The Christmas Pickle and Other Heartwarming Holiday Traditions

Speaker 1: 0:07

Hello cuties, I'm getting cozy. Last episode I was sitting so uncomfortably Well, because Albi had joined me and then she left and then I was just like sitting on the edge of my chair and I was like so uncomfortable, and so I remembered that. And this episode I'm sitting comfy, we're crossing our legs, we're getting cozy. Also, if you're on YouTube wearing my fun festive headband, I bought this headband for an all-black party that I had to go to and had to. I was happy to go to it, but I had to wear all black and I don't have a lot of like full black outfits. I actually have one full black like sweat. It's not even a sweatsuit, but it is like a matching set, but it's like loungey, casual and it was a party to go to, and so it was like evening and I was like it was a house party, but I was like I don't want to wear that loungey suit. If I have to, I will, but also it's in the laundry, so I'll have to do the wash. Blah, blah, blah. I actually ended up buying these like silky pajamas and I've worn them now twice out with this headband as like a festive outfit. It's kind of like my favorite thing in the world. It's just like a pair of silky black pajamas that have like frilly sleeve and frilly pant, leg like ends just like the last few inches of it, and I love it. It's so comfy and I feel like you wouldn't know they were pajamas. So I'm telling you my secret they're cute, but it's like my. It's become my holiday uniform, basically, and it's just so fun. But anyways, I'm wearing the headband today. I was like let's get extra festive in our festive podcasting uniform and whenever I wear this headband, ro always looks at me and she says, oh, we're being princesses today because it's kind of like crown-esque. She's so cute. I love her. But welcome back to Five Years Time Podcast with your host, grace.

Speaker 1: 1:59

Happy Sunday. This feels so nostalgic to when I used to do Sunday resets. Who was here for the Sunday resets? We used to do our little tidbit of a podcast to get you through your week. Oh, my gosh, it's all coming back to me, the little saying I would say at the beginning, but so fun. Anyways, today is day five, is it day five? Yes, five, six, five. We're thrown off anyways. Um of 12 days. I'm pretty sure it's five. Yeah, day five of 12 days of Christmas and I am so excited that you're here. I hope you're having so much fun.

Speaker 1: 2:36

I'm having so much fun and today we are talking all about holiday traditions, which I actually threw up a question box on my Instagram at Five Years Time Podcast and asked you all to share your holiday traditions. I just screenshot at them all and I like read one or two quickly while I was screenshotting them and I'm so excited like to read them because the one or two I read I was like, oh my gosh, those all seem like so much fun and I'm so excited to get into it, because I did speak a little bit at the beginning of 12 Days of Podmas, um, on episode one or two, about how stressed I used to feel, um, at the beginning of my motherhood journey journey, when it was Rose first Christmas, and I even like in my the beginning of my wifeing journey, like starting my own family journey, like I just feel like I didn't know what traditions I wanted to bring with me. Like, yeah, there's, because there's still traditions that we participate with Trevor's family and with our family, or, like my family, my mom and brother, so those are still true to those family aspects. But like, what traditions did me and Trevor want to have and like especially them. When we had row, what were the traditions we wanted to implement? And I felt overwhelmed and then all of a sudden, I realized, like you know what traditions are? Something that kind of just evolve over time.

Speaker 1: 3:53

Yes, of course, you can decide like, yes, I want to do this tradition and put the effort in every year, but for me, what I found is that it's like all of a sudden, especially now that Rose getting older, it's like, oh yeah, like this is something that we've done, uh, the past couple years or we've done more years than not and slowly, like, traditions are starting to evolve, and I mean they will be forever changing, I'm sure, but I'm not putting pressure on me, but asking for all of your traditions have really helped spark some imagination and creativity in me, and also just ideas and things that I might want to use as well and also just maybe remind me of things that we used to do. So, and that was literally from me reading two things that you guys said, but I'm so excited to read all of them. So today we're talking all about holiday tradition and I am here to tell you that it doesn't need to be extravagant. The small things, the little things and the feelings that they emote. Is emote like a word? That means to like. Let's look at emote meaning meaning like, exude, exist, create, okay, emote may refer to early modern english abbreviated emote emote. Uh, what? Okay, no, maybe emote isn't a word. Emote, emote. Emote to give expression to emotion, especially in acting. Okay, emote with a T. Anyways, to create we're on our education kick, yeah, but something that it's all about just the feelings that they create in our life and something that you get to share with other people. So I'm so excited, let's like hop right in, because I just want to read these so bad I got to pull up my screenshots. I think I'm going to try and start from like the first to the last in that order. But okay, here we go. And also, I'd love to know if any of these are things that you do as well and okay.

