November 26, 2024 • 39 mins
In today's episode, Laura and Sarah discuss all things holiday planning, including the idea of going in to plan your holiday season with a 'blank slate' mindset - choosing things to do NOT just based on what you've done before, but because at least someone enjoys them! Laura notes that tradition itself does have value, so likely the things you've done over and over will carry more weight, but nothing necessarily needs to feel 'required'.
They discuss various ideas and their own decisions about this year's holiday season in categories: hosting, cooking fancy meals, cards, gifts, parties, decor, and more!
In terms of planning next year, Sarah shares two fun options if you'd like a guided planning experience:
Detailed 4 hr sessions (with workbook) in Best Laid Plans at Home: Planning 2025 (https://theshubox.com/courses) OR 1 hour visioning/planning 2025 session that will definitely get you started at the BOBW Patreon: (http://patreon.com/bestofbothworldspod)
In the Q&A, Sarah and Laura note which gifts they would choose for themselves :)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hi. I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,
and speaker.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician, writer,
and course creator. We are two working parents who love
our careers and our families.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about
how real women manage work, family, and time for fun,
from figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals.
We want you to get the most out of life.
Welcome the best of both worlds. This is Laura. This
episode is l airing in late November of twenty twenty four.
(00:47):
This is going to be our all Things Holiday episode,
something of an annual tradition at this point, just as
many things are traditions. With the holidays airing right before
Thanksgiving in the United States, So if you are celebrate that,
we wish you a very happy Thanksgiving. Sarah, what is
the basic scaffolding of your holiday season this year? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
So, and I'm envisioning everyone listening to this, like while
they're on a long drive or I don't know, preparing
to get on a plane or something. We are doing
Thanksgiving in Philadelphia this year because my parents are celebrating
their fiftieth anniversary wedding anniversary, And this is kind of
a big deal for us because we do Thanksgiving in
(01:28):
Miami Beach pretty much always. We even used to fly
down to Miami Beach when we lived in North Carolina.
It's a really, really big holiday in my husband's family,
and I usually balanced that out by then during winter
break doing something closer to Philadelphia. So this is like
a departure or from routine. But I'm excited about it,
and we gave them lots of warning, the Miami clan
(01:49):
that we would not be here, so kind of excited
for it.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
What about you guys, Yeah, well, we usually get together
with my extended family over Thanksgiving. One chunk of that
family is doing sort of what you are doing. They're
going elsewhere for Thanksgiving, which means that they won't be available,
and so I will probably be posting a smaller Thanksgiving
(02:13):
this year. But I am planning on cooking as this
is airing, and do the turkey and all that stuff.
You know, we'd be around for much of December. We're
going to go away for a few days after Christmas,
and you guys are going away over the Christmas time too, right.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, and this was kind of like took us a
long time to decide. This was not one of those
trips like I feel like we usually tend to plan
our big vacation trips many months in advance and kind
of have it slated. But we made a pretty impromptu
decision around October to go back to Big Sky and
ski again. So super super excited about that. The kids
(02:48):
have two weeks off for winter break, and they have
a full week off for Thanksgiving, which I understand is
not the case with you. Correct.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah, no, and even worse, we have a bunch of
like half days for some of the kids, So it's
just like the worst, I mean, two half days or whatever.
Just give people the week. I don't know, but then
I understand it's harder to get to your required one
hundred and eighty days or all that. But two weeks
off over Christmas is kind of a long time. We
had slightly longer than we normally did, and so in
(03:17):
my mind, originally I thought we were going to go
somewhere far away for Christmas. But yeah, it didn't seem
like a great thing. Some of the kids want to
be home for Christmas, I mean and there is nice
things to being home for Christmas in terms of doing
the same things that you always do and having those traditions.
So we're only going away for a couple of days,
(03:37):
even though we have about a week and a half off.
But I mean, you're trying to get some work done
during at least one of those weeks of the holiday break,
aren't you. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I mean I am blowing through a ton of PTO
at my clinical job, which I also did last year,
but I did the calculation and I seem to have
it to spare. So my plan is to really have
like a family centered week of traveling and then a
me centered week of getting work done. Thing is, I
am not sure what I'm doing with the kids for
that work centered week because my husband's going to be
on call, and so I do need to figure that
(04:07):
out because I need to get writing done. I want
to do some planning type stuff, and I have the
idea of maybe like they'll leave me alone for a
few hours per day, But I Laura is like shaking
her head because she's probably right. It's going to be
really disjointed and rough, and someone's going to be asking
for something every twenty minutes.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, and like, if you need the focus mental space
to work, I think they need to be elsewhere because otherwise, yeah,
even if they're playing video games all afternoon, they may
stop at some point for something, and then you're going
to feel bad about like yelling at them to get
out of your closet where you do your work. And
(04:47):
you also just having the knowing, like sitting down at
eight o'clock that you have until five o'clock to work
is often good for getting yourself in the feeling of
being productive as opposed to like, Okay, I'm trying to
grab twenty minutes here before anyone needs me and all that.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I never feel like I have eight to five to
work on anything ever, So I don't even necessarily feel
like I need a full day, but I need like
a solid half day. I need like a three four
hour concentrated stretch. So maybe there'll be some camps that
I have to look into.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, yeah, I think that would be wise. I think
it would be wise. Well, so Sarah did kind of
the organization of this episode. We switch off on who
does what with the episodes that are both of us,
and so maybe you could talk a little bit about
this approach you wanted to take for the holiday episode
this year.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yes, So I promise Laura this would not be simplify
your holidays. That's not her favorite trope. It's a little
bit overdone. And sometimes we don't see the point of
simplifying things that bring you joy. I mean, why not
like expound on the things that bring you joy. However,
I don't know. I'm very into like the idea of
like not going with preconceived ideas and like assuming everything
is a half do, or like taking a more design
(05:56):
mindset to your holidays. So my idea was a start
from scratch holiday design, and Laura has some feelings on it,
so I'll let you talk before I push back.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Well, no, not so much feelings on it. It's just
that I think if you have always done something, that
is a reason to keep doing it, right, Like, you
don't have to not do something because you're like, well
it seems a little silly or funny or whatever. I mean,
we do the same things over and over again and
(06:28):
a lot of aspects of life, and it's partly just
because we've done them a great many times. So tradition
has its own weight. So obviously you don't want to
do anything mindlessly or if no one enjoys it or
gets any meaning from it, then what is the point.
But now I think you don't want to assign, like
I wouldn't put zero based accounting on the holidays. Let
(06:51):
me put it that.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Way that makes sense. I mean you could start with
a zero based budget, I guess sort of, but give
extra points extra weight to things that are traditional for
your family. But I mean I also do feel like
sometimes it does raise the question because maybe you always
have Aunt Jane's like cranberry sauce, but like every year
(07:12):
nobody likes it, Like you could just stop having it
one year and nothing will happen, Like it's okay. Most
of these things we're going to talk about are kind
of optional fun activities, and if you're at a point
in your household when no one's having fun, then it
may make sense to revisit. I mean, I know that
can be like bittersweet in a way, And I also
(07:32):
think it's important to like have the opposite, which is
that don't just assume that something won't be fun just
because your kids have reached a certain age. Like you
could be like, ah, yeah, that's for like little kids.
But if you talk to your kids and you start
from zero and you bring that to the table. They're like, no,
I love that, that's important, so please like, do it
continue that tradition.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, that's why we were going to have breakfast with
Santa this year. Ah see, I love that, And it
wasn't the four year old asking for it. So with
that in mind, if somebody really wants to make something
happen that we've done a lot in the past, it
is worth doing.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Yeah, one hundred percent, And I think you're right, but
there should be some like points assigned just for the
tradition's sake, just not one hundred points in automatic jumping
it on to your agenda, because at some point you're
going to want to add things and something's going to
have to go at some point. We have finite amounts
of time, all right, So with that, we're going to
go buy category and talk about what we're choosing to do.
(08:30):
If we were we are, we're going to be like, okay,
blanks late, what are we choosing, what are we opting in?
What are we opting out? In various categories? And I
just think these episodes are fun because I'm sure everyone
many of the listeners are just thinking about a lot
of the same things. Even though Laura celebrates Christmas and
I don't, we still have lots of seasonal traditions in common.
(08:51):
Just kind of growing up in a common culture, I guess.
And yeah, so this will be fun to see where
things differ and where things don't. All. Right, So first
category hosting, Well.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
We're hosting Thanksgiving, right, even if it'll be small, So
we'll do the traditional cooking, which, again, I don't know
that everyone likes turkey, but I think not cooking a
turkey on Thanksgiving would be quite a statement, like, oh,
we're just ordering Chinese food. I'm not sure that that
would go over all that well. Right, So there's one
(09:22):
where even if it is just tradition, there's sort of
a reason to keep doing that. I don't currently have
any plans for a holiday party, but you had one
of like having it maybe into January.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Well, we're getting to that later. About parties, I met
more like having people like stay at your house and
hosting being so you're hosting the Thanksgiving dinner and is
anybody coming to stay at your household?
