The Travel Show: Christmas Special!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Very Christmas. Have we Honikah and a joyous holiday celebration.
I'm Larry Gelwick's the Getaway Guru, and I want to
welcome you personally to a very special edition of the
Travel Show. It's been thirty five years I've been honked
behind this microphone welcoming you every week to the world
of travel. And we do have a very special as

(00:25):
I do every year at this time, kind of the
last show before Christmas, a special edition. We're going to
be talking about travel, but talking more about the holiday
season and the joyous celebrations around the world. What are
your Christmas traditions. We will be taking you to Hawaii
and Mexico. I actually spent a Christmas in Mexico. No

(00:47):
in Hawaii one time. And Marissa will be taking us
to the Danube. Donnie will be taking us to the Mediterranean.
What is Hanukkah and how is it celebrated? And I
have the ultimate personal Christmas story. Well, welcome to the
Travel Show, and I want to welcome back to the

(01:08):
Travel Show one of my favorite people, Donnie Rasmussen, one
of the Travel Advisor's excellente in the Salt Lake office
of Morris Columbus Travel Donnie, welcome back to the show.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Do you know what.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
It's always a joy to be here. It's a lot
of fun. You have very dedicated listeners, and I like
getting to be a part of it.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
I may just retire and let you take over the show.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
You can't do that, all right, No, I won't know.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
The Travel Show is sponsored by Morris Columbus Travel, where
you always travel more and pay less. Check out their
website at Morriscolumbus dot com. That's Morriscolumbus dot com. Now,
if you've dealt with Morris Columbus Travel, you probably already
have a favorite travel advisor. Maybe it's Donnie Rasmussen, and

(01:54):
you can call him or her direct If you don't
already have a favorite travel advisor where you can call
Donnie or any of them, or call eight hundred triple
nine forty six forty six, eight hundred triple nine forty
six forty six. But Donnie's here with me today, and
let me give you her direct line eight oh one

(02:15):
four eight three sixty five sixty three. That's eight oh
one four eight three sixty five sixty three, or send
her an email at the letter D as in Donnie d.
Rasmussen at Morriscolumbus dot com. Well, Donnie, we have one

(02:35):
of the most exciting events in travel coming up next month.
We do the Utah Travel Expo now celebrating the thirtieth year,
the thirtieth annual, and the Utah Travel Expo is the biggest,
the best, the original travel expo, travel show anywhere in

(02:56):
the Inner Mountain area.

Speaker 4 (02:58):
It really is fabulous. I don't know if you were there,
but yesterday we had one of the cruise line representatives
who said, never have I been to a travel show
that was so well organized, the people, the exhibitors, the temperature,
you know, everything everything about it.

Speaker 5 (03:13):
You know.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
I have asked several of the travel vendors, and by
the way, at the Salt Lake event there will be
over one hundred travel vendors, airlines, cruise lines, safari companies, hotels, resorts,
everything travel in one place.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
Come on about half to come and talk to them.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
About half that in Saint George because of space limitations
at the ballroom down there. But I asked several of
the vendors. They always said that the Utah Travel Expo
is different, And I said, how how is it different?
And what they said, it's the people. Not only is
it well organized, but they said, the people come, many

(03:55):
of them with written questions. See, you can sit down
one on one talk to representatives of airlines, cruise lines,
tour companies, hotels, ask questions, take advantage of exclusive expo discounts,
and plan the perfect vacation holiday.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
Absolutely, you know what, this is your chance. I love
meeting these people because they're adventurous, they're inquisitive, they want
to learn. All of the representatives are there to help
you plan something that's perfect. And if you get ideas
by visiting the vendors, so much the better you'll you'll
have a great time.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
When and where?

Speaker 4 (04:30):
Okay, tot word, let's get this out here right, it's
out at the Southtown Expo.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Is that what is still called.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Mountain America Expost Center in Sandy.

Speaker 4 (04:40):
The minute I said that, I thought, nope, they've renamed it.
It's January twenty first in Saint George. In Okay, up here,
it's the twenty third and twenty fourth, So it's a
Friday and a Saturday.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
You can come whenever it's convenient.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, in Saint George, it's Wednesday, January twenty first at
the Hilton Garden Inn, and they'll about sixty vendors down there. Again,
it's the limitations of the ballroom. And then in the
Salt Lake area, as you mentioned, Friday Saturday, January twenty
third and twenty for twenty fourth at the Mountain America

(05:14):
Expo Center in Sandy.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Now please come. Can I say this.

Speaker 4 (05:18):
We get deals from those vendors that you don't get.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
For anything else.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
I know a guy, Yeah, he's got a deal. Let
me tell you something about it. There's no cost to
the Saint George, but there is a ticket price. It's
like three bucks for adults at Salt Lake. However, the
Getaway Guru is going to take care of your tickets.

(05:43):
For radio show listeners of the travel Show, I'm going
to give you kind of a secret website where you
can get all the free tickets you want. If you
want to save some money for Christmas presents, give them
a free ticket to THEO or a free parking at
parkins Jet or something like that. So if you will
simply go to Utah Travel Expo dot com. That's Utah

(06:08):
Travel Expo dot com, scroll down and you'll see get
tickets Saint George. They're free. All of them get tickets
Salt Lake City. Now there's ticket categories. By the way,
Kids seventeen and under are always free, but adult, children, seniors, military,
it runs two to three bucks depending on your category.

(06:29):
Kids of course free. Do you know how much fun
it is to bring your kids? All of my grandkids
and all of my children come.

Speaker 4 (06:36):
My grandkid, my granddaughter comes every year to visit grandma.
But boy, she walks around, she picks up brochures, she
looks at things.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
I'm sure they're wondering.

Speaker 4 (06:44):
But then she says, but my grandma takes me. So
she walks around and looks at all the pictures and
then comes and tells me where she wants to go.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
So here, I'll tell you where you go and how
to get there. Anyway. For example, if I wanted a
couple of tickets as an adult, so I go to
Utah Travel Expo dot com. I scroll down get tickets SLC,
and then I'm going to put in two, say, tickets
for a dog. You can put in whatever you want
and then it'll have a price. Adult tickets are three

(07:12):
bucks a piece. Scroll down for checkout, and in the
discount code area, just type in free fr ee and
then you have to click apply code and whila, the
price is gone. Your tickets are free.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
They just save money.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
Listening. By the way, did I mention the free travel
prize giveaways?

Speaker 3 (07:39):
You know what? They have good ones, So if you haven't,
you better tell.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
Free airline tickets, free international airline tickets, free cruises, free
hotel and resorts stays, discounts on this, discounts on that. Now, hey, folks,
somebody is going to win these prizes, and it may
as well be you. And I've often wondered if I
were to draw the winning UH ticket and it came

(08:03):
up Larry Gelwis do you think people would be suspicious?

Speaker 4 (08:07):
I do because our marketing manager, Emily works hard to
get these prizes for you, and she wants them to
go to the to new people, Larry.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
She wants them to go to somebody else.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
All right, well I'll have to figure something else. Now. Listen,
we are what five days from Christmas? I know you
have been scouring busily shopping for my Christmas present?

Speaker 6 (08:30):
Have you?

Speaker 3 (08:30):
I have? I have?

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Thank you?

Speaker 3 (08:32):
You're so easy to shop for.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
Not a yeah, well let me tell you.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
Let me tell you what?

Speaker 1 (08:40):
Tell me about a Christmas gift the perfect Christmas.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
I will tell you because I've done it for a
few people this week.

