SHOW US YOUR #UGLYSIMMERPOT

Welcome to the Carpool podcast with Kelly. If you'd have a Subaru, you have a real Christmas tree. Yeah. You're just into that. You know, I mean, that's so, I'm sorry. I have a Subaru this week and I've had such an urge to go out and get a real Christmas tree. And Liz. Oh my gosh. Wow. Cute. It's time. I'm so sorry if I just caused a car accident. Your mom time off starts now. Welcome back to the Carpool podcast with Kelly and Liz. And we're making it kind of like a special like Christmas edition of the Carpool podcast. I love a Christmas edition of anything. Yeah. I love a Christmas edition of a TV show. I love a Christmas edition of a latte. I love a Christmas edition of a song of a cover. So why not do a Christmas edition of your favorite podcast? And you might be thinking like it's a little early, but it's not because we plan on having such a, just such a jolly filled episode. I have been giving a lot of headspace to a topic I want to talk about, which is cheaper free things to do to get you into the Christmas spirit. I feel like it was so like money this money that's consumerism consumerism. There's a little consumerism in here, but only the necessities. Okay. We're going to play assumptions we have about you based on the Car You Drive Christmas edition because some of you guys out here are being crazy and we're going to call you out on it. We are going to do a Christmas theme DTD. Yeah. And so just have a jolly old time. So buckle up. I even have a Christmas edition of Industry News. Oh my gosh. Wow. Q, it's time. I'm so sorry if I just caused a car accident. I am, I don't know. I'm just feeling very Christmassy this year, which is exciting. I think last year we were like so foggy postpartum. Like we had like what two months old. So that was kind of like a lot to navigate at the time. It was like Libby's a more fun age. My older kids are easier. Fred is light years easier than he was last year. So I'm just really excited to have a great Christmas this year. Yeah, me too. Me too. And you know, I think my number one is like tip for Christmas is you guys have to be making making sure you're taking your notes because I had such, I don't know if you can see this, Elizabeth, these were all of the notes I had for myself. About what I did wrong for last Christmas. Would you like me to read some? Yeah, could you please? So I see here's how I set it up. I said highs and lows. So I just made a section. What were the highs of the Christmas season and I'm to me could the Christmas season is December. Like I don't do this before Thanksgiving crap. So December 1st to December 25th. These are my notes. I did highs and lows and then I just did like more thoughts and like some schedule type things. So the highs, we went to a movie on the 23rd. We thought that like it was just like a fun way to kick it off. So we'll be doing that again. And high number two, I said decorating gingerbread houses. I did target pickup for the candy and I did target pickup for the already made houses. Don't get the ones in a kit. Super fun. Okay. I said have the have the makeup party at your house. Okay. Okay. And hot chocolate bombs galore. We are really into that. Lows. I need to get more organized with the kids gifts. My upstairs tree needs some more decor, which is why that was hired out for all of you haters because it was on my notes. I said moms. Mom's Christmas was a cluster. Moms is in our moms need to feed kids lunch before tell her less trinkets and treats. One nice gift per kid that they can play with. Yeah. We had a lot of notes for her Christmas this year. We're doing things a lot different. I said I want more religious decor and ad-vit candle holder, check mud pie, reason for the season, get ad-vitant blocks for the kids. I haven't done that yet. So I need to get on that. Christmas Eve morning. I had that we made sausage pancake bites and cinnamon rolls easy and fun. I made an ambitious kitchen sweet potato and caramelized onion bacon and goat cheese quiche. And it was phenomenal. And you're like, but like I was, you know, so post-partum and just. I don't know how I did that. That was crazy. Go cheese, carb-wise, onion, quiche. We opened mom and dad presents. That was fun for moms. I brought Rotel dip. No one ate it. I also made a Borson caramelized onion and bacon dip with roots crackers. People love to see how I was like making the quiche with those ingredients and then I translated it into an appetizer. Oh, I said for Christmas day dinner, ramen bowls were fun and easy. Prepa Chuck roast on the 23rd and then have sassy ramen fixings could be a good new tradition. Don't, don't forget to get a nice bottle of wine for you. I'm so smart. This is, and this is why you do notes. Cause like you would have totally forgot about a bottle of wine or sassy ramen bowls. That's a perfect thing to have. That was actually going to be our ditch the driver. So we'll get into that later. Oh, okay. Final note, record carpool episodes and don't take off you lazy losers. Yikes. So that one, that one hit home. I'm just letting you know those were some of the notes that I had for myself. So it's important to start taking your notes now. Just go to your iPhone, type in Christmas notes 2025. Doing this right now. And start if there's already something that you're not happy with. You can always organize your thoughts later, but just start now by getting, it's called a brain dump. Just like if there's already something you've messed up on or something that you've loved, get it in there now. Cause you won't remember and you'll be, then you'll never be improving. And we are always improving people. Okay. Let me get off these notes. That was fun. Done. Tripped down. Okay. So that was fun. I'm just going to go ahead and start with the notes. That was fun. I was like, done. Tripped down memory lane. So now I want to talk about Christmas. I want to talk about what the Christmas season means and how I plan to make it feel more like a nineties Christmas. Like that's kind of like the trend that I've been seeing and people are always like, yeah, why do we hold those with like such regards? Like those were the best years probably because we were kids. So I think we kind of all need to chill and like not put so much pressure. It's like not so live in the past. Like we were kids. Like of course it was fun, but I do want to take Christmas was more magical when you were a child. Yeah. Yeah. No, people really do be putting too much pressure on themselves to like, and like they're just so quick to blame the phone. And