Speaker 1: 5:56

So Chinese food Christmas Eve with my hubby's side oh, I love that. That's literally identical. That's something that Trevor's family does is they always do Chinese on Christmas Eve and we don't always go to their house for Christmas Eve. Now that we are, I feel like when I was younger I younger, I feel like when me and Trevor were dating, I used to spend Christmas Eve with his family, but now that we're married, the way that we have it working is we do Christmas Eve with my mom and brother, because my brother will come and stay at my mom's or our house, depending so we'll do Christmas Eve together and then we can go to church and have Christmas Eve when we do our derbs, which we've always done. Actually, I remember now oh my gosh, I'm reopening a memory I actually used to do Christmas Eve with everyone. I would do Christmas Eve with Trevor's family, like I would. I think I would go to church with his family and then they would have their Chinese food and then I would rush home to my family and I would do movies. We always watch White Christmas and we have hors d'oeuvres. Yes, but that is what Trevor's family does is they do Chinese food on Christmas Eve and, yeah, I love that. Now we do hors d'oeuvres with my mom and brother. Okay, oh my gosh, cuties.

Speaker 1: 7:16

This next one we watch Wallace and Gromit on Christmas morning every year. Oh, that is just so much warmth in my heart. Wallace and Gromit was such a huge part of my childhood and I feel like I'm so happy it's getting. It's like heyday over here with like all of the reboot and sheep what are the sheeps called? John the sheep and stuff like that. But Wallace and Gromit was such a big part of my childhood. I love that. Oh my gosh, when they eat the Jacobs crackers with the moon cheese, I need to watch Wallace and Gromit.

Speaker 1: 7:50

I actually haven't watched like traditional Wallace and Gromit with Ro, and my favorite toys that we got I think we actually got them for Christmas growing up that my dad had brought back from Ireland was these little Wallace and Gromit houses that came in like a suitcase almost, so it was like this little briefcase that you unfolded and it was like a little Wallace and Gromit doll house essentially, and me and my brother both had one and we were obsessed, so fun. I love that. Opening one gift on Christmas Eve I feel like that's a classic for people too. We don't do that, but we do. Now that we're married. We do do my mom and brother's gifts on Christmas Eve. So now we do, I guess, but we open more than one because there's more than one of us. So we do our gifts on Christmas Eve. I guess I should say what our Christmas makeup is.

Speaker 1: 8:48

So how we have it working right now, which works really well for us, is that Christmas Eve is we usually go to the earlier church service because of Ro and then Christmas Eve day is pretty chill. My mom is now retired so she doesn't work, but pretty much we used to. Always we all worked on Christmas Eve. I don't think this year Trevor's going to be working on Christmas Eve, my mom is not and I'm not, so we're going to have Christmas Eve off, which is going to be so fun. But usually we used to all work on Christmas Eve, so it was just evening we would.

Speaker 1: 9:20

Since me and Trevor got married, we do gifts, so we'll do my mom, my brother, trevor, me and Ro will do all of our gifts that are like them, not like Christmas morning Rosie, me, trevor gifts giving just the people that are there. That makes sense. And then we make our derv. So like any boxed goodies and yesterday's rest of the that I shared, which was our bangers and mash, we usually make that bangers and mash in a blanket. We usually make that on Christmas Eve and we watch white Christmas and my brother usually likes to put on white Christmas the Muppets and he'll go into movies and movies into the night. I eventually go to sleep, like I go to sleep pretty early. I usually try and just watch white Christmas. Sometimes I fall asleep during that. The past couple years I fall in asleep while putting wrote a bed and woken up at like three in the morning and like, oh I gotta go Santa the gift out. Thankfully I woke up before Rosie did. Yeah, so anyways, that's like our Christmas Eve and then our Christmas is.