Speaker 4 (08:44):
People who waited and said, ah, they call, they get
a gift certificate. I say, put this in a Christmas
card that says, Merry Christmas, we're going something. You know,
we're going to Hawaii. Merry Christmas. We're taking a cruise.
And then if you want to put something in there,
put a pair of flip flops, put stuff down or whatever.
But the thrill is the anticipation of knowing they thought
of you, and they're planning, and they want to include

(09:06):
you on the planning.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
You know, and you don't have to pick the cruise
or the date of travel. So we're five days away
the ultimate. I know of one couple that we sold
a gift certificate to and what he did, and it
was a dollar amount doesn't have to The gift certificate
doesn't say cruise or Hawaii right necessarily, it says X

(09:29):
number of dollars that you have. Now you can customize
it if you want to put cruise that can be
that can be written on it. But what he did
is he got his wife with a globe and they
spin the globe and wherever her finger stopped, that's where
they were going. And they loved their time in Winnemaca.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
Let me let me quickly tell you.

Speaker 4 (09:51):
I had somebody call me and she had four two
hundred and fifty dollars gift certificates, travel certificates. That's what
she'd ask her kids for and she was going to
plan aroun trip. So she had four certificates and she
was so thrilled that that's what they'd given her for
Christmas because it allowed her then to go and do
what she want to go.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
Where you want to go, which, of course you want
to come to Thailand with Larry.

Speaker 4 (10:13):
Everybody that calls us speaking.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
Of going somewhere later on the show would be a
great Christmas gift is a Rome and Mediterranean cruise that
Donnie'll be giving us the details later on. Listen, we
come back, We're going to launch into Christmas. What are
your Christmas traditions? And I'm going to tell you the
backstory on the Christmas tree right here on the Traffic Show. Christmas.

(10:53):
Welcome to mind in the Travels I'm Larry Gelwicks get
Away Today travel expert Flowers. We had a whole of
her at eight oh one, four eight three, sixty five,
sixty three. I'd love to talk to you, Donnie. Christmas

(11:18):
time is such a wonderful time. Do you have some
personal or family Christmas traditions?

Speaker 4 (11:25):
So mine's mine is very clear in my mind, and
it's a little like a Norman rock wall painting.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
When I was a kid.

Speaker 4 (11:30):
For those of you in Utah that know where Ivans is,
when I was a kid, it was a two lane,
two street road with about twenty houses.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
It's time about the city of.

Speaker 4 (11:37):
Ivans, Utah, which now is huge. But we would go
in from out of state for Christmas and there was
a one room church there built in eighteen eighty two,
and you had, you know, the Charlie Brown pageant. You
had the bathrobes, the tinsel, the sheets, and my aunt
would play the piano and my cousins be up there,
and every year it was the same exact reenactment, and

(11:58):
at the end everybody sang silent, and then she would
play the introduction to here comes Santa Claus, and the
kids would all go crazy because lo and behold, Santa
would come in from the back through the doors, and
he was the real Santa. And you know why because
Donnie didn't live there and he had a gift for me.
He'd get up to the front and he'd call each

(12:18):
child up by name, and when he called my name,
I knew he was the real Santa.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
We're going to go to the phones. We have a
very special guest joining us. You know her as Marissa.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
She's delightful.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
You sit right next to in the Salt Lake office. Well,
please to Welcome to the show. Marissa Smurweight with Morris
Columbus Travel. Marissa, welcome to the show. Thanks, Larry.

Speaker 6 (12:45):
Hi, Donnie, how's it going.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
We're having a great time.

Speaker 6 (12:49):
It sounds like it.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
Well, let me ask you a question, Marissa, what is
it about river cruising that we love so much?

Speaker 6 (13:01):
Well, Larry, I think that one of the most special
things about river cruising, especially in Europe, is that you
are getting into these historic towns and seeing a beautiful
scenery all through the inside of Europe, and still having
the ease of a cruise right like not having to
pack and unpack. You're just in these luxury rooms and

(13:22):
then seeing all.

Speaker 5 (13:23):
Of the wonderful things that you can see in Europe.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
Donnie, what do you love about river cruising?

Speaker 4 (13:29):
Do you know what those were the highways that people
took four hundred, six hundred years ago. So when you
dock in most places, not all, you're in that old
historic part of town where you want to be. You're
I mean, you're not trying to make your way through suburbia.
You're there, and they've got tour guides that meet you
right off the boat and away you go, and you

(13:50):
know what those excursions are included.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
That's the best part.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Now, Marissa, it's my understanding that you'll be hosting a
seven night Alma Water and by the way, we love
Almah Water waste alter a seven night cruise in March
that's just coming up in a few months round trip
from Budapest. I'm looking at the itinerary. This one is
off the charts. Introduce our listeners to the best of

(14:18):
the Danube.

Speaker 6 (14:20):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (14:21):
Yes.

Speaker 6 (14:21):
Indeed, March first to March eight, we'll be on the
Alma Magna, which is a really, really magnificent ship. It
is truly unique. It's double the width of most river ships,
which makes the huge difference. The state rooms. They're noticeably
more spacious, the public areas feeling more open and relaxed.

(14:41):
There's plenty of rooms throughout the ship to spread out
and enjoy. I've even got a full sized pickleball court
and zen wellness studio. They most of the rooms are
three hundred and fifty five to seven hundred and ten
square feet, so that's a really excellent way to see
all of Europe as you go.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
I well, you'll depart March first from Budapest. I see
that your first visit is to Slovakia, to Bretislava. One
of my favorite ports or towns is it is a
fantastic walking because you parked literally in the middle of town.

(15:21):
Now take us up and the rest of the itinerary
just very briefly Marissa on each show.

Speaker 6 (15:26):
Yeah, right, so it's an excellent itinerary. You're going through
three countries, right, You're starting Hungary, then, like you said, Slovakia,
and then we'll head to Austria. And one of my
favorite things about this itinery is we have two overnights,
one in Budapest and one in Vienna, which is just
what I absolutely love because you're not limited to daytime touring.
You have time to explore your own pace, take evening strolls,

(15:47):
dine in the city. If you'd like ten concerts, so
it's just really exciting to have those two overnights in
Vienna and in Budapest. But we also will be seeing
the Vacau Valley, which is gorgeous from the river. We
have the chance in Lynz to do a Salzburg excursion,
and again, like you've mentioned that, Donnie, all of the

(16:08):
excursions are included and your choice of any excursion at
every port, so that is really exciting.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
You know, when you're in Lynz you mentioned the excursion
which are included. You don't have to pay for these
to Salzburg, which is just fantastic. But you also have
an option to go into the Czech Republic and you
can add that to your bucket list.

Speaker 6 (16:29):
You know.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
One of the things I like about Alma Waterways is
that the short excursions are rated by what they call
an activity level, from one to five. Now five might
be a guided bicycle tour and by the way, you
can take the bicycles out on your own. Also one
would be someone like my great aunt. She's now ninety three,

(16:53):
but a couple of years ago we did the Danube
with her and she uses a walker. The tours perfect.
They rated that as a number one. You know mobility issues.
How do we get a hold of you because you're
going to be the personal host and tour guide, Marissa,
how do we get along?

Speaker 6 (17:10):
Yeah, this, I'll just give me a call in the
Salic office eight oh one four eight three six five
four seven. And yeah, just jump on this because we're
leaving really soon.

Speaker 5 (17:23):
But it's a great Christmas gift.

