese Christmas or something. Ooh, could be fun. Yeah, I think that's a really cool idea. It's a good excuse

Lindsay: 34:02

to try new things. This came to me As an act like a Thanksgiving tradition, but I think this could be cool if you if your family gets together on Christmas Or if you get together with extended family, or if you just want to just celebrate this idea on Christmas Instead of Thanksgiving you can okay, so You find yourself a white fabric tablecloth fabric markers And every year, if you're having like say a Christmas, this can be whatever type of dinner, breakfast, meal, any type of like celebrated meal around the holiday. You, and you sit down together as a family. Just write what you're thankful for, what you're grateful for, what you loved about like maybe the Christmas, you know, season that year. What your favorite. outfit was. I mean you can like write down any kind of like each person writes down their own like little fun thing and make sure it's a marker that won't bleed in the wash because you're going to watch this and you're going to pull it out the next year and write something new. Write something new and you're going to essentially cover this whole freaking tablecloth with amazing memories and loving things and anyways this was originally like I said this was originally like what you were grateful for and thankful for for like a Thanksgiving but I think it can definitely bleed into. Christmas. Yeah, that's awesome. I've

Jordan: 35:21

got something to piggyback off that. Cool. Snowballing. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so this one was really cool. This is something I just read about online when I was kind of just researching what cool traditions could be to add to our family. someone said that their favorite tradition is, that their whole family, like, and it sounds like they had a quite big family, but you don't have to have a quite big family to make this work. They stand in a circle before their holiday dinner. And you start by saying something that you're really proud of for yourself. Like something that you've done really well that you're proud of or some, you know, new hobby that you're excited about, or just, you know, something that you've accomplished, whatever you've, you know, you want to share, which is awesome. I love, I love the idea of taking time to like, talk kindly about yourself. It's such an important thing that we don't do in our, like,

Lindsay: 36:07

households enough. We've done this one year for New Year's Eve. Cool. Just recapped from the year and then just only talked about like ourselves. I love that. So

Jordan: 36:16

yeah So then the thing you do after that you say you know that about yourself and then you turn to the person next to you In the circle and you say what you're grateful for about them and like how they influence you. That is beautiful. Isn't that cool? And then it just goes around in a circle.

Lindsay: 36:28

Yes. Isn't that precious? That's so precious. Yeah, cuz you could do that at the dinner table with the tablecloth or you could do that like Hanging out in the, you know Living room, just chilling and enjoying each other's company. Before or after gifts. Oh, I love

Jordan: 36:41

that. It's really cool. I think it's like a nice way to like, you know, get the vibe set and bring everyone together. Very cool. Yeah. So that's awesome. This one's funny, there was one person who said that they have a silly string fight every Christmas after they open their stocking at their grandma's house. They'd have like a just a silly string fight and there would always be silly string in the stocking, which I thought was really cute. But something I actually really like about this tradition is that especially for little kids, I think, so I brought my kid home, like, a couple little presents from Target yesterday. She really needed new shoes, so I got her a pair of new shoes and I got her, like, a little Christmas sweater. And she came out and saw them when she woke up from her nap. And she got so overwhelmed, and she was excited, but she got kind of overwhelmed and like, Had like an emotional reaction that was like hard for her to process in the moment And I think that's really common thing that kids experience little kids Especially on Christmas Day is they just there's so much emotion surrounding it that it can be really overwhelming in their bodies And I think that's something that's really cool and it doesn't have to be silly string but me and my husband were talking about this is and the silly string does this and Is have some kind of a gift that you give to the family that inspires like a lot of movement like Loud excited movement because it helps to move that emotion through their little bodies. Yeah, okay So it could be a silly string fight. It could be like, you know, if they're old enough for little nerf guns potato Yeah, something like that could be cool or just like something that involves like cool like a Yeah, I don't know. I love that. Something that involves a lot of movement and excitement, just so that they have that big release that they kind of need on that day. Yeah. I think that's really cool. For sure. And it could be something good for every year. But, yeah. And then it's also a game that you guys can all play together. Or, you know, a little bit of fun you can all have together. Yeah. Definitely. I like that idea. Another one is to bake cookies or treats. Obviously everyone's making Christmas treats. We make some for our neighbors every year. We have like a handful of houses around here and me and my sister, like, spend a whole day baking and making like a little assorted cookie or something. I love that. It was like Christmas music on. Yeah, it's so fun. We did that

Lindsay: 38:46

growing up. The day was just kind of random, whichever day, but we lived out in the country up in the Northern woods and we didn't have necessarily neighbors to like pass it along to, but we just like did it for ourselves. Sure. But having that like memory, it was nice. That's so cool. Baking cookies and having Christmas. Yeah.

Jordan: 39:03

And I love, yeah, I love the whole process and then ending it with giving it all away is great for two reasons. One, you don't, you're not left with all the treats in your house. But also it's just fun to, I don't know. I've, I haven't. This is the first place I've lived in my adult life, the first neighborhood I've lived in that I've had neighbors that I, like, want to build relationships with and have really good rapport with. So it feels really good to, to just know that I'm in a solid community, and I think even if you don't know your neighbors, this is a really good inn to, like, say, Hey, we're over here, we don't talk all year long, but, you know, if you needed anything, we're someone you could,

39:39

you could call on. I really like that tradition.