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I don't know. I mean, we live pretty close to
a lot of our relatives on my side at least,
and then we're not having a big get together with
my husband's family over the holidays, so I don't think
that they would be coming either. So yeah, I think
it's pretty much just going to be us.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Okay, we're going to take a quick break, and then
we're going to get to the next category, which is
cooking fancy meals. All right, we are back, And by
the way, I didn't answer my own question about hosting,
(10:21):
and I will say I don't think there's going to
be any of like the obvious hosting happening, which is great.
It means I don't have to worry about guest bedrooms
or menus or anything like that. We'll talk about how
I'm still excited to participate in these events, but not
really planning on any hosting this season. So that's for us,
all right. So cooking fancy meals, we kind of got
to that. With hosting, it sounds like you are kind
(10:43):
of on for Thanksgiving? Am I getting that right? Yep?
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Getting I'm going to be doing it, although because my
brother's wife will not be there, like they're traveling elsewhere
for Thanksgiving. She always makes really good roles that are
kind of a highlight of Thanksgiving. There was one memorable
Thanksgiving where Alex had a one of those kid plates
that has like four quadrants in it, and he literally
(11:07):
just took four roles and put one in each quadrant.
That was what he wanted for Thanksgiving dinner. Just that
no turkey, so she won't be there. So I guess
I need to try to come up with some approximation
thereof either this role recipe or do something else that
people are really going to like, because I think that
(11:28):
people will miss so, you know, wish me luck on
that one.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
That sounds like a fun project. I'm going to ask,
even though this is really exiting the scope of our show,
are they those like twirly like roles that are like like.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Noah, they are yeast rolls that are like butter flavored,
but they're with the like shortening. It's pretty old school
Southern recipe kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Love it, Love it. We always had these like crescent
roles that like kind of rolled up and like, I
think I might have eaten a plate with four of
them on it. In addition to.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Other things, Thanksgiving not the time to give up carbs.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
No, all right, we will exit from roles. But now
I'm getting excited, so we're not again. I'm not like cooking,
but I'm planning to kind of lean into helping other
people cook in various circumstances. So my mom is cooking,
but I don't have like stuff that I'm going to
be doing otherwise, So I'm just going to be like,
I will be your sush chef, and whatever you need
help with, I will chop, I will whatever. So I'm
(12:24):
looking forward to that kind of like a active role
but not a take charge role. That sounds kind of
appealing to me. And I will have to make every season,
I have to make some key lime pie. So even
though I won't be here for Thanksgiving, I know I
have to bring key lime pie to Miami Beach at
some time around Thanksgiving or people will be very very disappointed.
So I will do that.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Sounds good. How about holiday cards? Are you doing that
this year? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:48):
So sending cards? Definitely doing that. Even if I had
never done it before, I'd be excited to do it.
And we do New Year's cards because then I don't
have as deadline driven and also because then I can
collect everyone's address when they send it to me and
then use it to make my address list, which helps.
I finally made a Google sheet for the holidays this
year after many years of like using paper and kind
(13:10):
of haphazard systems, so I am so, so so excited
to put that into action again this year.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
What about you, Yeah, well, this always nudges us to
get family photos taken in fall at some point, which
we did in late September, and you know, I sort
of guilt trip my kids into doing it because you said,
this is going to be one of the last years
that everyone will just sort of automatically be here, which
(13:37):
so getting them all together might be a little bit
more complicated other years. I don't know what our holiday
card will look like, but still have all five of
them on it the share. So yeah, I enjoyed doing it,
getting them printed up, sending them to people, and just
a real quick tip, even if you're not sending cards,
it's nice to acknowledge if people do send you a card,
like you can just sort of text the person and say, hey,
(13:57):
cute card, Glad to hear everything's going well with you,
or you know, you could share a quick update of
your life too, but it's a sort of easy way
to keep that connection, even if you're not doing the
whole postal game yourself.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I love that. That's really nice the idea to send
a text. Are you exempt from sending the text if
you send your own cards? Because I admit I have
never done the text thing.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
They're letting your own cards. That's the appropriate reciprocal response.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Okay, perfect? And by the way, do your cards have
like any I can't remember because I've gotten your cards
before and you've gotten mine. I like to put like
a very short summary of like stuff that went on,
and I take a lot of joy in that. And
I know some people don't do that, but I love
it when people do that.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Yeah. I mean, we used to do the letter, like
the whole letter, but it became a bit more like
family resume, like let me, you know, tell what everyone's
doing in their lives. So now we tend not to
do that. I just write a quick note saying hello
on the back. But I do sign them all and
put a quick note because and I leave space for
it when I've created the card. It's fun to get
(14:58):
personal notes. I mean, you know, if you're gon go
to the effort of mailing the car. And I know
some people have a whole automated system of it. But
if you're gonna go to the effort of mailing it,
it only takes a little bit more time to like
say hello and sign your name, and so just throw
that out there that you may as well take the
extra seconds and make it a little bit more personalized.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
I like that because then the recipient knows it at
least for a moment, like you were thinking about them.
That's nice.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah, which is good?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
All right? Gifts, Yes, I mean this isn't really an
opt out. It'd be interesting if it was. I guess
maybe some people do share your opt out of gifts stories.
But we definitely are opting into doing gifts this year. However,
once again, I think Josh is going to take the
lead on the kid gifts. We do do eight gifts
(15:43):
for the eight nights of Hanakah. They expect stuff, it's
just a thing. However, some of these gifts are very minimal,
so it's not it's not eight iPhones or something like that.
And then we are pretty limited with the rest of
our gifts with giftless and I don't see that changing.
We do our nieces, our nephews, and I will ask
for specific submissions to just make that process a little
(16:04):
bit easier as to what they want. I do send
gifts to my college friends because that's kind of is
a year's long tradition that I don't think for planning
on letting go at this point. And then, of course
gifts for all kinds of staff at work, our nanny,
are cleaner, et cetera. And I keep it very simple.
For all of those people, I give cash, and then
(16:25):
for teachers, I either give cash or Target gift cards,
which I tend to just buy, like all at once,
a whole bunch of them. And as I was creating
this easy plan, I was like, you know, when I
go to Target to get the gift cards, I should
get a nice box of cards to put these into,
because it tends to be a weird pain point that
I have every year, which is like I have the
cash and I don't have anything like nice to put
(16:46):
it in, so I need to get like a just
generic but cute Happy Holidays box of like, hey, I
should just get fifty cards. I don't think people will
care if they get the same one two years in
a row, as long as there's a nice gift in there.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
And you need a fiftyth wedding anniversary gift for your
parents too?
Speaker 2 (17:02):
There, right, Yes, So my plan for that, and I mean, honestly,
as I was doing this episode, I'm like, I need
to put this on my planner is I want to
hire a photographer to come take a picture of our
family when we're all there for Thanksgiving, my sister, my niece,
my parents, et cetera. And then I'm going to have
that printed in some form. I think that is probably
there's no material gift that would make them really all
(17:23):
that happy, but this would be, I think, really great.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Yeah. I mean, the idea of hiring a photographer and
putting together an album is actually a really good gift
idea for any sort of like older relative or people
who have a lot of stuff. But it's a way
of preserving memories because it is a pain to hire
a photographer and to organize it and to get everyone
to gather to do it. So if you're having some
(17:47):
sort of family gathering, I did this for so my
sister in law. I hired a photographer when we gathered
for my parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary a few years ago,
and we love having those photos and so then I
hired a photographer when we got together with my husband's
family for my mother in law's eighty fifth birthday. And
I can tell you it is a pain. It it's
(18:09):
a pain, like nobody wants to do it. Like if
you're get together with twenty people, PEO don't want to
stop and pose for like fifty photos in different combinations.
It's kind of a party buzzkill. Even more so if
you make them wear the same thing, which I did.
