# Homemaking Seasonal Ramble | Holiday 2026 with Jessica Fisher

An episode of [The Art of Home: A Podcast for Homemakers](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1557993655), 21 Oct 2026, 1 h 35 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1587457/episodes/19992253-homemaking-seasonal-ramble-holiday-2026-with-jessica-fisher.mp3

Send me a text about this episode! Jessica and Allison are back for another seasonal ramble. This time we are talking all things Christmas! In this episode: • Holiday nostalgia • Books & Movies • All things holiday food, including deciding on homemade or store-bought • Favorite treats to make every year • How to plan holiday menus and activities your family actually wants • Favorite tips and tools • How we handle and keep track of gift giving • Tips for being a gracious GUEST this Christmas • Aging with Grace: holding Christmas loosely as our families grow & change EPISODE NOTES ❓SEND US YOUR HOLIDAY HOMEMAKING QUESTIONS TODAY!! ⬆️ text using link above 💌 REGISTER FOR THE RECIPE EXCHANGE : https://www.theartofhomepodcast.com/recipe All links, recipes, & resources will be on the blog. • Click the link below or go to https://www.theartofhomepodcast.com/blog and search "Holiday Ramble 2026". • https://www.theartofhomepodcast.com/post/holiday-ramble-2026-with-jessica-fisher-holding-christmas-with-open-hands Connect with Jessica IG | @goodcheapeatsblog Website | goodcheapeats.com Get recipes, make friends & support The Art of Home! Leave your tip of $5 or more by October 31, 2026!! https://www.theartofhomepodcast.com/recipe Support the show HOMEMAKING RESOURCES • Homemaker's Journal, AoH Seasonal Magazine • Private Facebook Group, Homemaker Forum • JR Miller's Homemaking Study Guide SUPPORT & CONNECT • Review | Love The Podcast • Contact | Text/Voicemail-use the link at top of description | Website | Email • Follow | Follow The Podcast • Support | theartofhomepodcast.com/support DISCLOSURE • **Buy | as an Amazon affiliate, AoH receives a small commission at no extra cost to you when you use our links to purchase items we recommend • AI Content | Portions of this episode’s copy and/or show notes may have been drafted with the assistance of AI and then reviewed and edited by a human, Allison Weeks.

## Transcript

[1:14] Allison: Hello, homemakers.
[1:15] Allison: Welcome to the Art of Home podcast, where we are exploring how homemakers cultivate a place to belong.
[1:20] Allison: I'm your host, Alison Weeks.
[1:22] Allison: I'm a wife, a mom, a granny.
[1:24] Allison: I've been practicing the Art of Home since 1992.
[1:27] Allison: Welcome, all of you listeners, whether you're new here or you have been around for a while.
[1:31] Allison: I'm so honored that you're going to trust me with some of your very valuable time today.
[1:35] Allison: And I do have a brand new seasonal ramble with Jessica Fisher for you.
[1:40] Allison: But first, I have some updates.
[1:43] Allison: This is the part of the show where I share podcast news, updates on what I'm doing and loving in my own homemaking, and I share tips and answer questions sent in from all of you.
[1:52] Allison: This segment is brought to you by listeners who support the art of home through Buy Me a Coffee.
[1:56] Allison: Buy Me a Coffee is a virtual tip jar where you can show your appreciation and support for the show by giving a one-time tip or by becoming a Titus 2 Woman supporter and setting up a recurring tip of $5 per month.
[2:10] Allison: Titus 2 Women supporters receive my undying gratitude and the occasional perk, such as free a free digital version of our magazine Homemaker's Journal, and free registration for the upcoming holiday recipe exchange and other fun things.
[2:26] Allison: So whichever way you choose to give, I am grateful for your support.
[2:30] Allison: I'm going to keep it short today with the updates.
[2:33] Allison: I have two very important things I would love for you to do.
[2:38] Allison: First of all, Jessica and I are going to record a special question and response episode tomorrow.
[2:46] Allison: It's going to air a week from today, next Wednesday.
[2:49] Allison: And we want your questions about any and all things holiday homemaking related.
[2:54] Allison: Whether you have a sticky in-law situation or maybe you need advice on what to cook for Christmas dinner, we want to help you.
[3:01] Allison: But I need your questions today.
[3:03] Allison: So pause this episode right now.
[3:06] Allison: Go into the episode description box, and there's a little note at the top, right under the episode art, and it says send me a text about this episode.
[3:14] Allison: If you click on that, then you can just write your question in a text and it'll come right to me.
[3:19] Allison: And then I can send you a text back.
[3:22] Allison: Not a very long text, but I can text you a little bit back if I have any follow-up questions for you.
[3:28] Allison: Please, if you if you if you want to remain anonymous, that's totally fine.
[3:32] Allison: But otherwise, I would love to hear knowing what your name is because I can't see that from the text that I received.
[3:37] Allison: So please put your name on there.
[3:39] Allison: And if you want me to email you back, then please include your email as well.
[3:43] Allison: You can also email your questions, all things related to holiday homemaking, to contact at theartofhome podcast.com.
[3:52] Allison: And the second thing that I would love for you to do today is to register for the 2026 handwritten holiday recipe exchange.
[4:02] Allison: There were almost 50 of us exchanging recipes last year.
[4:05] Allison: It was so fun.
[4:06] Allison: And I would love to see us double that number in 2026.
[4:11] Allison: The more, the merrier.
[4:13] Allison: So when you register by giving a $5 or more tip at Buy Me a Coffee, then uh you, I'll register you and I'll give you five names to send your favorite holiday recipe to.
[4:25] Allison: And then I will give your name to five different people that will send you their favorite holiday recipe.
[4:31] Allison: So that's 10 new homemaker friends that you can make this year.
[4:35] Allison: I was so blessed.
[4:36] Allison: I got to receive some extra recipes last year for participants who didn't get my name, but they wanted to send me something anyway.
[4:42] Allison: Each one of these that I received were lovingly handwritten.
[4:46] Allison: Many of them came with their family Christmas card and some extra things that people threw in there.
[4:52] Allison: That's totally, you don't have to do that.
[4:54] Allison: You can just drop a handwritten recipe card in the mail.
[4:57] Allison: But if you want to do more, that's up to you.
[4:59] Allison: It was very sweet.
[5:01] Allison: I loved receiving these things in the mail all throughout the month of December.
[5:04] Allison: I cannot recommend this enough.
[5:06] Allison: Registration will close at midnight on October 31st.
[5:10] Allison: So register today.
[5:12] Allison: There is a link in the description box.
[5:15] Allison: Okay, so send me your questions, register for the recipe exchange.
[5:19] Allison: That's all I've got.
[5:20] Allison: Now, on to today's episode.
[5:22] Allison: It's time for another seasonal ramble with Jessica Fisher.
[5:25] Allison: We knew that we could not just do a fall holiday one combined because we usually just do one per season, but we knew that we had to split them up and do one for the fall and one for Christmas.
[5:34] Allison: So today we're going to talk about Christmas.
[5:36] Allison: All things Christmas.
[5:37] Allison: We are talking about holiday nostalgia, books, movies, favorite foods, our favorite treats to make, how to gather input from your people before you plan your holidays, how we handle gift giving and keeping track of all of that, some favorite holiday homemaking tips and tools, and how we are aging with grace by holding Christmas celebrations and traditions with open hands as our families grow and change.
[6:04] Allison: I will be back at the end with a few reminders and this episode's emoji.
[6:09] Allison: Whatever you are applying your hands to as you listen today, I hope that you love rambling along with us on the road to holiday homemaking.
[6:17] Allison: Welcome to the Art of Home.
[6:19] Allison: I'm here for a very special ramble with Jessica Fisher.
[6:22] Allison: We're going to ramble about Christmas, and I'm so excited.
[6:26] Allison: Um, we're gonna just gonna cover sort of the same things that we talked about in our um fall ramble where we talked about all things fall, and and who knows where we're gonna go today.
[6:36] Allison: But Jessica, welcome back to the show.
[6:38] Allison: Thank you so much for joining me for this holiday homemaking ramble.
[6:42] Allison: Yes, thank you.
[6:43] Allison: I have some icebreakers for us.
[6:45] Allison: You ready?
[6:46] Allison: All right, let's go.
[6:47] Allison: Okay.
[6:48] Allison: What scent, song, show, or food instantly takes you back to Christmas as a child?
[6:57] Jessica: Um fresh Christmas tree.
[7:02] Jessica: Because we always got we went always went and got our tree.
[7:10] Jessica: Um a box of C's candy because that was our Christmas morning breakfast.
[7:16] Jessica: A box of candy C's candy.
[7:20] Allison: Okay, I don't know what this is.
[7:24] Jessica: It is a California thing.
[7:27] Jessica: Um you can find they have they have expanded nationwide, but generally for a long time, you could only get C's in California.
[7:38] Jessica: Um but that was our breakfast.
[7:41] Jessica: My mom did not cook on Christmas morning at all.
[7:44] Jessica: And so it was whatever was in our stocking, which had an orange and um usually an orange and C's candy was our breakfast.
[7:56] Jessica: Um what kind of candy is it?
[7:58] Allison: Is it like chocolate candy, hard candy?
[8:00] Jessica: What it's it's well, they do have hard candy because I've had to buy that for my daughter with peanut allergy.
[8:06] Jessica: Um, but it's handmade chocolates um with nuts or creams or just like your assorted, like I think Whitman's might be the Midwest equivalent.
[8:19] Jessica: Um I remember there's an East Coast brand that I'm blanking on.
[8:24] Jessica: Like I think every region has their It's a box of chocolates.
[8:28] Allison: It's a ball.
[8:29] Jessica: It's a box of chocolates, and but but we would always get the nuts and chews because we're a nut and caramel crowd.
[8:38] Jessica: Um but I realized it's not so much a song or a show, but a sound.
[8:44] Jessica: And my bedroom was at the very end of the hallway, was a ranch house, and you would just go straight down the hallway to the kitchen.
[8:53] Jessica: Like it was a really small house.
[8:55] Jessica: Um, but hearing the hand mixer early in the morning was um maybe not Christmas morning per se, but but around the holidays, hearing the mixer going early in the morning.
[9:12] Jessica: My mom didn't have a KitchenAid or anything like that, just a little, you know, hand mixer with the beaters.
[9:19] Allison: She would be making a very distinctive sound, by the way.
[9:23] Jessica: Yeah.
[9:23] Jessica: And so to hear that, I knew all right, something good is happening.
[9:27] Jessica: She was around here.
[9:29] Allison: Baking for Christmas or something.
[9:30] Allison: Yeah.
[9:30] Allison: Yeah.
[9:31] Jessica: Yeah.
[9:31] Allison: I love that.
[9:32] Allison: That's a good that's a good memory.
[9:35] Allison: Um, okay, so mine would be um again, I I'm like you.
[9:42] Allison: I actually have something that's a little bit different.
[9:44] Allison: Well, there is one taste, one flavor that always brings me back, and this is gonna sound weird, but sweet gherkins.
[9:51] Allison: Okay, because my grandmother would always do a big Christmas Eve.
[9:57] Allison: We would do Christmas Eve at her house, um, not Christmas Day, and she would put out a big spread of snacky foods and um we would all eat that, and then we would open gifts and then we would all go to church.
[10:11] Allison: Well, my cousin and I, we never like my mom didn't buy sweet pickles and we didn't usually have them.
[10:18] Allison: That was like a real treat.
[10:19] Allison: And so we would sit under the table and we would just like with our little hands reach over the table and just eat gherkins and hide hide under the table, and we would eat all the gherkins.
[10:31] Allison: Um, yeah.
[10:32] Allison: So that brings back Christmas memories for me.
[10:35] Allison: But the other thing is it's a sight for me.
[10:39] Allison: So anytime we often would travel at Christmas when I was growing up because we lived in Florida and all of our family lived in Louisiana, so we would usually travel over at some point in time.
[10:50] Allison: Um, and I love the sight of traveling at night because usually we were driving at night and seeing the Christmas lights on people's houses.