it's like, yeah, you're also 34. Yeah. And now you're in charge of the magic. Yeah. Now you're in charge. You're in charge. But anyway, so it's not not quite as much fun, but I am looking on ways where we can like make it feel not like a day, like have fun with the anticipation, slow down. Yeah. And ultimately prepare our hearts for the new year and for the birth of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Um, so my first free activity, if you're not, if you are, if you are a Christian and you're not going to church, may I suggest the Advent season? It is the best time to go to church. It is wonderful. Ever. The church is decorated beautiful. There'll be Christmasy songs. You'll hear a Christmasy message. Like it's just such an easy, it's a great excuse to like trial run some of like your Christmas clothes you might want to wear or like get another wear out of them. Like, are we buying these Christmas dresses for a day of and then we're wearing them once? Well, if you're going to church on Sunday, you can like wear them a couple of times. So that can be helpful. Um, so. So, I mean, Advent is really such a beautiful time in the church. We've got the pink candles, the purple candles. It's just, it's stunning. If you don't want to take your whole kids, I think that's a perfect time to tell your husband, Hey, I'm going to go to church today. You can say it with the kids. You will leave feeling more relaxed, reminded of why we're all doing this. That's my first and ends free. Free as can be free as can be free as can be. Okay. I wanted to get that one out of the way because that is the reason for the season. You know, that's kind of another thing too, where everyone's like, um, I'm trying to fix my attention span and then people are just like filming themselves sitting somewhere for an hour, not doing anything. I'm not going to do that. But where I can sit for an hour without being able to like scroll on my phone church. Totally. Yeah, that's a good idea. So do it for, so for no other reason, do it for that. To fix your attention span. No, I'm serious. It's a good way. Like the, the, it's, it's the best time to go. It's the best time to go. All times are good, but that's the best. Okay. Next, this is one that I have kind of taken from my mother-in-law and kind of like tweaked just a bit. I've seen a lot of trends on like, and again, this is just, there's, there are content creators whose content is over consumption. Like that is their, that's their kitsch. Like they're going to redecorate their entire room for Christmas. Like get, get a new rug, a new bedding, new everything just for this. That's crazy. Um, so I don't want to do that, but something my mother-in-law does, that's fun, is she has a collection of pillowcases. And whenever our kids go over to her house to, to spend the night or just take a nap, the big thing that they get to do is like, they get to go to the drawer and pick a pillowcase. Like which pillowcase do you want on your pillow? Barb is so into like choices. And so she recently kind of gave us some of the pillowcases because she just had to clear out. So it's been fun because my kids have very basic, just like gray bedding. It's like the beddies bedding, they're gray, they're boring. I don't need this like Pinterest worthy bed for a five year old. Like I'm sorry, I think some of these things are crazy. Like I'm just not, I don't need this. So they get, so we do fun pillowcases. So on sheet wash day, they know that like when we're washing their sheets, that means they get to go choose new pillowcases for this time. I literally have like 25 pillowcases. It's so fun. Well, I've never seen your pillowcase collection. Oh yeah, I'll have to show you. They're in there all from the nineties. Like they're like vintage Barbie, vintage Lion King, but I was thinking like a fun way. We have one Christmas pillowcase that she, that she gave me. It's Snoopy Christmas and it's on Hattie's bed right now. But I was like, wouldn't it be fun? I don't need to buy them all new bedding, but you can just buy pillowcases. Okay. So it's way cheaper than like buying a Christmas bedding, a Christmas blanket. And like then what if around Christmas, it's like, we're going to put your special Christmas pillowcase on. I mean, they're kids. Like it doesn't matter. It's huge. That's magic guys. That's the, that's the Christmas magic. It's magic. So I need to try. I haven't bought any yet. I literally had the idea this morning as I was brainstorming this because I thought about like I was thinking to myself, maybe when things go on clearance, I'll buy my kids Christmas bedding. And I thought to myself, I'm not doing this. I don't want to store it. Like you, who wants to store that for a year? But I am going to buy them all. Like I want to, I want to buy like 15 though, Christmas pillowcases. And it's like, you know, twice a month in December, like we picked the Christmas pillowcase that we're going to get. Yeah. So fun. So fun. Right. Season that that is fun. Yeah. Would you say that was a tangible takeaway? I would say so. Yeah. Okay. Next, this is something that I started doing in college when I was just like really trying to get into the Christmas season and it's so simple, but change your phone background to something Christmasy. So like my favorite photo that I have is when I dressed all my kids up like they were in the nativity. And so like for the month of December, that will be my phone background. Yeah. So maybe like, or if you like don't have like a great picture or you just like want something more festive, like go to Google and get like just a darling Christmas scene and make it your phone background. It'll just be, you pick up your phone a hundred times a day. It'll just be like a little reminder. We give you feel Christmasy. Okay. I love that. Yeah. Oh my laptop, my iPad stopped working. Hold on. Okay. Next, such a classic, such a fun, easy craft. And like this isn't a Christmas craft that repot that requires Mod Podge because I'm not a person who wants to get out Mod Podge in my life. But one of the most fun Christmas crafts that you can do are paper snowflakes. Okay. Yeah. It is good for kids of all ages, kids of all ages who can use scissors because don't get me wrong, like George and Hattie, they would have fun doing it now. If you have an older kid, you look up a TikTok or an Instagram reel of intricate paper snowflakes. It will keep them busy because you can go, you can do the least or you can literally do the most with these paper snowflakes. So fun. And then just hang