So if a big group, like everyone wearing jeans on
the bottom and white on the top. Some people have
done like khakis on the bottom, light blue on the top,
(18:31):
So you're gonna be dealing with some whining. I'm just
gonna throw that out there, but you will be happy
to have them afterwards, Like everyone's gonna be happy to
have these photos. And if you create an album or
do some bigger prints as gifts for people, that can
take you for a while. So I will throw that
out there as an idea. Other things like that, Yeah,
(18:51):
like collecting family recipes would be a great way. There's
some pretty easy like self publishing technology. You could print
ten copies of the book to distribute to your entire family,
So thinking of stuff like that might go a long
way for people who are not going to be the
sort you shop regular stuff for my kids. On the
(19:13):
other hand, I can shop regular stuff, or you're gonna
try and get this all done by Black Friday.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I want to order it online. I don't want to
have to like go anywhere. Josh likes to go places,
so he may want to go places, but I feel
like we're both going to be in Philadelphia. And by
the way, as people are listening to this, they're like,
she's hiring a photographer and it's in like two days,
so like we are recording this a few weeks.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Out of time.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yes, we're not totally delusional, but I mean, to me,
that's like we're so preoccupied with other stuff, work, the kids,
activities the rest of time, whereas we're going to be
like a captive audience in Philadelphia for the week of
Thanksgiving and there's going to be all these sales and stuff.
So I don't want to stand in line at like
some Big Bucks retailer at six am or something like that.
(19:53):
But I assume a lot of these deals to be
you as.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
That kind of person, Sarah. I know you were fighting
for that television.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yes, I want the like that doll that like spoke
or something like that tickle me Elmo. Thankfully, I think
we've aged out of that, so yeah, no, there used
to be like a separate cyber Monday, but since now
people generally just shop online as a normal thing, many
of them, I'm assuming there'll be plenty of actual Black
Friday deals that I could purchase with my fingers. So
(20:20):
I just think that would be a really nice way
of like knocking a lot of that out and then
entering the month of December worrying about other things because
I also have a kid with a birthday, a husband
with a fiftieth birthday, and like just like a million other.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Concerts, et cetera. Yeah, yeah, totally. So I actually do
like going to the stores around Christmas. I mean partly
because you know, we buy so much stuff online and
it's very easy, but you get ideas by kind of
looking at a section, and obviously an online algorithm can
suggest stuff too, But I feel like every time I
go to one of the bigger targets around here, or
(20:57):
you know, the Walmarts or whatever, I come up with
toy ideas that I wouldn't have thought of, and often
it's the older kids even who there might be fun
games or things like that that I again I wouldn't
know to think about, but there are things that are
targeted for say twelve year olds or ten year olds
(21:17):
or whatever, and a smart store will have a display
along those lines, and so that can give you great ideas.
So yeah, I will be in the stores. I am
sure there will be a lot of shopping. Will always
be more shopping than there should be. But the good
news is in my family, the kids that it's sort
of easy to overbuy toys for, like the younger too,
(21:39):
the nine year old and the four year old. We'll
have birthdays right after Christmas, so it's fine. So if
I overbuy, I can just shove the extra stuff into
a corner, put it under wraps, bring it back out
further birthdays. One thing I do, and I will do
this again. You know we're not going to zero some
accounting here. I make a list to keep track of
(22:00):
who's getting what and make sure it is even. Because
everyone needs to unwrap about the same number of stuff.
Everyone needs to have at least one thing under there
that they are very excited about. So sometimes I've even
bought like a bigger, cheap thing for somebody because all
their presence were small and they needed something big to
(22:21):
make it look like a bigger pile of presents. And
that's just one of those things you do as a
parent of five children.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
And you know, I think this might be our first
Google sheet hanikah, Like.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I see a spreadsheet Google sheet, honey in my mind.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
That needs to happen, and that would help with the
like evenness, you could like highlight the one big gift
and then you know, make sure. But when you say
equal like, it's not like you're tallying exact now.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
And I mean, I don't do money. Like what I
want is everyone to get stuff that they are happy about.
And the nature of this is that older children get
more expensive stuff than younger children. So you know, like
an iPhone versus you could get a lot of toys.
I mean, you could go like in a whole spree
through Walmart for toys for the cost of an iPhone.
(23:05):
But that's just the nature of it. So I'm not
going for that. I'm going for equal happiness. Love it
all right, Let's take one more quick ad break and
then we'll be back with more on figuring out the holidays.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
All right, we are back. I will have to report
back to let you know if my efficient gift strategy
ends up coming to fruition, but I'm kind of excited
about it. We're going to move on to parties and
specifically throwing parties. So do you have a holiday party planned, Laura, Nope,
it sounds fun.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
I'd like to do it sometime, but I think I
would probably do it as kind of an open house
sort of thing, like just for a couple of hours.
People drop by and make it very much adult and
kid so invite like people and kids classrooms and their
parents or the kids.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
You know.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
I know some of my kids friends, but don't know
their parents all that well for the older ones because
they kind of get together independently at some point without
parental involvement. So yeah, I mean, I think it'd be fun,
but I'm not necessarily taking that on this year. Maybe
in the future.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, I think I kind of feel pold to do
some kind of neighborhood something. I don't know exactly what
it would look like, but I feel like I've gotten
to know enough like locals that it'd be fun to do. Yeah,
Like similarly like an open house. But I think I'm
just thinking about like the actual calendar and the realistic
nature of probably not getting it in December, so I'm
thinking it would be more like New Year. It's January.
(24:45):
I mean, for us, it's not the doldrooms. No one's cold,
no one's sad, everyone's like woo who. It's lovely. But
I still think kind of like post vacation inks, et cetera,
just a little happy hour to like lighten the mood
might be fun.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, So my church choir has a twelfth Night party,
which is really great for timing because people tend not
to be busy the first weekend of January, where they
definitely are in the December weekends before Christmas, and then
it just like pushes forward the holiday cheer a little
bit further. I will point out that the twelve days
(25:19):
of Christmas are in fact after Christmas. Many people don't
know that, but it starts on the twenty fifth goes
to the sixth, and so you may think about how
you could celebrate that that. There might be various festive
opportunities to stretch out the season a little bit more. So,
maybe we can combine some of these last categories, I'm like,
(25:41):
oh my god, we still.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Have a lot of categories to get through, and we're
really into the holiday spirit.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
We are really into the holidays.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
I'm going to consolidate the attend party, but I want
to know if you're going to like design your clothing
aesthetic for any holiday parties, have you thought about how
that might go.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
I think I've mentioned this on this podcast before that
I realized over the years that there was this issue
that my festive dresses were like little straps or whatever.
And it's cold in December, so I don't really actually
want to wear these dresses in December. I'm as wearing
some sort of wrap around it, like I'm practically wearing
(26:16):
my windoor coat into the event because I'm like too
cold and I can't be bothered to be uncomfortable if
I'm like at something. So eventually, last year just went
on Amazon as one does, and specifically looked for long
sleeve dresses and so got something that's more of a
velvety type thing. It's like a Mermaid cut. I really
like it. In fact, I liked it so much I
(26:37):
bought it in Green. Last year, I decided just to
buy it in blue this year. So that is what
I will be wearing to various holiday parties this year.
It is not the same dress. I could wear the
same dress. I don't think anyone would care or notice,
but just for my own sense of dignity, it is
not the same dress, but it is very very similar.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
I love it a very decide once kind of approach.
I also have like one gold dress that I'm like
that works for any holiday. And I got a sparkly
shirt for the Taylor Swift concert and I got in
the Target kids section. But it looks like way better
than that, and I think that's going to be like
for casual holiday stuff. That plus jeans, I feel like
(27:18):
I can rocket anything sparkly.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Right, Absolutely, anything sparkly can work as a holiday thing.
Speaking of which, decor, if one is deciding from scratch,
what sort of decor to do, Sarah, are you doing
any sort of decor? No? No, okay, so we are.
I have had it kind of on my list of
one hundred dreams to have the house professionally decorated for Christmas.
(27:41):
We have sort of started moving in that direction that
we got the fancy tree last year, but it's an
artificial trees. We own it now, so it's very easy
to just like put it back up and have those.
We have a couple other you know, nice decorations that
are our house manager is going to put up. And
she also got a group of people. It's a company
(28:02):
that does window washing in the summer and in the
winter they do holiday decorations. So they are going to
do a bunch of trees in our yard, you know,
with lights, because they have the ladders and all the
lights and all that stuff. And so I'm excited to
see how this is going to look a figure. I'll
just try it something a little bit more festive this year.
Don't ever have to do it again if we don't
like it, or if it seems like a waste, but
(28:22):
you know, may as well give it a whirl.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
And do they have takedown services as well?
Speaker 1 (28:27):
They do. You would absolutely not do this so that well,
you're borrowing the lights from them, like you don't own
the lights, right like they own the lights, and so
they put them up and then they come take them down.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
That's excellent. I love it. I can't wait to see it.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Yeah, we'll hopefully it'll be up when you're here.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Oh really By Thanksgiving. That's exciting.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Yeah yeah, oh well they were almost booking a weekend
in October to do it. I was like, Okay, I
feel a little bad about doing that. Maybe we push
it into November. So but I mean, you know, you
pay the same amount if it's up for like two
weeks versus two months, so you may as well. May
as well have the full on festivities for two months.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Love it all right?