[10:58] Allison: So anytime I'm on like a road trip and I see Christmas lights, like that just brings me right back to my childhood Christmas.
[11:06] Allison: That site, and then also if it happened to be during the day when we were traveling, I love traveling down the highway and seeing the cars next to us go by and they're full, they would be full of presents in the back window.
[11:17] Allison: Like you could see all the presents stuffed in the back window, you know?
[11:20] Allison: Like, oh, they're going to grandma's house too, or something.
[11:22] Allison: They're going somewhere fun, you know, with all these gifts.
[11:24] Allison: That to me is just a really joyful site that brings me back to my childhood Christmas.
[11:29] Allison: Oh, that's sweet.
[11:30] Allison: Yeah.
[11:31] Allison: Okay, so in your opinion, what's the most underrated holiday film?
[11:36] Allison: I can't wait to hear your answer to this.
[11:39] Allison: Die Hard.
[11:40] Allison: No.
[11:44] Speaker 2: I'm just kidding.
[11:46] Jessica: Um, but I do watch it every year.
[11:48] Jessica: My husband and boys just shake their heads like, oh, you know, can they shake their heads?
[11:53] Jessica: Yeah, because they just think it's so funny.
[11:55] Jessica: Like, I'm putting because the girls and I will watch so many of the Hallmarked style movies, yeah, girly movies.
[12:02] Jessica: So then I'm throwing diehard in the mix.
[12:04] Jessica: They're just like, what?
[12:05] Jessica: But um, The Family Man is a Nicolas Cage movie for Christmas.
[12:15] Allison: Yes, I forgot about that movie.
[12:18] Jessica: So good, it's so good.
[12:20] Jessica: It again, listeners, we throw out our disclaimer.
[12:25] Jessica: That's right.
[12:26] Jessica: Please preview, read all your reviews.
[12:30] Jessica: You decide, you do you.
[12:32] Jessica: Um, there are a couple scenes that like okay, that's a PG 13 moment.
[12:38] Jessica: Um, but it's a wonderful life only backwards.
[12:45] Speaker 3: Yes.
[12:46] Jessica: And it has some callbacks even to that film um with the snow.
[12:52] Jessica: I don't know if you know about the snow in It's a Wonderful Life.
[12:56] Jessica: Yes.
[12:57] Jessica: Um the snow is suspended during this see what life would be like, you know, in the alternate option.
[13:06] Jessica: Alternate reality.
[13:07] Jessica: Yeah.
[13:07] Jessica: Yeah, they they have the same thing in the family man.
[13:11] Jessica: So yeah, I watch that every year.
[13:13] Jessica: That's a good one.
[13:14] Allison: That's a good one.
[13:15] Allison: I totally forgot about that.
[13:16] Allison: I'm gonna watch that this year.
[13:17] Jessica: Yeah.
[13:18] Allison: Um, okay, so I have two.
[13:21] Allison: The one that every time I mentioned this one, people are like, I don't, I don't know that movie, but I think maybe it's getting a little bit more popular.
[13:27] Allison: But The Man Who Invented Christmas.
[13:29] Allison: Yeah.
[13:29] Allison: Have you seen that one?
[13:30] Allison: Yeah.
[13:30] Allison: Yeah.
[13:30] Allison: Yeah.
[13:31] Allison: I liked a lot of people don't know about that one.
[13:33] Jessica: So that one was kind of a sleeper.
[13:35] Allison: Like it was a sleeper when it came out.
[13:38] Jessica: Yeah.
[13:38] Jessica: And and that is on that was on my list of when I went digging for for those.
[13:45] Jessica: Yeah.
[13:45] Allison: Underrated or unknown.
[13:46] Allison: Yeah, that one is the it's the sort of the telling of how Dickens came up with a Christmas Carol.
[13:52] Allison: Um, and they took some artistic license there as far as it's not exactly how it happened, and and there's some fanciful things that happened.
[14:00] Allison: It's really good.
[14:01] Allison: It's got yeah, it's well done.
[14:02] Allison: I can't remember his name.
[14:04] Allison: Dan Stevens.
[14:06] Allison: Dan Stevens, yeah.
[14:07] Allison: Dan Stevens, who was Matthew Crawley in Downton Abbey, if you remember, if you watch that show.
[14:14] Allison: Um, and he's been in the world.
[14:15] Jessica: He was in the best sense and sensibility, also.
[14:19] Allison: Was he?
[14:20] Allison: Mm-hmm.
[14:20] Allison: Oh, see, we we disagree on the best sense and sensibility, which I am not gonna go down this rabbit trail, but I've heard so many not good things about the reboot that's just come out.
[14:32] Allison: So anyway, um not surprised.
[14:35] Allison: I dig I digress.
[14:36] Allison: Um, okay, and so then my other one is a lot of people don't re realize this is also sort of it's a Christmas movie, is while you were sleeping with Sandra Bullock.
[14:46] Allison: Yeah, that one is so sweet.
[14:48] Allison: Um just goofy enough, but I just love the I love all the characters in that one.
[14:53] Allison: Yes, it's just a really sweet movie.
[14:54] Allison: And it just makes it Christmas time.
[14:56] Allison: Joe Jr.
[14:57] Allison: He was leaning, he was leaning.
[15:00] Allison: Oh, that's so great.
[15:05] Allison: Okay, media.
[15:06] Allison: We're already talking about media, so let's talk about some more media.
[15:09] Allison: So, what are your must-watch Christmas movies or shows?
[15:13] Allison: Okay.
[15:16] Jessica: Well, um, in terms of childhood favorite that still tops the list, I would say.
[15:25] Jessica: Um Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown still wins the original, not not those subsequent ones that they tried to make a buck off of.
[15:36] Jessica: Yeah.
[15:37] Jessica: Um, but my oldest daughter, a couple years ago, well, about 10 years ago, I switched from the fresh tree to the fake tree.
[15:52] Allison: Yeah.
[15:52] Jessica: For multiple reasons, but it was just practical.
[15:58] Jessica: Like I love the fresh smell, I love I love going to get the tree, but I don't love cleaning up the tree many days every day, you know, and then I'm hating it and want to put it away.
[16:12] Jessica: Um, so we switched, and my kids were really disappointed because they loved the the tradition of going to get the tree, and then we'd go get in the early years when we had no money, we'd get the tree at Lowe's and then go get the free hot chocolate that Lowe's offers inside.
[16:30] Jessica: And then when we had a little more money, it was let's go to Starbucks across the parking lot and get hot cocoa.
[16:38] Jessica: And so they were sad to not have this tree tradition.
[16:43] Jessica: And then a few years ago, my daughter sent me an email and she had captured a memory from the previous year and scheduled the email to me at Christmas that we had had In N Out Burger and watched Charlie Brown Christmas.
[17:01] Jessica: And that was just her special new memory.
[17:05] Jessica: And so now we do that as our as our new thing that we do every year.
[17:11] Jessica: Um but elf, home alone, possibly Home Alone 2, um, of the of the kid ones that we still would watch.
[17:26] Jessica: Um, last year I ordered DVD because I was I'm getting tired of the commercials that they've added back in.
[17:35] Jessica: So I went and ordered the DVDs or Blu-rays of Um while you were sleeping and the shop around the corner, and you've got mail.
[17:49] Jessica: Because those would be ones that the girls and I watch in a former life.
[17:54] Jessica: I would count when Harry met Sally, but that's more of a fall movie.
[18:00] Jessica: They're Christmas and New Year's, it always has that recurring Christmas and New Year's kind of thing.
[18:09] Jessica: But but yeah, the girls were were a little shocked at how inappropriate that movie was.
[18:16] Speaker 2: It's pretty inappropriate, so we don't watch that pretty inappropriate.
[18:22] Allison: Yeah, that one scene.
[18:23] Allison: I don't even think I could watch that one scene.
[18:25] Speaker 2: No, in my younger days, I didn't have a problem, but I have a problem now.
[18:29] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[18:31] Speaker 2: Okay.
[18:33] Speaker 2: Cool, cool, cool.
[18:34] Speaker 2: How about you?
[18:35] Allison: Yeah, I would say my must-watch is like now I have to watch White Christmas and I have to watch Christmas Vacation.
[18:46] Allison: Um, I mean, we quote Christmas Vacation on the regular all year long at the in this house, particularly cousin Eddie.
[18:54] Allison: Um as a kid, I loved watching the old uh miracle on 34th Street because that's the only one there was, because the newer one was made, I think, in like early 90s.
[19:05] Allison: Um, which is good.
[19:07] Allison: I like both of them for different reasons.
[19:09] Allison: Um, the little girl and the new one, she's the same girl who played Matilda.
[19:13] Allison: I can't I don't know her name, the actress.
[19:14] Allison: Um, but she looks just like my daughter did at that age.
[19:20] Allison: The age she is in that movie, she looks exactly like my daughter.
[19:23] Allison: That's sweet.
[19:24] Allison: Yeah.
[19:25] Allison: Um, so that that's really sweet for that reason.
[19:28] Allison: Um, okay, so any Christmas movie that everyone loves, but you just don't get.
[19:35] Jessica: I have never been a fan of a Christmas story.
[19:38] Allison: Oh what?
[19:41] Jessica: Sorry.
[19:42] Jessica: Um it's been a long time since I've seen it, but I just you just don't.
[19:49] Allison: It's not your thing.
[19:54] Jessica: Did I mention Oh, go ahead.
[19:57] Jessica: No, go ahead.
[19:58] Jessica: Well, kind of going back, did I mention Joya Noel as a good one?
[20:03] Jessica: Uh-uh.
[20:03] Jessica: Oh, have you seen?
[20:05] Jessica: Joya Noel?
[20:06] Jessica: No.
[20:06] Jessica: What is it?
[20:07] Jessica: It is the story of that.
[20:11] Jessica: Um is it World War I or World War II?
[20:19] Allison: Oh, when they had the the Christmas Eve truce?
[20:22] Jessica: Yeah.
[20:23] Allison: I think it was one because it was trench warfare.
[20:25] Allison: It was like trenches opposite each other.
[20:28] Jessica: It it it's a war-based Christmas movie, and it's really good.
[20:33] Allison: It's really good.
[20:34] Jessica: But sorry, I derailed us off your question.
[20:36] Allison: Joya Noel, is it in French or is it not in because I know sometimes you watch French movies because you speak French, but no, I think it's in English.
[20:46] Jessica: I'm I'm picturing that.
[20:47] Allison: Okay, if it's in French, I mean it has subtitles, it's fine.
[20:50] Jessica: No, I think it's uh it might be in multiple languages now that I'm thinking about it.
[20:55] Allison: We'll check it out.
[20:55] Allison: I'll check it out and I'll link it below.
[20:57] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[20:58] Allison: Um, okay, but back to a Christmas story.
[21:00] Allison: I'm sorry that you don't like that movie.
[21:04] Allison: That was one that was a must-watch for us growing up.
[21:07] Allison: When it I remember I went, excuse me, I wrote a blog about this too.
[21:14] Allison: I went to the movie theater.
[21:15] Allison: I can remember when I went to the movie theater, I was 10 years old when that movie came out.
[21:20] Allison: And I went with a friend.
[21:22] Allison: My mom dropped us off like an afternoon matinee or something, and we watched that movie, and I loved it as a kid.
[21:27] Allison: And then growing up with uh Christmases at my dad's house, if I happened to be at my dad's house, we would watch that on Christmas Eve.
[21:34] Allison: And so then I carried that on with my kids and we watched it every Christmas Eve.
[21:37] Allison: That was the movie we watched before everybody went to bed with our little snack meal and sparkling grape juice.
[21:45] Allison: And so that holds very fond memories.
[21:47] Allison: And I just love that movie to me.
[21:50] Allison: There's so much adult humor in that movie that goes over the kid's head.
[21:56] Allison: Like you just have to really be paying attention to the things that he's saying.
[21:59] Allison: And um, I'm not saying you're not paying attention, that didn't come out right.
[22:03] Allison: What I mean is there's a lot of like subtle humor and nuanced, and as a parent, it became even more funny to me because of all the scheming that he's doing to get this thing he wants so badly, and he thinks he's fooling his parents, but he's obviously not, and it's just hilarious.