them all around the house. No, paper snowflakes are very good decoration. They're very cute. They're aesthetically pleasing. Like unlike a lot of maybe the crafts your kids can make for Christmas. Paper snowflakes are you can tape them on your window or you can hang them from the ceiling. They're stunning taped on the window, taped on the wall. I'm actually thinking I might try to let the kids do some for my party. I thought that would be like a fun thing to have. We'll think about it. So, I mean, it's printer paper. It's cheap as chips. You probably have it downstairs right now. Okay. So just to clarify, like foam background, free paper snowflakes, I'm assuming free because you have printer paper. Church free pillowcases. $3, $4, $6 a piece for pillowcase. We're not doing the whole bedding. Also, I'm not a sewer, but out of all the things to make, I would say a pillowcase has to be one of the easier ones. Yeah. Yeah. So if you have any like go to Joanne's and get Christmas fabric and then just make the pillowcases. I'm going to actually I'm not going to buy. I'm not going to buy anything. I'm going to put my mother-in-law on this. She'll love this. Yeah. That will be so fun. Kids can pick out their they could go pick out their pattern too. If like you want to pick out their pattern for their special Christmas pillowcase. Yeah. I'm obsessed. Okay. Next, I wrote down cookies. Cookies, cookies, cookies. Cookies or baking. I mean, this is the season to get a little fluffy. This is the season to like to just let yourself have some cookies, have some fun and do some baking. I think it's like the easiest way to sneak like wintery, wintery flavor profiles into things. And cookies are such a good icebreaker to my next point, which is neighbors, which is giving back, which is loving thy neighbor. Now, there are a lot of people who get really lonely around the holidays, who get really bored. There's a lot of people, probably some of your elderly neighbors who don't have their kids at home anymore. So like you get to have Christmas magic every day when your kids look at the tree. They are desperate to like see a cute child loving Christmas or your local nursing home. I want you to think about the elderly and I want you to bake some cookies with your children or without your children. And then I want you to take your children to your elderly neighbors with your Christmas card in hand. I wanted to say like we just wanted to bring you these cookies. Say Merry Christmas. This is our Christmas card. We hope you have a great Christmas. It's it's such a good icebreaker to deliver cookies. And when you do it with your kids, it makes it so much less awkward because to that person, like because I feel awkward about it. Like luckily, my husband doesn't. And my husband is the one who like is way better at making our kids go to do these things. But last year we made cookies until I drove them around to all of our neighbors. We knocked on doors and we said Merry Christmas and gave cookies. Cute. And I just think you don't have to look far. Like just look at the people in your neighborhood, literally in your neighborhood and make them a plate of cookies and then go over there with your children. It's also a good lesson to teach your children on how to like talk to people. Also good for a lot of us who are stuck behind the phone. I mean, how many of us don't want to go on knock on a door and say hi to somebody? Like we're crazy. Yeah. We're crazy. We need to work on that. OK, next is the is a classic. I love first of all, I love a candle. Like I balls and fur bury me in it. Like it's my favorite scent. It's my favorite, favorite scent. So I always have a ball and fur candle lit. And if you don't want to do that respect, I get it. Some of you guys don't like that. That also costs money. So I'm trying to make these like totally free. Get it on your simmer pot grind. We people are over complicating simmer pots. You really are. Here's what you need. Orange peels and cinnamon. So my biggest hack is first of all, cuties, they're in season right now. Get some cuties and whatever, then just take the cutie peels or like your kids half eaten cuties or an apple that they half ate and just put it in the pot. You can have half eaten fruit. And once I discovered that, I was like, oh, yeah, it doesn't matter what it looks like, because it's a simmer pot. So if you have cinnamon sticks and a dash of vanilla in your kids, half eaten fruit, you have a simmer pot is what you have. Ugly simmer pots. Let's do our pots. Who's looking at them? Ugly simmer pots. And like, OK, if you have a pine tree, OK, go get some needles. Go outside and get some of those. Like it doesn't take much. And then you just like have a simmer pot going. And that's just like, oh, it's like, it's like having a pot of soup, but it's a simmer pot. Yeah, totally. Like stop with these aesthetically pleasing ones. Like it's just you're over. You're doing too much. No, if you're giving them as a gift. Sure. What? I want to start a trend. Ugly simmer pots. And like, I want people to tag the carpool or me and Kelly and say and show us your ugly simmer pot, because that's actually hilarious. I love that. Like star anise, like calm down. If you don't have that, like literally calm down. I'm going to put some cutie carcasses in a cinnamon stick on my on my stove. And create the Christmas magic. Today's episode is brought to you by Clean Simple Eats. We just can't stop talking about Clean Simple Eats here on the carpool podcast. Kelly and I are both huge fans of Clean Simple Eats. We're having a CSE product daily, like it's CSE o'clock in our household. I love their protein powder. They have a variety of delicious flavors and they are grass fed, no seed oils or artificial ingredients. Third party test in non-GMO and gluten free and has 20 grams of grass fed whey protein. The protein powder is also incredibly creamy and smooth without that chalky texture that's found in most protein powders. I'm also a huge fan of their canned drinks, specifically their energy drinks. I love the island paradise, island sunrise, something like that. That one's my favorite one. They're all delicious, but that one's my favorite. And I also love their clear sodas because it's a protein in a can, but it's a little bit carbonated, which I appreciate it as my afternoon pick me up. So you can visit cleansebelets.com and use code CARPOOL10 at checkout for 10% off your order if you're interested. That's cleansebelets.com code CARPOOL10 for 10% off your order. The link is also in the show notes. Today's episode is brought to you by Newly. You know that feeling when you're invited to a wedding, a birthday party, a work thing all in the same month, and suddenly you realize you have nothing to wear? Now, add being pregnant to that. None of my regular clothes fit the same. I don't want to spend a fortune on maternity pieces. I'll only wear for a few months and I still want to feel cute. That's where Newly comes in. Newly is a subscription clothing rental service that lets you pick any six styles every month for just $98. 