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Holiday going to yoh, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I was gonna say, Holiday Media, we can combine our
performance category with our movies and music category.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Well, so we were exchanging notes back and forth here,
and you know, we often go to the Nutcracker and
stuff like that, and Sarah does too. But she made
an interesting point that one could decide to not go
one year and then go the next year, and if
you go to something every two years, it feels a
little bit more fresh and new and not like you
just went, but it's still part of the tradition. So
(29:33):
I think that's a great idea in general, Like if
there's something you enjoy but it seems like it's kind
of a big deal, like it's a you know, pricey
tickets or something like that, deciding to do it every
other year means it's still a holiday tradition, but it's
not quite as frequent. I think that's a nice thought
and jump.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Yeah, I just want there to be like a little
bit more novelty, Like I feel like we went not
that long ago, even though I guess it was a
full year. So yeah, that might be our policy every
for two years, maybe every two to three years we
go to the Miami City Bell.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Well. I mean I've seen like, yeah, the Nutcracker like
ten times in a little and maybe maybe it's time
to take a slight break from that. But we are
going to go see the Rackats. We have not gotten
our tickets yet. We will. Well, we went for the
first time last year with a group, enjoyed it quite
a bit, and so I'm just going to take some
day in December to go to New York and see
(30:24):
the Racket, see the Rockefeller Plaza, Christmas Tree, go out
to dinner with the family, and just kind of make
a day of it. It's actually a really good show.
I never went when I lived in New York because
I had this idea. It was like, oh, it's so cheesy,
like all the tourists are lined up around the block
to go into it, and so you know, we needed
(30:45):
something to do with the group last year, so we
did it. And it's actually a really good show.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
There's a reason everyone's lining up around the block.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Everyone's there. It's so fun. So that's super cool. I
would totally do that. That's great. You're doing more of
the movie thing, right, Like you guys have your favorite have.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
To I don't know if your kids, like my kids
love I mean, they have to watch Elf. They have
to watch Home Alone. I mean they don't have to,
they will want to. I have to watch Charlie Brown Christmas,
and then I drag whoever many kids I can get,
and then there are like some newer fun ones that
like we watched eight Fit Christmas, I think last year
that was.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Really really good.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
And then I love, love, love holiday music. So my
policy is I don't want to like start it too
early because I want it to feel really special. So
December first, like dismplaylists are.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
On December one. Yeah, December one is also the earliest
that the Elf can appear in our house, which is
a tradition that I am only doing because it is
a tradition. The Elf would perhaps not be welcome in
our head.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
I love it. You're doing it because they love it,
not because it's just a tradition. You're doing it because
they would be sad if that elf was not there,
you know.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
I yes, maybe more people can be involved in the
elf wonder this year. Maybe the elf can have little
helpers who are interesting. So, oh well, let's see cooking
we've already talked about, like holiday meals and stuff. Do
you do any baking though, I mean, do you have
(32:07):
baking sessions? Gingerbread cookies?
Speaker 2 (32:10):
I love the idea of it, but we generally don't.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
My mom used to.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Make these really good shortbread cookies with iconic designs. They
were super good, and I loved that. A couple of
people in my office at work tend to make cookies
and bring them in because I enjoy eating them. But
I'm not putting this on my list. I just don't
want to like another thing. We might do some like
prefab gingerbread house creation with a kit or something, because
the kids it's like a fun well maybe your kids
(32:36):
cheating out of my house. I mean, we like gingerbread
kit type. I think we did that last year. I
think we did, But we could do it again, they
would be over the moon.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
So yeah, so okay, I'll just buy enough kits for everyone.
I'll put that on the list. But I put baking
on my holiday fund list mostly because my daughter loves
baking and she'll do a lot of baking on her own,
which she is allowed to do as long as she
remembers to turn off the oven, which it's good to
have somebody in the house at least at some point
(33:06):
within the hour she is doing it, just to confirm
it's off. But she can do most of it. I
think she can take the lead on it, and I
will just make sure that all the ingredients are available
for her to do that, and then I can be
more of the sous chef for that experience and have
a real holiday baking extravaganza. But the upside is that's
(33:26):
something that you can put in a lot of different places.
You can kind of look at a weekend that has say,
two parties and a trip to a light display and
like a rehearsal for a performance, like you can't put
something else big in there, but you could put a
two hour baking event that would fit. So I think
(33:47):
as you're making your holiday fundlist, it's good to have
a range of activities. There's some stuff that is specific
to a time, some stuff that there are lots of options,
like the roquettes, but you do have to commit and
then other things that you're in one make a time
for it, but it could go in lots of different cookies, movies,
cookies and movies. Yeah, yeah, yeah, those are or if
you have any sort of craft you're doing. I don't
(34:09):
think we put that on here for us, but it's
something we could do. And then you always want to
plan for the next year too. I mean that's a
big part of the holiday fund for you.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
I love doing that. I like doing it the second
week of when my kids are off and I'm off
and like January is just on the horizon. I don't
like wait to fill in my planner. In fact, this year,
I think I mentioned it on a prior episode, but
I just was like diving in in October, like I
have stuff to schedule in January and I'm not magically
like I need to use this thing now. But at
the same time, that's when I do my like more
(34:42):
formal scheming of like all kinds of goals and things
like that. Now I am going to put a plug
for two different things. Number One, I run personally a
Best Laid Plans at Home kind of annual planning course
that's four hours. It's actually based on what we do
at Best Laid Plans Live. And then people wanted like
a virtual version. So if you're like I want a
lot of structure around my planning and I want to
(35:03):
sit there for four hours with you with the workbook
and like do it with you, that is still available
and for a lower key version of that that's still
really really fun. We have our Patreon which every December,
and we haven't set the date yet for this, but
it'll probably be.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Setting after November twenty six when this is airing. So
the good news is it hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yes, you still have a chance. It'll be an hour
usually around twelve Eastern time, where it'll be like a
mini version of that like planning, and you'll get to
dive into your the beginning of your annual planning, including
maybe figuring out when you're going to do the rest
of it in more detail. But we do visioning and
we start with goal setting and all that kind of
fun stuff. So if you want the long, long long version,
(35:47):
the four hour version that's bestly plans at home, and
then if you want the little mini planning that will
still really get you started, join us in Patreon. It's
a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Yeah, I like to have this mostly set when we
do our goals episode for the next year, which we
always record seemingly early, and so I'm like, I gotta
get this locked down by then, so you know, but
a lot of fun things going on with the holidays,
lots of traditions or new traditions you can start. I
think it's fun to always try, you know, you do
the stuff that you enjoyed from the past. You can
(36:18):
also try one or two new things each year because
maybe you'll discover something that you want to do again
and again. Of course, you may also discover you don't
like it, and then you don't have to worry about
it or think about doing it again in the future.
But hopefully everyone's making a great holiday fun list as
they are hearing this episode, and we look forward to
hearing what you come up with. But our question, Sarah,
(36:41):
what do you want for Hankakah or Christmas? Do you
guys get Hanakah presents like the adults or it's only
the kids. It's only the kids.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
We don't that's the funny part. I'm like, but you know,
I think it's sometimes maybe I'll buy myself a Hankika gift.
You should buy yourself eight gifts, Sarah, I might need
a sufferate.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Little like one could be like a nail polish. One
could be a lipstick. One could be a book, right,
like you know.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yeah, you're right, that might be fun. Maybe I'll open
them up in front, like, oh, look what I get today.
So I think if someone were actually buying me a gift,
which like, well, my college friends we kind of buy
each other gift, so I get gifts that way. I
think loungewear, like I want to buy myself some nice
like I want to elevate my loungewear. I want to
like feel cute and comfy after hours, so loundwear. And
(37:30):
then I think a book that like if you love
a book and you really like see that other person
loving a book, I think that it's like a really
fun gift. Or if someone had a cosmetic product that
they think is like a miracle worker, like buy it
for me.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
That sounds good?
Speaker 2 (37:45):
What about you?
Speaker 1 (37:46):
Yeah, I mean what I honestly want is like to
get away for a while. It was like go sit
in a cabin in the woods for a while and
write and somebody else will handle the details of my life.
So we'll see if that happened. But stay tuned. Love
of the Week, Sarah, what do you have?
Speaker 2 (38:05):
Oh man?
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Be guys, we've had a lot of loves of the
weeks in this Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I just love holiday albums of all my favorite artists.
They make me happy. My favorite is Casey mus Graves.
I've shared them before, but maybe I'll have a new
favorite this year. I'll have to shop around.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
We'll try new ones out. Yeah, yeah, Well, I mean
I like the holidays in general. I would like to
make sure that my mental load isn't overwhelming with it,
but it usually isn't, so we'll be having many people
take on different projects of it. But holidays are a
festive times. It's good to do good to do well.