[22:22] Allison: Um, and then the soundtrack I love because it's uses the the Peter and the Wolf.
[22:27] Allison: Um classical, you know, right, whatever.
[22:32] Allison: Is it a what do you call that?
[22:34] Allison: It's not an opera.
[22:35] Allison: I don't know, whatever it is.
[22:36] Allison: The Peter and the Wolf music um throughout the whole thing.
[22:39] Allison: So I love that movie.
[22:41] Allison: Okay.
[22:41] Allison: Let's move on.
[22:42] Jessica: You know, a similar one.
[22:44] Jessica: I'm trying to eight, yeah.
[22:46] Jessica: It's called Eight-Bit Christmas.
[22:48] Jessica: Have you seen that?
[22:49] Jessica: Um it's newer.
[22:53] Jessica: It came out in 21.
[22:54] Jessica: And it is about a kid and his friends scheming to get a Commodore 64 or whatever was the game.
[23:05] Jessica: Like it's there are age, but it's a retrospective.
[23:11] Allison: Instead of yeah, instead of thinking back to the nineteen thirties.
[23:13] Allison: Oh, I like that.
[23:15] Allison: Yeah.
[23:15] Jessica: It's pretty cute.
[23:16] Allison: It's pretty cute.
[23:17] Allison: Okay.
[23:17] Allison: I'm gonna have to check that one out.
[23:18] Allison: I've checked that out.
[23:19] Allison: Okay.
[23:19] Allison: Um all right.
[23:21] Allison: So I'm gonna offend you right now.
[23:23] Allison: I don't get the hall I don't get the hallmark.
[23:25] Allison: I'm just like, I don't get it.
[23:28] Jessica: I'm not offended at all.
[23:29] Jessica: I'm not offended at all.
[23:31] Jessica: Because I've my tastes are are changing and I don't know.
[23:36] Jessica: Like there's some that I think we can still re-watch, but but yeah, the girls and I, I think part of it was that it offered me a pretty safe context to talk about relationships with my kid, my girls specifically, and go, okay, what's off about this right here?
[24:00] Jessica: You know, and so we could talk about we'd have examples.
[24:04] Jessica: We're being fed these examples, and so we would have these conversations.
[24:08] Jessica: So, so I think it was possibly the ages that they were, you know, like the last 10 years, right?
[24:16] Jessica: They're tweens and teens, and now they're young adults, you know, just having that avenue to have a conversation, but it's also goofy and it's goofy.
[24:28] Allison: There's some I really can't stand.
[24:31] Allison: There's feel good, it's feel good, like it's and it's predictable.
[24:35] Allison: So I understand that side of it.
[24:36] Allison: I think just it's like you're watching basically the same movie over and over and over again.
[24:42] Jessica: Yeah, and and it depends on how they dress it up, if it you know, sometimes it can be well done, and sometimes and and we will disagree on like there's one that I really like one of my daughters.
[24:56] Jessica: Can we watch Haul Out the Holly?
[24:58] Jessica: And I'm all no, I do not want to watch that one.
[25:03] Allison: But I do I really like how you use it strategically, like that your strategic approach and reason why you chose to watch that because that's a way that you and your girls connect is is watching movies together.
[25:16] Allison: So to use that Hallmark movie as a as a vehicle to talk about relationships is really yeah, that's really smart.
[25:23] Jessica: And and and I would say their tastes are changing, and you know, like the one who was really interested in Taylor Swift when she was younger is like, you know, no, you know, and she's moving on.
[25:34] Jessica: And so uh I don't need to have the same, you know, we some some conversations we don't need to have because yeah, yeah, their maturity is is moving on.
[25:44] Jessica: So yeah, yeah, for sure.
[25:47] Allison: Okay, let's talk books, favorite seasonal reads.
[25:52] Jessica: Again, mine only lean, mine mostly lean towards children's books, children's books.
[25:58] Jessica: So bring it.
[25:59] Jessica: Tell me.
[26:00] Jessica: Um a Christmas Carol.
[26:03] Jessica: That's more for me.
[26:06] Jessica: It's such a short, quick read, but it's really, really good for adults.
[26:12] Jessica: Um, but as far as the kids' ones, we always did some version of the Jesse tree, and there's several different options out there.
[26:23] Jessica: Um I think it was Geraldine McCagrin's one that I'm gonna have to look up.
[26:33] Jessica: But um we didn't always do the ornaments, but I would always read that as like our morning, like our morning meeting for homeschooling.
[26:47] Jessica: We'd have a morning meeting every every day, talk about we'd read some Bible and then we'd have some kind of other thing for Christmas.
[26:55] Jessica: Um, and so I would do different voices for the different characters and um, but then some of the favorites that stick out, like yes, I'm keeping this forever kind of book.
[27:12] Jessica: Um Mr.
[27:13] Jessica: Willoughby's Christmas tree.
[27:15] Allison: Okay.
[27:16] Jessica: Do you know that one?
[27:17] Allison: I do not.
[27:18] Jessica: Oh, it's really cute.
[27:19] Jessica: It's really cute.
[27:20] Jessica: I don't even know how it crossed my path.
[27:22] Jessica: And then they actually published the sequels that the author had done, but it wasn't he died before it got published.
[27:33] Jessica: So last year.
[27:34] Jessica: Like it's from the it's old.
[27:36] Jessica: These are old, old books.
[27:38] Jessica: Um but yeah, so the second one came out last year, so I bought that one and it was pretty cute.
[27:44] Jessica: Um, there's one called Silent Night, um that tells the story of how the hymn was written.
[27:52] Jessica: Um how the Grinch stole Christmas.
[27:56] Jessica: Yeah.
[27:57] Jessica: Those were, I guess those are my big, big ones.
[28:02] Allison: Cool.
[28:03] Allison: Yeah.
[28:03] Allison: Um how about you?
[28:05] Allison: Mine are I I didn't even really think about kids' books, but I I could probably come up with some if I go sit.
[28:11] Allison: Well, I can't go look at my kid.
[28:13] Allison: Their box bookshelf because it's not there.
[28:17] Allison: It is in the storage shed.
[28:20] Allison: Um, so these are adult ones.
[28:23] Allison: And I actually have a whole blog post about this.
[28:24] Allison: Well, it's a it's a show note blog post because I talked about it on one of the episodes last year, so I'll link that um below.
[28:31] Allison: But um, Red Bird Christmas is one that I listen to almost every year, and it's by Fanny, um Fanny Flag.
[28:38] Allison: Um, she wrote Fried Green Tomatoes, and she's a Southern author.
[28:41] Allison: And she reads the version of it, and it's just so sweet, and it's a really it's a really sweet little story.
[28:48] Allison: Um and then Skipping Christmas, which is by John Grisham, and that's what Christmas with the Cranks movie is based on, and that's really good.
[28:56] Allison: I read that book when it came out, yeah.
[28:58] Allison: Yeah, when it first came out, and so I really enjoy that movie.
[29:01] Allison: I that's another one I think is kind of a it doesn't get enough love because it's so goofy, but I watch that every year.
[29:07] Allison: Yeah.
[29:08] Allison: Um, and then I'm a big Jan Karen fan, so she has a couple of Christmas books in the Mitford series, and so Shepherd's Abiding is from many years ago that you could actually read that one without having read all the Mitford stories, and it would stand up just fine.
[29:25] Allison: But she just wrote last year, she wrote um the final final.
[29:30] Allison: Like she really said, This is it this time.
[29:31] Allison: I'm not writing any more Mitford books because she's in her 80s.
[29:34] Allison: Um and she wrote the last one, and it takes place at Christmas time, and it's called My Beloved.
[29:39] Allison: And I just finished it last month, and it was it's so good.
[29:43] Allison: Like it was a little slow for me to get into it, but man, it it ended really, really beautifully.
[29:49] Allison: And her writing, I feel like it's always been good, but I feel like she I've just watched her grow over the years as a writer, and she's even better than than she was.
[29:57] Allison: Um yeah, so those are just a few.
[30:01] Allison: I have a whole list of them though on that blog post, so I'll post that.
[30:04] Allison: I'll post that down.
[30:05] Jessica: Yeah, I just searched it and I couldn't find it, so I'm eager to look at your list.
[30:10] Allison: Yeah.
[30:12] Jessica: Your blog post.
[30:13] Allison: Oh, yeah, I know.
[30:14] Allison: I'm sorry about that.
[30:15] Allison: The blog is really not ideal.
[30:17] Allison: That's on my list of things to do, is to it.
[30:19] Allison: My website's not very searchable.
[30:20] Allison: So sorry if y'all are looking for things and you can't find them.
[30:24] Allison: We'll try to work on that in 2027.
[30:26] Allison: Um you can always email me if you're looking for something specific, and I'm pretty, pretty, can pretty quickly put my finger on it and get it to you.
[30:35] Allison: Okay.
[30:35] Allison: Okay, let's talk about Advent or Christmas scripture reading.
[30:38] Allison: What are you doing this year?
[30:40] Jessica: Your advent guide, of course.
[30:43] Speaker 3: Yay!
[30:45] Jessica: So excited.
[30:45] Jessica: I loved it last year.
[30:47] Jessica: So so a few of us got to be the beta group.
[30:52] Jessica: Um it was really, really good.
[30:54] Jessica: I really got a lot out of it.
[30:57] Jessica: And many of the the song list was fantastic.
[31:00] Jessica: And I've thank you added many of those to my to my personal Christmas song list.
[31:07] Allison: So good.
[31:08] Allison: Yeah, so that's the Advent Guide that's expanded.
[31:12] Allison: We've I've had this the short one that's for free to download on the website for like since the second year of the podcast, I think is when I put it out.
[31:21] Allison: But it was based on my own personal, you know, um, devotionals.
[31:25] Allison: I would just like I would kind of hone in on the the weekly theme every week, um, um, hope, peace, joy, and love.
[31:35] Allison: And I would just look for those things in the Bible.
[31:37] Allison: And so then I just started writing them down.
[31:39] Allison: And then from that, I was like, I should probably put something together and then share this with the audiences.
[31:43] Allison: So that's how it was born.
[31:45] Allison: Um, and as I do the study myself every year, I was finding scriptures that was that more scriptures related.
[31:52] Allison: I was asked finding I was asking myself certain questions, and I thought, okay, maybe I should add some questions to this and make an expanded study.
[31:59] Allison: And so that's what I um am working on right now.
[32:03] Allison: It's almost done, and it will be available November 1st for sure in digital form.
[32:09] Allison: I'm really hoping I can have it in print, but I don't know that I'm gonna be able to.
[32:13] Allison: So um, but it'll be available in digital, and everybody can, you know, you can print it out and for yourself and put it in a binder or whatever.
[32:21] Allison: Um but yeah, so that's very exciting, and I hope everybody is able to enjoy that and and get their hands on it.
[32:29] Allison: In the past, like I've done lots of little short devotionals.
[32:32] Allison: I mean, there's so many out there um that are available for people.
[32:37] Allison: I I know that if I were to point you in another direction, which I that's bad, that's bad business practice, I guess, but um if this because my guide might not be for everybody, which is totally fine.
[32:48] Allison: Um it's meant to be short, like easy to do in a short amount of time because you you guys are busy homemakers.
[32:56] Jessica: I felt I felt like the difference because I've done other ones and they're just more read and less thinking.
[33:05] Allison: Okay.
[33:06] Jessica: And I felt like yours had me thinking.
[33:10] Jessica: Okay, you know, and I really appreciated that.
[33:13] Jessica: Um, because I've done multiple, I didn't keep many of them, so that's how yeah how much they stuck in my head, you know, like I've spent lots of money on different ones.
[33:27] Jessica: Um and and I think, yeah.
[33:32] Jessica: Do you have a published one that you have gone back to more than once?
[33:38] Allison: Well, not necessarily.
[33:40] Allison: Um, but I if I had to recommend one, a company that always puts out solid, really good stuff, it's Daily Grace Co.
[33:49] Allison: Um have you heard of them?
[33:52] Allison: I've talked about them before.