Speaker 1: 10:19

Usually we wake up, we have our Christmas morning and Trevor always makes his eggs Benedict. That's something he's carried over, I believe, from his family is that was their morning deliciousness. Where my growing up we always just did really simple breakfast that my mom would put like a platter together and we would have like croissants and coffee and tea and some yogurt, just stuff like that. But yeah, so we now do eggs Benedict and I feel like I still usually put a snack and platter together just because it's part of me, and then we go, we do our Christmas morning gifts, everything like that, and then we go to my side of the family's Christmas. So, like my aunts and my cousins, we do like a brunch at whoever the aunts and uncles rotate between hosting it and that usually leads us closer to Trevor's parents because they all live in that direction, and so then we go to the brunch and then after the brunch, we drive to Trevor's parents and we have Christmas dinner and gifts with them and we spend the evening there. Sometimes we sleep over, sometimes we don't, because the next day is boxing day and, yeah, that's like our Christmas makeup. It works out really well for us right now and for, like, all of our families and Trevor's families, because we're the only married people, so we're the only family right now that really needs to like accommodate two sides. But I I'm excited to see how it evolves and changes as everyone has serious relationships or gets married or whatever.

Speaker 1: 11:46

Okay, back to other people's traditions. We always build a gingerbread house and drive around looking at Christmas lights with a Starbucks. Oh, that's so cute. I love, I love that. I love driving around to look at Christmas lights. There's one neighborhood me and Trevor used to always go and look at the Christmas lights and I was actually just talking to him about it, so maybe we'll do it this year, but that's so fun.

Speaker 1: 12:11

Family game night on New Year's Eve love a game night. If you listen to my hosting 101. You know how much I love an activity. We all put two dollars into a pot and play a bunch of games. Whoever wins the most games wins oh, I love that. A little gambling no, I love that. That's so fun. Ooh, I feel like I want to up the ante. Trevor's friends are so obsessed with like going to casinos. Right now they're in such a casino kick. They went to Vegas last winter and now they like love participating in a little gambling activities, so that sounds like so much fun. I feel like we should do that this year. That would be a fun time.

Speaker 1: 12:49

As a kid, my mom created a Christmas Eve treasure hunt of sorts every year. That is so cute. I love that. We do that for Easter Always. A little I feel like everyone does that for Easter but like a little Easter hunt to find your basket. My parents hide a pickle ornament on the tree and whoever finds it opens the first gift. I feel like I've heard about this pickle ornament before and that's actually so ironic that you mentioned this, but I feel like I remember hearing about that. I'm not sure where that comes from. I want to know the history, but today we were at Canadian Tire picking up a stand for the tree and I was looking at the ornaments and someone had just went and grabbed a pickle ornament and I was like, ooh, I wonder if they're doing the hide the ornament. So fun. Okay, let me go to the next page.

Speaker 1: 13:41

Having a day to eat sweets and watch Xmas movies Love it. That's like our Christmas Eve for me and my mom and brother, just eating yummy food and watching Christmas movies. I love it. I love the whole day just spending time chillaxing and eating and just chilling. It's so fun, I love it.

Speaker 1: 14:03

Christmas Eve matching pajamas yes, actually, we have added that in as a tradition my mom has for us. My mom every year buys me Trevor Roe and the dog, which is Rosie's favorite thing. She absolutely. It is like her face when we put on her new Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve and Alibi's matching ones, because there's a store here that you can get dog matching pajamas to. Like your family matching pajamas. Roe freaks out like she is ecstatic. Yeah, so fun.

Speaker 1: 14:33

Sugar cookie decorating to set out Christmas Eve. Movie night on Christmas Eve yes, movie night on Christmas Eve Totally. Sugar cookie decorating, that's so good. Oh my gosh. Yeah, cookie decorating. I don't think we've set out cookies yet for Santa. This is probably going to be the first year where Roe would really understand that, so that is an excellent idea. I got to bring that out on Christmas Eve Eve, so the Eve before the Eve, my inlaw side does a gingerbread house decorating contest with a Chinese dinner Delicious, I love it.