This has been best of both worlds. We've been discussing
all things holiday. Would love to hear what you have
(38:40):
planned for your holiday seasons. We will be back next
week with more on making work and life fit together.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the
shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram,
and you can.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
Find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Been the
best of both worlds podcasts. Please join us next time
for more on making work and life work together
Hi. I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,
and speaker.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician, writer,
and course creator. We are two working parents who love
our careers and our families.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about
how real women manage work, family, and time for fun,
from figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals.
We want you to get the most out of life.
Welcome the best of both worlds. This is Laura. This
episode is l airing in late November of twenty twenty four.
(00:47):
This is going to be our all Things Holiday episode,
something of an annual tradition at this point, just as
many things are traditions. With the holidays airing right before
Thanksgiving in the United States, So if you are celebrate that,
we wish you a very happy Thanksgiving. Sarah, what is
the basic scaffolding of your holiday season this year? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
So, and I'm envisioning everyone listening to this, like while
they're on a long drive or I don't know, preparing
to get on a plane or something. We are doing
Thanksgiving in Philadelphia this year because my parents are celebrating
their fiftieth anniversary wedding anniversary, And this is kind of
a big deal for us because we do Thanksgiving in
(01:28):
Miami Beach pretty much always. We even used to fly
down to Miami Beach when we lived in North Carolina.
It's a really, really big holiday in my husband's family,
and I usually balanced that out by then during winter
break doing something closer to Philadelphia. So this is like
a departure or from routine. But I'm excited about it,
and we gave them lots of warning, the Miami clan
(01:49):
that we would not be here, so kind of excited
for it.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
What about you guys, Yeah, well, we usually get together
with my extended family over Thanksgiving. One chunk of that
family is doing sort of what you are doing. They're
going elsewhere for Thanksgiving, which means that they won't be available,
and so I will probably be posting a smaller Thanksgiving
(02:13):
this year. But I am planning on cooking as this
is airing, and do the turkey and all that stuff.
You know, we'd be around for much of December. We're
going to go away for a few days after Christmas,
and you guys are going away over the Christmas time too, right.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, and this was kind of like took us a
long time to decide. This was not one of those
trips like I feel like we usually tend to plan
our big vacation trips many months in advance and kind
of have it slated. But we made a pretty impromptu
decision around October to go back to Big Sky and
ski again. So super super excited about that. The kids
(02:48):
have two weeks off for winter break, and they have
a full week off for Thanksgiving, which I understand is
not the case with you. Correct.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah, no, and even worse, we have a bunch of
like half days for some of the kids, So it's
just like the worst, I mean, two half days or whatever.
Just give people the week. I don't know, but then
I understand it's harder to get to your required one
hundred and eighty days or all that. But two weeks
off over Christmas is kind of a long time. We
had slightly longer than we normally did, and so in
(03:17):
my mind, originally I thought we were going to go
somewhere far away for Christmas. But yeah, it didn't seem
like a great thing. Some of the kids want to
be home for Christmas, I mean and there is nice
things to being home for Christmas in terms of doing
the same things that you always do and having those traditions.
So we're only going away for a couple of days,
(03:37):
even though we have about a week and a half off.
But I mean, you're trying to get some work done
during at least one of those weeks of the holiday break,
aren't you. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I mean I am blowing through a ton of PTO
at my clinical job, which I also did last year,
but I did the calculation and I seem to have
it to spare. So my plan is to really have
like a family centered week of traveling and then a
me centered week of getting work done. Thing is, I
am not sure what I'm doing with the kids for
that work centered week because my husband's going to be
on call, and so I do need to figure that
(04:07):
out because I need to get writing done. I want
to do some planning type stuff, and I have the
idea of maybe like they'll leave me alone for a
few hours per day, But I Laura is like shaking
her head because she's probably right. It's going to be
really disjointed and rough, and someone's going to be asking
for something every twenty minutes.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, and like, if you need the focus mental space
to work, I think they need to be elsewhere because otherwise, yeah,
even if they're playing video games all afternoon, they may
stop at some point for something, and then you're going
to feel bad about like yelling at them to get
out of your closet where you do your work. And
(04:47):
you also just having the knowing, like sitting down at
eight o'clock that you have until five o'clock to work
is often good for getting yourself in the feeling of
being productive as opposed to like, Okay, I'm trying to
grab twenty minutes here before anyone needs me and all that.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I never feel like I have eight to five to
work on anything ever, So I don't even necessarily feel
like I need a full day, but I need like
a solid half day. I need like a three four
hour concentrated stretch. So maybe there'll be some camps that
I have to look into.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, yeah, I think that would be wise. I think
it would be wise. Well, so Sarah did kind of
the organization of this episode. We switch off on who
does what with the episodes that are both of us,
and so maybe you could talk a little bit about
this approach you wanted to take for the holiday episode
this year.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yes, So I promise Laura this would not be simplify
your holidays. That's not her favorite trope. It's a little
bit overdone. And sometimes we don't see the point of
simplifying things that bring you joy. I mean, why not
like expound on the things that bring you joy. However,
I don't know. I'm very into like the idea of
like not going with preconceived ideas and like assuming everything
is a half do, or like taking a more design
(05:56):
mindset to your holidays. So my idea was a start
from scratch holiday design, and Laura has some feelings on it,
so I'll let you talk before I push back.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Well, no, not so much feelings on it. It's just
that I think if you have always done something, that
is a reason to keep doing it, right, Like, you
don't have to not do something because you're like, well
it seems a little silly or funny or whatever. I mean,
we do the same things over and over again and
(06:28):
a lot of aspects of life, and it's partly just
because we've done them a great many times. So tradition
has its own weight. So obviously you don't want to
do anything mindlessly or if no one enjoys it or
gets any meaning from it, then what is the point.
But now I think you don't want to assign, like
I wouldn't put zero based accounting on the holidays. Let
(06:51):
me put it that.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Way that makes sense. I mean you could start with
a zero based budget, I guess sort of, but give
extra points extra weight to things that are traditional for
your family. But I mean I also do feel like
sometimes it does raise the question because maybe you always
have Aunt Jane's like cranberry sauce, but like every year
(07:12):
nobody likes it, Like you could just stop having it
one year and nothing will happen, Like it's okay. Most
of these things we're going to talk about are kind
of optional fun activities, and if you're at a point
in your household when no one's having fun, then it
may make sense to revisit. I mean, I know that
can be like bittersweet in a way, And I also
(07:32):
think it's important to like have the opposite, which is
that don't just assume that something won't be fun just
because your kids have reached a certain age. Like you
could be like, ah, yeah, that's for like little kids.
But if you talk to your kids and you start
from zero and you bring that to the table. They're like, no,
I love that, that's important, so please like, do it
continue that tradition.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, that's why we were going to have breakfast with
Santa this year. Ah see, I love that, And it
wasn't the four year old asking for it. So with
that in mind, if somebody really wants to make something
happen that we've done a lot in the past, it
is worth doing.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Yeah, one hundred percent, And I think you're right, but
there should be some like points assigned just for the
tradition's sake, just not one hundred points in automatic jumping
it on to your agenda, because at some point you're
going to want to add things and something's going to
have to go at some point. We have finite amounts
of time, all right, So with that, we're going to
go buy category and talk about what we're choosing to do.
(08:30):
If we were we are, we're going to be like, okay,
blanks late, what are we choosing, what are we opting in?
What are we opting out? In various categories? And I
just think these episodes are fun because I'm sure everyone
many of the listeners are just thinking about a lot
of the same things. Even though Laura celebrates Christmas and
I don't, we still have lots of seasonal traditions in common.
(08:51):
Just kind of growing up in a common culture, I guess.
And yeah, so this will be fun to see where
things differ and where things don't. All. Right, So first
category hosting, Well.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
We're hosting Thanksgiving, right, even if it'll be small, So
we'll do the traditional cooking, which, again, I don't know
that everyone likes turkey, but I think not cooking a
turkey on Thanksgiving would be quite a statement, like, oh,
we're just ordering Chinese food. I'm not sure that that
would go over all that well. Right, So there's one
(09:22):
where even if it is just tradition, there's sort of
a reason to keep doing that. I don't currently have
any plans for a holiday party, but you had one
of like having it maybe into January.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Well, we're getting to that later. About parties, I met
more like having people like stay at your house and
hosting being so you're hosting the Thanksgiving dinner and is
anybody coming to stay at your household?