[33:53] Allison: I've heard of them, yeah.
[33:54] Allison: Yeah, their stuff is solid, it's really good and it's pretty.
[33:58] Allison: And they always do an advent and they do like a whole advent, they'll do like a whole line.
[34:03] Allison: So they'll have like you know, mugs and all kinds of stuff, but you can just get the book, and they usually have like a companion kid thing too.
[34:10] Allison: So that's another option that that I could recommend.
[34:12] Allison: I can link that in the show notes.
[34:14] Allison: So, but yeah, you can maybe you could do both.
[34:17] Allison: Yeah, yeah.
[34:18] Allison: Okay, so um let's talk about food.
[34:22] Jessica: Ha ha.
[34:23] Allison: Ha ha.
[34:24] Jessica: I have many opinions.
[34:26] Allison: I know.
[34:26] Allison: Okay, homemade versus store-bought.
[34:30] Allison: When is homemade essential?
[34:33] Allison: Uh, and when is store-bought worth it?
[34:37] Jessica: Okay, theoretically, there's theoretical and then there's what I actually do.
[34:44] Jessica: Okay.
[34:44] Jessica: So if I'm gonna advise someone, I'm gonna say, do homemade for the things that really matter to you for the gatherings that are really important with the people that are most important to you.
[35:00] Jessica: Yeah.
[35:00] Jessica: And it is okay to do store-bought for the things that you just need to do.
[35:06] Jessica: You know, like now.
[35:10] Allison: Can you give me an example?
[35:11] Allison: Like a person.
[35:13] Jessica: Like your the kids, maybe the church, the kids' Sunday school Christmas party.
[35:19] Jessica: Okay, right?
[35:20] Jessica: Like the kids don't care.
[35:22] Allison: That's a very good point.
[35:24] Jessica: They don't care.
[35:25] Jessica: The kids don't care.
[35:27] Jessica: So getting a box of store-bought cookies or whatever, it doesn't matter.
[35:33] Allison: Like because if you're like taking the time to make snowman cupcakes with real snow globes on top of them, you're not that you're trying to impress the moms.
[35:41] Jessica: Yeah, you are, and those are just gonna get language, yeah, and it's fine, but yeah, to the store-bought.
[35:48] Jessica: Yeah, I and so I think it's um we're gonna dive into it, I think, more deeply next year, but but be thinking about your priorities.
[36:00] Jessica: Like what is most important this season?
[36:03] Jessica: And if if money is most important, then making something from scratch, if you have the time, is going to fit that priority the best, because scratch is gonna be cheaper than the store bot.
[36:19] Jessica: If you are strapped for time and you really need to build more margin so that you can relax and enjoy your people, then put the money into the store bought so that you can balance it out.
[36:35] Jessica: Um, so I I think from a theoretical standpoint, it's it's looking with that lens, but I don't always follow my own theory because there's very little I want to eat that is store-bought.
[36:51] Allison: I know.
[36:53] Jessica: So I will stay up late or get up early.
[36:57] Allison: What about though the semi-homemade philosophy?
[37:01] Allison: Like, yeah, you could buy one, you could buy a foundational thing that is store-bought and zhuzh it up.
[37:07] Allison: Make it your exactly, yeah.
[37:09] Jessica: Yeah, I've seen some really fun um crafty things with Trader Joe's cakes.
[37:18] Jessica: Have you seen those videos?
[37:20] Jessica: Yeah, where they make full parties around this.
[37:25] Allison: So you're buying in mix, like you're buying the mix and doing it.
[37:30] Jessica: No, they're buying the cake.
[37:31] Jessica: The cake, they're buying the cake.
[37:33] Jessica: I guess Trader, I don't buy cake.
[37:36] Allison: I didn't know they ate cake.
[37:37] Allison: Is it in like the freezer section?
[37:39] Jessica: No, I guess it's in the bakery section.
[37:41] Jessica: They have a carrot cake, a chocolate cake, and maybe something seasonal, but they're small, they're small in like uh, I don't know, five, what is that?
[37:52] Jessica: Five by seven, five by seven pans.
[37:56] Jessica: And they're come frosted.
[38:00] Allison: I know what you're talking about, yes.
[38:01] Jessica: And then people are zhuzging them up with like the seasonal decoration or doing parties where everybody has a cake and they they all decorate it fancy or whatever.
[38:13] Allison: So maybe if the decorating, if you're more like you want to do the activity, then you don't like say you want to do like okay, like a cookie decorating party.
[38:24] Allison: Right.
[38:24] Allison: And you really are your focus and your goal is to provide an activity for your people to do together.
[38:29] Allison: Right.
[38:30] Allison: You don't have to make all the cookies, right?
[38:32] Allison: You can buy them, exactly.
[38:34] Allison: You can buy the components if you have the budget, if you have it in your budget, you can totally do that.
[38:39] Allison: Right.
[38:40] Allison: So yeah, it's a question of priorities and and where you want to put your resources, including your time.
[38:47] Jessica: Right, right.
[38:48] Jessica: And I think when it comes to are we specifically limiting ourselves to Christmas or is Thanksgiving in this conversation?
[38:59] Allison: No, I we can say Thanksgiving because this is coming out next week and it's October, so yeah, yeah.
[39:04] Jessica: I think for me, it's the flavors like Thanksgiving.
[39:09] Jessica: I really want to sit down and just enjoy this one meal with all of our favorite things, so so the store bot is gonna be the thing that I don't care about, or we don't have like a favorite right thing for that item.
[39:31] Jessica: Like so, but my family would, if they were here, they would all say, She made way too many side dishes last year.
[39:43] Jessica: But I wanted lots of vegetables, and I thought of all these great ideas, and so I made them all and it was delicious, but they're like, You spent way too much time on all of that, and and they would have preferred me hanging out and like playing games and stuff, whatever, yeah.
[40:01] Allison: That's a very good point.
[40:03] Allison: Like, ask your people, get their get their input on it, yeah.
[40:07] Jessica: And I think this changes as your kids age.
[40:10] Jessica: What they really wanted when they were five may not be what they care about when they're 25.
[40:15] Jessica: And so to have that ongoing conversation and be open to them telling you what you don't want to hear.
[40:25] Jessica: Okay.
[40:29] Jessica: Because they're gonna say, I don't really like that thing.
[40:34] Allison: Yeah.
[40:35] Jessica: You know, say, what?
[40:36] Jessica: It's so good, it's the best movie ever.
[40:40] Allison: Or I've been making this every year and you don't actually like it.
[40:45] Jessica: Right, right.
[40:46] Jessica: So be prepared.
[40:47] Jessica: And and one of the tools that has helped, I think we've talked about this before with trip planning, was to I've I've switched to a Google a Google form that you can create for free in Drive and then send the link to everybody and it tallies their votes, but then you can also see each individual vote.
[41:08] Jessica: And so your quieter people, even though we have you know Sunday dinner once a week, I could ask and I could poll everybody at Sunday dinner, but someone who doesn't feel comfortable being totally honest in a group setting is gonna appreciate the survey much more.
[41:29] Jessica: And they can just say what they think.
[41:32] Jessica: I keep it anonymous, but I can figure out who said what.
[41:36] Jessica: Yes.
[41:39] Jessica: Um but I do this every Thanksgiving and Christmas for the menu because I don't want to spin my wheels.
[41:48] Jessica: What kind of questions do you ask?
[41:50] Jessica: Um, well, let's pull it up.
[41:53] Allison: Um because I'm assuming it's pretty short.
[41:56] Allison: You'd keep it short so that they'll actually do it.
[42:00] Jessica: I give options.
[42:02] Jessica: So uh one thing I learned um in online marketing was to make your long form answer first because people want to they'll have more energy at the beginning, but by the end, you're less likely to get words.
[42:21] Jessica: So um, what's a favorite memory or thoughts?
[42:27] Allison: Yeah.
[42:27] Jessica: What's a favorite memory or experience from the past?
[42:31] Jessica: Does one holiday mean more to you than the others?
[42:34] Jessica: And that's just a multiple choice.
[42:35] Jessica: Okay.
[42:36] Jessica: Um, is there something particular you want us to do together?
[42:39] Jessica: Um one year I made like 12 pies because I had a kid eating vegan and a kid eating gluten-free, and I was trying to make everybody happy.
[42:55] Jessica: So now I say choose two of the following desserts.
[43:00] Allison: Okay.
[43:00] Jessica: And I might make three of them, or I might make four of them, but they just get to choose two.
[43:06] Jessica: They don't get to vote for everything.
[43:08] Jessica: Okay.
[43:08] Jessica: Um what's your preference for Thanksgiving protein, turkey, or ham?
[43:13] Jessica: And then, you know, a few more just about Christmas in particular.
[43:20] Allison: Okay.
[43:20] Jessica: What are holiday meals you'd like to have with all of us together?
[43:24] Jessica: What choose two Christmas cookies?
[43:26] Jessica: Choose two breakfast pastries.
[43:29] Allison: Um love this.
[43:31] Jessica: And I send it to my in-laws, they get to vote.
[43:34] Jessica: Um they're gonna come for Thanksgiving.
[43:37] Jessica: For Thanksgiving.
[43:38] Jessica: Yeah, yeah.
[43:39] Jessica: So then I just get smart, you know, and it sometimes surprises me what wins and what doesn't.
[43:47] Jessica: And okay.
[43:50] Allison: Can we uh can I share that?
[43:52] Allison: Not obviously your actual thing, but can we copy it and copy it and then we'll put it and we'll we'll link it in the blog post for this episode so that if you don't want to have to think through it yourself, listener, you can just copy Jessica's.
[44:05] Jessica: Yeah, yeah.
[44:07] Allison: That's so smart.
[44:07] Allison: I love this idea.
[44:09] Jessica: It it works.
[44:10] Jessica: We do it for any big thing that I might be okay.
[44:14] Jessica: I mean, we have six kids, so obviously that's a lot of people, and then you throw in um daughter-in-law or girlfriends or whatever.
[44:24] Jessica: Bigger the family gets that's more gets more layers of opinions.
[44:30] Allison: Love it.
[44:31] Jessica: Yeah, this idea.
[44:32] Allison: Okay, we'll definitely put that in there.
[44:34] Allison: Okay, what cookie candy or other treat do you most look forward to making every year?
[44:41] Jessica: It was a really long list.
[44:44] Allison: I know.
[44:45] Jessica: Um my personal favorites are magic bars, the Rolo pretzels.
[44:55] Jessica: Um, I make these cranberry bars with leftover cranberry sauce.
[45:02] Jessica: That are really good.
[45:05] Jessica: Um And then I make a cranberry and white chocolate scone with cardamom and ginger.
[45:21] Allison: Ooh.
[45:22] Jessica: That's really yummy.
[45:23] Jessica: And then my family likes the chocolate mint crackle cookies that I make with a Hershey kiss on them.
[45:32] Jessica: But I prefer my peppermint bark chocolate chip cookies to those.
[45:39] Allison: Okay.
[45:39] Allison: So yeah.
[45:41] Allison: I mean, yes, you you do food for like your job.
[45:46] Jessica: So well, and this is why it's hard to limit myself.
[45:49] Jessica: It's like, oh, but that's so good, and that's so good, and that's so good.
[45:53] Jessica: And because I'm not trying, I'm trying not to eat a lot of sweets the rest of the time.
[45:59] Jessica: Yeah.
[46:01] Jessica: It's not like, oh, you could just make those anytime.
[46:03] Jessica: It's like you can't just do it all year.
[46:04] Jessica: You couldn't.
[46:05] Jessica: Yeah.
[46:05] Jessica: This is my only time to be a glutton.
[46:09] Allison: So um I most look forward to making fudge every year because that was something my grandma always did and my mom always does.
[46:19] Allison: Um, so fudge making is something I only do at Christmas time.
[46:24] Allison: I will always do a classic chocolate fudge, no nuts, because it's too controversial.
[46:32] Allison: Um, I mean, I like it both ways, but everybody has strong opinions about that.
[46:37] Allison: So I think that's a good thing.
[46:38] Jessica: You did inspire me to bust out my mom's fudge recipe last year.
