Adam J. Salgat, Sarah Weisbarth, Mike Desparrois, and Executive Director Rebecca Buell sit down with some hot cocoa and reminisce about Christmases past.
You’ll learn who can’t wait for Christmas music to start, what saffron bread is, how giving the perfect wing-tipped boot creates a magical memory, and what it is like to celebrate the Christmas holiday in Australia!
AI-generated dictation of the podcast audio
Please note that this transcription was completed using AI software. Occasionally, unanticipated grammatical, syntax, homophones, and other interpretive errors are inadvertently transcribed by the software. Please excuse any errors that have escaped final proofreading.
Adam Salgat:
Welcome to the Our Community Listens podcast, where we strengthen relationships and build stronger communities through listening, leadership, care, and service to create truly human connection. Learn and partner with us as we imagine a society in which people care about each other first, explore more at ourcommunitylessons.org. (singing).
Hi, I’m Adam Salgat. And with me today on the podcast is Sarah Weisbarth. How are you doing Sarah?
Sarah Weisbarth:
I’m doing great, Adam. Happy to be here.
Adam Salgat:
We have two special guests with us today, Sarah. First, Mike Desparrois, Midland, Texas. You guys know him. He’s been on the podcast a few times as of late Mike is the leader of education initiatives for Our Community Listens. Mike, how are you?
Mike Desparrois:
I’m doing wonderful, Adam. I’m so excited to be here with you and Sarah and Rebecca [inaudible 00:01:09].
Adam Salgat:
Yep. Mike gave a little tease there. Our last guest here is Rebecca Buell, executive director for Our Community Listens from St. Louis, Missouri. Rebecca, how are you doing?
Rebecca Buell:
I’m doing fantastic. Thanks for having me on today, Adam.
Adam Salgat:
You’re welcome. And I’m excited to do something a little bit different with our podcast episode today so hold tight.
So this episode is coming out December 23rd. We’re recording it the week before and we wanted to take the opportunity to talk a little bit about holiday spirit. Holiday spirit can be many different things for all the people out there in the world of, for many of us as we’re here in the U.S. Ramping up towards Christmas. We’re going to touch a little bit on our favorite memories of Christmas, just some of our favorite traditions and many of the things that a lot of us are taking time to reflect on as 2020 has been such a wild year and we may not be able to spend Christmas the same way that we used to.
So this year it might involve Zoom screens and many different ways to communicate virtually instead of being in person. My first question now about Christmas, because I dropped the rocking around the Christmas tree, Rebecca, I’m curious, what’s your feelings on Christmas music? In our area, we have a radio station that starts playing it November 1st and we have people who just flip a lid on Facebook and social media and they’re like, “Way too early, way too early.”
Rebecca Buell:
You know what? I get it and I respect the way too early crowd. But as soon as I’m done handing out candy, when I put the pumpkin away, I’m ready to start listening. And I may not put all the decorations outside yet, but as soon as the Halloween pumpkin is put away, I’m open game to listen in private.
Adam Salgat:
What about you, Sarah? How do you feel about it?
Sarah Weisbarth:
So I am at traditionally wanting to give the American holiday of Thanksgiving its due course. So we get done eating Turkey and then it’s the next day all the decorations go up and the music starts because I feel like I’ve at least saved some space for Thanksgiving.
Adam Salgat:
That’s fair. That’s fair. Mike, any thoughts?
Mike Desparrois:
To me when I hear of the first Christmas song of the year, like October 10th when you walk into Walmart, it’s just pure stress because I immediately go into all the work that has to take place like setting stuff up, going to buy presents, all the lights, the trees, all the stuff that has to be perfectly placed, and then rewiring stuff and reconfiguring. And so I don’t really like Christmas music until all that’s just done then I’m like, “Oh, this is kind of cool.”
Adam Salgat:
I can understand how it triggers certain things. Rebecca, I’m in the boat with you. I’m totally comfortable with it kind of just being on right after Halloween, it’s totally fine by me.
Rebecca Buell:
I had one of my boys really loved Rudolph the Red-Nosed reindeer. And when you would do the sounds like, “One day Santa came to say, ho, ho, ho,” he would laugh until he about turned purple. So I can sing that in June or July because I remember my son being a baby.
