December 15, 2025 • 15 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Mojo in the morning. I have asked this question
(00:03):
numerous times of people Shannon that are in blended families
just like yours, you know, where they either start dating
after a breakup and you know they got family or
they are in your case married. I'm like, how does
the holidays change like and how do you decide whose
traditions you take or do you kind of blend it together?
(00:24):
You guys officially are kind of doing that right now.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
We had to have a conversation about it over the
weekend because, believe it or not, this Christmas Eve and
Christmas Morning is the very first time that all six
of us will be together. Let's go that's beautiful because
last year, the way that Wes my husband's schedule worked
with his ex wife and my schedule worked with my
ex husband, we didn't have anybody on Christmas Morning. Oh
(00:50):
and remember it was no Anna. I was so depressed.
Although our listeners did make it so much better because
everybody sent me Christmas cards.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yes the morning.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
It may sound cheesy. That helped me so much. I
got hundreds of cards.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
It was beautiful.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Anyway, So this year we're having We're gonna have everybody
we're gonna have all four kids, and so Wes and
I had to legitimately have a meeting to talk about
traditions and expectations for all of the kids because we
want it to work and be memorable and comfortable for everybody.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
And I think it'll work.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It's going to be interesting though, because so for example,
Smith is eight, he all the Christmas magic still exists
for him. Okay, my kids eight and eleven get a
whole bunch of gifts because they're still little. They want,
you know, the toys and and all of those things.
Wes's kids are just getting a few gifts because their
(01:50):
gifts are more expensive. So right off the bat, I'm like,
I feel like that might be weird that my kids
are going to be sitting their opening gifts and Samantha
and Kieran are just going to be like sitting watching
them after they open their couple of gifts.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
What is the tradition been in your place? And what
is the tradition ben in his as far as which
day did they open.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
The gifts, everybody did Christmas Morning.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Okay, But like for example, his kids like their gifts
under the Christmas tree. My kids have different spots in
the house where they were Santa leaves their gifts. My
kids are accustomed to monkey bread and hot chocolate for breakfast.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Have you guys ever had monkey breads? Monkey breads great,
It's so good.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Wes makes a full Scottish breakfast for his kids. Is
nasty black pudding like sheep's blood.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Something what It tastes like dirt, and his kids love it.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
They love that's their tradition that his mom did, like
a full Scottish breakfast.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
I'm trying to think of, Like, my kids wake up.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Super duper early, and I make them wait at the
top of the stairs until everything's ready and then they
can come down. His kids, thir teenagers, they wake up
at you know, ten o'clock. So I told him, I'm like,
they better set their alarm for six am, because that's
when we're waiting. We're gonna we just have to meet
in the middle with a lot of things. Like I said,
it'll work. It was just a lot, like we have
to do a lot of planning for I'm making everybody
(03:23):
wear matching pajamas. I thought Karen, my freshman at Michigan State,
was gonna shoot me.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
I looked at me. He's like matching pajamas.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I'm like, yes, everybody and your sister's family, my mom,
everybody's wearing them for Christmas Eve dinner.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yeah. If I'm is his girlfriend coming over? Is she
going to be a part of this whole thing?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Is he is very single at the moment?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Is he okay? Because I was going to say, could
you imagine it's like all of a sudden, you're a
college If I told Luke, imagine you know Luke right
like Karen, same age whatever. If I said to Luke, hey, Luke,
I met this lady and she's making you where Luke
would be like, you're leaving her? That is so okay.
So this is neat. So you guys are gonna do
a little bit of each.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Then, right, we're going to try to do all of
each Who's.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Winning you or him?