[46:42] Jessica: And that was one of the things in my boxes for extended family that got the biggest people love the fudge.
[46:52] Allison: They love the fudge, they love it.
[46:53] Allison: Um, so I've done all sorts of flavor variations on fudge over the years.
[46:57] Allison: I think my my favorites are the classic chocolate, and I use a combination of dark and semi-sweet because I want it to be really rich, um, really rich flavor.
[47:06] Allison: And um and then butterscotch fudge.
[47:11] Allison: Oh my gosh.
[47:13] Jessica: With just butterscotch chips.
[47:16] Allison: You just do the same basic recipe, but instead of chocolate chips, you use butterscotch chips, and it is amazing.
[47:21] Allison: It's really, really rich, but it is so good.
[47:25] Allison: Um, mint is also really good to do chocolate and then put peppermint in it, crushed up peppermint, and a little teeny teeny tiny bit of peppermint extract.
[47:34] Allison: Yeah.
[47:34] Allison: The only thing about that is goes a long way, folks.
[47:37] Allison: Yes, no, I mean the tiniest like drop of it.
[47:40] Allison: But the only thing is you can't store that with any of your other fudge or cookies because that mint will just migrate and make everything taste like mint.
[47:48] Allison: So there's your tip for the day.
[47:49] Allison: Yeah.
[47:50] Jessica: And you make that and you put it in the freezer.
[47:53] Allison: I will make it early usually and put it.
[47:55] Allison: Yes, fudge freezes really well.
[47:57] Allison: So I will I will pour it out into the pan that I'm, you know, letting it cool in.
[48:03] Allison: I'll let it cool completely.
[48:05] Allison: I line that pan with parchment paper, and then I just pull it out and then I um wrap the whole thing in cellophane and stick it in a stick it in a baggie, a zip, uh ziploc freezer bag, and it's good to go.
[48:19] Allison: And I can take it out of the freezer and just let it sit for like maybe not even fully thaw, um, just for like 30 minutes to an hour so that I can cut it and I can just cut off however much I need for that.
[48:32] Allison: Maybe I want to give some to somebody, or maybe I'm hosting a party and I want to have a little plate of fudge.
[48:38] Allison: I don't have to throw it out.
[48:39] Allison: But then you put it back in the break out.
[48:41] Allison: I can then just like cut off.
[48:43] Allison: And the best way to cut it, in my opinion, is with a pizza wheel and just cuts right through it.
[48:49] Allison: And then you just put back what you don't what you don't use.
[48:52] Allison: I can put it back in the freezer.
[48:53] Allison: Yeah.
[48:55] Jessica: So alrighty.
[48:56] Jessica: I'm gonna try that because I think last year I was doing it the day before we road tripped north and felt a little bit like a headless chicken.
[49:07] Allison: Yeah, it's a lot because it's a it's a procedure to do the fudge, and you don't want to do it on a rainy day because it'll mess up the um it'll mess up the texture, you'll get grainy.
[49:17] Allison: At least the recipe that I use, you don't want to do that.
[49:19] Allison: So um, okay, new.
[49:22] Allison: Do you have a new recipe that you want to try this year, like a new sweet treat or something?
[49:27] Allison: Or or it doesn't have to be sweet, um, or an old family recipe you want to bring back?
[49:31] Jessica: I am experimenting with cookie mixes, making my own cookie mixes that people can add to.
[49:39] Jessica: And and you're you're kind of limited because of the creaming, the butter and sugar step.
[49:46] Jessica: So if you want it to be a true mix that you have included the sugar in the mix, then it has to be a slightly different texture of cookie.
[49:57] Allison: But wait, I have been I've been following this girl on Instagram and I can't remember who it is, I'll have to look it up.
[50:02] Allison: She does not cream her butter and sugar together for her cookies.
[50:06] Allison: She uses cold butter and she cubes it up.
[50:09] Allison: She cubes her cold butter and adds it directly to the mix because she says, and she's like all scientific about it.
[50:16] Allison: Like there's a whole scientific explanation because she makes these bakery style, they're big, chunky, and then she breaks them apart and they look beautiful and gooey on the inside, but they have a nice little crust on the outside.
[50:28] Allison: And she swears the secret is not creaming the butter and the sugar, so you might be fine.
[50:33] Allison: Oh, interesting.
[50:35] Allison: You might want to experiment, try, you know, try that also.
[50:37] Jessica: Because conventional wisdom says you have to explain crazy.
[50:41] Jessica: Yeah.
[50:41] Jessica: Right.
[50:42] Jessica: But but then all of a sudden, you know, the world is cooking their pasta in in one pot with all the things with all the stuff.
[50:54] Jessica: I know.
[50:55] Jessica: You know, and it's like, wait a minute.
[50:56] Jessica: I thought I had to have six times the water and dirty all these pots.
[51:02] Allison: I know.
[51:03] Jessica: Yeah.
[51:04] Allison: Yeah.
[51:04] Jessica: So I'm playing with I'm playing with cookie mixes, but also um last year on that frenzied day.
[51:15] Jessica: Um I also made my grandma's, well, I didn't make my grandma's recipe.
[51:21] Jessica: I I got one off the internet because I was too lazy to go find my grandma's recipe um for soda cracker cookies.
[51:30] Allison: Uh-huh.
[51:31] Jessica: I think the internet calls them Christmas crack.
[51:33] Jessica: Christmas crack.
[51:34] Allison: Yeah.
[51:35] Jessica: Yeah.
[51:35] Jessica: Yeah.
[51:36] Jessica: But my grandma called them soda cracker cookies, you know, like the saltine with the caramel over the top.
[51:42] Jessica: And the chocolate.
[51:44] Jessica: And the rest I read multiple recipes, none of them agreed.
[51:49] Jessica: And I think it was on serious eats.
[51:55] Jessica: They said as long as you do this, that, and the other thing, it'll be fine.
[51:59] Jessica: And it's like they did not turn out at all.
[52:03] Jessica: And I was like, I should have gone, I should have gone to dig out grandma's recipe.
[52:10] Jessica: So okay, well, we're gonna give that one another try.
[52:14] Allison: I want to hear how grandma does it because I make that every I make it every year.
[52:18] Allison: I started making that like three or four years ago, Christmas crack.
[52:21] Jessica: Uh-huh.
[52:22] Allison: Um, and the recipe that I found works great every time.
[52:25] Allison: And I I've done different variations.
[52:27] Allison: Last year I did a variation where I made churro flavored Christmas crack.
[52:31] Allison: Oh, I used white chocolate chips instead of um chocolate.
[52:37] Allison: And I did cinnamon crack.
[52:39] Jessica: Did you use cinnamon graham crackers?
[52:41] Allison: I did not.
[52:42] Allison: That would have been a really good idea.
[52:44] Jessica: Because I just saw last year I saw people using graham crackers for it.
[52:49] Allison: That's a good idea.
[52:50] Allison: I use regular because I make it gluten-free.
[52:53] Jessica: So I use the scar, S C H A R but they make good um honey grams, I think is what they call them.
[53:01] Allison: Yeah, but I would I didn't even think about that.
[53:02] Allison: But I buy their version of a saltine cracker, and that's how I make them.
[53:06] Allison: I'm and it works great.
[53:07] Allison: I make all of the Christmas crack gluten-free.
[53:10] Allison: Okay, I'm gonna try that next year.
[53:12] Allison: But anyway, I'll send you that.
[53:13] Allison: I'll link all of that and you can tell me how grandma's recipe does.
[53:16] Allison: Yeah.
[53:16] Allison: Yeah.
[53:17] Allison: Okay, I'm gonna skip ahead because we could talk about food forever.
[53:20] Allison: Yep, yep, yep, yep.
[53:21] Allison: Um, I want to talk about gifts.
[53:23] Allison: Do you have a system for gifts?
[53:24] Allison: Like keeping track of everybody's wish list, what you're buying, what if it's wrapped, if it's shipped, all that stuff.
[53:30] Allison: How do you keep up with it?
[53:31] Jessica: Okay, so with six children, um, and we were always on a really tight budget when they were younger because we were paying off debt and not making a lot of money.
[53:43] Jessica: Um I think it might have been the baby was probably three or four.
[53:52] Jessica: She was walking and talking and having lots of opinions, and she wanted to buy everybody a present.
[54:01] Jessica: And then they all were coming to me saying, I want to buy so-and-so this and so-and-so that.
[54:06] Jessica: And I was like, dude, I do not have the cash to fund your dreams of gift giving.
[54:13] Jessica: So um, but I wanted to honor their desire to be generous with each other.
[54:23] Jessica: So we started the fish kids swap where they would exchange names and they were young, like, and I'd never done this growing up, and my mom hated it with her family when they were adults, so I didn't have a uh any experience with it at all.
[54:43] Jessica: But they continue to swap names, and so they would each get one person a gift, and then they would buy the rest of the family stocking stuffers that were had to be a limit of a dollar a piece.
[54:59] Jessica: So they're I could I could swing helping them until they were old enough to pay for it themselves, and the budget stayed under control.
[55:08] Jessica: So that continues to be like a highlight for everybody, and that also I think I'm maybe I'm did you have stocking stuffers on here?
[55:23] Jessica: Um, am I jumping the gun?
[55:25] Allison: Um no, that's next.
[55:27] Allison: That was a QA.
[55:28] Allison: That was a yeah, that was a question.
[55:30] Jessica: Well, jump in the gun.
[55:31] Jessica: I knew I read it somewhere, but stocking stuffers are freaking expensive.
[55:37] Jessica: Yes, they are so expensive, and so the fact that each of the kids now buys stocking stuffers for everybody else, I don't have to buy very much because they everybody stuffs the stockings together.
[55:51] Jessica: Um like that.
[55:52] Jessica: And and this is obviously with the assumption that since we've been doing it with our kids since they were young, we did not do Santa Claus.
[55:59] Jessica: So that is your mileage will vary greatly if if you've got different things going.
[56:07] Jessica: Um I have have had differing experiences buying for the kids.
[56:18] Jessica: In the early years, I just kept a list that they couldn't find.
[56:24] Jessica: So it was usually on my phone somewhere.
[56:26] Jessica: I had a list of all the things and how much I had spent on each person so that I was keeping it equitable.
[56:32] Jessica: Um, and then when year somebody cried, not one of the boys, but somebody cried as as a young adult, not a child, and I was like, okay, so clearly my gift giving, it just kind of like I don't want to be that mom who who buys the thing that embarrasses them or or disappoints them or whatever.
[57:01] Jessica: So I will buy a small gift that makes me think of them, that's fun, that's and then I get them a gift card.
[57:12] Allison: Okay.
[57:14] Jessica: And then I know they're gonna get to do what they want.
[57:18] Allison: Yeah.
[57:19] Jessica: And it's easier, and I'm not gonna make anybody sad.
[57:26] Allison: Okay.
[57:27] Allison: Yes, we don't want crying on Christmas Day.
[57:30] Jessica: No, that's good.
[57:32] Jessica: And and and this child has has matured, and I don't think the same thing would happen today, but it was like, you know, okay, maybe it was a joke gift that didn't land.
[57:42] Jessica: I gotcha.
[57:43] Jessica: And okay, and it's like, okay, like my efforts at being light and funny and whatever, it's like okay.
[57:52] Jessica: That didn't work.
[57:53] Jessica: That didn't work.
[57:53] Jessica: Let's not let's let's dial down the creativity and just do an easy win.
[58:01] Allison: Okay, cool.
[58:02] Allison: So um I have um for years now used my just my notes app and my phone.
[58:10] Allison: I do have a Christmas binder, so I do like that's more for keeping up with food, celebrations, guest lists, you know, like the logistics of all of the planning of the events and things.
[58:23] Allison: Um but the reason I keep I don't carry that around with me during the Christmas season and of of course not during the year.
[58:32] Allison: Right.
[58:32] Allison: So I always have my phone with me.
[58:34] Allison: So if I come across something or somebody mentions something and it's um March, I can pull up the little Christmas uh note for that year and I can put the person's name and the idea right then so I don't forget.
[58:48] Allison: Um and then when it gets it's about time for me to do this now.