Speaker 6 (17:25):
And because it's the hosted sealing, you will also be
getting included prepaid gridtuities at no cost. And then we'll
have a cocktail party. You'll be traveling with fellow people
from utaih It'll be a really great experience.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Again, if you want to contact Marissa direct, this is
a I'm looking at this fantastic and the a'ma Magna
is one of the brand new ships and as you
pointed out, it's twice as wide. I mean, the state
rooms are large. You have multiple dining options. Give Marissa
a call at eight oh one four eight three sixty

(17:59):
five for again, that's eight oh one four eight three
sixty five forty seven, or visitor at the Salt Lake
office which is at first South, second East in Salt
Lake City. Marissa, thank you for joining us on the trail.

Speaker 6 (18:14):
Yeah, thank you so much, Larry.

Speaker 3 (18:16):
Have a great day.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
Hey, when we come back, I'm going to talk about
some fun facts with the historical native. Welcome back to
the Travel Show. I'm Marry Gelwick's The Getaway, joined today

(18:39):
X Studio by a lovely and talented Todd Rassas seven,
one of the travel advice who's at the wars. I
love this travel in the Saltish visitor Donnie and utters
in the Salt Lake office at first South and second East,
Sweet number one hundred. Welcome to the show, Donnie, Hey,

(19:00):
I love it. You know. We're doing a very special
edition of the U of the Travel Show today talking
about Christmas. We'll be talking about Hanukkah and other holiday celebrations.
Loy Kratong, my favorite Thailand festival, just completed last month
and I was there for it. I've mentioned before that

(19:21):
I don't claim to be an expert on anything, but
I do claim to be a student of many things.
My graduate school studies included Hebrew and Coptic, one of
the Egyptian languages and religions, and first century Christian literature,
and I have studied these for a lifetime. Again, I

(19:43):
don't claim to be an expert on anything except how
to please my wife, Kathy Gelwick's. But maybe I fail
at that.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Boy.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
Oh, it was her birthday this week.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
What did you do?

Speaker 1 (19:54):
Oh? What we did is I got her. She loves
missus Backer's there on South Temple.

Speaker 3 (20:00):
Okay, she loves.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Their birthday cake. So I got her really beautiful decorated
birthday cake. We went to the Roof Restaurant, which is
open now in the Joseph Smith Building, and then we
went and saw the movie David by Angel Studio. I
absolutely loved it. And then we had a massive family
soiree at our house with all the kids and grandkids.

(20:25):
Love you, Kathy. You know, I got to tell you
a story about Kathy. We were speaking to a very
large regional group of college age young single adults, and
both Kathy and I were speaking, and I got to
introduce her. She graduated from the U in computer science
when women didn't do that. It was in the College

(20:46):
of Engineering at that time. And she has so many
accomplishments in her life. I got to introduce her, and
I said, so I went through her accomplishments, and then
I said, but to really understand and Larry and Kathy Gelwicks.
There are two statements, both of which are absolutely true

(21:06):
that you need to understand. Statement number one, I seriously
married above myself. Statement number two. Kathy agrees with statement
number one. She knows and she does.

Speaker 4 (21:21):
Yeah, I've got a great Christmas story when we've got
a minute. I used to work in retail and at
Christmas it was crazy. So I'll have to let you
on that ocase you at least planned ahead for Kathy, I'm.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
Proud of you.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
Thank you very much. You know, most men's planning leaves
much to be desired. Yes, yeah, anyway, so today, as
you know, I want to talk about the historical Nativity,
the birth of Jesus. We're not going to go through
the whole thing, but just a few interesting fun facts.

(21:52):
According to historians, much of it is we think, rather
than we know, this happened this way or whatever. The
story of the Nativity really starts in the Gospel of
Saint Matthew. In chapter one you have Joseph and Mary.
Joseph and Mary are espoused. Now this is a little
bit different than an engagement because it's a legally binding

(22:16):
agreement where the families would come together and there would
be a period of anywhere from six months to twelve
months between the espousal and the actual marriage, and any
any misbehavior or infidelity was punishable under the Mosaic law

(22:41):
of stoning to death. That is an option. So have
you ever lived or been to a really small.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
Town everybody knows everything.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
Yes, Nazareth at this time was probably three hundred, maybe
four hundred people in that range. And we have a
situation where Mary is expecting a child, they're espoused, they're
not together for conjugal relations at this time. Okay, And

(23:12):
so what does Joseph know. I'm not the father. He
knows that Mary is expecting. She knows the whole story.
What do you think that town was talking about.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
Oh, you better believe the gossips of the well were busy.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
You know, it's very interesting. One of the great criticisms
of the divinity of Jesus Christ was that he was
a term that I don't like, illegitimate child. The child
is never illegitimate, you know, however he or she comes
into the world. But that's a term that is often used.

(23:50):
And the Messiah could not be illegitimate by the Jewish
leader's reasoning. If you look in the Gospel of Saint John,
chapter eight, verse forty one. And that's in this discussion.
Jesus is saying, you know, if you were the sons
of Abraham, if you are the sons of Most, you'd
do what they said. And the Jewish leaders were so

(24:12):
frustrated that all they could throw back to him was
his illegitimacy. And they said, well, we be not born
of fornication. That's the only only reply they do that. Well,
you know the story, and angel appeared and the word
in the King James version appeared into him in a dream.

(24:34):
The translation could be dream or vision, it's the same thing.
They're used interchangeably. And the says she brought forth her
firstborn son and called his name Jesus. Did you know
that was not his name? He never knew that name,
He never heard that word Jesus his entire life. Jesus

(24:55):
is a Greek transliteration. His actual name in Hebrew or
Aramaic was Yeshua, or what we'd call Joshua. Now, thank you.

Speaker 4 (25:06):
It's interesting. We've got a lot of Christmas songs that
aren't great.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah, Joshua, we should you know, you want to have
somebody doesn't rhyme as well. So that's right. Uh, you
know we sing a song Jesus. The very thought of
the it doesn't sound I'm not being sacrilegious people anyway.
The questions often asked how old were Joseph and Mary? Well,

(25:31):
we don't know, but now don't make any prejudgment on
what I'm about to tell you. The typical age for
girls to marry was mid teens fourteen fifteen, sixteen in
that age range. Typical age for boys could be sixteen
up to early twenties once they had established a profession.

(25:54):
We know that Yeshua was a carpenter like his father
jose Now people say that almost sounds.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
Sinful, But but how long did they live?

Speaker 1 (26:08):
According to many historians, the average longevity at this time
was mid thirties. Yeah, so men and women even that
those tender ages, are getting married where they are physically
capable of bearing and raising children. Now, think about it.
If you're sixteen seventeen and you have a child, that

(26:32):
child is reads getting to adulthood, reaching what I will
call adulthood at sixteen seventeen, when you're in your early
to mid thirties.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
But you're going to die within full I hope.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
Not, but that was that was the average longevity. Now
we jumped to Saint Luke. Chapter two. They are on
their way from Nazareth to Bethlehemmetza, depending on the route,
seventy to ninety miles. Were about seventy miles. I don't
think they took because it would take them through the

(27:05):
culturally difficult Samaria. I'm guessing that they probably went through
the Jordan Valley, which would be ninety miles. And that's
about Sandy to Logan. All right, Now, how long did
it take him? She is due, Yeah, and she's on
a donkey you know home. There's no epidural you know,

(27:29):
probably four to seven days. It took them over a
rocky terrain.

Speaker 5 (27:34):
No.