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Just go to N-U-U-L-Y dot com and enter code CARPOOL at sign up to get $28 off your first month. That's N-U-U-L-Y dot com. Newly with two U's in code CARPOOL for $28 off your first month. Newly subscription clothing rental. Change your clothes. Today's episode is brought to you by Alma. Where do you want to be a year from now? Who do you want to be? And maybe more importantly, who's on your team helping you get there? Because the right therapist, someone who makes you feel comfortable, challenges you in the right ways and has the clinical skills to support you, can make a huge difference. That's why I tell you about Alma. Alma's on a mission to simplify access to high quality, affordable mental health care, and they've built a nationwide network of over 20,000 diverse therapists. What's great about their platform is it's easy to find someone who fits your needs. You can browse their therapist directory without even having to make an account and you can filter things like insurance, gender, and therapeutic approach and more. And affordability matters. 99% of Alma therapists accept insurance and people who find a therapist through Alma, save it on average of 80% on the cost of sessions. They even have a free insurance cost estimator. So you would know exactly what you'll pay up front. A year from today isn't that far away. Get started now at helloalma.com slash carpool. That's helloalma. A L M A.com slash carpool. C A R P O O L. OK, tell me that you're not so good. They're so good. I don't know where you came up with all these. OK, next is very timely to what we're wearing. Christmas clothes. Wear the life out of them. Like where are the life out of them? I think, you know, I'm so shook to my core about like how much we just like buy clothes now and I know I'm kind of part of the problem, not necessarily the solution. So here I am trying to be more solution oriented. But like when it comes to the holidays, like this Christmas sweater, first of all, I love it. Get a Christmas sweater you love. You probably have one and you're probably like saving it because you're like, oh, I don't know what I'm going to wear that like I might wear that to this event. It doesn't matter. It's your Christmas sweater. Wear your Christmas sweater one or two times a week the entire month of December. I want you to be wearing holes in them. And I want when you I want like your kids to fight over that because like mom wore that sweater all the time in December. That's what I want them to say about you. Not. Oh, I didn't even know she had that because you like didn't want to wear it more than once in December. You're being crazy. So this sweater, you're going to get sick of me in it. You're going to get sick of me. People are going to be like, you're going to be like, is this like all one long episode? Like every clip she's wearing that sweater. No. I'm just wearing my sweater. OK, fair. Fair, fair, fair. You seem done with that. OK, and then my last one is, you know, if you have the urge, if you want to get a little razzle dazzle, if you want to go shopping, you know, I love nothing more than a thrift miss. And haven't talked about thrift miss much. Mainly because I did feel like it got a lot harder as my kids got older and like had more specific ones and needs. But do a Christmas thrift. You can be thrifting for presents or you can just go thrift for Christmas decorations. Like they're all out right now. And I think thrifting is fun when you have a theme to it. You know, yeah, yeah. So thrift for Christmas, Miss. Thrift miss for Christmas. And then the last one was I had was books. I think that books are just like books and music, media, if you will. You can be on TV shows. So fun. I like the idea of having like for like Christmas movies, I think something I'm going to write down on my list is like I'd like to have a bit of a schedule with it because it feels like, you know, the first week of December, like maybe we watched The Grinch on a Friday. The second week we do Elf. The third it's just like it felt like too much all at once. Like which one do we choose? So I'm thinking about doing like a movie schedule for next year. And you guys know, I love my Christmas books. And I try to be really intentional when like with like if my kids, if I can tell my kids need one on one time or like instead of just like waking up in the morning and like turning on the TV, I say, go get a book under I keep my Christmas books under the Christmas tree for a little extra magic. I said, why don't you go to Christmas book and I'll read it to you guys this morning. Or like so I really try to get through my Christmas books. So we also read them multiple times again, so they get sick of it. I've had I've just been collecting Christmas books for the last several years. But you can go to your library and you can get Christmas books, like go to the library every week and get two Christmas books and read them a lot. Also, I bought a bunch of Christmas books after the season last year, when they were on like mega sale at Target, it was like three dollars for a brand new Christmas book. We also go to like half price books a lot in the thrift store. Like you can buy all those. Christmas books has been such a game changer for us. My kids, James specifically, just is obsessed with books and he needs about 15 books before bed. And so I'm so if I have to read Little Blue Truck rolls into the city one more time, I'm going to I'm going to. Oh, do you have Little Blue Truck Christmas edition? Yeah, Little Blue Truck Christmas isn't very good, though. In my opinion. That's that's not. So anyway, we pull I have so many Christmas books because I saw a real years ago that was like wrap one in each day under the tree. They can open it. That's actually not a good idea, in my opinion. Pull them all out at once. We have some in our main floor with some in James's room and. It's new material for me. It's new material for them. I love having seasonal books. I do agree. I don't like the rapid. That seems like an extra step. That seems like a fight every night. That seems like. I think it's like now they they're expect. They're expecting that they get to open something every day. Like it seems like unnecessary waste paper. I don't care for that. I love just pulling them all out. It does seem like Christmas pillowcases are a little harder to find than I was expecting. Oh, no, so sounds like Barb might be making them. OK, I found a couple. What about like Etsy? Like, could you support a small business? 