Adam Salgat:
Those are the wonderful things that we have that tie so neatly to Christmas for me. And I think for a lot of people are those traditions and certain smells, certain songs that just bring back really great memories. So let’s transition to some of those traditions. Rebecca, do you have, do you have any in mind that your family used to do
Rebecca Buell:
Well, besides my mom being an amazing cook and baker, so our house was always full of wonderful smells. We did not touch a ribbon or a present or a candy cane on the tree. Nothing happened on Christmas morning until my dad read Luke two. And so we would all gather around, he would read Luke two and anyway now, as an adult, we all live all over the country. I’ve got a brother moving to Montana, one in South Carolina, my parents live in Texas, and I’m here in Missouri and we call or Zoom or Skype or something into my parents for my dad to read.
Adam Salgat:
Luke two. That’s awesome. So even before 2020 asking people to kind of have less in-person gatherings, 2020 didn’t ask it but pandemic, even before that, you guys would still do that?
Rebecca Buell:
We would usually do it by phone. I think technology is much better this year than it’s ever been out of necessity. We’d usually do phone or FaceTime, but yeah, technology gets better every year.
Adam Salgat:
That is one thing that I noticed. We did my daughter’s birthday party via Zoom last week. A lot of people much more comfortable in that space. So if the world is changing a little bit and even though we’re apart, we can still be connected. Sarah, any traditions from your family that really come to mind.
Sarah Weisbarth:
So for me, it’s about the Christmas tree. The going to get the tree. We’ve got some funny stories within our family about how we had to get the perfect tree and my brother and I would get abandoned next to the potential perfect tree so that then mom could go see if there was another more perfect tree and as an eight year old standing alone by a Christmas tree, you’re not really sure what you’re supposed to say to people if they happen to look at it. And I’m sure the field of all of the trees I thought was acres and acres and I thought for sure, they would never find me and anyways.
My mom was very intentional and I think that’s the heartwarming part for me is she was very intentional about creating this whole feel around Christmas and for her, it was the tree, and then the ornaments on the tree. And every year, we would go get a special ornament and it was that ornament for the year and I still have those ornaments on my Christmas tree and I have the family ornaments, I have the special ornament I received from Santa that year, the dates on it. And then I’ve now started that tradition with my son and he gets an ornament every year.
And the ornaments on our current tree that he likes the most are those ones that we have from so long ago that my mom’s so intentionally picked out with us as a family. So for me, it’s the tree. So much of what is on that tree is the story of our lives. And the tree, the answer is the tree.
Adam Salgat:
The tree. It’s almost a Christmas tree timeline.
Sarah Weisbarth:
It really is. And we get ornaments now when we vacation places and so when we hang them up, we remember that vacation we remember that moment. And it’s just really unique to us.
Adam Salgat:
I’m not sure on the math of all of this, but you must have a lot of ornaments I’m guessing now. It’s pretty full, ey?
Sarah Weisbarth:
It is. We actually reflected on this year’s history. I’ve talking about how it was shaped, that it doesn’t feel like all the ornaments were crammed on each other this year, they actually had their own little spot in space. And there are a few, those really cute ones, like when Aaron was in kindergarten that they don’t get hung up anymore.
Rebecca Buell:
The macaroni ones?
Sarah Weisbarth:
Yeah, yeah. Those don’t go up anymore. They’re in a special box, but they’re not on the tree.
Adam Salgat:
That’s what I was going to say, keepsake box. Yeah. What about you, Mike? A certain family tradition that comes to mind?
Mike Desparrois:
When I was growing up, Christmas Eve was a huge ordeal probably because of midnight mass. So we always did a whole deal where my mom would make homemade lasagna and spaghetti and then we would eat that as a family. And then after that, we got to go open up presents from our relatives. So that was always kind of cool, and then we’d go to midnight mass later on. But it was always like this, it was very processed. So in other words, everybody had to eat and when you’re a little kid, you didn’t really care about eating, you just wanted to see what your presents were going to be.
Adam Salgat:
Right.