Speaker 3 (04:08):
What do you mean?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Well, one of you guys obviously gets a veto power right,
usually the vagina.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I mean, truly, we've we've figured out a way. I
think the only thing is I'm going to have to
have my kids es.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yeah, I really do.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I think my kids are going to have to I'm
gonna have to try to keep them in bed a
little longer so that my step kids cannot wake up.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
But I do feel like you have like a little
priority because you still have somebody.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Who's yes very much little yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Can I tell you how I relate to this. I
relate to this as a guy when I got married,
who married a woman who's there. In Chelsea's families, traditions
way different than ours. We got our gifts on Christmas
Eve night and then Christmas Day we would wake up
and we wouldn't do any toys at all or anything.
We went to church, we went to Mass, or we
(04:58):
went to midnight Mass, which was better, and then we
got to sleep in the next day. So that was
kind of our thing that we did. We're in Chelsea's family,
it was completely different. And Chelsea's family was they you know,
we're not Catholic, so they had non denominational like Christian
Mass or church, but they would have it during the
day on Christmas Eve, and then Christmas Day was we
(05:19):
were at home doing all of our stuff. And that's
the tradition that won because again the vagina wins absolutely well.
But it was interesting.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
So the one that isn't working out you mentioned church
is Christmas Eve church because Wes and his kids have
gone to the same church since the kids were babies,
and my kids have gone to the same church and
me since they were babies. So we are splitting up
for churches, which kind of sucks, but we can't make
it at work with both with doing both at the
(05:49):
same time, like they're both at the same time.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So you guys ever done and I know neither of
you guys are go to Catholic Mass, but if you
guys ever done midnight Mass at Saint Mary's, which is
the school that's over in Orchard, like Michigan, we've done
midnight Mass before over at Saint Mary's, and there's something
magical about afterwards going to the grotto that's there and
(06:12):
you got the lights and the beautiful decorations and stuff
like that. It almost kind of makes you feel like
you're in like the small town. But it's wild because
we had guests that came into town and that wasn't
that's not our parish that we go to or our
church that we go to, and we took our friends
there because we're gonna do it. And I said to Chelsea,
it was like something out of like the bells of
(06:32):
Saint Mary's or you know, or like a Bing Crosby
type movie. It was something wild about it, magical about it.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
We used to do that growing up Cabrini and Allen Park. Yeah,
we did a midnight mass and so we would always
go with my grandmothers and aunts and uncles.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
I was so fine. Here's the thing that I'm really
proud of you guys that you guys are doing a
good job of like talking about this ahead of time
instead of each kind of because this could cause problems.
Like that's honestly, tradition changes could be because your kids
are like, wait a second, No, this is not how we.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Do think that there's going to It's not going to
go off perfectly, you know what I mean, Like my
kids are going to have thoughts about how it goes,
and West's kids are going to have thoughts about how
it goes. It's not going to be perfect, but we're
trying to just make it comfortable as comfortable for everybody
speak ten.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah, Hey Gina, what's up?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Hey, Good morning guys. One thing that Shannon could do
for the older kids since they have left to open,
is do like a scavenger hunt. My mom did this once. Before,
and she hid cards throughout the house and I had
to wait to get each card, and she hid the
big gifts in like a certain place and I had
to keep finding the cards in order to get the
big gift.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
That's that's kind of cool. Yeah, I like that. What
if your kids are lazy like my kids scavengers? Yeah,
I think. You know, it's funny is you talk about
the difference in in holidays and stuff, and ours is
going to be different because you know, we're not going
to have all the boys on Christmas Day. We're going
to actually do a Christmas week ahead a time with
(08:06):
every one of the boys there. And here's the deal.