100 percent, I could 100 percent. OK, well, that was really fun. Thank you for that, Kelly. Thank you for those reminders. And if you guys have any more like sound off, like, I mean, I'm looking to adapt. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. OK, are you ready for assumptions we have about you based on the car you drive? Christmas edition. You know it. So are we doing it? Am I giving you the car? No, let's just let's just go. I mean, you prepared some I prepared some. Let's just go back and forth and. Yeah, and say them. OK, I'll start. If you drive a Volkswagen Atlas, you got all of your Christmas shopping done on Black Friday. You secure the deals. Everything's coming. You're done. You're relaxing all of December. The Atlas people have. And if they're not done, like, don't take if you're not done, it's for good reason, you know, it's because they know that they had to get that in store or like it was more of a boutique type gift. Like it's like a one like sure, you're one off. You haven't gotten your mother in law one yet. Like sure, like everything else. They're Christmas gift spreadsheet people. They those are Alice people. That's that's an excellent take. Thank you. I have no notes. So just know if you are getting a gift from someone who has an Atlas, it's been bought for a while. OK, this one could be controversial, but it's not because I'm 100% right on this. If you drive a Toyota Sequoia. You're a colored light family. Yes, colored on the trees, colored on the house. You are into the colored lights. You're fun. You know what I mean? Well, you're like, I'm not buying into this neutral Christmas. Like you're trying to give the 90s the 90s flair. So like we're going color lights. We're going Jolly. We're going Mary. And it's color in a very classy way. It's color in a very. It's not an LED color. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, it's a nice color. Yeah. OK, if you drive a Chevy Traverse, your favorite Christmas movie is the Grinch. Like when you like you buy Grinch decor, like you have Grinch like Grinch is your is your favorite is your favorite Christmas movie. Traverse people are Grinch people. And it's not that you're not a Grinch. You're actually the opposite of a Grinch. No, like you're in the Jolly way, like you just love the movie, like you love the book, like you like the decorations, like you just like the Grinch. Yeah, you like made a real life. But what will I wow, like that's you. Yeah, your Chevy Traverse. OK, if you drive a Subaru, doesn't matter, doesn't matter, your maker model matters make. But if you drive a Subaru, you have a real Christmas tree. Yeah, you're just into that, you know, I mean, that's so I'm sorry. I have a Subaru this week and I've had such an urge to go out and get a real Christmas tree. Wow, that's crazy. Like I've driven into the outback for a total of 45 minutes and I'm already thinking about pulling over to the nearest Christmas tree stand. Like it's just I don't know what it is about there because I can start to go. Totally. Yeah, Subaru people love a real Christmas tree. They do. And that's great for them. OK, if you drive a Hyundai Palisade, your Christmas decorations have been up since like early November. Like November one, you are you're pulling the boxes out like goodbye Halloween. Hello Christmas. Yeah. Yeah, you really you you're soaking you're squeezing the orange. And if I could go a step further, I do think that on the exterior of their house, Hyundai Palisade people are white are white Christmas lights. They are white Christmas lights. I do agree. It has enough since November 1st. Depending on the trim of your Palisade, you may or may not have an inflatable, you know. Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, like calligraphies don't but like limited still. Yeah, you know what I mean? You just like totally tell. Totally. OK, Odyssey. If you drive an Odyssey, your favorite holiday tradition is decorating Christmas cookies, of course. Like that's just like so Odyssey coated. You though are a little you know, you've got it's you've been doing it with your grandma. You make like so many different types. It's your favorite tradition. You say it's your favorite tradition. It's really not. It's actually a day that's full of stress for you. And you also totally are the kind of person who won't share a recipe. Like you make the basics, like you make the Rolos, you make the little like snap pretzel ones, and then you have like the best chocolate chip cookie recipe. And when people ask you for it, you're like, oh, I'm sorry, I can't tell you. Yeah. And that's what you say. And you need to stop that. Share the cookie recipe. Share the cookie recipe. Or bring some. That's so that's so Odyssey. And you're so right. Like they so have just like incredible memories of doing it as a child. And now they're like, I have to recreate these memories. And they're just not as fun when you are the mom. But you're trying your hardest. And that's that's great. And your kids are loving it. OK, if you drive a Grand Highlander. You. Totally bought into the Ralph Lauren Christmas. It's that that everyone's doing this year. Like maybe like years ago, like the Grand Highlander. Totally. Maybe a few years ago, you bought like all the neutral Christmas, like you were a neutral Christmas girl. And now that Ralph Lauren Christmas is upon us, you. Platt is everywhere. You're tying red bows on every neutral Christmas decoration that you have. You are just trying to make the Ralph Lauren Christmas magic happen. That's so Grand Highlander, not the hybrid. Not the hybrid. I don't think the hybriders are doing that. I think the other ones are, though. Mm hmm. That's that's a really bold and specific one. Grand Highlander people weigh in, though. I'd like to know what you have to say. Yeah. Yeah. OK, last one. If you drive a navigator. You have multiple Christmas trees. And the Christmas trees have different themes on them. So you're not like quite as flash in the pan as Ralph Lauren. You never really