Mike Desparrois:
And then we had to clean everything up, but of course it was all the good triangles so it was hand washing and all that. It was just a very, very slow process most likely so my mom and dad could probably enjoy it more than us just tearing through everything. And it was always like, “Okay, now it’s, Katie’s turn to open up the present [inaudible 00:09:51], now it’s, daddy’s turn.” And I’m like, “Can’t we just all open up the present at the same time.” And then we can call up my aunt and thank her face for the corduroy jeans.
But it’s kind of funny to reflect back on that because still up in Colorado, they do that when we travel up there. Of course this year will be totally different. We still go through that same process and then down here we go through a very, very similar process.
Adam Salgat:
So you mentioned presence in there and that brings me to a question about did you ever try to guess you presents? So let’s come right back to you, Mike, real quick. Did you ever try to guess them and did you get in trouble or did you annoy your parents to the point where they were like, “We’re taking them all away.”
Mike Desparrois:
There was never a Christmas where I didn’t know, Adam. It wasn’t guessing, I know what my presence were. So my two older brothers taught me pretty well, like, “Let’s go find them.” So they knew where all the secret hiding places were. And I knew what every present was before I was opening for that.
Adam Salgat:
That’s a little rough. I didn’t go digging for them too much. What about you Rebecca?
Rebecca Buell:
Oh my goodness. I’m just going to share all of my dirty secrets here. There was one year when I was in elementary school and a little bit older than the rest of you, but there is a year in elementary school where cabbage patch kids were more valuable than gold. I mean, I remember people got broken limbs at Target and Shopko trying to fight over getting these dolls. And I probably, as late to the party, I probably wanted one for a year, a year and a half. And I remember going under the tree and you kind of know the shape of the box, you kind of know, and you can feel and there’s the fake cabbage patch kids that people tried to throw in the mix, right, and that box is a little bit different.
And I remember going and touching the paper and feeling the ridges, here’s the cellophane part and then here’s the cardboard part. And I knew in advance I was getting a cabbage patch kid because I had completely like I was doing braille or something. Had my hand all over the package so much. And then it was kind of anti-climatic because I had wanted one for so long and then I opened it, I’d be like, “Yay,” I already knew. So now that is probably the most honest of sneaking I did.
There were also times, Adam, that I actually really carefully peeled back the tape, opened it and re-wraped the present.
Adam Salgat:
I never went that far. I would shake and I would feel, but I never unwrapped. That’s pretty good. Sarah, any thoughts on that?
Sarah Weisbarth:
Oh my God. If y’all saw my horrified face where Mike’s like, “There was never a Christmas I didn’t know.” I’m like my worst Christmas ever was the year that my older brother revealed to me mom’s system. She would be buying presents all year round, wrap them and then put them underneath her bed and then she would put our name on the bottom and presents got a number. And then she had a notebook. I come by all of my strengths naturally. She had a notebook that then the number corresponded with the gift and my brother revealed the secret code and the decoder book too.
I went and read all of the presents that I was getting that year and it was by far my worst Christmas ever. And I’ve never done it again and I really hope Aaron doesn’t do it now that I’m thinking like, “Oh my gosh, do I really think I’m that stealthy of a parent?”
Adam Salgat:
So let me ask you guys, you’ve both talked a little bit there about how knowing ahead of time kind of ruined it. So when you’re giving a gift, how secret are you keeping it? And then do you have a favorite gift that you’ve given anyone? I’ll let anybody go ahead and jump whenever you think, and I’ll edit to it.
Sarah Weisbarth:
I love giving gifts. I like giving things, let’s be honest who doesn’t like getting a gift, but it’s not my love language. But I love going around and shopping in cute stores. And when I see something that’s like, “Oh, that would be perfect for Rebecca.” That’s the gift I love giving. So then I feel like in that sense, I’m pretty selfie about it. And then I do feel like throughout the year, I hear things from my family where they’re like, “Oh, I would really like…” And then I’m like, “Oh, make a note of that.” Like, “Oh, I really like,” and then I make a note of it.
When Aaron was younger, we were really good about keeping things secret. It gets harder like Rebecca and Mike, you can probably be out like they get to those teen years and it gets a little harder keeping everything so secret and so much of a surprise, but oh no, I’m all about the experience of giving the gift.