Speaker 1 (27:34):
I fifteen on that. You know the story. They went
to Bethlehem the an Sistral home. Again we're not giving
every detail because of time here. And then they went
in Saint Luke. It says and she in verse seven
of chapter two, she brought forth her firstborn son and

(27:56):
wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a
man because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now that sounds like they walked up to the inn. Oh,
I'm sorry, we're fully booked. Do you have a guaranteed
you have? What's your confirmation? Yeah? No, Call Donnie, she

(28:18):
will get you. But there's a far better translation that
reads this way. You tell me the difference in the
King James because there was no room for them in
the inn. But a far better translation is because there
was none to give them room in the inn. What's

(28:40):
the difference, Donnie?

Speaker 3 (28:41):
I guess everybody's gone. Where were they hard?

Speaker 1 (28:44):
None to give them? The ancient an ancient inn was
never fold. We would call it a con k h
a n It had a single entrance, had a big
open area for the animals, and then a raised area,
no private rooms. You brought your own food, your own lantern,
your own cooking utensils, and you just packed next to it.

(29:04):
And when the upper elevated area was full, you'd sleep
down with the animals there was. It is never full.
But you have a poor couple. Why do we know
they're poor because of their temple offering? You know later
on after the birth, you got a poor couple. She's
ready to deliver. And guess what this is going to

(29:28):
drive business away? Who wants a young couple who is
going to deliver, who's poor at their inn? It's going
to drive business the way. There was none to give
them room in the ind Let's quickly jump to the
shepherds now. In also in Luke chapter two, Shepherd's abiding
in the field. This goes to when was the birth?

(29:48):
Likely probably not December twenty fifth, because the shepherds were
in their fields. This would have been springtime. And it
says they were sore afraid. Again a poor translation. I
would call it with wondering, awe, with great respect and awe.
These these angels that appeared were not like F. Sixteen's

(30:12):
buzzing and terrifying people. It says, and this they announced
the birth of the Savior. And then in verse twelve,
and this shall be a sign unto you. You shall
find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Now,
let me tell you, and this shall be a sign
to you. If I said to you, Donnie, I want

(30:34):
you to go up to the hospital. There's a very
special baby. And here's the sign of how you'll know
who this boy is. Guess what he'll be wearing a diaper.
The sign was not the swaddling clothes, because every baby
wore that bands of cloth. The sign was this, God
keeps his promises from the eons of eternity. God, our

(30:57):
heavenly Father, has promised a messiah, a savior. And the
sign that he keeps all promise he doth never vary
from that which he has said, is that he said
his son to come back to the Travel Show. Welcome

(31:29):
back to the Travel Show. You know, Donny with that
bum music as we call it, I should say for
this now you're listening to the Travel So I'm Larry Gelwicks,
the Getaway Guru, with a very special edition of the
Travel Show for this Christmas season. Uh, did you learn

(31:52):
anything in that last soon?

Speaker 4 (31:53):
You know what I told you during the break? I
loved it. I did learn something, Thank you.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
I wish we had time for the full I've given
that at many firesides with PowerPoint presentation. My kids get
it for a year. A lot of Christmas traditions you
had mentioned earlier early in the show, a personal family
Christmas tradition. Let me tell you about one in the
Gelwick's family. It sees candies. Now, I grew up in

(32:20):
San Francisco and we weren't poor, poor but we didn't
have a lot, you know. I know earlier in my
life we lived down in Shell Beach near San Luis Obispo,
and my dad was on the GI bill and the
checks wouldn't come every month. Sometimes three or four would

(32:43):
come at once, and my dad would go out fishing
and if he caught something, that was dinner. If he
didn't catch something, Mom would cook up maybe some rice
or some That's the way we lived, you know. And
I don't want to overplay it like we were dust
bowl in the Great Depression in Oklahoma, as my grandson's

(33:09):
Toby's hair looks like sometimes. But it was tough. But
once a year we got to go to Seaze Candy.
There was a the factories there in the Bay area.
We were so excited because we really couldn't afford it
any other time of the year. And Mom would get
a big box and we each got to pick out

(33:32):
our favorites to fill up the box. And my mom
and dad are long gone, but I've continued that tradition
with our five children and now our thirteen grandchildren. Every
year we go down to seas Canny. We'll be there Tuesday,
this coming Tuesday. At the seas on seventh East and

(33:52):
twenty first South, and I buy a box of chocolates
for each family and they get to pick out whatever
they want in it, and then the grandkids get to
pick out the you know, the lollies and the butterscotch
pops and you know, the little stuff like that. That's
a family tradition. Do you do an artificial tree or

(34:17):
a freshly cut tree?

Speaker 3 (34:20):
You know what? I for several years, I have to
confess We've done artificial.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
It's easy.

Speaker 3 (34:24):
It is easy.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
We grew up always with a real tree. We'd go
out and cut it. You know. I was thinking maybe
I should go at two am and in the neighbor's
yard and just cut their tree. I don't know anything anyway,
I don't know about that, but you know the Christmas
tree tradition. The very first recorded Christmas tree was in Strasburg, France.

(34:51):
I love Strasburg. It's neat my favorite Christmas market. Mark,
are you listening? My friend Mark is right there at
the Tredame not Paris, Notre Dame Strasburg Cathedral over to
La Petit France Strasburg, and by the way, that's usually
on a Rhine river. I'll be doing a Christmas market

(35:12):
cruise next year, which is twenty twenty sixth December third
to the tenth. Yes, we stop in Strasburg.

Speaker 3 (35:19):
Oh, it's beautiful anyway.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
The tradition dates back to the fifteen hundreds in Strasburg,
which was part of Germany at the time, where Christians
brought decorated evergreen trees into their homes and they decorated
them with apples, wafers, candles, roses and treats. Now. The

(35:42):
German tradition evolved from medieval German plays about Adam and Eve,
which used fig trees decorated with apples, and so the
apple on the tree, Now here's one I just don't get, donnie.
They also put lighted candles on This is not an

(36:04):
artificial this is a little scary. Well, that really started
with the sixteenth century Martin Luther.

Speaker 3 (36:12):
Maybe it's the light of the world.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
Well, he says that he was walking home one Christmas
time it had been snowing, now that there was a
clear night sky, and the moon and the stars were
glistening off the snow and twinkling, and he got the idea,
let's put that twinkling on a tree. I don't get
putting the lighted candles on a tree. Well, anyway, it

(36:37):
all symbolizes to the early Christians the tree of life
and Christ as the light of the world. Well. The
practice spread to England in the eighteen hundreds, popularized by
the German born Queen Victoria. We are not amused Queen
Victoria and Prince Albert. It was brought to America the

(37:01):
idea of a Christmas tree by German immigrants in the
seventeen forties.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
I can't imagine Christmas without a tree.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
Of course, eventually becoming a global holiday symbol. Well. The
first American Christmas tree lot, rather than cut your own,
you go out, was in eighteen fifty one a woodsman
named Mark Carr opened a lot in New York City
because city dwellers couldn't go out in the forest and

(37:30):
cut a tree. Well, the use of evergreens like a
wreath in winter actually has ancient roots believed to ward
off evil spirits, dating back even to ancient Egypt. Well,
that's your Christmas tree. They by the way in Rome too.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
That used ever green trees, not as Christmas. Now all
evil spirits poort off you at stay two two tech
cha flis Navidad. Now you're wondering what I did with

(38:10):
the money. My mother gave me the singing lesson. I
spad it on top of it comic book.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
I'm Mary Gelwick's the getaway Guru, and I want to
take you to Mexico south of the border. We've got
some great air and hotel specials. I'm pleased to welcome
Donnie Rasmussen from Morris Columbus Travel Salt Lake office as
a guest host. Today. You want to talk to Donnie
direct eight oh one four eight three sixty five sixty three,

(38:39):
and she'll tell you where to go on how to
get there. Donnie, I've said many times that the best
travel values are cruises and all inclusive Mexico resorts hands down.
I love Hawaii. I'm going back to Hawaii next year,
but it's flat out gotten expensive. We'll talk about that
another day. Let me give you a couple of specials

(39:02):
that Morris Columbus Travel has teamed up with airlines and
hotels air for all inclusive resorts. Donnie, What does all
inclusive mean?