Jordan: 39:43

do you do holiday cards?

Lindsay: 39:44

We do.

Jordan: 39:45

You do, huh? Yep. We don't.

Lindsay: 39:47

Yeah. Oh, I was actually going to bring mine over today. Oh, sure. I forgot it. Because I wasn't going to send it in the mail. I just looked, like, down the street. To walk away. Yeah. Um, but yes, we do. We sent those out in the mail, er, yesterday. Fun. Yeah. I want to see your picture. I can't wait. Yeah. It was from our Moab family photo session. Oh, was it? Okay, cool. Cool. Those were such great pictures. Yeah. Um, so we, we chose that photo session and then I just put an ultrasound of the baby on the backside. Oh, cute. I was just like, baby to come in February. So, um, they were fun. I, we, we just head over to Shutterfly and they have tons of options and

Jordan: 40:23

cool. Yeah, we should probably do something like that. I. Maybe I'll get around. Yeah, sometimes

Lindsay: 40:30

I write a little note on the inside of them. I did not have time this year. Sorry guys, but I think I just read it. But I, but I do write a little note here there in some of them or all of them.

Jordan: 40:43

Yeah, that's cool. I, I did. I don't like necessarily care about sending my holiday picture to other people. I'm sure they would love it. Yeah. But the one thing I do really like about the idea of doing a holiday card is having those pictures to look back on. I always save, yep,

Lindsay: 40:58

I always save like two or three of them, and then, I just, I have my own like little like storage box. It's essentially bigger than like a shoe box and then Andrew has his own and then our daughter has one now. I love that. And then whoever sends me like birthday cards or, you know, just Andrew's cards that are written out for me or. Some artwork for Yeah, just sentimental things. Yeah. I just put it in my box and then I do Clever. I'm gonna do that. So the Christmas card, I put one in each of our box and then Cute. Yeah.'cause I just, I don't have time to read. Like scrapbooking or like No, no. Has time for that. All those cards together. That's cute. I should, I should

Jordan: 41:33

definitely do that. That's a cute idea. Yeah. Oh, there's a really cool, this one, I don't know why this one gets me so excited. Okay. It's so basic and dumb, but I actually think it's really cute. And my husband really liked it too. Okay. So there was another one that said that in, that in these people's family, what they did was have a unique, Wrapping paper chosen for each kid in the family. So, so everyone's, all of that person's gifts are wrapped in the same wrapping. I kind of like that. Cause then you're not like wasting. But the cool part, I don't know why this is the cool part. Cause I guess it just like amps up the excitement for the kids is that they don't know which wrapping paper is theirs until they're finished with their stocking. And then at the end of the stocking, there's like a little scrap of the paper that matches. That's amazing. So at that point they can look over at the tree and be like, Oh, that one's in my head and that one's mine. That's

Lindsay: 42:19

cool. I think that's fun. Yes. I love like all these little things that add like a little more oomph and like a little more excitement to all this. And that one requires no extra

Jordan: 42:28

work. Yeah. Like you, all you have to do is tear a little piece of wrapping paper and put it in your kid's stocking. Yeah. Otherwise it's pretty much the same. Unless you have like 10 kids and you need to get 10 different pieces of wrapping paper. Yeah. But yeah, isn't that a cool idea? Yeah.

Lindsay: 42:40

Yeah. I want to do that. Yeah. I love that.

Jordan: 42:44

So there's one other silly thing we do in our house. Uh, my husband was born in Spain. So this is a traditional Catalan tradition. Hm. Too many traditions in there. This is a Catalan tradition. And it's really weird. It's called the Cagatillo. Basically what this is, and he had it in his family all growing up and we have ours now. It's a Google a photo cause it'll crack you up. It's basically just like log with like a red nose kind of stuck to it with little like kind of ghetto arms and legs. The tradition is, uh, it's translates to like shitting uncle, right? This is like your shitting uncle, this log. Basically what happens is all season. You've got to keep it warm under a blanket. The kids keep it warm. And if they keep it warm enough. Well, so we're, I don't really know exactly what happens, but basically on, on Christmas, you sing a song to it. And you have the kids smack it with a stick. Is is this a specific Spanish song? Yeah, I don't know it though. Okay. So we don't sing that. Okay. But yeah, we smack it with a stick and then you go outside and you come back in and when you come back in he has pooped a bunch of little chocolates. like Hershey kisses or something silly. Uh, probably not Hershey's kisses'cause they don't have those in Europe. But Eddie Yummy. You'd be like, uh,

43:58

Yeah.

Jordan: 44:00

But yeah, some kind of chocolate. So that's what we do. And I don't know what the tradition is with keeping him warm all season, but yeah, I'm, I'm in the process of making him a little quilt.