Adam Salgat:
Before Rebecca and Mike jump in on how it gets a little harder to keep a secret, I’m going to tell you guys right now with a five-year-old, I’m able to just leave packages in the garage and say that’s all dad’s equipment. And they don’t question anything. So it’s so easy right now so I’m interested to learn a little bit about what I should be prepared for. And what kind of tips? What about you, Rebecca?
Rebecca Buell:
I don’t know if I can say a best gift that I’ve given somebody, but there’ve been a couple of times that it’s just warmed my heart so much. A couple years ago, my older son who’s got this really kind of funky hipster vibe and fashion sense, like Sarah mentioned, he had just said things in passing throughout the year. And I knew kind of some things that he wanted and some things that maybe he didn’t need, but he might need soon or whatever. Anyway, there is this just super cool pair of boots. They’re wingtip boots with kind of a chunky sole. I mean, there’s just this funky hipster vibe. And I saw them and I thought of him and I’m like, “I think he’ll like those.” And so I just randomly bought them, not even knowing. And I was like, “Well, I’ve got the receipt. If he doesn’t like them, we can take them back.”
And when he opened them on Christmas morning, just the look on his face and he just quietly got his phone and brought it and showed me that he had a screenshot of almost the exact identical boots. And they were so funky and so off beat, I’d never seen anything like them before or since. And he had chosen those, but not even told anybody that he really, really wanted them. And so that was a fun, fun thing. Now contrast this year, when everybody’s living and working at home all the time, I ordered some things for my other son and he texted me yesterday and he’s like, “Hey mom, these jeans fit great. I love them.” And I was like, “Actually, you weren’t supposed to open those, those were a Christmas surprise so Merry Christmas.”
Adam Salgat:
Okay. So I can’t do that when they reach 18, 20, it’s not going to work.
Rebecca Buell:
Right, yeah. They just open the packages as they come in and it didn’t even have his name on it. He just assumed. He was like, “Oh, that’s a brand I like, mom probably got me something.”
Adam Salgat:
I want to ask you guys a little bit about any special dinners, like dishes, I should say. Any special dishes that you have at Christmas dinner or special desserts, special bakes, anything along those lines? My mother-in-law makes these peanut butter treats that are pretty much exclusive for Christmas. They seem to leak their way into other parties every once in a while but when you smell those peanut butter treats now, for me, the last 10 years, that’s like, “Oh yeah, it’s Christmas Eve,” where it’s a very good memory, very good trigger. What about you, Rebecca?
Rebecca Buell:
My mom used to always make Russian teacakes like little snowball cookies with pecans and the Roman powdered sugar. And those were only done at the holidays. I mean, they are so, so good, but for me, the biggest thing was my mom grew up in Southern California and she had all this Latina influence in her world. I grew up in Iowa so I am convinced I am probably the only person or my family is the only people in Sioux city, Iowa that had a huge Mexican spread for Christmas Eve every year. We’d have homemade enchiladas and tacos and all these different things that she had put together and that was just our family tradition.
Adam Salgat:
That sounds delicious. Sarah, I know we chatted earlier today and you mentioned something, I think you’re going to mention a particular type of bread that I had never heard of.
Sarah Weisbarth:
So I was thinking about it would be my grandmother on my first husband’s side of the family. After midnight mass, and I just want to say I think the reason that all parents are tired on Christmas morning is because we schedule things like midnight mass. In my religious tradition, we go to church at 6:00 so I’m fully rested by the morning. But she used to have us all over after midnight mass. And one of the things that was really coveted was called the saffron bread and actually, from the upper peninsula, it’s an English dish, I had no idea, but it was so like, “Oh, grandma’s saffron bread.” And it was doled out in very small increments.
And so I looked up the recipe from the family recipe book, I took the afternoon to do that. And I’m looking at this recipe and I’m like, “No wonder why this is coveted. It has ingredients in it that I don’t think I could find without some sort of specialist person that knows what they are. And it takes an overnight soaking of some of these ingredients and then there’s yeast involved. And goodness knows I don’t want to make bread that has yeast. But I think I understand now why the saffron bread was so coveted, so coveted.