Speaker 3 (39:12):
Gena? What just exactly?

Speaker 4 (39:13):
What so fun with a family to know you have
your costs contained upfront, all your meals your snacks.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
They have entertainment. Most of them have good shows in the.

Speaker 4 (39:22):
Evening, non motorized water sports like kayaks and paddle boards
and snarkling.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
Airfare, transfers, resort, all of that. So I'm looking at
different dates this spring. I love Cancun, so I was
looking in April. Now these are six days, five nights.
You can change the dates add to it. Of course
the price will be adjusted. But I was looking at
late April at the at a five star over the top,

(39:52):
the Grand Sunset Princess, all suites just eleven seventy two
per person double occupancy. That's everything you could go, literally
without a peso. I have to make a confession. I'm
partial to Porto Aearfta, walking along the Mali Khan to
the church of our Lady utif I aquat a Loupe.

(40:13):
I have a favorite taco shop there. I mean going
over to Zona Romantica and the Margarita Grill, not Marguerita Ville,
the Margharita Grill my favorite restaurant in Zona Romantica or
the Romantic Zone. How about this for a first class
this would be a four star Sunscape Porto ay Aarfta

(40:33):
all inclusive, nine hundred ninety two dollars. This is in March,
by the way, I was looking at March leaving March
the fifth, but for one hundred dollars more I jumped
to a five star over the top Uber Deluxe, the
Grand Palladium.

Speaker 4 (40:52):
You know what, spend one hundred because a year after
you get back, you won't remember where the hundred went,
but you'll remember the experience you.

Speaker 3 (40:59):
Had the Grand Point.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
I will remember the experience. Now a lot of people
will be traveling this week for the Christmas holidays, Donnie,
maybe briefly some advice for air travelers and for those
traveling by car.

Speaker 3 (41:13):
Gin know what.

Speaker 4 (41:14):
This is probably the same advice I would give them
all the time, but it's more critical to do it
this time of year when things are busy. First of all,
if you're traveling by air, get on the app and
check in for your flight when you can. If the
flight's over booked and you've checked in, you're less likely
to get bumped. Okay, they want to know, Yeah, you've

(41:35):
got a seat assignment.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
You really need to do that, which is.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
A good reason not to book basic economy, where you
get your seat assignment at the airport when you check
in during the holiday. A lot of those flights are overbooked.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (41:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (41:50):
I tell people all the time, do it at your
own risk, and especially during those crowded times. Then other
thing is a lot of people taking gifts, Larry, don't
wrap them, leave them flats, carry on I'm talking about
carry on or I'm even talking packed. You don't want
to take boxes, I mean you're limited, so lay it flat.
Get gift bags, lay those flat, whether it's carry on

(42:11):
or checked. Wrap them after you get there. You don't
want those TSA agents to go through it and make
you unwrapped.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
We're talking about the airport. If you're traveling with children,
particularly infants, take extra wipes, extra diapers. There may be
a there will be some delays and cancelations, and airports
are not always equipped with those things. Take some baby food,
some formula, and for the older kids, even the you

(42:38):
know five six up to the teens have activities iPads.
If you take toys with pieces, avoid the little tiny
pieces pieces. Yeah, you know, give them an iPad. Let
them well, you know the best thing is on your iPad.
Just give them and let them watch the movie Forever Strong.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
Oh, Hey, there you go.

Speaker 1 (42:58):
Well, I hear it's a good movie.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
I've heard that from several sources, primarily I'm sitting here.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
With nashingly handsome and muscular coach.

Speaker 4 (43:06):
Do you know what my brothers are in there in
little small cameos?

Speaker 3 (43:10):
You never know.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
You never know anyway, great advice for trialing. Now what
about traveling by car?

Speaker 3 (43:16):
Do you know what kind of the same thing? Go prepared.

Speaker 4 (43:18):
You don't want to be stopping. You don't want to
road tripping. Don't let your gas tank get down below
a quart of a tank. You never know when you're
going to come to another one, So prepare, take the
kids snacks, get.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
The weather app or tune in. Make sure you know
what weather you're going to.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
Particularly if you're going off the interstate to country roads.
Let you the people you're going to Grandma's house or somewhere,
let them know the route that you are planning to
take in case there's a problem with that. Well, listen.
Good advice for the holidays at Donnie. Now you have

(43:55):
an exciting cruise tours in Rome, and I gotta tell
you I love them. Just yesterday Kathy and I were
talking and I said, wouldn't you love to go to
Rome this spring?

Speaker 3 (44:09):
Wouldn't everybody like to go?

Speaker 1 (44:11):
And I said, just the two of us. Now I've
got favorite restaurants. You know, there's a big difference between
the Italian food at most American restaurants and Italian food
at most restaurants in Italy. And it's really these differences.
One is the pasta, not the sauce, is the star

(44:34):
of the dish. In Italy, they're very particular. Where did
the flower come from, where was it? What region was it? They?
And so sauce is used to accent or perfume the pasta.
We're here. Most spaghetti or penne pasta dishes that you
get in the US are drenched in sauce. You know,

(44:56):
I love the sauce, a good boloonnese, but it's different
in Italy how they treat pasta. So start us in Rome.

Speaker 4 (45:07):
You know what, Rome, Italy. I probably sell more Italy
to people than any other single country in the world.
There's there you can't substitute for Italy. Italy is Italy
and there's nothing else like it. So I'm excited to
do this. It's a fabulous time of year. It's October
of twenty six, which means you're in that shoulder season.
Pricing's going to be a little better, crowds are going

(45:28):
to be a little better, and more importantly for me,
the weather's a lot.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Now this is in the springtime, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (45:33):
Nope, it's in the fall.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
We're going I told me, Yeah, I meant the fall.
So you're starting in Rome on what day?

Speaker 4 (45:40):
We start in Rome on October eighth, which means you
would leave here on the seventh.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
There are flights, theer is no NonStop.

Speaker 1 (45:46):
To go out early and meet the group in Rome.

Speaker 4 (45:48):
Well, the group's going early before the cruise. We're spending
three days there.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
What I'm saying is, if you want to see other
parts of Europe, you could go and meet the group
in Rome.

Speaker 4 (45:57):
There are people doing that. You're right, Yeah, So we're
going to hit the high spots.

Speaker 5 (46:01):
You know.

Speaker 4 (46:01):
We're going to stand a lovely four star hotel with
a great rooftop terrace and it's down across the river
from the Vatican.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Kind of perfect area. It's a great I know exactly
what you're talking about.

Speaker 4 (46:14):
Yeah, it's a great place, and we're breakfast is included.
We've got a welcome dinner so you can meet everybody.
We've got a bus, a tour guide, earphones, the whole shebang,
so it's easy.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
They're gonna go see Rome.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
We are going to go now.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
We've got a one week cruise cruise from Rome to Barcelona.
And by the way, Al Rounds is going to be
on board as the tour houst. He is, he's been
on the show he has.