Speaker 1: 15:04

I love anything that is an activity that brings people together. Our extended family gets together to watch a small town Santa Claus parade, then enjoy the day together. That's cute. That's for my aunt. Yes, we do. That's our new tradition. Officially, I said we've done it now two years in a row and it's so fun, it's very hallmark. Oops, okay, oh, since I moved to Canada, not much, to be honest, I do miss home a lot and traditions we have. Oh, it's so hard, like starting something new. I feel that too. I feel like I'm just trying to figure out what our like tradition traditions are and also I feel like now that Rose getting older, I think she'll be more participant, like more aware of what's going on and look forward to each tradition, like she'll be aware of what it is.

Speaker 1: 15:55

There's definitely can, it can definitely feel lonely at times when you enter this new, when you enter a new phase of life and transitioning, driving around looking at Christmas lights with hot cocoa and elf on a shelf. Elf on a shelf go you. I never have done elf on a shelf. We used to do it with the kids and I always think like, thank you teachers, thank you to the educators out there who do the elf on the shelf I don't think Ro knows what it is. So we're safe, we're safe. But I think, if that's like your love language and your fun, like you love getting creative that way, so much fun. And I do love driving around looking at Christmas lights, okay, okay.

Speaker 1: 16:36

Uncle's Xmas Eve with Chinese auction, xmas Day, parents House Okay, I feel like that's Chinese food, not auction, but maybe Okay. But uncle's on Christmas Eve with Chinese food and on X on Christmas Day at our parents' house with breakfast and oh and name, exchange gifts. Love, a good secret Santa we do. We do at my family's like brunch on Christmas Day, we do what is it called Like a secret Santa, but you don't know their names.

Speaker 1: 17:10

White elephant, is that it when you like pull numbers out of a hat. That being said, I need to find my white elephant gift this year. I feel like every year I always forget about it. But last year I got us a mic. It was so fun. It was like one of those mics that I don't know what the purpose of it is, but it's just like a mic and you can do different sound effects and it's like USB connects and maybe you can use it for like karaoke. I don't know. But anyways, I just thought it would be fun and it ended up like going around the room. People really were into it and people really hated it at the same time because they thought it was annoying. Okay, as a kid we were allowed to open three gifts on Christmas Eve. Three gifts on Christmas Eve Wow, that's amazing. We do polar express night on Christmas Eve with real hot cocoa. Yum, I love the real hot chocolate.

Speaker 1: 17:58

Although we do fun stuff with our tree decorations, this year we are painting our own ornaments. I love that. Rosie was at the library the other day and they were doing ornament making workshop and she was having such a good time. I love good old homemade ornaments and I feel like that's why I love my going to my mom's and seeing her tree, because it has all our ornaments like made out of life saver candies from 1999, like so old. I love it.

Speaker 1: 18:23

Okay, going to Grayson Travers Is this you telling me that you want to come? This is for my best friend. Yeah, I was actually just saying to Trevor, like this year we usually do every year we usually do like a big thing where we get everyone together, but this year I was saying we should focus on just having people over in small groups and doing more of like an intimate gathering with people multiple times, like little dinners here and there, but I have not planned any of them yet and I feel like this is the time of year where it's like everyone's already busy. So I'm just going to throw it out there. But, yes, going to Grayson Travers, love it, I hope you come again.

Speaker 1: 19:00

Opening Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve yes, it's so fun. We watch Christmas vacation and eat chips and dip on Christmas Eve every year. Love it, chips and dip is probably my favorite food. Take my daughter to the dollar store and she gets to pick out two gifts for kids less fortunate and we donate. I love it, I love it. Do they still do the shoebox donations? That was such a big part of my childhood. I remember we everyone got our shoeboxes and we go to the dollar store and get all the all the requested items for the shoeboxes. Oh, and she added on that that was to the Salvation Army toy drive. Secret Santa, I love Secret Santa.

Speaker 1: 19:40

Every Christmas morning I make eggs Benedict for myself and my two daughter daughters love it. Yes, trevor makes the best eggs bunny on Christmas, or just like in general. His eggs bunny are so good. He's so good at poaching eggs. Whole Christmas, whole day of Christmas cookie making with my mom and aunt. It's my fave day ever. I love that. Last year we did that me, my mom and a family friend. Why are we making so many cookies? Oh, for the Christmas cookie boxes, and it was so fun and it was so sticky.