Adam Salgat:
And only made one time a year.
Sarah Weisbarth:
Only made one time a year. And my brother-in-law worked at the grocery store and he swears that the spice saffron, they kept it behind the customer service desk. It was super special and probably super expensive or something.
Adam Salgat:
Any treats or any, any dishes at your Christmas dinner, Mike?
Mike Desparrois:
So my dad always loved chocolate covered peanuts and my mom used to always make peanut clusters and that was the gift she would give friends and coworkers and that type of stuff. And so I’ll never forget when my wife came to the first Christmas up in Colorado, she had peanut clusters and I don’t think she ever had them before and she was just blown away. And it’s really not a hard recipe. Other than it’s a lot of work like stirring the chocolate with the peanuts when it’s mouthy. And so they still continue, the girls and Pam still do that and hand them out.
This year was kind of interesting because I was like, “Well, let’s still make them, but I don’t think we should give them out because of COVID.” I don’t know if we were supposed to give people food or not. And people started asking, “Hey, when are those peanut clusters [inaudible 00:21:12]?” So they still made a bunch of them and gave them to people that we knew pretty well. Maybe they threw them away, maybe they ate them, I don’t know.
Adam Salgat:
And it does sound like people are weighing the risk reward on your peanut clusters so it sounds like they’re pretty good and ready to…
Mike Desparrois:
“Did you go to quarantine lately? All right, I’ll try it.”
Rebecca Buell:
Pretty habit that he can have the peanut clusters.
Mike Desparrois:
I’ve been vaccinated, I can have a cluster.
Adam Salgat:
I want to bring up Christmas movies, but I want to tell a quick story on why Christmas movies is part of one of my family traditions. So my sister and I grew up four years apart and Muppet Christmas Carol came out when we were both young and we saw it in theaters. And I still remember having the cassette tape of the soundtrack and her and I would fight back and forth over to who gets to listen to it and everything. And as we’ve gotten older, even into our 20s and into our 30s, her and I will still try to get together when she is… She’s the one who actually lives near St. Louis, Missouri and when she comes home for the holidays, we try to get together and watch that movie. No matter if that’s the only two or three hours that we get to spend just her and I, or maybe now it’s including my girls and it includes my wife.
So that’s been, our tradition is watching Muppet Christmas carol. I’m curious about if you guys have any favorite Christmas movies. What’s your favorite Christmas movie of all time? If you’re going to snuggle up, watch a movie with a family or even something that’s one of your own personal favorites, what are you tuning into, Rebecca?
Rebecca Buell:
Gosh, Adam, now that my boys are 18 and 20, that’s hard because their tastes have changed. Now they swear that diehard is the best Christmas movie, but while they were growing up, if it was just me and [inaudible 00:23:13] down to bed, It’s A Wonderful Life. But with the boys, it was Elf and we would watch Elf in May, we’d watch it in October, we watched it a ton in December. We quote it and now I think it’s like when you have too much of a certain kind of candy you’re done with it, they told me they’re not watching this year.
Adam Salgat:
They’re tapping out?
Rebecca Buell:
Yeah.
Adam Salgat:
Elf is one of those great ones that has a lot of funny lines too. I almost pulled a couple of sound bites from that for our podcasts, but I decided not to.
Rebecca Buell:
Whenever we see a sign, that’s world’s best whatever, like in the movie world’s best cup of coffee, my son says, “Congratulations, you did it.”
Adam Salgat:
That’s so good. Sarah, what about you?
Sarah Weisbarth:
I’m big time on The Grinch. I like the original cartoon of The Grinch, but I’m a huge fan of the live action with Jim Carey and the Grinch. As I’ve said, not a super huge fan of the newer one although I think the screaming goat is hilarious. Just hilarious, but no I’m definitely a Grinch fan every year. Cindy Lou Who, she’s just so stinking cute. She’s got it right. She knows what’s going on and no one’s listening to her. So I’m about the Grinch.
Adam Salgat:
Mike, I had a teacher in school who used to play, what’s the one where the kid gets his tongue stuck to the flagpole?
Mike Desparrois:
Christmas Story.