Speaker 4 (46:38):
And you know what, for people who know him, there
is not a more kind, sincere, talented man on the planet.
He is going to be fabulous. He has some paintings
in the visitor center over there for the LDS Temple
that the commissioned to do, and he's got some fascinating stories.
So he's going to take us. He's our tour guide
through that. We've got a seminar at sea one day

(47:01):
that he's going to conduct with us. That should be
fascinating anybody interested in art. I have to tell you
a story. I have to digress. We were with an
artist in Paris and he had an art exhibition at
the at the Ambassador's residence in Paris, and.

Speaker 3 (47:15):
So we went through the louver with him. And you
know I've been through the louver.

Speaker 4 (47:18):
You run through you say hi to the Mona Lisa,
you see the art, you know, Venus Debilo, and away
you go.

Speaker 3 (47:23):
Seeing Europe with an artist is a different experience. I
can tell you.

Speaker 4 (47:28):
If you have any interest at all, you know, call
me up, talk to me about it.

Speaker 3 (47:32):
We've got some great ports.

Speaker 4 (47:34):
I'm excited to stop in Marseille because we're going to
go to ex On Provence, which you know, Larry, is
one of the most beautiful.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Cities I see that. You're of course, you're going to
be done in Sicily and your visit Salerno in Italy Messina,
then up to Livorno, which is of course the port
city for the Tower of Pisa, and for Florence. You'll
be finishing in Barcelona. How do we get how do
we book this?

Speaker 4 (48:00):
Give me a call eight O one four eight three
six five sixty three, or or get on our website
and look it up.

Speaker 3 (48:07):
It's on the Morris Columbus website.

Speaker 4 (48:09):
But I would love to talk to you and answer
your questions because I think this is a unique experience.
Italy and Europe in general is so full of art,
and to get to see it with somebody like al
who knows his stuff.

Speaker 3 (48:21):
I think it would be a chance of life.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
I should break out in Solomeo right now, but we
don't want our ratings to drop. Hey, when we come back,
we're gonna be visiting with my friend Marnie Whipple, regional
sales director with Crystal at Storis.

Speaker 7 (48:38):
Yeah, right here on the Travel Show.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
Welcome back to the Travel Show. I'm Larry Gelwick's get
Away joined today as a guest host. Donnie Rastaso excell
Travel Advisor, Morris Columbus Travel Morris come Umbus Travelers, the
sponsor of the Travel Show where you always travel More
and pay Less. If you'd like to talk to Donnie

(49:12):
direct about the Al Rounds, Rome and Med Cruise, or
travel anywhere in the world, give Donnie a call at
eight oh one four eight three sixty five sixty three. Now, Donnie,
you know our next guest. I've been so excited to
have Marnie Whipple, the regional sales manager for Crystal Cruises.

(49:39):
Now Crystal is the ultimate deluxe cruise.

Speaker 4 (49:43):
A lot people need to listen to her with an
open mind, because while it may sound more upfront, there's
so much more you get.

Speaker 1 (49:49):
There, really is. Marne. Welcome to the Travel Show.

Speaker 5 (49:54):
Thank you, so much, and thanks for giving me the
opportunity to come back to back. Larry, I sure appreciate you.
And Donnie, you are a legend, you are a superstar.
All the advisors with Morris Columbus travel so professional, So
we're delighted to be here. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (50:09):
You know I'm going to give you and you can
agree or disagree with this, but to introduce Crystal Cruises
to our audience, this is my rate. I always say
rating system, my classification. What I call first class cruise
lines would include Princess, Royal Caribbean NCL. I think they're wonderful,

(50:32):
I really really do. In what I would call premium
would be Celebrity or Holland America. Then you get into
the Deluxe and to me, Crystal is the king of
the hill and it is so worth the experience. Marnie
introduces to Crystal Cruises. I think a lot of people

(50:54):
have heard of Princess or Royal Cariban and they are
wonderful cruise lines. Everreat cruise has a target audience. Introduce
us to Crystal Cruises.

Speaker 5 (51:05):
Well, thank you for the beautiful inter Larry, Crystal, there's
a magic, there's this secret sauce we're all included. The
only thing you'll have extra four will be sure excursions
or SPA treatment, so out the gate you don't need
to worry about signing for every little thing. But besides that,
really the why of Crystal is the magic of our crew.

(51:27):
If it wasn't for the Crystal onboard family, the Crystal
wouldn't be Crystal. So after the great pause that we had,
we all know of the great pause in twenty twenty,
when Crystal came back, ninety percent of our crew came back.
It's amazing because there is that sense of family on
board and they remember things like when I stepped on

(51:48):
board in November, Larry, it was unbelievable. Carmelo and Raymond
they said, oh, Marnie, we haven't seen you for six years.
Would you like that cup of cappuccino? And I just thought,
how did they remember? Because there's no had a base
that is saying Marnie whipples life cappuccino. But those types
of details, the caring and you're greeted with ease. It's
a really small ship experience, Larry. As you know, we

(52:10):
only have six hundred and six guests on the symphony,
and only seven hundred and forty on the Serenity, But
other beautiful brands that you were describing would have that
same ship side and two thousand people or twenty five hundred.
So we give it back in the form of space
and experience. They are greeted with the bottle of champagne.
And yes, tell me, Larry Marnie.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
There are many things that separate. It is impossible for
me to overstate what an incredible, unique experience Crystal Cruises is,
but let me just highlight three of them in no
particular order. One is the service. The service the personnel is.

(52:54):
I don't know how you find these people or train them,
I think. The other is the inner attainment is it
is beyond anything I've seen on other cruise lines. But
let's talk about something really important to me. The dining.
Oh my god, what I have found in my experience.

(53:15):
I haven't sailed with Crystal since the pause during COVID,
but my experience with Crystal is that the dining is
as good as any fine dining restaurant in my hometown
of San Francisco or New York or LA. It is
really that good. Rather than cooking fifty fish filets at

(53:38):
one time, so many dishes are cooked to order, and
you know, I've even seen this. If there's something that
you really it's just not grabbing you, there may be
a chance they'll make something for you.

Speaker 5 (53:57):
And the choices are remarkable. You're saying it's not just
world class dining. We have Nobu's restaurant, which is Umioma,
the only Nobu restaurant at Sea. Then we have the
Beef Bar, which is Ricarda Gerardi, another wonderful Michelin Star
dining experience in Ostaiata video. I heard you and Donnie
earlier talking about Italian food. So we have the Ayaimo brothers.

(54:20):
They hail from a very small town in Italy, so
we have Italian that Italians really appreciate. So another couple
of star Michelin experiences there, plus our beautiful vintage room
the Waterside Restaurant. I mean we're talking about specialty which
is exceptional in the value of the presentation, the beautiful
quality of the food. But you go to our main restaurant,

(54:43):
the Waterside every night the menu changes completely and it
is like dining in a Michelin Star restaurant. So yes,
the choices are very good.

Speaker 4 (54:54):
Donnie, you know I think life's a little like a
teter totter. When you're young, you have more time than money,
and then you kind of get a little older. And
what I see happen, whether you're thirty or eighty, is
you say I'm worth it, my time's worth it, and
you get on there and your guest to staff ratio
is so incredible. They're right there. You never have to
waste a minute. They just got it down. And I

(55:14):
really think people are going to reach a point they go,
I deserve it.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
Well, here's what it comes down to, Marny, that luxury,
once experienced, becomes a necessity. Absolutely. Let's talk. Let's talk
about where you sail. We're speaking with Marnie Whipple, the
regional sales director with Crystal Cruise, and we got about
a minute left. Where do you cruise?