The day of Christmas is wonderful and it's gonna be
different for everybody, right. You know the thing, it's how
you make it, you know. And I think that the
awesome part of the holidays is the blessing that you
get to actually spend time with those that you love,
because there are those families that their loved ones either
(08:28):
are gone, you know, they passed, or they're like serving
our country in another country, you know, or another place
around the world. So I mean, I don't know, I
think this is a this is cool I'm trying to
basically give you things to say to your kids when
kids are like when Smith goes, he didn't do it
seven am, and I.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Want Sama to be clamoring.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Have him just go into Karen in Samantha's rooms and
jump on their beds.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, because Karen's in the basement, so that means you'd
have to pass through Santa's Santa's stuff.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
What's up, Kim, Good morning, Shannon. I have the same
age gap with my kids. We have an eight year old,
a sixteen year old, and a nineteen year old, and
we say that the elves have a budget, and my
eight year old straight up looked at her brother and goes,
you would get more presents if you didn't ask for
a new baseball glove and gat and then walk away
and trust her hair. So it does work. But on
(09:23):
the sleeping in thing, we told her eight am. Because
my nineteen year old looked at me and I was like,
I'm not getting up at six. We said eight am. Everybody,
I feel like that's a fear fear compromise.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yeah. There was nothing better though than when the kids
were so little and they would come and jump on
your bed. We gotta wake up. We gotta wake up.
I love that, Evelyn. What's up?
Speaker 5 (09:47):
Good morning guys at the holidays Christmas?
Speaker 6 (09:51):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
So one thing you can do, Shannon, is like take
ve gifts and rep.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
A bunch of times and a budget it the repit paper.
Make it harm for them.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
You do it and they take their last caller.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
I heard her say that she had a nineteen year.
Speaker 6 (10:03):
Old, and you know, and I heard you.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Say that, you know they got to wait until everybody
wakes up.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
No, I have a nineteen year old and.
Speaker 6 (10:09):
I have three little ones.
Speaker 7 (10:11):
Once they get up, the nineteen year old have to
get up, as will.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Everybody got to get up once the kids get up
to Santa game, this is our house. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 7 (10:21):
There's no delay.
Speaker 6 (10:22):
Get up from that, Get up.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Everybody.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Thank you for the call. What's up, Courtney?
Speaker 7 (10:28):
Hi?
Speaker 6 (10:30):
Hey, good morning.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (10:31):
We're good? What's going on?
Speaker 6 (10:34):
Not much?
Speaker 5 (10:34):
Hey?
Speaker 6 (10:35):
So I was just gonna let Shannon know maybe instead
of changing things crazily, we can wake the younger kids up,
want them get up early as they are used to,
and then the older let them start opening gifts when
they wake up, and maybe do like a breakfast intermission.
Keep a few gifts for when the older kids wake up.
Maybe not let them sleep into like ten or eleven,
(10:56):
but maybe like an eight or nine is fair, and
then they finish opening their gifts altogether.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
That's not.
Speaker 7 (11:06):
I really enjoy thank you for the call. I really
enjoy I really enjoyed the fact that you all are
starting something new. This is the first time everybody's going
to be together, and everybody should experience everything at the
same time. Like, that's why everybody's there is to be together.
They can wake up a couple of hours early, they'll
be okay, I agree with that.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
The collor prior, they said, and then they go back
to bed. What's up page, Good morning morning?
Speaker 5 (11:34):
Okay, sorry, I'm calling you from Windsor first time.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Do you guys celebrate Christmas and windsor what do you
guys celebrate over there? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:44):
Okay the other day because I saw someone thinks we
don't speak English over here?
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Whatever?
Speaker 4 (11:49):
What.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
I was born in California. You know what's interesting about that?
I remember as a little kid, I used to follow
where Santa was around the country. Does Santa come to
Canada or the United States? First? Where does he go first? YouTube?
And funny, what's that page.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Shannon, I have a suggestion for you. So I have
a rule in my house and my kids trust me.
The older there get the more.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I got this.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Gaming chair that cost me an arminal.
Speaker 6 (12:17):
Leg for my son.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
But I have a rule. If my son has my
daughter has ten gifts.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
My son has ten gifts, okay, but his gaming chair
nine hundred dollars. He ain't getting nothing else.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
But I will be going to like the dollar store
and finding his favorite candy and that will be wrapped.
Because we all open one gift at a time. I
need to spend all that time rapping and figuring.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Out what to buy.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
So your older kids, if your younger kids have ten
gifts and the daughter has ten gifts, and I understand
that the older ones are more money, they might only
have three, you need to make it equal.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Everybody gets ten.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
So you need to go to the dollar store.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
You need to go get the kids.