Adam Salgat:
Christmas Story every year, which is a bummer, I forget. But every year for four years, he would play that movie for our journalism class. So I know you’re a former teacher in the classroom, maybe you have a favorite one you used to play your students or just a favorite one in general. What is it?
Mike Desparrois:
We weren’t allowed to play movies in our classroom. They were pretty strict about stuff like that. But for me, my brothers were very close to what they are, very, very close in age. And so at times being the youngest brother, there was always a competition over let’s try to get Mike to like this or Mike like that more. And so one of my brothers swore it was Die Hard, right? So his mission in life was to get me to agree that the best Christmas movie, all the time was Die Hard and the other brother was Rocky 4 because Rocky goes and fights the Russian, the communist. Basically takes down communism on Christmas night. What’s more Christmas and American than that?
So both of those movies, I’ve seen them a million times and when people say they’re not Christmas movies, I’m kind of shocked, right. I just grew up with that. But my favorite all time, Christmas movie is probably Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase because that kind of just sums up the craziness of families and Christmas and everybody wants things to be perfect, but rarely are they ever. But if you just sit back and enjoy the craziness and how funny that is then and plus Cousin Eddie is in it. How can you not love Cousin Eddie? So what’s not Christmas about Cousin Eddie, Adam?
Adam Salgat:
Oh, there’s a few things that aren’t too Christmas. One of the last questions I have here has the word vacation in it. So you mentioned Christmas vacation. And I thought of that movie, and I know they don’t go on a vacation on that, but it had me thinking, have you ever gone on vacation for Christmas? Did you go as a family? And if you haven’t and you think you might, where would you want to go and what would that perfect little Christmas scene look like? So Rebecca, why don’t we touch base with you first?
Rebecca Buell:
I have yet to discover the perfect Christmas scene, Adam. But last year I took my boys to the beach for Christmas. We actually left as soon as they were done with their college finals. And so we left on the 18th or 19th and came back on Christmas day because it was cheaper to direct travel and Christmas day. So that was actually pretty anti-climatic because we wake up in a condo that’s not ours and there’s not a tree and we’re like, “Okay, pack your stuff. We’ve got to go to the airport.” So I’m not doing that again.
But when I was little, my dad liked experiences more than gifts and so we went one year and stayed in a hotel. We were in Sioux city, Iowa and went and stayed in a hotel in Omaha, Nebraska, metropolitan Omaha. And we were going to stay in this hotel that had an indoor and an outdoor pool and my brothers and I figured out that you could swim under this little barrier and go outside. So we were swimming outside in Nebraska, in December, which probably isn’t great for your health, but we did and we know it like 12 and 15, it was amazing and brilliant.
Adam Salgat:
That sounds pretty cool. I lean towards your dad’s philosophy of experience over gifts. So I think about that sometimes and try to be careful just how much stuff we’re buying our girls and what we could do with that instead.
Sarah, any thoughts on vacation outside of traveling to see family potentially?
Sarah Weisbarth:
Well, it’s really intriguing that you even kind of set me up that way, because when Aaron was born, his dad made a line in the sand, made a boundary with his family that said, “We would at our home for Christmas morning, every Christmas morning.” And that tradition has maintained that there’s just something about Santa coming to our house and just waking up and being in our home in that sense of hominess. And I was at home five times already on Christmas morning.
If I were to travel for Christmas, and I really think that I would, I really like learning about the holiday traditions of other countries. I have a book that talks about a lot of the traditions of the American holiday of Christmas comes from ancient traditions in other countries. And so I, of course, have a very romanticized version of what I think maybe the Christmas time holidays look like in other countries. But I think that’s what I would want to do, is I would want to travel around and not necessarily go on a vacation, but experience those traditions of wherever it is that I was traveling to.
Adam Salgat:
Sounds pretty unique and interesting. Mike?
Mike Desparrois:
When I was a senior in high school, I went and played baseball in Australia over Christmas break and it was really a cool experience because it’s very different down there, how they celebrate Christmas, especially since it’s the middle of their summer. And so we were staying at host families getting ready for the international junior Olympic tournament. And Christmas morning, we woke up a person who is also on our baseball team and it was 98 degrees and the humidity was just unbelievable. And so they suggested we go for a swim in their pool and it felt like we were in a hot tub and this was 9:30 in the morning on Christmas morning.