[58:51] Allison: We're mid we're mid-October, so I'll start um a list and I just it's very simple.
[58:57] Allison: I just put everybody's name and under their name, like is a heading, their name is the heading, and then under it it'll have like a place to put the gift and then a place to put the stocking because I do the stockings for everybody.
[59:08] Allison: Um, and then as I get things, I just go in there and I I just enter that.
[59:13] Allison: Um and then um I was gonna say something else and it has totally left my brain.
[59:20] Allison: Um if I'm really on top of things, I will also go in and keep track of what I received that year on that same note, just so that I make sure that I thank that person.
[59:33] Allison: Um and and what, you know, and it kind of just helps it might give me an idea for a gift for somebody else for next year if it's something that I really enjoyed that I received.
[59:44] Jessica: So I don't know if this would I don't know if this would help you, but I ended up printing out the past years and putting them in my binder so that I would just have like while I'm thinking about all the things, then it's like, oh yeah, I did that.
[1:00:00] Jessica: I gave them that already.
[1:00:02] Allison: That is the other reason I do the note and I keep that note every year.
[1:00:05] Allison: I have one for every year so I can go back.
[1:00:07] Allison: Have I already given that person an instant pot?
[1:00:09] Allison: Yeah, yeah, which kids because a lot of times I'll do that with the kids, you know, give them like an appliance, you know, and I don't remember which kid I gave it to.
[1:00:16] Allison: So yeah, that's good.
[1:00:18] Jessica: Yeah, did you because growing up in a big family, we with two sisters, a lot of people would give us all the same thing, right?
[1:00:31] Jessica: Maybe in a different color, but we knew that and so then it was like, Don't show me, don't show, you know, like nowadays, if that ever happens with my sisters, it's like, don't show me, let's open it at the same time, kind of thing.
[1:00:45] Jessica: Did you do that with your kids where you got all the boys the same thing?
[1:00:50] Allison: Yes, sometimes I do that.
[1:00:52] Allison: Actually, I do that a lot.
[1:00:54] Allison: Um because it just makes it easier for me.
[1:00:57] Allison: So here's an example.
[1:00:58] Allison: Last year I bought all the girls got one of those warming mats for they're like a it's like a heating pad, essentially.
[1:01:08] Allison: For your food for your for your buffet.
[1:01:12] Allison: They are amazing.
[1:01:14] Allison: I love them so much.
[1:01:15] Jessica: Is it different than the old school hot plate?
[1:01:19] Allison: Yes, this is a flexible mat.
[1:01:21] Allison: You can roll it up when you're not using it.
[1:01:23] Allison: Oh, okay, and it comes in like a little storage bag.
[1:01:26] Allison: Oh, and you just plug it in and it has a couple different settings.
[1:01:30] Allison: It is, I love them so much.
[1:01:31] Allison: They come in different sizes, and so everybody got one last year.
[1:01:35] Allison: Um, all the girls and my mom.
[1:01:38] Allison: And so I had them, but this is the way we do it at the house when we have Christmas morning.
[1:01:44] Allison: We have we take turns handing out our gifts.
[1:01:47] Allison: So, like if it's um, if it's we know, say Joe, my youngest son, if if him and Claire, they are gonna go around and hand out all their gifts that they got for each person, and then everybody will open them at the same time from Claire and Joe.
[1:02:02] Allison: Um, so that we can all see what everybody got, and it's not total pandemonium of piles and piles of gifts that you're going through.
[1:02:10] Allison: So then they have their moment to watch everybody open the gift that they got for them and appreciate that.
[1:02:15] Jessica: So when they gave twin gifts, then those people are open at the same time.
[1:02:19] Jessica: Exactly, exactly.
[1:02:21] Allison: So when it's my you know, if it was my turn to hand out the gifts, I gave all the girls and I said, Okay, open that one first, everybody at the same time.
[1:02:27] Allison: Right.
[1:02:28] Allison: So they, you know, so they knew so they all got that.
[1:02:30] Allison: That's how we avoid cool that situation.
[1:02:33] Allison: Um spoilers, yeah.
[1:02:35] Allison: So, okay, what what's your go-to gift for a white elephant exchange or Yankee swap or Dirty Santa or whatever you call it in your part of the world?
[1:02:44] Allison: I haven't been invited to one in 20 years.
[1:02:47] Jessica: So but that was a memorable gift that that it was we called it a corn bag.
[1:02:57] Jessica: It was those microwaveable heating bags that people put rice or flaxseed.
[1:03:05] Jessica: Yes, some people put cherry pits in them, yeah, like for neck or you know, something.
[1:03:10] Jessica: And it was our first or it was probably our second Christmas in Kansas, and we got one, and and I was like, what is this?
[1:03:22] Jessica: And she explained, and I was like, okay.
[1:03:26] Jessica: And then it was the hot ticket item in my house.
[1:03:30] Jessica: We only had one, and we were on a tight budget, and we didn't have any money that year because that was the year we were paying off debts, and the kids would like beg to have it to warm up the bed before they went to bed.
[1:03:48] Jessica: And then I don't know if this is bad.
[1:03:51] Jessica: After they fell asleep, we would take it and eat it up for ourselves.
[1:03:56] Jessica: They don't need it exactly.
[1:04:00] Jessica: And that that the it must have been the following year.
[1:04:03] Jessica: We got that one year, and then the following year we were paying off debts, and the kids said, All we want is our own corn bags.
[1:04:10] Speaker 2: So I made everybody their own corn bag.
[1:04:16] Jessica: You know, there was one kid into football, so he had Kansas City Chiefs fabric, and somebody had dinosaur fabric and Thomas the Train, and yeah, so the corn bags were very, very popular.
[1:04:30] Allison: Yeah, that's a good gift for anybody, really.
[1:04:32] Allison: I love that.
[1:04:34] Jessica: What's your white elephant?
[1:04:36] Allison: So the last couple of years we always do one at our um small group.
[1:04:41] Allison: So I have brought um it's oftentimes it's something food related.
[1:04:47] Allison: And I notice um when I'm thrifting, they always have these Wilton cookie pans that are like shaped like Christmas shapes, gingerbread or that nobody ever wants to keep.
[1:04:58] Allison: Nobody wants them, right?
[1:04:59] Allison: You don't you want to keep that?
[1:05:01] Allison: Um I like them, they're not as bulky as a cake pan, like a themed cake pan, because they're a cookie pan, so they're really thin.
[1:05:07] Allison: So a gift that I like to, and they're usually like a couple dollars at good rate.
[1:05:12] Allison: Right.
[1:05:13] Allison: And they if they if if they were used at all, they're in very good shape.
[1:05:16] Allison: They might not have even been used.
[1:05:18] Allison: So I buy that, one of those, and then I get like a boxed cookie mix, um, and maybe like a cute tea towel or a cute oven mitt or something, or a cute spatula, and then I just I just bundle that together with a big bow around the whole thing, and it's it makes a really cute gift, and people really like it because it's an activity, like and I always tell them I'm like, I paid three dollars for that pan, and you can bring it back to goodwill when you're done.
[1:05:43] Jessica: Right, right, right, but do it with the grandkids, do it with the kids, and then yeah, then move on and move on with your life.
[1:05:50] Allison: Exactly.
[1:05:51] Allison: Cool.
[1:05:51] Allison: Um, okay, favorite things.
[1:05:53] Allison: This is gonna be a long episode, but that's okay.
[1:05:55] Allison: Um, favorite things, Christmas.
[1:05:57] Allison: What is a kitchen tool, an organizing trick, a wrapping shortcut, something, something useful discovery that you've had lately.
[1:06:05] Allison: I'll tell you mine is the warming mat.
[1:06:07] Allison: I mean, yeah, that is the thing for me.
[1:06:09] Allison: I love that warming mat.
[1:06:11] Allison: It is so wonderful for when you are having lots of people over and you're doing buffet style.
[1:06:16] Jessica: I would say um the most random thing came to my mind, but I found it on Instagram a few years ago.
[1:06:25] Jessica: How to make curly bows from the wrapping paper scraps.
[1:06:30] Jessica: Yep.
[1:06:32] Jessica: I've seen it.
[1:06:33] Jessica: You know, you do the fringe, you fold it in half, you cut the fringe, then you wrap it up, and it makes this little curly bow.
[1:06:41] Allison: That's a good one.
[1:06:43] Jessica: And and it's like, oh, because I always feel so wasteful.
[1:06:46] Jessica: You have all these weird um weird size pieces of paper that you will never use for anything.
[1:06:53] Jessica: So at least they can play a role before they get chucked.
[1:06:57] Jessica: So that's that's mine.
[1:07:01] Allison: What is oh wait, you have something else?
[1:07:04] Allison: No, no, good.
[1:07:05] Allison: Okay.
[1:07:05] Allison: So what's it what is something you already own that own that earns its key?
[1:07:11] Allison: Every Christmas.
[1:07:16] Jessica: Well, we did talk about my Santa Viking Gnome cookie jar.
[1:07:24] Jessica: We discussed this last ramble.
[1:07:28] Jessica: Um I love it.
[1:07:31] Jessica: It makes me so happy.
[1:07:32] Jessica: I don't even put cookies in it.
[1:07:34] Jessica: I just put it out for decor.
[1:07:36] Jessica: It doesn't okay.
[1:07:37] Jessica: Yeah, I just love it.
[1:07:39] Jessica: It just makes me happy.
[1:07:41] Jessica: Um I have a little, I have a couple different like stuffed gnomy things that actually stay out year-round.
[1:07:51] Jessica: And I'm always curious if anyone will notice them because they're kind of in obscure spots, but in the public spaces.
[1:07:58] Jessica: So it's always fun when somebody says, What is that elf doing up that they're like Easter, they're like Easter eggs in your mouth.
[1:08:06] Jessica: Yeah.
[1:08:07] Jessica: Yeah.
[1:08:07] Jessica: I love that.
[1:08:07] Jessica: Yeah.
[1:08:08] Jessica: So different decor things that I just I just like.
[1:08:12] Jessica: Um I I don't have separate other than mugs.
[1:08:19] Jessica: I don't really have separate seasonal dishware or anything.
[1:08:22] Jessica: We just use the same stuff all year round.
[1:08:26] Jessica: So yeah.
[1:08:30] Jessica: So it's more the decor or my Christmas notebook.
[1:08:34] Jessica: Like that's proven solid for a lot of things.
[1:08:39] Allison: That's a good answer.
[1:08:40] Allison: That's a good answer.
[1:08:41] Allison: Yeah.
[1:08:41] Allison: For sure.
[1:08:42] Allison: Keeps you keeps you organized.
[1:08:44] Jessica: Because I've got all my recipes for Thanksgiving.
[1:08:46] Jessica: I don't have to.
[1:08:47] Jessica: It's just there.
[1:08:49] Allison: It's there.
[1:08:50] Allison: Yep.
[1:08:50] Allison: Mine is my Wi-Fi timers.
[1:08:52] Allison: But what are those?
[1:08:54] Allison: So my plug, my timers, all of my Christmas trees, lights, anything that plugs in.
[1:09:00] Allison: Oh I have the little the little Wi-Fi timer.
[1:09:05] Allison: Because I don't my our house isn't a smart house or anything.
[1:09:08] Allison: Like it's too old for that.
[1:09:09] Allison: So our plugs, none of them are smart plugs.
[1:09:12] Allison: So I have the little plug-in.
[1:09:14] Allison: I just bought like a bunch of them.
[1:09:17] Allison: What's a smart plug?
[1:09:19] Jessica: I guess my house is too old too.
[1:09:22] Allison: I think newer houses, some of the homes that they're putting, the plugs, the outlets, are like smart.
[1:09:27] Allison: So you can, I mean, you can buy them.
[1:09:29] Allison: You can buy a smart outlet like at Home Depot and switch it out, you know.
[1:09:34] Allison: But you can also buy the little smart plugs.
[1:09:36] Allison: They're just little separate plugs.
[1:09:38] Allison: And they come in all different shapes and sizes.
[1:09:41] Allison: They come with like multiple plugs on them.