left Ralph Lauren Christmas, if you know what I mean, if you're in the navigator space. You've never been a minimalist in terms of your Christmas decorations. And you have trees. You have trees in your kids bedrooms. You have trees in the living room. You have trees in like an office. You have a tree in the basement. Your exterior is pretty simple, like it's just simple white lights, but you also wrap your trees. But your interior is wow, wow, wow. Wow. Totally. Those are so good. I feel like I feel like those are 100 percent accurate. No, I'm feeling I'm I'm feeling it. Let us know if you disagree, but I'm feeling as though that those are spot on. Since you shared all of your Christmas tips, I want to share like two things. Actually, one is a free thing for Christmas magic. And another thing is like what my approach that me and my girlfriends are taking to like Christmas. I'll share the free thing first. So, you know, Maddie and I just renovated our house and we always seem to have like a big project going on. So we just tell each other like, hey, let's not do presents. Both of our birthdays are in December and Christmas is in December. So we just don't get each other anything. But something that I started for Maddie and I actually started this year for my kids as well is for Maddie, I went to Target and bought a notebook. And inside the notebook, I wrote like Dad's great big book of letters or something like that. And on his birthday on Father's Day and on Christmas. And if there's any other like special occasions that occur, I write him a letter. And I've like had the kids like I've like put Sloan's footprint in it, like when drew a Christmas tree around it. And I like had James like color and something and I taped it in there. And Maddie and I, since when we first met, he had he was deployed for 13 months. So like letters have been such a big part of our relationship. And the thing with letters is they're great and like I have them saved somewhere. But it's hard to like keep them all in one place. So I was like, we're already ready to show your letters. Let me get you a notebook. And through the years, you can easily access all letters I've written you. And you can see as the years go on, how the kids have been able to draw or have been able to write. And it's all in one place. And it's in a nice little book and we can put it on a shelf. I love that. So we do that. That's just important to us. I know letters aren't like for everyone, but like that checks our box. What I did for the kids is I kind of went a little bit, took an extra step and I ordered on Etsy custom notebooks, like with their names on them. So I want to like write a little letter to them each year and just sort of capture like my my thoughts for them as at two and one. And I don't know if they'll ever read it or not. But if they do like it, then that will be something really special for them to have. And if they don't, then it's a fun exercise for me to just like gush on my kids and just like love and just share my love in like that letter writing way. I love that. So that's sort of like the free thing that I'm free. Like you buy the notebook, but then it's free every year. The not free thing that me and my girlfriends are doing. We are every year going to do like a brunch or a dinner, just a little girls day. It's just three of us. And we were like, should we do gifts? Like, should we do Secret Santa? Like, what do we want to do? And my friend had the idea. She's like, why don't we just like get each other an ornament or some sort of Christmas decoration because we all are new households. Like we don't have this grand collection of Christmas decor. I'm not going to go out and spend $500 every year in Christmas decorations. Like I want to slowly build up my Christmas collection. And so that's what we're doing. So that's the theme is Christmas decor or Christmas ornament. And every year we're going to do this and we will slowly build up our Christmas decor. I love. See, I want to do something like that. Just like you just go out to like a nice brunch or a nice Christmas dinner. And it's the holidays. Like you wear your sweater. Oh, we even talk about the most obvious free one ever. It's the it's the holidays. So anything, any you just like whatever you're wearing, you add an earring to. Yeah. Like the just like constantly dressing up is the holidays constantly dressing up. So I just love that. Like I if my friends got me like a lip gloss, I would like love it. And I would use it. And then I would forget about it every year. I don't know what they got me out. We haven't had it yet, but I know what I got them every year. Like they're going to put. I don't know if they listen to the podcast or not. Well, just tell us. And if you're listening, don't listen. OK, the two girls. I got the honestly, I feel like my friends probably don't listen to the podcast because like who needs to hear me talk more? I got them a some tea, some like tea towels, like some candy cane tea towels. And then like a gingerbread light up house. Oh, so I kind of did like a little I kind of did like a little bit more. I spent like forty five dollars on both of them. OK, but they were really cute. And so now when they pull that gingerbread light up house out, they're going to think of me every year. It's not just like the flash in the pan lip gloss that I could have gotten them. That's sweet. That's sweet. OK, I have another Christmas tip, not even tip, a way that I'm spreading cheer. I've talked with this before, but let's go back to tipping culture for a second and how like, you know, it's so crazy that we're asked to tip. I think it's crazy that you're asked to tip like every time you get a coffee, every time like you order food, about a kiosk, like they're always asking for tips. And I feel like everyone's kind of like it's kind of over, like, because now we're just like so used to it. But. And I still will tip like here and there. What do you do? Do you tip every time or no? I tip most of the time. Most of the time you tip. I tip sometimes, but I make sure the month of December and the month of June. I tip the full 25 percent. That's just like and I just like so I actually don't really tip outside of those months. But during those months, every time I get a coffee, I'm tipping 25 percent because it's like it's the holidays. I want like I'm happy to spread a little cheer. So that's another thing that I do in December. OK, that's a good one. Definitely not free. Definitely not free. No. No, no, no, no, no, no. But no, it's a good rule of