Speaker 6 (12:59):
You do they first.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
They can get up first and organize.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
He's going to organize all the presidents in order.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
He actually.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
He counts him yet because we open one out of
time page.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Okay, told me that they did that. I was like,
that is that is not happening now we will be
here till five o'clock.
Speaker 7 (13:22):
Because I want to see what they got.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
They're like, oh my gosh, she opened the most expensive
presents first, and I didn't even see you opening I
beget to.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
See your reactions.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
So we stopped letting them open them all together. We
do one at a time. You only have four, I know,
and then the parents.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Were lost page one.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
We do one at a time because I want to
see page what.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
We do in our house and my husband. We give
the kids that we like the most, the most gifts,
and then the kid that we really didn't want, that
we should have given up for adoption.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
What is wrong with we call him?
Speaker 7 (13:52):
We call him family.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
We give him blended.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
No, her family's blended.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Now, you know what I think. I think the thing
that's cool got to be cool, and it's got to
be a pain in the ass sometimes, but it's got
to also be cool. I would think that there's a
lot of things that Karen and Samantha have to deal
with that they're probably like, God, you know what I
don't deal is Christmas, though, is about young kids and
(14:19):
the idea that they get to experience a little bit
of Smith's magic, that he has I think would be
kind of cool. Again.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
I am soaking up this magic.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
I think it's great because you never know when it's gone.
So I would bet that they would be you know
and if you and if they were part of it,
you know what I mean, where you could say to them, hey,
I want you to help me with this or whatever
the deal is and make it part. That would be
such a cool, you know, sibling thing to do. You know.
Beat this year. I remember my brother telling me that
(14:50):
my dad told him Christmas stops for you when it
stops for Tommy. And so my brother was the greatest
at keeping things nice and magical. Yeah, because he knew
it was all over. He was probably kicked out of
the house.
It's Mojo in the morning. I have asked this question
(00:03):
numerous times of people Shannon that are in blended families
just like yours, you know, where they either start dating
after a breakup and you know they got family or
they are in your case married. I'm like, how does
the holidays change like and how do you decide whose
traditions you take or do you kind of blend it together?
(00:24):
You guys officially are kind of doing that right now.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
We had to have a conversation about it over the
weekend because, believe it or not, this Christmas Eve and
Christmas Morning is the very first time that all six
of us will be together. Let's go that's beautiful because
last year, the way that Wes my husband's schedule worked
with his ex wife and my schedule worked with my
ex husband, we didn't have anybody on Christmas Morning. Oh
(00:50):
and remember it was no Anna. I was so depressed.
Although our listeners did make it so much better because
everybody sent me Christmas cards.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yes the morning.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
It may sound cheesy. That helped me so much. I
got hundreds of cards.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
It was beautiful.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Anyway, So this year we're having We're gonna have everybody
we're gonna have all four kids, and so Wes and
I had to legitimately have a meeting to talk about
traditions and expectations for all of the kids because we
want it to work and be memorable and comfortable for everybody.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
And I think it'll work.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It's going to be interesting though, because so for example,
Smith is eight, he all the Christmas magic still exists
for him. Okay, my kids eight and eleven get a
whole bunch of gifts because they're still little. They want,
you know, the toys and and all of those things.