Speaker 1: 20:13

We are Cuban, slash Colombian American and do a huge family party Christmas Eve night. Oh, I love it. I love Christmas Eve parties. I feel like Christmas Eve is really where it's at, like you got to embrace the Christmas Eve. I replace our everyday photos with Christmas photos from years past. Oh, I love it. We live near the beach, so a walk on the beach oh, my gosh, give me a walk on the beach for Christmas. I want it. My mom and I bake, plus my granny before she passed on. I love the mems for four days A 13 year tradition going strong. Wow, that is a lot of baking. I absolutely adore it.

Speaker 1: 20:54

My husband and I get each other an ornament every year. Oh, I love that. Yeah, me and Trevor have. I think we have one. We have our wedding ornament I'm trying to think of. We've gotten each other ornaments at any point. But we did get a couple new ornaments this year that I'm obsessed with. Row picks them out. Oh, christmas pickle on the tree. First one to find it gets a treat. Oh, this one does a treat. Kids get new ornament every year when decorating tree, when they move out enough for their own tree. Oh my gosh, that is so cute. I'm not even ready to do that. I love that.

Speaker 1: 21:30

Daughter gets a new pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve. One day. Quilt for me to keep with all of them oh my gosh, you are the literal cutest. This person is a planner. I love that. The quilt I never thought of that. I feel like I've been donating our pajamas so I'm behind. I can start because we do get to do the new Christmas pajamas. Actually, trevor actually has every single pair of his only pajamas. Pretty much is his Christmas he has. Like how long has my mom been doing this for us since we had row. So this is like our third or fourth I don't know on the year of Christmas because she's a winter baby. Anyways, we, I love the new ornament, so he has the patterns so I could keep that.

Speaker 1: 22:14

Chinese food on Christmas Eve. I feel like that's such a classic pickle in the tree. I want to know what your pickle in the tree does, because they don't say what it gets you. Oops, sorry, I zoom this in way too close. Gingerbread house on Christmas Eve. Kinder eggs and stockings yes, kinder eggs and stockings designated ornaments that a certain person puts up every year. I love that. That's fun. And kinder eggs and stockings remind me of orange. We used to always have an orange growing up in our stocking. Now I feel like I just want to Terry's chocolate orange. That's like my number one Christmas love and I love those. All that's so sweet. Some of them are so sentimental and like are going to pay off in like a long run. The quilt I can't imagine. And I love the. I love how a lot of them overlap and I love that Chinese is such a big one.

Speaker 1: 23:08

I feel like it's one of those times where Christmas Eve is one of those things where I love the idea of like going, not hard, but like having like the socials on Christmas Eve and enjoying and really like embracing, because Christmas Day then is just like so relaxing and slow, which our Christmas is a little bit like Bippity Boppity Boo, because we go from one place to the next place to the next place, but in that sense it's like it's not, it's honestly so slow motion, because I, my family, is really small, it's not a lot of us, it's less than 20 at our like Christmas brunch and it's very relaxing. We're all just hanging out, eating delicious food and chillin on the couch. Like it's very fun and not like I feel like it doesn't really use up too much of your social battery. And then we do have our slow morning where we just slowly open gifts, and so it's so funny because I'm someone who like wants to wake up first thing in the morning and open the gifts. And then I feel like Trevor is someone who always will love a nice lie and like I'm such a, it's not even like I want to open the gifts, like I just want to get the day started when I wake up and Rose gonna wake up anyways. She's always up every day by 530. And so we're both awake. And last year she could have she didn't know like to go downstairs was gonna be gifts. This year, I feel like she'll wake up and she's like let's go downstairs. So she'll want to wake Trevor up. But then I think it's more fun when we give Trevor time to like wake up than him just being like half asleep. Well, we're doing Christmas because he should be present and enjoying it as well, right? So it's like such a hard little battle. But and by battle I mean it's really not a battle, but it just reminds me of like I feel like when you get older, when your kids get older, like Christmas becomes later and later in the day.