thumb. Like, OK, I'm not going to tip you in July for this. Like come December, you're going to get. You're going to get an extra tip. Well, and I don't know. I've been I'm getting less offended by it the more I see it. Also, like the coffee shops, the thing is, it's like I go to the same coffee shops a lot. So I actually like when I go to like when I go to my guy Hank, like, no, Hank gets a tip every time. Like I would never not tip Hank because like I need Hank to be saying business at all costs. But if it's like I'm going to a Starbucks on like a random Tuesday, like I don't know this barista from Adam, like I'm sorry, it's not December. Sorry, I'm not even you a tip. Yeah, like my rider dies at tip every time. OK. OK, are you ready for initial news where I spell the hot T1 on the auto industry? I sure am. But first of all, our press conference week was you're going to be gooped and gagged over it when you see it. I know you keep talking about it. Because it's the Subaru Outback, but she's been redesigned in such a way that's like. You know, the saying like that's what makes a Subaru a Subaru. Yeah, this is not a Subaru. Like it's not giving Subaru. It's way more comparable to like it's giving like it's kind of giving like a better looking like Ford Bronco Sport. If you can kind of imagine that. It's like less of a wagon style, more of like a boxier midsize SUV. I think you're going to like it. So is this a full blown redesign or have we just not seen it? No, it's a redesign. Sorry, Sam wrote me. Oh, my gosh, I have my notes from Sam before the tour. And she wants me to try to do three across. She says 55 inch second row hip room large, but has side bolsters and rigid buckles and weird variable seat height. What is any of those worth me? No, I know what they mean, but this is why it's so confusing. This is why you can't just be like like this is why you can't just this is why you just need experts. I mean, this is one of those things you just need experts for. She goes, I suspect a poplar gray copay will fit, but I'd like to see a my fit gray copoplar. I'd also like to see a peg gray copoplar. Like she's giving me all the same. It's 19 degrees outside and she was always combination. Sorry, Sam, you're going to get one. No, she'll get more than one. I need to bring it into my garage. OK, that wasn't like the hard hit. That wasn't our holiday story, though. OK, have you seen Chevy's 2025 holiday commercial? I have. I have. Memory Lane. Yeah, I'm not I'm not prepared for that. Chevrolet has developed a reputation for producing holiday commercials that can bring tears to even the toughest wrench turning gear heads. The 2025 Christmas commercial continues the tradition with precision. This year's spot titled Memory Lane leans heavily into nostalgia, family bonds in the passage of time in a way that feels grounded and relatable. The 2025 Memory Lane ad centers on an older couple taking their 1987 Chevy suburban on their annual holiday drive to the family cottage. Throughout the commercial, the suburban transforms from a winter beater into a time capsule as the couple drives the video flashes between decades and memories. The holiday commercial seamlessly transitions between eras and Chevy's creative team utilizes the familiar shape of the suburban as an emotional anchor in every scene. It's it's worth looking up. Nothing makes you like it makes you so thankful for the phase of life that you're in right now, because you're like, OK, I will take the blowout in the backseat. Like, yeah, it's. You're going to cry. No, but it it did get me. It's just like I love it, but I also like hate things that remind me that this isn't forever. Well, that's what I'm saying. I need more. The best is yet to come. I just feel like I'm in the part of my life and this is what I and I just think this is maybe I am and maybe I just need to learn with that reality. But just you go your whole life being like just wait, like the best is yet to come and then everyone's like, you're going to want these days back. And I'm like, well, I thought the best was yet to come. And now is this the best? Because it sucks. You know, I do think someone who who someone who can tell you that the best is yet to come is mom, because I do think she is thriving. And I do think that she has a like the other day I FaceTime turned out, which is like in the basement with with with my kids. And, you know, they were just playing and she was, oh, I remember the basement days. Janice and I would just spend so long on each other's basements. It sucked. OK, mom, what's that bad? I'm not having like that terrible of a time spending time with my kids. Yeah. Well, you know, you just got to get what you can. You just have to not take moments for granted, but you have to be able to. You have to have the. The moments are going to pass and you have to. I don't know, I don't wake it over it. I don't know. I mean, that's what mom says. She's like, I did that like and I loved it and it was great. And like you just. That's just not the light. That's just not how life works. Like I think if you I think it's important when you are older and you like your kids are in the house to like have hobbies and to have friends and to have things to do because I think if you don't have those things, then you're going to forever be like, oh, well, my life was so much better back then. And it's like it was it was just different. But luckily, like mom and dad have like so many hobbies. They have a wonderful relationship. They have a ton of friends and that fills their cup. Well, and I think it goes back to it's. I think when you when you're a parent to young kids, you have such purpose. Yeah, like even if other aspects of your life, you don't feel like you have purpose, like even if you don't have a ton of friends or you don't have a great career, you don't have any of these things, you have the kids and like the kids are your purpose. And I do think you have to be mindful about not totally setting your life up to solely revolve around your kids. And that's that's a hard that's a hard truth, I think, to hear sometimes. And I fall victim to it a lot. But when they're grown, what are you going to who are you going to be? Maddie and I say that a lot. I mean, and I know we only have two kids and everything, but like we've always said that it's important that even when we have kids that we both have hobbies. And so if he needs to go play rugby or if he needs to do like once this remain in the Marine Corps or I want to go do yoga or I need to do go see hang out with my girlfriends, like