[1:09:43] Allison: And you can time, you just set a timer on each individual plug for and it's you control it on an app on your phone, and you can, you know, time all of your lights to come on at certain times, go off at certain times.
[1:09:55] Allison: You can do it by the day.
[1:09:57] Allison: You can it's very customized, customizable.
[1:09:59] Allison: I mean, back in the day before this was a thing, I used the old school plug timers.
[1:10:04] Allison: You remember they were like manual and you set the little dial.
[1:10:08] Allison: Um I used those, and that was very, very helpful.
[1:10:12] Allison: Um, because I wanted the lights to come on and off without because the thing is, I didn't want to have to climb behind the tree to turn them off and on.
[1:10:22] Jessica: Well, and that was one of my discoveries in this house was you know how every room has a light switch attached to one of the plugs.
[1:10:31] Jessica: I figured out which one to put the Christmas tree on.
[1:10:36] Jessica: There you go.
[1:10:37] Jessica: Because we have inset lights, we don't need a lamp to go on.
[1:10:41] Jessica: Yeah.
[1:10:41] Jessica: Instead, I had switches for the Christmas tree.
[1:10:46] Allison: So that made me very happy.
[1:10:47] Allison: You can do that.
[1:10:49] Allison: But if you want more flexibility of where you're putting your trees or your lights or whatever, I highly recommend using those little Wi-Fi plugs because they will just make things so much easier on you.
[1:11:00] Allison: Very cool.
[1:11:02] Allison: All right.
[1:11:02] Allison: Community and hospitality.
[1:11:04] Allison: What's a favorite way that you like to gather people at Christmas time?
[1:11:11] Jessica: Well, we're in a transition phase right now.
[1:11:15] Jessica: For years and years and years, all of the Christmas and Thanksgiving and New Year's, I was doing.
[1:11:24] Jessica: And now I'm doing Thanksgiving.
[1:11:29] Jessica: And I have to decide am I gonna make all the things I want to make or scale down to um and Christmas, my son is handling.
[1:11:45] Jessica: And I used to, like, I think it's in one of our we talked about second Christmas in one of our previous things.
[1:11:56] Jessica: One of my kids said he didn't want to do second Christmas, he only wants to do one.
[1:12:02] Jessica: And so last year that worked out.
[1:12:06] Jessica: We drove up to my my oldest son's for on Christmas Day in a storm in a wild, crazy California with crazy California driver's storm of the grapevine.
[1:12:21] Jessica: Um, and they the kids were thrilled.
[1:12:24] Jessica: Like they were in their car, we were in our car, you know, it was an exciting day, and then we had a great Christmas in the rain with with my son and daughter-in-law.
[1:12:33] Jessica: Um, so I don't really know what we're doing because it's time to send out a survey, and I really enjoyed the years that we did second Christmas.
[1:12:47] Jessica: And so, for those of you who haven't heard the story, like we would time our our big Christmas with my son and daughter-in-law when all of us could be together, but that was often not on Christmas Day, so I would plan an alternate activity meal.
[1:13:06] Jessica: Um I did kind of a sort of a gift swap, but I bought all the gifts, and then we so we still had something to open on Christmas Day and we still had something special, but for whatever reason it didn't land.
[1:13:27] Jessica: It it didn't land with everybody, so I'm not sure.
[1:13:31] Jessica: I'm not sure what this year looks like.
[1:13:33] Jessica: So okay, cool.
[1:13:36] Allison: Um, I did a whole I did all of the last year's um holiday homemaking episodes.
[1:13:44] Allison: Um, the segments that I do in each of those episodes were all about this, different like different ways to gather people throughout the holiday season.
[1:13:51] Allison: So go back and listen to those, you guys.
[1:13:53] Allison: Um, I would say probably my f one of my favorite things to do is to uh is to host sort of an open house for Christmas Eve.
[1:13:59] Allison: Oh, yeah.
[1:14:00] Allison: Because we're very like we're almost always we're definitely going to church at some point on Christmas Eve day.
[1:14:08] Allison: And some some or all of us will be serving in the band.
[1:14:13] Allison: And so that means lots of time, you know, at the church and not a lot of time to do a lot of prep.
[1:14:19] Allison: I typically the last many probably four or five years, I have said I do not, I won't, I'm not gonna serve on Christmas Eve so that I can prepare something for people to come to at my house.
[1:14:30] Speaker 3: That's nice.
[1:14:32] Allison: Yeah.
[1:14:32] Allison: So, and this is something my grandma did, and this is very traditional for our family to do like a big Christmas Eve kind of people can come and go, and there's lots of food, and and so I like to do that.
[1:14:42] Allison: I'm really looking forward to doing that when we move and we're closer to town, we're closer to our church, and um, can kind of ex really extend that invitation out to whoever doesn't have a place to go after church today.
[1:14:54] Allison: You know, you can come to our house and that's usually the food, the food is all snacky, which is why I need those warming mats because people are coming for all hours.
[1:15:03] Jessica: Right.
[1:15:04] Allison: Um, so that's really I really enjoy doing that.
[1:15:07] Allison: It's very fun.
[1:15:08] Allison: We might play, you know, somebody might hang over at the piano and start playing music and singing, or we and we'll play games.
[1:15:15] Allison: Usually somebody brings a game, and there's pockets of people doing different things throughout the house, and it's it's it's really fun.
[1:15:22] Allison: And it's a little easier to do that now that my kids are out of the house, and even when we did this a lot when the kids were teenagers, because they're not getting up at four four o'clock in the morning, you know, because we all have people that won't leave until past midnight.
[1:15:34] Allison: So it's not as hard to do that when we're not having to get up super duper early the next morning.
[1:15:41] Allison: So that sounds so fun.
[1:15:43] Jessica: That's awesome that you guys do that.
[1:15:46] Allison: That's very cool.
[1:15:47] Allison: Okay, let's talk for just a minute about being a gracious guest this holiday season.
[1:15:53] Allison: Because it's not just about hosting, it's about being a good guest.
[1:15:55] Allison: Do you have a tip or two?
[1:15:57] Jessica: I do.
[1:15:58] Jessica: I would say don't put all your stock in this one day or this one event, right?
[1:16:04] Jessica: And I think that's where I'm challenging myself for this year, like it being kind of different and and figuring out, okay, like if something's really important to you that won't happen wherever you're going to be a guest, then think about an alternate way that you can enjoy that experience on your own or on your own time.
[1:16:26] Jessica: Um, you know, there's lots of transitions and ebbs and flows that we have throughout our lives from being a college student to being a grandma.
[1:16:35] Jessica: Like there's so much in between.
[1:16:39] Jessica: Um, and so I think it's just keeping that in mind that it doesn't have to be the way you've always experienced it.
[1:16:52] Jessica: And and to think about how you can make it easy for them, you know, and and we could probably spend a whole hour talking about how to be a good guest, but you know, um we might need to actually at some point arriving with a gift, arriving with something that you don't expect them to open or use.
[1:17:16] Jessica: You know, if you bring flowers, it's already in a vase, so they don't have to mess with it.
[1:17:21] Allison: Yes, thank you for sending that.
[1:17:23] Allison: Yes, don't bring them a bouquet of flowers that they have to go now, cut and find a base for and don't do that.
[1:17:31] Jessica: Right, right.
[1:17:31] Jessica: Um, you know, and and see how you can help.
[1:17:35] Jessica: And sometimes, well, and and I think you you talked you addressed this a couple weeks, was it a week a couple weeks ago with Oh with Melissa.
[1:17:43] Jessica: Yeah, yeah, but we talked about this a bit.
[1:17:46] Jessica: Sometimes helping is needed, and sometimes helping is not needed, and then and just fine-tuning your awareness of what would really serve them, not what do I want to do.
[1:18:02] Allison: Yes, exactly.
[1:18:03] Jessica: Yeah, but what would really bless them for me to do.
[1:18:08] Allison: What might bless that hostess the most is for you to go around and socialize with the other people in the room rather than like clinging onto her because you're uncomfortable like talking to the other to the other guests.
[1:18:22] Allison: So yeah, those are good tips.
[1:18:24] Allison: I I would say for the love of God, y'all, please, RSVP, when somebody sends you an invitation to something, please let them know as soon as you possibly can whether you can come or not and let your yes be yes and your no be no.
[1:18:39] Allison: Don't give them a maybe and then like ghost them, and then at the last minute be like, oh, we can't make it.
[1:18:45] Allison: Like just make the decision and stick with that decision because she might be limited to who she can invite.
[1:18:54] Allison: And if you tell her soon enough that you're not gonna be able to come, well then she can extend the invitation to somebody else.
[1:18:59] Allison: So please, please, RSVP.
[1:19:01] Allison: Um, and I had written down to you about if you're gonna bring something, you know, like well, first of all, ask her.
[1:19:09] Allison: Like if you if you're the type of person that, oh, I can't what can I bring?
[1:19:12] Allison: Like, what can I bring?
[1:19:13] Allison: Most and most people are.
[1:19:14] Allison: If she says nothing, please honor that.
[1:19:17] Allison: Like, don't bring your famous cheese dip just because you think that's gonna bless her, because that may not actually, if she put a lot of thought into what she was gonna, you know, make and and that might totally throw off the menu.
[1:19:29] Allison: Um, yeah.
[1:19:31] Jessica: Well, and I would add to that, like you don't know what food allergies exact they're accommodating, whether that's someone in the the family or someone who's a guest, throwing something else in the mix can really complicate things and make it very difficult for them to graciously tell you no, exactly, or to not serve your thing.
[1:19:54] Jessica: So yeah.
[1:19:56] Allison: Actually, I saw I saw um an Instagram reel on this.
[1:20:01] Allison: This has been several months back.
[1:20:02] Jessica: Y'all can tell we really love our Instagram.
[1:20:06] Allison: The girl was like, when it was like when the hostess says don't bring anything, but I'm bringing my famous whatever, whatever, you know, anyway.
[1:20:14] Allison: And I was like, um, rude.
[1:20:17] Allison: That is so rude.
[1:20:18] Allison: Like, don't do that.
[1:20:20] Allison: Yeah.
[1:20:20] Allison: Um, if you have to bring something, bring a small, like you said, bring a small hostess gift, something that you can discreetly hand to them at some point, or tuck it under the tree.
[1:20:30] Allison: Just make sure your name is on it so she knows where it came from.
[1:20:33] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:20:34] Allison: Um, or a bottle of wine or something like that.
[1:20:36] Allison: You know, just but be helpful with what you bring, don't cause more work for her with what you bring.
[1:20:42] Jessica: Right.
[1:20:43] Jessica: And and one of the things that I think people don't understand, and I think it was in um uh Allison Sheppernick.
[1:20:52] Jessica: Shepernick.
[1:20:53] Jessica: You know who I'm talking about.
[1:20:55] Allison: The um I read her book.
[1:20:59] Allison: Oh, oh, the manners, the manners girl.
[1:21:01] Jessica: Yes, the manner's girl.
[1:21:02] Jessica: Um she emphasizes when you bring something, whether that's the bottle of wine or the like they don't have to open it.
[1:21:14] Allison: That's right.
[1:21:15] Jessica: It is not, oh, I'm bringing this bottle of wine so we get to share it together.
[1:21:20] Jessica: Yes.
[1:21:21] Jessica: Not if you're bringing it as a gift.
[1:21:23] Jessica: Like that is not they, it's it's it you you bring that hostess gift with the expectation that it's theirs to use on their own time.
[1:21:33] Jessica: Exactly.
[1:21:34] Jessica: Exactly.
[1:21:35] Allison: And if you're the hostess receiving the gift, receiving a bottle of wine, you can ask, oh, should we share this tonight?
[1:21:41] Allison: Like if you want to do that, you know, ask the person giving it to you, oh, can we open this tonight and everybody enjoy it?
[1:21:47] Allison: Because they might say, actually, no, this is I really want you to enjoy this with your husband, like later on a special evening alone.
[1:21:53] Allison: Right.
[1:21:54] Allison: Yeah.
[1:21:55] Allison: Communication is always such a good idea.