Wes's kids are just getting a few gifts because their
(01:50):
gifts are more expensive. So right off the bat, I'm like,
I feel like that might be weird that my kids
are going to be sitting their opening gifts and Samantha
and Kieran are just going to be like sitting watching
them after they open their couple of gifts.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
What is the tradition been in your place? And what
is the tradition ben in his as far as which
day did they open.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
The gifts, everybody did Christmas Morning.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Okay, But like for example, his kids like their gifts
under the Christmas tree. My kids have different spots in
the house where they were Santa leaves their gifts. My
kids are accustomed to monkey bread and hot chocolate for breakfast.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Have you guys ever had monkey breads? Monkey breads great,
It's so good.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Wes makes a full Scottish breakfast for his kids. Is
nasty black pudding like sheep's blood.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Something what It tastes like dirt, and his kids love it.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
They love that's their tradition that his mom did, like
a full Scottish breakfast.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
I'm trying to think of, Like, my kids wake up.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Super duper early, and I make them wait at the
top of the stairs until everything's ready and then they
can come down. His kids, thir teenagers, they wake up
at you know, ten o'clock. So I told him, I'm like,
they better set their alarm for six am, because that's
when we're waiting. We're gonna we just have to meet
in the middle with a lot of things. Like I said,
it'll work. It was just a lot, like we have
to do a lot of planning for I'm making everybody
(03:23):
wear matching pajamas. I thought Karen, my freshman at Michigan State,
was gonna shoot me.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
I looked at me. He's like matching pajamas.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I'm like, yes, everybody and your sister's family, my mom,
everybody's wearing them for Christmas Eve dinner.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yeah. If I'm is his girlfriend coming over? Is she
going to be a part of this whole thing?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Is he is very single at the moment?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Is he okay? Because I was going to say, could
you imagine it's like all of a sudden, you're a
college If I told Luke, imagine you know Luke right
like Karen, same age whatever. If I said to Luke, hey, Luke,
I met this lady and she's making you where Luke
would be like, you're leaving her? That is so okay.
So this is neat. So you guys are gonna do
a little bit of each.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Then, right, we're going to try to do all of
each Who's.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Winning you or him?
Speaker 3 (04:08):
What do you mean?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Well, one of you guys obviously gets a veto power right,
usually the vagina.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I mean, truly, we've we've figured out a way. I
think the only thing is I'm going to have to
have my kids es.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yeah, I really do.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I think my kids are going to have to I'm
gonna have to try to keep them in bed a
little longer so that my step kids cannot wake up.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
But I do feel like you have like a little
priority because you still have somebody.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Who's yes very much little yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Can I tell you how I relate to this. I
relate to this as a guy when I got married,
who married a woman who's there. In Chelsea's families, traditions
way different than ours. We got our gifts on Christmas
Eve night and then Christmas Day we would wake up
and we wouldn't do any toys at all or anything.
We went to church, we went to Mass, or we
(04:58):
went to midnight Mass, which was better, and then we
got to sleep in the next day. So that was
kind of our thing that we did. We're in Chelsea's family,
it was completely different. And Chelsea's family was they you know,
we're not Catholic, so they had non denominational like Christian
Mass or church, but they would have it during the
day on Christmas Eve, and then Christmas Day was we
(05:19):
were at home doing all of our stuff. And that's
the tradition that won because again the vagina wins absolutely well.
But it was interesting.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
So the one that isn't working out you mentioned church
is Christmas Eve church because Wes and his kids have
gone to the same church since the kids were babies,
and my kids have gone to the same church and
me since they were babies. So we are splitting up
for churches, which kind of sucks, but we can't make
it at work with both with doing both at the
(05:49):
same time, like they're both at the same time.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So you guys ever done and I know neither of
you guys are go to Catholic Mass, but if you
guys ever done midnight Mass at Saint Mary's, which is
the school that's over in Orchard, like Michigan, we've done
midnight Mass before over at Saint Mary's, and there's something
magical about afterwards going to the grotto that's there and
(06:12):
you got the lights and the beautiful decorations and stuff
like that. It almost kind of makes you feel like
you're in like the small town. But it's wild because
we had guests that came into town and that wasn't
that's not our parish that we go to or our
church that we go to, and we took our friends
there because we're gonna do it. And I said to Chelsea,
it was like something out of like the bells of
(06:32):
Saint Mary's or you know, or like a Bing Crosby
type movie. It was something wild about it, magical about it.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
We used to do that growing up Cabrini and Allen Park. Yeah,
we did a midnight mass and so we would always
go with my grandmothers and aunts and uncles.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
I was so fine. Here's the thing that I'm really
proud of you guys that you guys are doing a
good job of like talking about this ahead of time
instead of each kind of because this could cause problems.