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I don't know. I mean, we live pretty close to
a lot of our relatives on my side at least,
and then we're not having a big get together with
my husband's family over the holidays, so I don't think
that they would be coming either. So yeah, I think
it's pretty much just going to be us.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Okay, we're going to take a quick break, and then
we're going to get to the next category, which is
cooking fancy meals. All right, we are back, And by
the way, I didn't answer my own question about hosting,
(10:21):
and I will say I don't think there's going to
be any of like the obvious hosting happening, which is great.
It means I don't have to worry about guest bedrooms
or menus or anything like that. We'll talk about how
I'm still excited to participate in these events, but not
really planning on any hosting this season. So that's for us,
all right. So cooking fancy meals, we kind of got
to that. With hosting, it sounds like you are kind
(10:43):
of on for Thanksgiving? Am I getting that right? Yep?
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Getting I'm going to be doing it, although because my
brother's wife will not be there, like they're traveling elsewhere
for Thanksgiving. She always makes really good roles that are
kind of a highlight of Thanksgiving. There was one memorable
Thanksgiving where Alex had a one of those kid plates
that has like four quadrants in it, and he literally
(11:07):
just took four roles and put one in each quadrant.
That was what he wanted for Thanksgiving dinner. Just that
no turkey, so she won't be there. So I guess
I need to try to come up with some approximation
thereof either this role recipe or do something else that
people are really going to like, because I think that
(11:28):
people will miss so, you know, wish me luck on
that one.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
That sounds like a fun project. I'm going to ask,
even though this is really exiting the scope of our show,
are they those like twirly like roles that are like like.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Noah, they are yeast rolls that are like butter flavored,
but they're with the like shortening. It's pretty old school
Southern recipe kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Love it, Love it. We always had these like crescent
roles that like kind of rolled up and like, I
think I might have eaten a plate with four of
them on it. In addition to.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Other things, Thanksgiving not the time to give up carbs.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
No, all right, we will exit from roles. But now
I'm getting excited, so we're not again. I'm not like cooking,
but I'm planning to kind of lean into helping other
people cook in various circumstances. So my mom is cooking,
but I don't have like stuff that I'm going to
be doing otherwise, So I'm just going to be like,
I will be your sush chef, and whatever you need
help with, I will chop, I will whatever. So I'm
(12:24):
looking forward to that kind of like a active role
but not a take charge role. That sounds kind of
appealing to me. And I will have to make every season,
I have to make some key lime pie. So even
though I won't be here for Thanksgiving, I know I
have to bring key lime pie to Miami Beach at
some time around Thanksgiving or people will be very very disappointed.
So I will do that.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Sounds good. How about holiday cards? Are you doing that
this year? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:48):
So sending cards? Definitely doing that. Even if I had
never done it before, I'd be excited to do it.
And we do New Year's cards because then I don't
have as deadline driven and also because then I can
collect everyone's address when they send it to me and
then use it to make my address list, which helps.
I finally made a Google sheet for the holidays this
year after many years of like using paper and kind
(13:10):
of haphazard systems, so I am so, so so excited
to put that into action again this year.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
What about you, Yeah, well, this always nudges us to
get family photos taken in fall at some point, which
we did in late September, and you know, I sort
of guilt trip my kids into doing it because you said,
this is going to be one of the last years
that everyone will just sort of automatically be here, which
(13:37):
so getting them all together might be a little bit
more complicated other years. I don't know what our holiday
card will look like, but still have all five of
them on it the share. So yeah, I enjoyed doing it,
getting them printed up, sending them to people, and just
a real quick tip, even if you're not sending cards,
it's nice to acknowledge if people do send you a card,
like you can just sort of text the person and say, hey,
(13:57):
cute card, Glad to hear everything's going well with you,
or you know, you could share a quick update of
your life too, but it's a sort of easy way
to keep that connection, even if you're not doing the
whole postal game yourself.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I love that. That's really nice the idea to send
a text. Are you exempt from sending the text if
you send your own cards? Because I admit I have
never done the text thing.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
They're letting your own cards. That's the appropriate reciprocal response.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Okay, perfect? And by the way, do your cards have
like any I can't remember because I've gotten your cards
before and you've gotten mine. I like to put like
a very short summary of like stuff that went on,
and I take a lot of joy in that. And
I know some people don't do that, but I love
it when people do that.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Yeah. I mean, we used to do the letter, like
the whole letter, but it became a bit more like
family resume, like let me, you know, tell what everyone's
doing in their lives. So now we tend not to
do that. I just write a quick note saying hello
on the back. But I do sign them all and
put a quick note because and I leave space for
it when I've created the card. It's fun to get
(14:58):
personal notes. I mean, you know, if you're gon go
to the effort of mailing the car. And I know
some people have a whole automated system of it. But
if you're gonna go to the effort of mailing it,
it only takes a little bit more time to like
say hello and sign your name, and so just throw
that out there that you may as well take the
extra seconds and make it a little bit more personalized.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
I like that because then the recipient knows it at
least for a moment, like you were thinking about them.
That's nice.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah, which is good?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
All right? Gifts, Yes, I mean this isn't really an
opt out. It'd be interesting if it was. I guess
maybe some people do share your opt out of gifts stories.
But we definitely are opting into doing gifts this year. However,
once again, I think Josh is going to take the
lead on the kid gifts. We do do eight gifts
(15:43):
for the eight nights of Hanakah. They expect stuff, it's
just a thing. However, some of these gifts are very minimal,
so it's not it's not eight iPhones or something like that.
And then we are pretty limited with the rest of
our gifts with giftless and I don't see that changing.
We do our nieces, our nephews, and I will ask
for specific submissions to just make that process a little
(16:04):
bit easier as to what they want. I do send
gifts to my college friends because that's kind of is
a year's long tradition that I don't think for planning
on letting go at this point. And then, of course
gifts for all kinds of staff at work, our nanny,
are cleaner, et cetera. And I keep it very simple.
For all of those people, I give cash, and then
(16:25):
for teachers, I either give cash or Target gift cards,
which I tend to just buy, like all at once,
a whole bunch of them. And as I was creating
this easy plan, I was like, you know, when I
go to Target to get the gift cards, I should
get a nice box of cards to put these into,
because it tends to be a weird pain point that
I have every year, which is like I have the
cash and I don't have anything like nice to put
(16:46):
it in, so I need to get like a just
generic but cute Happy Holidays box of like, hey, I
should just get fifty cards. I don't think people will
care if they get the same one two years in
a row, as long as there's a nice gift in there.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
And you need a fiftyth wedding anniversary gift for your
parents too?
Speaker 2 (17:02):
There, right, Yes, So my plan for that, and I mean, honestly,
as I was doing this episode, I'm like, I need
to put this on my planner is I want to
hire a photographer to come take a picture of our
family when we're all there for Thanksgiving, my sister, my niece,
my parents, et cetera. And then I'm going to have
that printed in some form. I think that is probably
there's no material gift that would make them really all
(17:23):
that happy, but this would be, I think, really great.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Yeah. I mean, the idea of hiring a photographer and
putting together an album is actually a really good gift
idea for any sort of like older relative or people
who have a lot of stuff. But it's a way
of preserving memories because it is a pain to hire
a photographer and to organize it and to get everyone
to gather to do it. So if you're having some
(17:47):
sort of family gathering, I did this for so my
sister in law. I hired a photographer when we gathered
for my parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary a few years ago,
and we love having those photos and so then I
hired a photographer when we got together with my husband's
family for my mother in law's eighty fifth birthday. And
I can tell you it is a pain. It it's
(18:09):
a pain, like nobody wants to do it. Like if
you're get together with twenty people, PEO don't want to
stop and pose for like fifty photos in different combinations.
It's kind of a party buzzkill. Even more so if
you make them wear the same thing, which I did.
So if a big group, like everyone wearing jeans on
the bottom and white on the top. Some people have
done like khakis on the bottom, light blue on the top,
(18:31):
So you're gonna be dealing with some whining. I'm just
gonna throw that out there, but you will be happy
to have them afterwards, Like everyone's gonna be happy to
have these photos. And if you create an album or
do some bigger prints as gifts for people, that can
take you for a while. So I will throw that
out there as an idea. Other things like that, Yeah,
(18:51):
like collecting family recipes would be a great way. There's
some pretty easy like self publishing technology. You could print
ten copies of the book to distribute to your entire family,
So thinking of stuff like that might go a long
way for people who are not going to be the
sort you shop regular stuff for my kids. On the
(19:13):
other hand, I can shop regular stuff, or you're gonna
try and get this all done by Black Friday.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I want to order it online. I don't want to
have to like go anywhere. Josh likes to go places,
so he may want to go places, but I feel
like we're both going to be in Philadelphia. And by
the way, as people are listening to this, they're like,
she's hiring a photographer and it's in like two days,
so like we are recording this a few weeks.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Out of time.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yes, we're not totally delusional, but I mean, to me,
that's like we're so preoccupied with other stuff, work, the kids,
activities the rest of time, whereas we're going to be
like a captive audience in Philadelphia for the week of
Thanksgiving and there's going to be all these sales and stuff.