[1:21:57] Jessica: Yeah.
[1:21:57] Jessica: And and and it might not be something you know, like that was that that emphasis I had never understood.
[1:22:04] Jessica: Like my mom, we always took a hostess gift, but I didn't realize that that angle of of the etiquette that, oh, they don't have to do anything with it while you're there.
[1:22:14] Jessica: Exactly.
[1:22:15] Jessica: They don't, exactly, you know.
[1:22:17] Allison: Yep.
[1:22:17] Jessica: And and if you bring something to share, this was something we learned on a game night that not everyone knows.
[1:22:23] Jessica: If you do bring something, you're not taking the leftovers home with you.
[1:22:29] Jessica: Like we had a guest who brought ice cream and then she asked for it back when she left early.
[1:22:38] Jessica: So she didn't know.
[1:22:41] Jessica: I'm sure she didn't know.
[1:22:42] Jessica: And we're talking college students, and it is somewhat of a casual affair, but I had the conversation with my kids afterward.
[1:22:50] Jessica: Hey, don't do in case I've never emphasized this before.
[1:22:55] Jessica: When you bring food to someone's house, you don't expect to take it home.
[1:23:03] Allison: Now, they may insist that you take it home if it's like an entire tray of cookies and they don't want it hanging around the house because they'll eat it all.
[1:23:09] Allison: That would be me.
[1:23:11] Jessica: And obviously, if you brought a nice, a nice dish, then you know, figure out how you can transfer it to leave it behind.
[1:23:18] Jessica: Exactly.
[1:23:18] Jessica: But exactly.
[1:23:19] Jessica: But yeah.
[1:23:20] Allison: Which that's another tip to be a good ho, a good gracious guest is to bring it on a di.
[1:23:25] Allison: If you are bringing something like it's potluck, bring it on a dish that you don't need to take home with you.
[1:23:29] Allison: Like get a cute, they have those cute trays at Hobby Lobby or wherever Dollar Store.
[1:23:34] Jessica: Dollar Tree has some really nice white plastic, often come with great lids.
[1:23:41] Jessica: They're not super great lids, but good enough for trans.
[1:23:45] Allison: It's the same, it's the same rule of thumb like if you were doing a meal train for a new mom.
[1:23:49] Allison: Don't bring her her meal in your favorite casserole dish that she's now going to have to wash and somehow figure out how to get back to you.
[1:23:55] Allison: Don't do that.
[1:23:55] Jessica: Right.
[1:23:56] Jessica: And remember who it belonged to.
[1:23:57] Allison: Yeah, exactly.
[1:23:59] Allison: So, okay, one more, one more section.
[1:24:01] Allison: Aging with grace, holding Christmas open-handedly.
[1:24:05] Allison: So, what does faithful, joyful homemaking look like in this Christmas season that God has given you rather than the one you remember or the one you are imagining?
[1:24:19] Jessica: I would say submit all your expectations to the Lord.
[1:24:23] Jessica: Amen.
[1:24:24] Jessica: Because even if everybody is all getting along and feeling good about their lives, and there still will be surprises.
[1:24:35] Jessica: The oven will break, the you know, you forget to thaw something.
[1:24:41] Jessica: There will always be things that don't go according to your plans, and that's okay.
[1:24:48] Jessica: That is okay.
[1:24:49] Jessica: God is never surprised by these things, right?
[1:24:52] Jessica: And He really wants us to just respond with thankfulness and I think a sense of humor.
[1:24:59] Jessica: Um and and getting to know your people, I think, can help you really.
[1:25:07] Allison: Yeah.
[1:25:07] Allison: That's why I think that that tool that you talked about is that's such a great tool because that's part of getting to know your people, is like ask them.
[1:25:16] Jessica: Yeah.
[1:25:16] Jessica: Yeah.
[1:25:17] Jessica: I think that that's really key, especially as your kids are growing older and there's whatever transitions and changes, it's like it's not we can never go back to the way things were when we thought they were idyllic.
[1:25:34] Allison: So instead of and you're often remembering them in a way that is with rose-colored glasses, anyway.
[1:25:39] Allison: So yes, yes.
[1:25:42] Jessica: And and so to yeah, be be open-handed, I think is a really good yeah.
[1:25:52] Jessica: You know, do good work and be thankful.
[1:25:55] Allison: Mm-hmm.
[1:25:56] Allison: Mm-hmm.
[1:25:57] Allison: For sure.
[1:25:58] Allison: Yeah, I think for me, this Christmas is so gonna be so unusual.
[1:26:04] Allison: We've moved one time before at Christmas.
[1:26:06] Allison: We moved like in in November.
[1:26:08] Allison: I've had a couple of topsy turvy Christmas seasons.
[1:26:11] Allison: Once we had a November baby born, and that was um our sweet Liam who was in the NICU.
[1:26:17] Allison: So there was a lot of traumatic things happening.
[1:26:19] Allison: I had an epidural headache.
[1:26:21] Allison: It was bad.
[1:26:21] Allison: I had postpartum depression, it was terrible.
[1:26:23] Allison: Um, so that stands out as a really difficult Christmas.
[1:26:27] Allison: But you know, it was fine.
[1:26:29] Allison: Like that, that that Thanksgiving, Nate took over and made all the food, and and we still did a Christmas, it was just scaled back.
[1:26:38] Allison: Um, but like this year, I I don't know that I'm gonna decorate at all.
[1:26:42] Allison: We might be houseless.
[1:26:43] Allison: I'm I'm actually about to get off this call and sign the contract for the sale of this house, and we don't have a house yet.
[1:26:48] Allison: So I don't know.
[1:26:51] Allison: And you know me, like me and my eight Christmas trees.
[1:26:54] Allison: I mean, this is gonna be very different.
[1:26:56] Allison: So yeah, but the last 10 years have been very different as our kids have grown and and one at a time left and and then brought spouses in, and so now we're everything is much more fluid than it used to be.
[1:27:11] Allison: And I honestly think that's such a good thing because my personality, I would tend to like have a death grip on traditions, and like if it's not the way it's always been, then we're not doing it right, and I'm very disappointed.
[1:27:26] Allison: So this has been a really great way that the Lord has kindly and gently like ungripped my hand from Christmas, you know, magic and all of that.
[1:27:40] Allison: Plus getting older, I don't have the capacity to do what I could do when I was in my 30s or even in my forties.
[1:27:50] Allison: Like I can't do all of the things, so I have to change my approach and I have to scale back in some areas.
[1:27:58] Jessica: I think that is why I have uh expanded what the boundaries of the quote Christmas season to give more room for all of those things, you know.
[1:28:12] Jessica: Absolutely.
[1:28:13] Jessica: Um, I looked at our first first year or two married, and we didn't get our Christmas tree till like a week before Christmas.
[1:28:22] Jessica: Yeah, it's like, well, when you're dinks, you can afford to do that, right?
[1:28:26] Jessica: But it's it's different, it's different, and so each year I kind of bring it out a little bit earlier.
[1:28:36] Jessica: I've got two November babies, and so one has said, can we wait till after my birthday before it comes out?
[1:28:44] Jessica: But at the same time, it's like, well, it takes us so long to get it out, you know, like to sync schedules.
[1:28:51] Jessica: Who wants to decorate?
[1:28:52] Jessica: Does anyone want to decorate?
[1:28:53] Jessica: Am I decorating on my own?
[1:28:55] Jessica: You know, it's just a different thing.
[1:28:58] Jessica: So, so why and this year everybody's gonna be really, really busy right up until Christmas.
[1:29:07] Jessica: So, like Advent is really me now and what I you know, my personal devotions and my own personal experience.
[1:29:16] Jessica: And maybe some year it might have grandkids or it might not.
[1:29:20] Jessica: And yeah, I was just gonna say that.
[1:29:22] Jessica: And and that will look different too.
[1:29:24] Jessica: And and yet this year it's like, okay, we're gonna have time after Christmas.
[1:29:30] Jessica: So I might be expanding, you know, just shifting shifting the the window a little bit.
[1:29:37] Jessica: And then so I think no matter what's going on, you know, different years, um you know not to beat a dead horse, but Instagram is fascinating to go look in your archive and and see like I found, oh, I forgot we had the flu that Christmas.
[1:29:57] Jessica: So that in law the grandparents came for New Year's, right?
[1:30:01] Jessica: And it's like, oh yeah, like you you find a different way to celebrate.
[1:30:06] Jessica: You know, God is never surprised by any of these things that might throw us for a loop.
[1:30:15] Allison: Yeah.
[1:30:15] Allison: No, he's not so finding finding a way to somehow gather with your people and celebrate because that's that's really the whole point.
[1:30:28] Allison: Um yeah all right we are way out of time but this has been delightful.
[1:30:36] Allison: Yes.
[1:30:37] Allison: As I knew it would be I love talking about Christmas.
[1:30:40] Allison: Um who knows what this Christmas will hold um but it'll be great because we will be celebrating the incarnation.
[1:30:47] Allison: And that is good news.
[1:30:50] Allison: So we'll we're gonna come back actually next week and we are going to do Christmas QA with your questions.
[1:30:59] Allison: Actually I like to call it Christmas QR.
[1:31:02] Allison: Like we don't necessarily have the answers for you but we'll we'll respond to your questions with maybe some we can brainstorm some ideas about some of the some of the sticky situations that you guys have already talked about.
[1:31:15] Allison: If you haven't sent in a question please do that before um next Wednesday which is like the 20 what day is that I don't even know what day that is.
[1:31:25] Allison: When does this go up?
[1:31:27] Allison: This is gonna go up on the 21st so no beyond that I I really need the questions by by Monday the 26th.
[1:31:34] Allison: That would be super helpful.
[1:31:35] Allison: That gives us a some time wait no when are we recording?
[1:31:40] Allison: I don't think so no I need them by the 21st next Wednesday I need them yes I'm gonna release this I need them by Wednesday the 21st the day that this airs so send your questions today I am advertising for this in other places but I thought I would take the time to say this here and I said it badly but this is my life right now so I really I have to end this conversation because my husband you gotta go look at houses you got to sign this contract.
[1:32:15] Allison: All right so we'll be back next week with more um Christmas stuff but thank you Jessica for being here yeah I love talking with you it's great bye thank you so much for listening to this holiday homemaking ramble with me and Jessica Fisher.
[1:32:31] Allison: I pray that you were encouraged and inspired with at least one tip idea or insight that you can apply in your own holiday homemaking this year.
[1:32:42] Allison: Whether you are an empty nester like us and you need to hold your Christmas traditions and Christmas celebrations loosely as you learn to accommodate the lives and the schedules of your growing children and their families or you are a brand new homemaker, you are likely going to face some unexpected challenges andor unforeseen outcomes this Christmas.
[1:33:03] Allison: If you're clutching your own plans too tightly you could end up frustrated, disappointed, possibly angry and bitter at a time when you really want to be joyful and make great memories with the people you love.
[1:33:17] Allison: Take it from a couple of seasoned homemakers who together have over 60 years of holiday homemaking experience to back this up.
[1:33:25] Allison: Make your plans and be prepared because that does matter and hold all of it loosely because at the end of the day what matters more is how you interact and how you celebrate the coming of our Savior with your people let's make this episode's emoji an open hand.
[1:33:46] Allison: Drop one in the comments or a text and tell me how you are holding your plans loosely this Christmas all of the links for the resources recipes products and more that we discussed today will be in the show notes on the blog.
[1:33:59] Allison: Click the link in the description box or go to theartofome podcast dot com slash blog and search Holiday Ramble 2026.
[1:34:08] Allison: If you found value in today's episode please please share it follow the show rate and review all of that helps this show reach more homemakers all over the world.
[1:34:20] Allison: Don't forget to text me your holiday homemaking questions if you haven't already done that.
[1:34:24] Allison: Maybe it relates to your open-handed comment two birds with one stone.
[1:34:28] Allison: And don't forget to register for the recipe exchange by October 31st.
[1:34:33] Allison: That's all for this episode I will be back next week with the holiday homemaking question and response with Jessica.
[1:34:40] Allison: Until then keep practicing your art of making a home for the holidays

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