Speaker 5 (55:38):
Okay, we cruise all around the world. We follow the sun.
So the ship is a beautiful destination, but it's really
where else are you going? So from the Caribbean, who
warm up in our snowy months, Australia, New Zealand, the Mediterranean,
up into the beautiful Baltic area, all around the Americas, Canada,
New England, Alaska, We transit the Panama Canal. So it's

(55:59):
a world of choices with world class service that one
to one crew the guest ratio.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
Now, Marnie, we talked earlier this show about the Utah
Travel ex Bo. I believe you'll be back with us
next month. Is that correct?

Speaker 5 (56:12):
Yes, it will be. I look forward to see you.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
Will regional sales.

Speaker 7 (56:19):
Year on the Travelcome Travel, I'm Harry going away.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
The Travel show is sponsored by Morris. Come on this
travel w your own ways, travel more and day last,
don't forget the Utah Travel ex Bo next month Wednesday,
January twins vers at Hinson Maarten in and Saint George,
and Friday and Saturday January twenty third and twenty fourth
at the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy. And yeah,

(57:04):
you can come and meet Marnie Whipple that we just
spoke to regional sales director with Crystal Cruises and Crystal
really is that good. We welcome Donnie Rasmussen from the
Salt Lake office of Morris Columbus Travel. You can always
get a hold of Donnie at eight oh one four
eight three sixty five sixty three, and do give her

(57:24):
a call about that Rome three days in Rome and
the med Cruise next October. Well, we were talking Donnie
on the show about different ways to celebrate Christmas. Now,
my son in law, one of my sons in law,
Arnie le A Costa, married my beautiful daughter Sarah, who've

(57:47):
blessed us with three beautiful children. Arty is Hispanic. My
daughter Sarah is blonde haired, blue eyed, fair skinned. They
have three children. All three looked like they were born
in Sweden, their blonde haired, blue eyes. Arnie's comment was,
nobody believes I'm their father. You know, you look at

(58:08):
Arnie and he's Hispanic, and we love him. He's one
of the great guys in the world. Well, his mother
is from Cuba, his father from Brazil. So he grew
up where else in Miami, in Little Havana, you know,
it's down there also in Miami, speaking Portuguese and Spanish

(58:30):
growing up. Of course, he learned English, served an LDS
mission in Japan, so he speaks four languages. Anyway. There
is a Latin America tradition also celebrated in the Philippines
called noce buena, which means good night in Spanish. It's

(58:52):
always on Christmas Eve and you gather together there's food,
there's drink, and in Latin America, one of the drinks
of focus is whiskey. Now Arnie doesn't serve whiskey, but
friends bring it. You know, it's an open household. It's
their tradition. So we go every night. We're looking forward

(59:14):
to it this week a few years ago. You know,
we're there and I know his Cuban friends and everything.
We're chatting and we have plates of food, all this
Cuban food, and Arnie's a very good cook. And of
course they have the punch bowl with just non alcoholic punch,
and I'm drinking that. I'm sitting talking to one of

(59:35):
his friends. And there's a glass and it's a colored glass,
you know, smoked glass, so you can't completely see through it.
And there's about all half an inch three quarters an
inch of my punch, you know where this is going
of my punch. And we're just talking and I decide
I'm going to finish my fruit punch. And I chugged

(59:57):
the whole thing. It was straight whiskey. I picked up
the wrong I picked up the wrong glass. I'm going.

Speaker 3 (01:00:07):
Definite.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
You know, I was burning. I was sure I was
gonna die. So the first and only time I've ever
tasted whiskey. It was horrible, but everyone was roaring in laughter. Well,
in the Gelwick's family, we never miss an opportunity for
cheap and shameless humor. So that night my kids started

(01:00:30):
singing a folk song about Christmas. Please Daddy, don't get drunk.
This Chariristmas. Mama, she's crying of flood of tears. So
every year my kids said, Daddy, you gonna get wasted
again this Christmas. It's I'm very careful what I drink.

(01:00:51):
But that was my one time whiskey that I just
picked up the.

Speaker 3 (01:00:57):
Wrong glass I.

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
Whiskey.

Speaker 4 (01:01:00):
Iceland has a great tradition. Do you know which one
I'm talking about? They give books on Christmas? Yes they do,
and and you know what the end.

Speaker 3 (01:01:08):
So their tradition, the country tradition is to.

Speaker 4 (01:01:10):
Sit and drink hot chocolate or drink coffee or have
a hot toddy or something and they read books. And
as a former English teacher, that's my kind of tradition.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
Why gosh, well, I'll be hitting point of this week,
and uh, what do you think, Denny? I think I
should continue? He gives me your thumbs up. I'm going
for the fruit punch. Yeah, Denny wants me to go.
Never mind, Denny. You know, one of the other big
and important celebrations this time of year is Honikah, yes uh.

(01:01:42):
Hanukkah is the Jewish festival of lights. You know, I
told you in graduate school, I studied Hebrew and Jewish
studies and it's always been a fascination to me. Hanukkah
celebrates the read dedication of the Second Temple of Jerusalem
after the Macadi could be in revolt. Now, the Maccabees

(01:02:02):
were a band of Jewish rebels who fought the Greek
and Syrian oppressors. And you know, the Greeksincerians defiled the temple,
so they revolted against us. This was about the year
one sixty four BC, or in Jewish studies one sixty

(01:02:22):
four b C. We use BC as before Christ, but
in Jewish literature and history it's b C, which is
an acronym for before the Common era, so when you
see BCE with that. Well, after reclaiming the temple, the

(01:02:43):
Jews rededicated the temple, but found only a small cruise
of oil which has to burn in the temple enough
for one day. Well, the miracle of the oil. Through
God's grace, the oil last eight days, hence an eight
days celebration, allowing them time to prepare for the future

(01:03:06):
burning of the oil. That one day's cruse of oil
lasted eight days. Well, today, of course hanak is celebrated
in memory of that over eight days, and you often
see the manora. It's a nine branch candelabrium, so you
have the eight candles, but in the centerpiece is a

(01:03:30):
shamash or a helper which you take the shamash and
light it and then light one candle with the centerpiece candle,
the ninth one the shamash. You light one candle each
day in remembrance of the eight days, the miracle of

(01:03:50):
the oil. What's the symbolism of Hanukkah? The rededication of
the temple, the miracle of the oil, and God's light
to all of us, which the shamash represents God's light.
So it's a wonderful celebration to all of our Jewish
friends and neighbors. We wish you a very, very happy Hanukkah.