we really try and prioritize that for each other because we don't want to wake up one day and our kids are grown and we're like we have nothing that fills our cup. Like we want to have some constant and for him, it's like, oh, it's console. He won't be able to play rugby forever. But for me, oh, I can still go do my yoga. Like I've been doing that for so long or I can spake or whatever. It's just it's important to have hobbies and it's important to prioritize each other's hobbies. The best way you can. And those hobbies can be micro hobbies. Like that is OK. They don't have to be these like big full blown like you're into fishing. Yeah. But keep doing the things that you enjoy. And I think I also do think I think young married couples are married couples with young kids. You always get the advice like make sure you're getting in a date night. And it's yes. Also, make sure to your point, you're getting some time to go work on something that you want to do. Because I actually think that is something that gets forgot about. And then these couples just like try to put the band down like, well, let's just go to dinner. If we go to dinner every week, things are going to be fine. And it's like, well, no offense, what are you going to talk about? So I actually think it could be better to like not put so much pressure on like the weekly date nights, but put more pressure on like the weekly. Hobbies, the weekly things that you want to do. And then, you know, still still try to get in the date nights. But I just I don't know. I think there's too much pressure on that or find a hobby to do together. Yeah. Sometimes I just feel like Tyler and I will like I like schedule a date night and we'll go to dinner. And it's like this sounds bad, but like it didn't really do much for me because it's like we just talk. Like, I don't know. We talked. I want to go do something, you know. Well, we've talked. We've we've talked about this a long time ago, but like it's creating new memories. Like if you just go out to dinner, you're not necessarily creating a new memory. But like if you do something different, if you try something new, if you like do something together, there's a higher chance you're going to create a memory and you're not just going to remember like having a cocktail and sharing an appetizer and like talking about your kids the entire time. Yeah, like stretch yourself. Go out of your comfort zone. Tyler and I this weekend are actually doing this because we are playing something called dart ball tomorrow. Oh, I don't know what this is. I don't know what it is, but we're in a dart ball tournament for our church. And I don't. I'm friends with this girl and she's very much every friends with her. She keeps you busy, you know what I'm saying? Like she's actually the perfect friend to have because it's like she's signing up for committees you didn't even know existed. You're like, oh, yeah, I know I'm a part of that. And we're on her dart ball team and it's adults only. And I guess it's kind of like washers. I need to actually if you don't mind, I'm just going to do a quick Google because I do think it's kind of crazy. I do think it's important for you to look it up before you get there. You're doing that tomorrow. Well, I'm doing it Saturday, but yeah, by the time this podcast comes out, it'll be tomorrow. So it's kind of like baseball. And OK, so it's like baseball. It's like baseball with darts. So this is what the board looks like. And then you throw a giant dart at it. OK, sure. OK. Anyway, so I'm hoping we make a fun memory from that. Stay tuned. OK, I love that. OK, are you ready for a ditch the drive thrower now? Will we give you a dinner recipe to make it up to get you out of your dinner rut? That ditch the drive thrower? Mm hmm. Yeah, I'm ready. OK, well, you heard it. I teased it a bit. Ramen bowls. Now, I think it's important, speaking of cheap. I for I like ramen noodles. Like, first of all, my kids love them and they're so fun to have every once in a while. I'm sure they have a ton of sodium. That's not the point of this recipe. But I have to have meat with every meal. Like, we just need more protein in my life. So last year for Christmas, I made sassy ramen bowls. And now they weren't very sassy because my kids are like so kiddy still. But I had a chuck roast. I had beef ramen. And so we just put like some of the beef in the ramen bowls. And then I could take mine up a notch. I could add mushrooms. I could do a chili oil. I could do green onions. I could add a soft boiled egg, throw some extra soy sauce in there. And it was just like a fun. It kind of felt lighter in a way, because it's just like a soupy broth, like with some meat in it. The kids loved it. I was together in minutes because I already had the chuck roast. Chuck roast made. And I think it'd be a great. Or for some reason, I just feel like any Asian inspired food on Christmas is fun. Also, Asian restaurants are normally open on Christmas. So if you don't even want to like cook, yeah, if you want to just go to the right room, but take out or maybe make it the tradition, like go get the Trader Joe's orange chicken and fried rice. I just think it's kind of like a fun and different flavor profile, at least for me. Like I've eaten so much like American homegrown, like hams and turkeys throughout the last month that it's like I'm ready for just like something totally different. Like if I could somehow figure out how to get sushi in my life, I would. Mm hmm. So, yeah, that's my dish to drive. That's a good idea. I would love to do that. That sounds delicious. Now, your Chuck roast, how are you? How are you like seasoning enters? It's like a Mississippi roast. Like, what are you doing? No, I just do like a salt pep. OK. Because then I kind of like. Yeah, sure. Butter and the crock pot. Oh, I'm sorry. I do the azu gravy mix, but I didn't do the ranch. OK, OK, OK, OK. Got it. Yeah, that sounds really good. I want to make a roast. I just think it's important to have a Chuck roast. Like make a Chuck or just plan a Chuck roast around the Christmas season. It's so versatile, to be honest with you. Yeah, yeah, it is. OK, well, guys, that's going to be our episode. So thank you so much for listening to the Carpool podcast. Hope that there were a lot of tangible takeaways. We'll talk to you next time. Mary Chrysler. Thank you for listening to the Carpool podcast with Kelly and Liz. Make sure you're subscribed so you never miss an episode. And if you enjoyed riding with us, tell everybody you know, there's room in the car for everyone.