So I don't want to stand in line at like
some Big Bucks retailer at six am or something like that.
(19:53):
But I assume a lot of these deals to be
you as.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
That kind of person, Sarah. I know you were fighting
for that television.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yes, I want the like that doll that like spoke
or something like that tickle me Elmo. Thankfully, I think
we've aged out of that, so yeah, no, there used
to be like a separate cyber Monday, but since now
people generally just shop online as a normal thing, many
of them, I'm assuming there'll be plenty of actual Black
Friday deals that I could purchase with my fingers. So
(20:20):
I just think that would be a really nice way
of like knocking a lot of that out and then
entering the month of December worrying about other things because
I also have a kid with a birthday, a husband
with a fiftieth birthday, and like just like a million other.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Concerts, et cetera. Yeah, yeah, totally. So I actually do
like going to the stores around Christmas. I mean partly
because you know, we buy so much stuff online and
it's very easy, but you get ideas by kind of
looking at a section, and obviously an online algorithm can
suggest stuff too, But I feel like every time I
go to one of the bigger targets around here, or
(20:57):
you know, the Walmarts or whatever, I come up with
toy ideas that I wouldn't have thought of, and often
it's the older kids even who there might be fun
games or things like that that I again I wouldn't
know to think about, but there are things that are
targeted for say twelve year olds or ten year olds
(21:17):
or whatever, and a smart store will have a display
along those lines, and so that can give you great ideas.
So yeah, I will be in the stores. I am
sure there will be a lot of shopping. Will always
be more shopping than there should be. But the good
news is in my family, the kids that it's sort
of easy to overbuy toys for, like the younger too,
(21:39):
the nine year old and the four year old. We'll
have birthdays right after Christmas, so it's fine. So if
I overbuy, I can just shove the extra stuff into
a corner, put it under wraps, bring it back out
further birthdays. One thing I do, and I will do
this again. You know we're not going to zero some
accounting here. I make a list to keep track of
(22:00):
who's getting what and make sure it is even. Because
everyone needs to unwrap about the same number of stuff.
Everyone needs to have at least one thing under there
that they are very excited about. So sometimes I've even
bought like a bigger, cheap thing for somebody because all
their presence were small and they needed something big to
(22:21):
make it look like a bigger pile of presents. And
that's just one of those things you do as a
parent of five children.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
And you know, I think this might be our first
Google sheet hanikah, Like.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I see a spreadsheet Google sheet, honey in my mind.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
That needs to happen, and that would help with the
like evenness, you could like highlight the one big gift
and then you know, make sure. But when you say
equal like, it's not like you're tallying exact now.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
And I mean, I don't do money. Like what I
want is everyone to get stuff that they are happy about.
And the nature of this is that older children get
more expensive stuff than younger children. So you know, like
an iPhone versus you could get a lot of toys.
I mean, you could go like in a whole spree
through Walmart for toys for the cost of an iPhone.
(23:05):
But that's just the nature of it. So I'm not
going for that. I'm going for equal happiness. Love it
all right, Let's take one more quick ad break and
then we'll be back with more on figuring out the holidays.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
All right, we are back. I will have to report
back to let you know if my efficient gift strategy
ends up coming to fruition, but I'm kind of excited
about it. We're going to move on to parties and
specifically throwing parties. So do you have a holiday party planned, Laura, Nope,
it sounds fun.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
I'd like to do it sometime, but I think I
would probably do it as kind of an open house
sort of thing, like just for a couple of hours.
People drop by and make it very much adult and
kid so invite like people and kids classrooms and their
parents or the kids.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
You know.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
I know some of my kids friends, but don't know
their parents all that well for the older ones because
they kind of get together independently at some point without
parental involvement. So yeah, I mean, I think it'd be fun,
but I'm not necessarily taking that on this year. Maybe
in the future.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, I think I kind of feel pold to do
some kind of neighborhood something. I don't know exactly what
it would look like, but I feel like I've gotten
to know enough like locals that it'd be fun to do. Yeah,
Like similarly like an open house. But I think I'm
just thinking about like the actual calendar and the realistic
nature of probably not getting it in December, so I'm
thinking it would be more like New Year. It's January.
(24:45):
I mean, for us, it's not the doldrooms. No one's cold,
no one's sad, everyone's like woo who. It's lovely. But
I still think kind of like post vacation inks, et cetera,
just a little happy hour to like lighten the mood
might be fun.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, So my church choir has a twelfth Night party,
which is really great for timing because people tend not
to be busy the first weekend of January, where they
definitely are in the December weekends before Christmas, and then
it just like pushes forward the holiday cheer a little
bit further. I will point out that the twelve days
(25:19):
of Christmas are in fact after Christmas. Many people don't
know that, but it starts on the twenty fifth goes
to the sixth, and so you may think about how
you could celebrate that that. There might be various festive
opportunities to stretch out the season a little bit more. So,
maybe we can combine some of these last categories, I'm like,
(25:41):
oh my god, we still.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Have a lot of categories to get through, and we're
really into the holiday spirit.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
We are really into the holidays.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
I'm going to consolidate the attend party, but I want
to know if you're going to like design your clothing
aesthetic for any holiday parties, have you thought about how
that might go.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
I think I've mentioned this on this podcast before that
I realized over the years that there was this issue
that my festive dresses were like little straps or whatever.
And it's cold in December, so I don't really actually
want to wear these dresses in December. I'm as wearing
some sort of wrap around it, like I'm practically wearing
(26:16):
my windoor coat into the event because I'm like too
cold and I can't be bothered to be uncomfortable if
I'm like at something. So eventually, last year just went
on Amazon as one does, and specifically looked for long
sleeve dresses and so got something that's more of a
velvety type thing. It's like a Mermaid cut. I really
like it. In fact, I liked it so much I
(26:37):
bought it in Green. Last year, I decided just to
buy it in blue this year. So that is what
I will be wearing to various holiday parties this year.
It is not the same dress. I could wear the
same dress. I don't think anyone would care or notice,
but just for my own sense of dignity, it is
not the same dress, but it is very very similar.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
I love it a very decide once kind of approach.
I also have like one gold dress that I'm like
that works for any holiday. And I got a sparkly
shirt for the Taylor Swift concert and I got in
the Target kids section. But it looks like way better
than that, and I think that's going to be like
for casual holiday stuff. That plus jeans, I feel like
(27:18):
I can rocket anything sparkly.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Right, Absolutely, anything sparkly can work as a holiday thing.
Speaking of which, decor, if one is deciding from scratch,
what sort of decor to do, Sarah, are you doing
any sort of decor? No? No, okay, so we are.
I have had it kind of on my list of
one hundred dreams to have the house professionally decorated for Christmas.
(27:41):
We have sort of started moving in that direction that
we got the fancy tree last year, but it's an
artificial trees. We own it now, so it's very easy
to just like put it back up and have those.
We have a couple other you know, nice decorations that
are our house manager is going to put up. And
she also got a group of people. It's a company
(28:02):
that does window washing in the summer and in the
winter they do holiday decorations. So they are going to
do a bunch of trees in our yard, you know,
with lights, because they have the ladders and all the
lights and all that stuff. And so I'm excited to
see how this is going to look a figure. I'll
just try it something a little bit more festive this year.
Don't ever have to do it again if we don't
like it, or if it seems like a waste, but
(28:22):
you know, may as well give it a whirl.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
And do they have takedown services as well?
Speaker 1 (28:27):
They do. You would absolutely not do this so that well,
you're borrowing the lights from them, like you don't own
the lights, right like they own the lights, and so
they put them up and then they come take them down.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
That's excellent. I love it. I can't wait to see it.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Yeah, we'll hopefully it'll be up when you're here.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Oh really By Thanksgiving. That's exciting.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Yeah yeah, oh well they were almost booking a weekend
in October to do it. I was like, Okay, I
feel a little bad about doing that. Maybe we push
it into November. So but I mean, you know, you
pay the same amount if it's up for like two
weeks versus two months, so you may as well. May
as well have the full on festivities for two months.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Love it all right?