(01:04:15):
I want to tell you a story that I tell
my kids every year, and now I tell my grandkids.
We gathered together and my mother, God bless her soul,
was born in Alberta. Cardston spent most of her years
in spring Cooley, McGrath and Rosemary, but most of her

(01:04:36):
years in Barnwell, a very small bump in the road
between Lethbridge and Tabor. They were poor. Her grandparents, which
would be my great grandparents, were homesteaders at the direction
of the Elias Church to southern Alberta, and my grandfather,

(01:04:58):
my mother's father, was a grain elevator. Now they had
these big giant silos of grains. When the trains would
come up, he would fill the cars with grain. It
was seasonal work didn't pay well, but they were poor
and one Christmas in the my mother was born in

(01:05:20):
nineteen twenty four, and during the early nineteen thirties and
into the Great Depression and all that. As a young girl,
she wanted more than anything else in the world a
Shirley Temple doll, but the funds weren't there, and the
only gift that she got that Christmas, and her siblings

(01:05:42):
got too was one orange. They had no money for
anything else, but Grandma and Grandpa Mercer saved up money
and of course a fresh fruit in the nineteen thirties
was a big deal and they each got and orange.
And I remember my mother telling me this story again

(01:06:06):
and again. I repeat that story, and I talk about
we have so much and we are so blessed. You know.
I travel internationally every month, Donnie, and every time I
fly back into the United States, whether I land at
jfksele La or Salt Lake or wherever Chicago, I have
this emotion. I want to get down on my hands

(01:06:29):
and knees and kiss the ground that I live in
this wonderful country with all of our problems. We don't
face the problems that I see around the world. You know,
where's my next meal coming from? What about civil disobedience
in war? Can you imagine living in Ukraine or some

(01:06:51):
of in Rwand, or Somalia or some of these countries
right now that are torn apart. And so every year
the kids know the story. I tell them this story.
And there at Christmas time they called them hoboes. Back
then we'd call them homeless. But these were men who
rode the railroad. And when the train would stop in Barnwell,

(01:07:15):
a group would always come to my grandmother's house. She
as little as they had She would make them a sandwich,
sometimes just a butter sandwich because there was no meat,
there was no peanut butter. But she would give them something,
and they knew which homes would feed them well. One Christmas,

(01:07:36):
my grandfather invited several of them to come for a
very meager Christmas dinner that they were having, and he
had to work the grain elevators that day, seven days
a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year.
My mother said she and her siblings were kind of

(01:07:59):
put out. Why we have so little, we have nothing?
Why do we have to share it? And my grandfather said,
look around, we have a home, We have some food
on the table. It wasn't much, but we have something.
These men have nothing. I've never forgotten that story, and

(01:08:24):
I've tried to emulate that in my own life. I
want to tell you a very moving as kind of
a close out in our next section, our next segment.
You know, I've told stories and history from Christianity, from Protestantism,

(01:08:48):
Catholic stories, Jewish stories, stories from Islam, stories from no
religion but just moral principles. I've told LDS stories. I
want to tell you a story that may set your
Christmas upside down from my own background, in my own faith.
When we come back, and you know, if you don't

(01:09:11):
believe the story, focus on the message of the story.
This one will be a wonderful way to close out
our Christmas program k Radio one oh five nine kN
r S. Just listen and you'll know. Welcome back to

(01:09:36):
the Travel show. I'm NAE by Donnie Masimusus Closed Travel.

Speaker 2 (01:09:43):
I want to close out our special holiday Christmas celebration today.

Speaker 1 (01:09:52):
With quick story, and what I'd like you to focus
on is what are the thoughts, impressions and feelings that
come to your mind, your heart. I've been pretty open
that both Kathy and I are cancer patients. It's all
pretty good news right now. But I remember some years
ago up at the hospital for yet another surgical procedure,

(01:10:14):
and I was sitting there in the waiting room, and
I had kind of a bad attitude, like this really sucks.
Why me? Why do I have to go through this?

Speaker 6 (01:10:23):
You know?

Speaker 1 (01:10:25):
And I noticed at the other side of the waiting
room a mother and her son standing, not seated, but
standing by their own and I felt impressed to go
up and talk to them. Total strangers, and as I
walked up. I said hello, and she said back to me, Hello,
and then she said I know who you are. And

(01:10:47):
I said, oh, have we met? She said no, but
we love the movie Forever Strong, and I listened to
your radio show. And let me describe her son. He
looked like he was about fourteen. I didn't ask his age,
but he looked about fourteen, skinny as a rail, was
wearing shorts. It was the summer months on crutches. His

(01:11:09):
left leg amputated just below the knee, and he wasn't
wearing a prosthetic, but had like a peg leg, you know,
a pirate peg leg. He had an external urine ostomy
bag that was visible. Now I didn't ask what cancer
he had, but I kind of guess maybe bone cancer
for the amputation, and maybe bladder cancer because he had

(01:11:32):
an external urine ostomy bag. And he was so depressed,
his head was down. He was here for yet another procedure,
and I talked to him because they knew the movie
Forever Strong. I talked to that boy and his mother.

(01:11:55):
I said, I know how you feel. ANSWER's not the same,
but the emotions are the same. Is this my last Christmas?
For me? Well? I see my grandchildren grow up and
play ball and get married and go on with their lives.
Is this my last Christmas? Those are real emotions. There's

(01:12:16):
the expected emotions and the unexpected emotions. And I talked
to him about what it means to be forever strong,
and I saw something light up in his eye. Well,
after a short visit and meaningful, I went back to
my seat and I got to tell you, I was
so what's the word? I was so down on myself.

(01:12:39):
I said, Gelwicks, you're the worst person on the earth.
Here you are whining and moaning how bad things are
for you. Gelwich, you don't have any problems. This kid's
got problems. He's fourteen. He can't run and jump, he
can't do the things all that his friends do. And

(01:12:59):
what does his cancer mean for him? Gelwicks, you got
no problems? I mentioned as a segue from that story.
You know there's people whatever we're facing. Whatever we are facing,
focus less on the fight and focus more on where

(01:13:21):
we go from here and how we can bless other people.
In my prayers every day. I said it this morning
my morning prayers. Of course, I asked for a blessing,
but I did something different today, as I thought about
this story, rather than ask for a blessing, I first asked,

(01:13:42):
may I be a blessing to someone? Would you do
that this Christmas? However you approach life or deity or
a moral principle, ask if you can be a blessing,
and then promise that you will act upon that. I

(01:14:02):
mentioned that I wanted to do a very brief, a
great Christmas message from my own faith background and just
focus on the message. It's out of the Book of
First Nephi, chapter five. In the Book of Mormon. You
remember that Father Lehi sent his sons back to get
the plates of brass from King Laban. He put them

(01:14:25):
in harm's way, very possible that they would be killed.
What would it take for you to put your own
children ask them to do a task where their very
lives were at risk? And they come back, and I
pick up the story. They present the plates to their
father in a life threatening situation. In Verse nine says,

(01:14:47):
and it came to pass that they did rejoice exceedingly
and did offer sacrifice and burnt offerings unto the Lord,
and they gave thanks unto the God of Israel. Now
this would have taken several hours to build an altar.
Maybe one was built that'd have to slaughter and quarter
an animal for it. That was burnt sacrifice. They gave

(01:15:09):
him the plates, but Lehi put the plates aside. In
Verse ten is the message. And after they had given
thanks unto the God of Israel, my father Lehi took
the records and he did search them from the beginning.
So important was this that he put his life, his
son's life at risk. You think he'd go crazy when

(01:15:29):
he got up. No, he put him aside, and he
gave thanks and offered prayers first. So my message here
is it's so much fun on Christmas Day to come
running down and see the presence under the tree, the
excitement of children and grandchildren. But how about before we
open a single package, we do what Lehi did, and

(01:15:51):
we kneel as a family, ponder our blessings and give
thanks to God or however you approach life for the
blessings that we have. And there on behalf of Morris
Columbus travel all of our friends and family. We wish
you a merry Christmas and happy Honka and a joyous

(01:16:11):
holiday season. God bless you.