Like that's honestly, tradition changes could be because your kids
are like, wait a second, No, this is not how we.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Do think that there's going to It's not going to
go off perfectly, you know what I mean, Like my
kids are going to have thoughts about how it goes,
and West's kids are going to have thoughts about how
it goes. It's not going to be perfect, but we're
trying to just make it comfortable as comfortable for everybody
speak ten.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah, Hey Gina, what's up?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Hey, Good morning guys. One thing that Shannon could do
for the older kids since they have left to open,
is do like a scavenger hunt. My mom did this once. Before,
and she hid cards throughout the house and I had
to wait to get each card, and she hid the
big gifts in like a certain place and I had
to keep finding the cards in order to get the
big gift.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
That's that's kind of cool. Yeah, I like that. What
if your kids are lazy like my kids scavengers? Yeah,
I think. You know, it's funny is you talk about
the difference in in holidays and stuff, and ours is
going to be different because you know, we're not going
to have all the boys on Christmas Day. We're going
to actually do a Christmas week ahead a time with
(08:06):
every one of the boys there. And here's the deal.
The day of Christmas is wonderful and it's gonna be
different for everybody, right. You know the thing, it's how
you make it, you know. And I think that the
awesome part of the holidays is the blessing that you
get to actually spend time with those that you love,
because there are those families that their loved ones either
(08:28):
are gone, you know, they passed, or they're like serving
our country in another country, you know, or another place
around the world. So I mean, I don't know, I
think this is a this is cool I'm trying to
basically give you things to say to your kids when
kids are like when Smith goes, he didn't do it
seven am, and I.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Want Sama to be clamoring.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Have him just go into Karen in Samantha's rooms and
jump on their beds.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, because Karen's in the basement, so that means you'd
have to pass through Santa's Santa's stuff.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
What's up, Kim, Good morning, Shannon. I have the same
age gap with my kids. We have an eight year old,
a sixteen year old, and a nineteen year old, and
we say that the elves have a budget, and my
eight year old straight up looked at her brother and goes,
you would get more presents if you didn't ask for
a new baseball glove and gat and then walk away
and trust her hair. So it does work. But on
(09:23):
the sleeping in thing, we told her eight am. Because
my nineteen year old looked at me and I was like,
I'm not getting up at six. We said eight am. Everybody,
I feel like that's a fear fear compromise.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yeah. There was nothing better though than when the kids
were so little and they would come and jump on
your bed. We gotta wake up. We gotta wake up.
I love that, Evelyn. What's up?
Speaker 5 (09:47):
Good morning guys at the holidays Christmas?
Speaker 6 (09:51):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
So one thing you can do, Shannon, is like take
ve gifts and rep.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
A bunch of times and a budget it the repit paper.
Make it harm for them.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
You do it and they take their last caller.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
I heard her say that she had a nineteen year.
Speaker 6 (10:03):
Old, and you know, and I heard you.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Say that, you know they got to wait until everybody
wakes up.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
No, I have a nineteen year old and.
Speaker 6 (10:09):
I have three little ones.
Speaker 7 (10:11):
Once they get up, the nineteen year old have to
get up, as will.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Everybody got to get up once the kids get up
to Santa game, this is our house. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 7 (10:21):
There's no delay.
Speaker 6 (10:22):
Get up from that, Get up.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Everybody.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Thank you for the call. What's up, Courtney?
Speaker 7 (10:28):
Hi?
Speaker 6 (10:30):
Hey, good morning.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (10:31):
We're good? What's going on?
Speaker 6 (10:34):
Not much?
Speaker 5 (10:34):
Hey?