Lindsay: 44:09

It's so cute. I, last year I learned about this from you guys and your family. You were pulling this. Oh, and I was like, all right, tell me, like, and you guys were telling me a story to just get like more and weirder as you were going. And I, I remember like the look on my face was like, what? So

Jordan: 44:28

it's like the dumbest,

Lindsay: 44:29

it gets more bizarre, more bizarre. As the story goes on and like the actual tradition of it all.

Jordan: 44:33

Yeah. I was telling the lady at the fabric store what the quilt was for and she was giving me the funniest look. Like, okay, that's cool. That's really cool. Yeah. It's fun to have a tradition from. You know, uh, like a heritage tradition. Yeah. That's very cool.

Lindsay: 44:47

It's an odd one, but I love that you're making a little quilt for him.

Jordan: 44:50

Yeah. We don't have, I was using a stocking in years past cause we had an extra stocking, but yeah, we don't have

Lindsay: 44:57

an extra this year. So, so I'm going to make him a little quilt. That's so cute. You can just like tuck him in his quilt, put him away for the next year.

Jordan: 45:07

the last thing I wanted to talk about is a Yule log. Oh, yeah. So this is for food? So The food one? No. Okay. An actual burning Yule log, which is a thing I didn't really have any awareness of until today when I was looking this up. So obviously there's like the, you know, the Bouchonneau, like the French, like pinwheely Yule log. And it's cool to do that. Like maybe we'll burn a Yule log and eat a Yule log and that's like a cool little thing. A thing we can do, but the Yule Log, so this is a tradition that dates back to like 1650s. I was gonna say, so long. Super, super old. And it was like, it's kind of known to be an English thing, but there are also versions of this that happen all throughout Europe, and they're different in each country slightly. Super cool. I think that it's still a practice done in paganism and the idea, I think the general idea for like a Yule log is to burn the log, uh, and it symbolizes like the return of the sun's strength after winter, which is really cool. So it's kind of like looking forward into the new season, the sun coming back to its full strength, which is really what I love about Christmas. Yeah, I

Lindsay: 46:15

was going to say, that's like a special time of year because we have winter solstice is the 21st, right? Yeah. Yeah. So it's kind of, yeah. So it's kind of a similar,

Jordan: 46:23

yep. Similar time. So basically you take a log and you burn it probably Christmas Eve or Christmas day if you want to. Um, and it's, yeah, it could either symbolize that or I've seen some things that say like, You make a wish on the log, like you would like a birthday candle, or you can light candles from it and make wishes on those, or you can make offerings to the Yule Log, like have, like, they said this was really fun to do with toddlers, but like, go and gather, like, holly berries or pine cones or like other little nature things and give it to the log as like a little, I don't know, kind of like a gift. That's fun. Sacrifice. Yeah. I don't know. It's a little dark. One of those ones. But cool. I like the idea of having a fire on Christmas and like having a white little log and a little hurrah around it. Yeah. That's kind of cool. That's cute. Yeah.

Lindsay: 47:07

That's darling. Yeah. And then you could bake your Yule log and Or is it even Yeah, it's baked. Part of it's baked and then it's like chilled. The cake part. Yeah. Yeah.

Jordan: 47:14

Yeah, yeah,

Lindsay: 47:15

yeah. Cool.

Jordan: 47:16

Yeah. Yeah. Could be fun. I don't know. That's something we can mess around with in the future.

Lindsay: 47:21

Very

Jordan: 47:21

fun. Yeah. Cheers to

Lindsay: 47:23

Christmas

Jordan: 47:23

time. Cheers to Christmas time.

Lindsay: 47:26

Yeah.

Jordan: 47:27

And on that note, I gotta go grocery shopping. Yeah. Get some stocking stuffers. I dunno. Yeah. Well, hopefully everybody has a really fun holiday season Lindsay and I are gonna take a little break from podcasting. Yeah for the holidays Yeah, it's gonna be crazy

Lindsay: 47:42

time for everybody. We have our tentative podcast Recording days ahead. Yes. I

Jordan: 47:47

think we're probably gonna record some in January depending on how you're feeling. Yeah We'll

Lindsay: 47:52

see how this all goes down. Yeah pregnant lady over here. Hopefully I can keep my stress low enough to hold off having an early birth

Jordan: 48:05

Just enough to make it a little I do I do feel like

Lindsay: 48:07

this one I just have this notion that this baby will arrive early.

Jordan: 48:12

Yeah,

Lindsay: 48:12

I had that same feeling and mine did come. Yeah We shall see.

Jordan: 48:17

Yeah. So fingers crossed for you. I know. I just,

Lindsay: 48:21

I was going to say, I have my bed, my side of the bed already ready to go. I did want to do that before Christmas. I know I didn't have to, but I just wanted it done and over with so that I could just

Jordan: 48:30

move on. I get it. It's a little bit crazy, but I also get it. All right, everybody. Happy holidays. Instagram. Leave us a review. Any of, Oh yeah. If you're feeling extra festive and kind and giving. Yeah. Leave us a nice review. Yes. That'd be great. Please do. We love

Lindsay: 48:47

it. We love hearing reviews. They're so fun.

Jordan: 48:49

They are. Thank you all so much and we will, uh, talk to you in the new year. Bye. Bye.