Speaker 1: 24:57

But for me it's always been first thing and like a tradition growing up. That we did was we would wake up and we were allowed to open our stockings before our parents were awake. So we could me and my brother could open our stockings and then sometimes he would just go back to bed and then I would just go chill with my stocking stuff and then we would do gifts a little bit later in the morning. So that's also a good one, but I want to be there for everything, like I want to see it all and I'm awake anyways. Roe comes right to me. She's like mom, it's morning time, we're awake, let's do it.

Speaker 1: 25:25

I closed my thing before my iPad before I even did our recipe of the day, but I'm feeling super like nostalgic with a lot of those traditions and I love a bunch of them for moving forwards and I feel like I miss at this time where it's like I'm trying to get more thoughtful with what our like actual immediate family traditions are. And then I also I'm so happy that I put no pressure on us, because now it's like how long have me and Trevor been married? I'm not even sure. I think it's six years, but now it's like six years later into our marriage and we do have traditions that we've been implementing every year. I feel like when we were married, we never did. Maybe we did do Christmas once at our own house, but I feel like we would always sleep over at one of our parents' houses and like partake in their family because it was just the two of us. But now, with Roe, we always try and do Christmas in our house. I think we stayed at my mom's once and did Christmas morning. Oh no, that was before we had Roe, but with Roe we've always done Christmas morning in our own house. So we've started doing that as like a Christmas staple is to go to bed in our beds and wake up in our house and have our special like intimate Christmas morning with just the three of us, and I really do appreciate that. It is something special and so, yeah, I just love all of the Christmas traditions.

Speaker 1: 26:42

I'm gonna look up the Christmas pickle tonight. Actually, why don't we look it up today? Because I just wanna learn more about where the Christmas pickle came from. Christmas pickle, okay. Christmas pickle history. Why'd you be like? I don't know what you're talking about, but we had at least three people mention it. Okay, during medieval times, two Spanish boys traveling home for the holidays from their boarding school oh my gosh. Okay, not that, that was a horror. Sorry, I'm laughing. It's not funny at all. Okay, don't search Christmas pickle history. Is that what that has to do with it? What? Okay, I'm not gonna continue reading that because it's tragedy and I don't believe that Christmas pickle ornament history. Do you ever find something? You're like what the heck? Okay, here we go, here we go. Okay, oh my gosh. I just had like shock from that article that I just read. Okay, world traditions A German tree trimming tradition.

Speaker 1: 27:49

The pickle ornament is very special to German families. After the decoration, or after they decorate their tree, parents hide the pickle ornament among the bows. Is that what the arms of the trees is called? When children see the decorated tree for the first time, they hunt for the hidden ornament, knowing that the lucky child who finds it will receive an extra little gift from St Nicholas. What other traditions will you discover next? I love it. So it comes from Germany. Very cool.

Speaker 1: 28:20

According to one legend, yeah, german-american soldier, oh my gosh. Okay, whoa. There's even more history into it. According to one legend, it was inspired by a German-American soldier who was taken prisoner during the Civil War. Starving, he begged a guard to give him one last pickle before he died. The pity pickle gave him the mental and physical strength to live on. Well, isn't that a lovely story, and I love that. It was a pickle that gave the mental strength, but it's like a one last pickle before he died oh my gosh, for good luck. The pickle always was the last ornament to be hung on the tree, with mother and father hiding it in the green bows among the other ornaments. When the children were allowed to view the splendor of the decorated tree on Christmas morning, they would gleefully begin searching for the pickle ornament. Okay, so there's the Polish version. Who puts the pickle in the tree? Okay, vaguely German, it's okay. So German, polish, very fun. Oh, I love learning new things.

Speaker 1: 29:27

The untold story of the Christmas pickle ornament, a Martha Stewart article. You know I do love a Martha Stewart article. What does she have to say? It's kind of a big deal. At my house Every Christmas Eve our halls and trees are decked from top to bottom. Just trying to see if I can sum it up the story behind the Gherkin themed game for years people believed that a Christmas pickle tradition was passed down through the generations from old world, germany.