And so that was a really, really kind of different and unique experience. But what was really crazy about Australia was, just like in the United States, it’s kind of a big family thing, but it is even more so where the celebration goes, even into Boxing Day. So we got to meet family and extended family and extended extended family and it was just a really, really cool and unique experience. And then just like here, everybody has their favorite holiday meals. We got to eat a lot of different foods I had never even considered before. So that was probably the most unique experience.
Adam Salgat:
It sounds like you’ve got a little bit of what Sarah is seeking out.
Mike Desparrois:
Just go to Australia.
Adam Salgat:
98 degrees on Christmas would be quite a contrast for a boy who’s been in Michigan every single year for his entire life. Is there anything else anyone would like to add about their Christmas experience or their holiday experience or their holiday spirit? What does it mean to you, I guess if there’s anything else you’d like to add in that space?
Rebecca Buell:
A lot like Sarah, for me, the biggest Christmas thing is just home. Having family and friends and just creating space for people to be in my space. Having dinner parties and that’s been a shift this year, not having people in our space. Not making, like Mike said, the trays of goodies to take around and give out to other people. Yeah, that’s what Christmas is for me, more than gifts and tensile. And I love the tree and I love the ribbons and all of that, the songs, but just having people. And I don’t know, that moment of community, and I don’t know, I just love it.
Adam Salgat:
Summed it up quite well if you ask me. That’s very similar to what it’s about for me too.
Sarah Weisbarth:
For me, it’s a real reflective time. There’s something about how we can slow down even in the midst of [inaudible 00:32:32] I think in the Northern hemisphere, I think it’s because it’s just dark when you go to work and then you come home. I think you’re just naturally being still, letting that quiet time kind of just seep in. And so for me, it’s just a really reflective time. And I completely agree, it’s like that reflective time. But then being with those that you’re closest with.
Rebecca Buell:
Sarah, do you ever get hot tea or hot coco when everybody else goes to bed and just sit in a dark house with just the Christmas tree lights on?
Sarah Weisbarth:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). My brother and I used to compete for the living room and do that when we were young and growing up and I would round the corner to sit in the living room quietly and he’d already be there. And, of course, we’re siblings and you like, “Get out, I’m [inaudible 00:33:20].” But no, and I still do. And actually, for me, it’s the early morning because both sleeps weigh in so I’m up in the early morning hours and just kind of sitting quietly and looking at those ornaments and just the reflection. Yeah.
Rebecca Buell:
Love it.
Adam Salgat:
Yep. Mike, any further thoughts?
Mike Desparrois:
I think for me it’s just probably the stories and the fun that just comes out of it all to be with family and I don’t know, talking about new things and things we’ve done or tried to do that didn’t quite come out or I think that’s always the fun part of it, the memories.
Adam Salgat:
Well, I’d like to thank the three of you for being on our little bit different podcast today and hopefully everybody gets a chance to listen to this and head into Christmas and any other holiday traditions that they may be celebrating. We thank you so much for listening into our podcast and spending time with us and thank you, Rebecca, for being on.
Rebecca Buell:
Thanks for having us, Adam.
Adam Salgat:
You’re welcome. And Sarah, thank you.
Sarah Weisbarth:
Always a pleasure to have these conversations and always just really floored that we have listeners, right? Just so y’all know, there’s thousands of people out there listening to our Christmas stories now. So hopefully, this creates an environment in their homes where they have that time to pause and appreciate time of year or however they are celebrating it.
Adam Salgat:
That’s right. And Mike, thank you so much for being a part of that with us.
Mike Desparrois:
Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you for letting me be a part of all this. This is great.
Adam Salgat:
Got one final, quick message.
Speaker 5:
Ho ho ho ho, merry Christmas.
Adam Salgat:
All right. Thank you, guys.
Sarah Weisbarth:
And God bless us, everyone.
Adam Salgat:
Engage on our website, explore learning opportunities and connect with others. This podcast is brought to you by the Chapman foundation for caring communities, which focuses on strengthening relationships, creating connections and building community. Listen, lead, connect. (singing)