Speaker 6 (10:35):
So I was just gonna let Shannon know maybe instead
of changing things crazily, we can wake the younger kids up,
want them get up early as they are used to,
and then the older let them start opening gifts when
they wake up, and maybe do like a breakfast intermission.
Keep a few gifts for when the older kids wake up.
Maybe not let them sleep into like ten or eleven,
(10:56):
but maybe like an eight or nine is fair, and
then they finish opening their gifts altogether.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
That's not.
Speaker 7 (11:06):
I really enjoy thank you for the call. I really
enjoy I really enjoyed the fact that you all are
starting something new. This is the first time everybody's going
to be together, and everybody should experience everything at the
same time. Like, that's why everybody's there is to be together.
They can wake up a couple of hours early, they'll
be okay, I agree with that.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
The collor prior, they said, and then they go back
to bed. What's up page, Good morning morning?
Speaker 5 (11:34):
Okay, sorry, I'm calling you from Windsor first time.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Do you guys celebrate Christmas and windsor what do you
guys celebrate over there? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:44):
Okay the other day because I saw someone thinks we
don't speak English over here?
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Whatever?
Speaker 4 (11:49):
What.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
I was born in California. You know what's interesting about that?
I remember as a little kid, I used to follow
where Santa was around the country. Does Santa come to
Canada or the United States? First? Where does he go first? YouTube?
And funny, what's that page.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Shannon, I have a suggestion for you. So I have
a rule in my house and my kids trust me.
The older there get the more.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I got this.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Gaming chair that cost me an arminal.
Speaker 6 (12:17):
Leg for my son.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
But I have a rule. If my son has my
daughter has ten gifts.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
My son has ten gifts, okay, but his gaming chair
nine hundred dollars. He ain't getting nothing else.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
But I will be going to like the dollar store
and finding his favorite candy and that will be wrapped.
Because we all open one gift at a time. I
need to spend all that time rapping and figuring.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Out what to buy.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
So your older kids, if your younger kids have ten
gifts and the daughter has ten gifts, and I understand
that the older ones are more money, they might only
have three, you need to make it equal.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Everybody gets ten.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
So you need to go to the dollar store.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
You need to go get the kids.
Speaker 6 (12:59):
You do they first.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
They can get up first and organize.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
He's going to organize all the presidents in order.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
He actually.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
He counts him yet because we open one out of
time page.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Okay, told me that they did that. I was like,
that is that is not happening now we will be
here till five o'clock.
Speaker 7 (13:22):
Because I want to see what they got.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
They're like, oh my gosh, she opened the most expensive
presents first, and I didn't even see you opening I
beget to.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
See your reactions.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
So we stopped letting them open them all together. We
do one at a time. You only have four, I know,
and then the parents.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Were lost page one.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
We do one at a time because I want to
see page what.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
We do in our house and my husband. We give
the kids that we like the most, the most gifts,
and then the kid that we really didn't want, that
we should have given up for adoption.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
What is wrong with we call him?
Speaker 7 (13:52):
We call him family.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
We give him blended.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
No, her family's blended.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Now, you know what I think. I think the thing
that's cool got to be cool, and it's got to
be a pain in the ass sometimes, but it's got
to also be cool. I would think that there's a
lot of things that Karen and Samantha have to deal
with that they're probably like, God, you know what I
don't deal is Christmas, though, is about young kids and
(14:19):
the idea that they get to experience a little bit
of Smith's magic, that he has I think would be
kind of cool. Again.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
I am soaking up this magic.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
I think it's great because you never know when it's gone.
So I would bet that they would be you know
and if you and if they were part of it,
you know what I mean, where you could say to them, hey,
I want you to help me with this or whatever
the deal is and make it part. That would be
such a cool, you know, sibling thing to do. You know.
Beat this year. I remember my brother telling me that
(14:50):
my dad told him Christmas stops for you when it
stops for Tommy. And so my brother was the greatest
at keeping things nice and magical. Yeah, because he knew
it was all over. He was probably kicked out of
the house.
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