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Holiday going to yoh, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I was gonna say, Holiday Media, we can combine our
performance category with our movies and music category.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Well, so we were exchanging notes back and forth here,
and you know, we often go to the Nutcracker and
stuff like that, and Sarah does too. But she made
an interesting point that one could decide to not go
one year and then go the next year, and if
you go to something every two years, it feels a
little bit more fresh and new and not like you
just went, but it's still part of the tradition. So
(29:33):
I think that's a great idea in general, Like if
there's something you enjoy but it seems like it's kind
of a big deal, like it's a you know, pricey
tickets or something like that, deciding to do it every
other year means it's still a holiday tradition, but it's
not quite as frequent. I think that's a nice thought
and jump.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Yeah, I just want there to be like a little
bit more novelty, Like I feel like we went not
that long ago, even though I guess it was a
full year. So yeah, that might be our policy every
for two years, maybe every two to three years we
go to the Miami City Bell.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Well. I mean I've seen like, yeah, the Nutcracker like
ten times in a little and maybe maybe it's time
to take a slight break from that. But we are
going to go see the Rackats. We have not gotten
our tickets yet. We will. Well, we went for the
first time last year with a group, enjoyed it quite
a bit, and so I'm just going to take some
day in December to go to New York and see
(30:24):
the Racket, see the Rockefeller Plaza, Christmas Tree, go out
to dinner with the family, and just kind of make
a day of it. It's actually a really good show.
I never went when I lived in New York because
I had this idea. It was like, oh, it's so cheesy,
like all the tourists are lined up around the block
to go into it, and so you know, we needed
(30:45):
something to do with the group last year, so we
did it. And it's actually a really good show.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
There's a reason everyone's lining up around the block.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Everyone's there. It's so fun. So that's super cool. I
would totally do that. That's great. You're doing more of
the movie thing, right, Like you guys have your favorite have.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
To I don't know if your kids, like my kids
love I mean, they have to watch Elf. They have
to watch Home Alone. I mean they don't have to,
they will want to. I have to watch Charlie Brown Christmas,
and then I drag whoever many kids I can get,
and then there are like some newer fun ones that
like we watched eight Fit Christmas, I think last year
that was.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Really really good.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
And then I love, love, love holiday music. So my
policy is I don't want to like start it too
early because I want it to feel really special. So
December first, like dismplaylists are.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
On December one. Yeah, December one is also the earliest
that the Elf can appear in our house, which is
a tradition that I am only doing because it is
a tradition. The Elf would perhaps not be welcome in
our head.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
I love it. You're doing it because they love it,
not because it's just a tradition. You're doing it because
they would be sad if that elf was not there,
you know.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
I yes, maybe more people can be involved in the
elf wonder this year. Maybe the elf can have little
helpers who are interesting. So, oh well, let's see cooking
we've already talked about, like holiday meals and stuff. Do
you do any baking though, I mean, do you have
(32:07):
baking sessions? Gingerbread cookies?
Speaker 2 (32:10):
I love the idea of it, but we generally don't.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
My mom used to.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Make these really good shortbread cookies with iconic designs. They
were super good, and I loved that. A couple of
people in my office at work tend to make cookies
and bring them in because I enjoy eating them. But
I'm not putting this on my list. I just don't
want to like another thing. We might do some like
prefab gingerbread house creation with a kit or something, because
the kids it's like a fun well maybe your kids
(32:36):
cheating out of my house. I mean, we like gingerbread
kit type. I think we did that last year. I
think we did, But we could do it again, they
would be over the moon.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
So yeah, so okay, I'll just buy enough kits for everyone.
I'll put that on the list. But I put baking
on my holiday fund list mostly because my daughter loves
baking and she'll do a lot of baking on her own,
which she is allowed to do as long as she
remembers to turn off the oven, which it's good to
have somebody in the house at least at some point
(33:06):
within the hour she is doing it, just to confirm
it's off. But she can do most of it. I
think she can take the lead on it, and I
will just make sure that all the ingredients are available
for her to do that, and then I can be
more of the sous chef for that experience and have
a real holiday baking extravaganza. But the upside is that's
(33:26):
something that you can put in a lot of different places.
You can kind of look at a weekend that has say,
two parties and a trip to a light display and
like a rehearsal for a performance, like you can't put
something else big in there, but you could put a
two hour baking event that would fit. So I think
(33:47):
as you're making your holiday fundlist, it's good to have
a range of activities. There's some stuff that is specific
to a time, some stuff that there are lots of options,
like the roquettes, but you do have to commit and
then other things that you're in one make a time
for it, but it could go in lots of different cookies, movies,
cookies and movies. Yeah, yeah, yeah, those are or if
you have any sort of craft you're doing. I don't
(34:09):
think we put that on here for us, but it's
something we could do. And then you always want to
plan for the next year too. I mean that's a
big part of the holiday fund for you.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
I love doing that. I like doing it the second
week of when my kids are off and I'm off
and like January is just on the horizon. I don't
like wait to fill in my planner. In fact, this year,
I think I mentioned it on a prior episode, but
I just was like diving in in October, like I
have stuff to schedule in January and I'm not magically
like I need to use this thing now. But at
the same time, that's when I do my like more
(34:42):
formal scheming of like all kinds of goals and things
like that. Now I am going to put a plug
for two different things. Number One, I run personally a
Best Laid Plans at Home kind of annual planning course
that's four hours. It's actually based on what we do
at Best Laid Plans Live. And then people wanted like
a virtual version. So if you're like I want a
lot of structure around my planning and I want to
(35:03):
sit there for four hours with you with the workbook
and like do it with you, that is still available
and for a lower key version of that that's still
really really fun. We have our Patreon which every December,
and we haven't set the date yet for this, but
it'll probably be.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Setting after November twenty six when this is airing. So
the good news is it hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yes, you still have a chance. It'll be an hour
usually around twelve Eastern time, where it'll be like a
mini version of that like planning, and you'll get to
dive into your the beginning of your annual planning, including
maybe figuring out when you're going to do the rest
of it in more detail. But we do visioning and
we start with goal setting and all that kind of
fun stuff. So if you want the long, long long version,
(35:47):
the four hour version that's bestly plans at home, and
then if you want the little mini planning that will
still really get you started, join us in Patreon. It's
a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Yeah, I like to have this mostly set when we
do our goals episode for the next year, which we
always record seemingly early, and so I'm like, I gotta
get this locked down by then, so you know, but
a lot of fun things going on with the holidays,
lots of traditions or new traditions you can start. I
think it's fun to always try, you know, you do
the stuff that you enjoyed from the past. You can
(36:18):
also try one or two new things each year because
maybe you'll discover something that you want to do again
and again. Of course, you may also discover you don't
like it, and then you don't have to worry about
it or think about doing it again in the future.
But hopefully everyone's making a great holiday fun list as
they are hearing this episode, and we look forward to
hearing what you come up with. But our question, Sarah,
(36:41):
what do you want for Hankakah or Christmas? Do you
guys get Hanakah presents like the adults or it's only
the kids. It's only the kids.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
We don't that's the funny part. I'm like, but you know,
I think it's sometimes maybe I'll buy myself a Hankika gift.
You should buy yourself eight gifts, Sarah, I might need
a sufferate.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Little like one could be like a nail polish. One
could be a lipstick. One could be a book, right,
like you know.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yeah, you're right, that might be fun. Maybe I'll open
them up in front, like, oh, look what I get today.
So I think if someone were actually buying me a gift,
which like, well, my college friends we kind of buy
each other gift, so I get gifts that way. I
think loungewear, like I want to buy myself some nice
like I want to elevate my loungewear. I want to
like feel cute and comfy after hours, so loundwear. And
(37:30):
then I think a book that like if you love
a book and you really like see that other person
loving a book, I think that it's like a really
fun gift. Or if someone had a cosmetic product that
they think is like a miracle worker, like buy it
for me.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
That sounds good?
Speaker 2 (37:45):
What about you?
Speaker 1 (37:46):
Yeah, I mean what I honestly want is like to
get away for a while. It was like go sit
in a cabin in the woods for a while and
write and somebody else will handle the details of my life.
So we'll see if that happened. But stay tuned. Love
of the Week, Sarah, what do you have?
Speaker 2 (38:05):
Oh man?
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Be guys, we've had a lot of loves of the
weeks in this Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I just love holiday albums of all my favorite artists.
They make me happy. My favorite is Casey mus Graves.
I've shared them before, but maybe I'll have a new
favorite this year. I'll have to shop around.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
We'll try new ones out. Yeah, yeah, Well, I mean
I like the holidays in general. I would like to
make sure that my mental load isn't overwhelming with it,
but it usually isn't, so we'll be having many people
take on different projects of it. But holidays are a
festive times. It's good to do good to do well.
This has been best of both worlds. We've been discussing
all things holiday. Would love to hear what you have
(38:40):
planned for your holiday seasons. We will be back next
week with more on making work and life fit together.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the
shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram,
and you can.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
Find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Been the
best of both worlds podcasts. Please join us next time
for more on making work and life work together
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.