Speaker 1: 29:53

Other people believe the pickle is an honor of an American Civil War soldier who was saved from starvation on Christmas Eve by eating a pickle. I'm just loving this story. Still others believe that the tradition was something to do with St Nicholas saving two boys who were oh okay, so the original story does have to do with that, okay. Still others believe that the tradition has something to do with St Nicholas saving two boys who were trapped in a barrel of pickles. Okay, so the first thing I looked up when I saw the Christmas thing let me see if I can find that article again Christmas pickle pickle history. It said during medieval times, two Spanish boys traveling home from the holidays from their boarding school were killed by the innkeeper where they were staying. The innkeeper hid their bodies in a pickle barrel, and so then, if I paste that together with what they're saying, it's that Santa or St Nicholas found the bodies, but I feel like they were killed, so I don't think he saved them. I'm not sure. Anyways, it is a tradition that comes out of tragedy, whether it be the saving pickle or the pickle barrel. Oh, it's interesting. Thank you for the history lesson, google.

Speaker 1: 31:06

Okay, so let's get into our recipe of the day Cuties. Oh my gosh. This recipe is such a fun one and didn't enter my life until Trevor entered my life, because I think it was a big part of, like my mom's childhood, but never part of our family functions that I remember growing up. No one ever made it and brought it, but anytime I talk about it, my mom is always like vangirling over it. So I feel like it was part of her life, her generation. And then also, that being said, we did have unique things growing up but we didn't bring it to. I haven't told you what it is yet, but we didn't bring it to family holidays, we would just make it ourselves.

Speaker 1: 31:45

But the second I started dating Trevor, he would, every family holiday always had a fancy Jell-O. So I feel like there's so many different kinds but, like you know, the Jell-O with the shredded carrot or the cranberries or whatever, it's just full of stuff. Ambrosia salad, which is like basically like a Jell-O-Wee fruity whip, creamy, sour, creamy mayo. It's a weird combination salad but like fancy Jell-O. And I had to do fancy Jell-O this year because it's one of Trevor's absolute favorite.

Speaker 1: 32:14

I personally am not like a huge lover of items in my Jell-O. The most unique or like texture I get with my Jell-O, which I was saying earlier that we would make growing up, was like the three layer Jell-O. You buy a pack and I'm not sure what it's called, but it kind of you mix it in a certain way and it, when it sets, it's in three layers, like the Jell-O layer, the moose layer and like a foamy layer. I'm trying to think of what the third layer is. But it's Jell-O, moose and foaminess and it was so fun. I loved that Jell-O growing up but, like I never liked like the carrots in my Jell-O. I just wasn't a fan. But you know what, now that I'm older maybe I would like it. Sometimes your texture buds change, like you get more confident in what you enjoy. So we're making fancy Jell-O because I know that Trevor will appreciate it so much.

Speaker 1: 33:04

I think it's such a big part of his childhood and his family get togethers. And I actually got gifted a traditional Jell-O mold for my aunt which they use. I think it's like a like. I don't even know how old it is. I want to say it's like 40 years old or whatever and so I'm going to use the classic Jell-O mold to make the most fun traditional fancy Jell-O. So if you love a fancy Jell-O or have never participated or just want to see the fun unfold because I've never used it and I've never used a mold, then go check out that video. It'll be on my Instagram. It'll be on my TikTok at Five Years Time podcast. I'll put it up here on YouTube as well. I want to make it as available for everybody who, on whatever platforms you use. But I'm so excited and maybe that will become one of my traditions Now that I have the mold is to make a fancy Jell-O every year.

Speaker 1: 33:56

That being said, I'd love to know what kind of fancy Jell-Os you use Are you make? Because I feel like there's so many different ones and they're so specific to everyone's flavors, our flavors, families, like Trevor's. One has one that has it's red and I feel like it has I want to say it's cranberries in it, but I feel like it's not. I don't know. I got to look it up because I'm a red Jell-O cutie. I love red Jell-O, but that is our recipe of the day.

Speaker 1: 34:24

As we go into week two of our I mean, I know it's not technically week based, but as we go into week two of our pod mess, I always want to say vlog mess. Also, I've ended up sitting in my uncomfy way again. Cutie, you got to always check me Be like, sit comfortable. There you go.

Speaker 1: 34:42

But as we head into week two, being that tomorrow's Monday, I would love to hear some feedback on how you're enjoying the podcast, if there's any topics that you specifically want us to talk about. I do have some really good things coming up. We're going to be hitting on some important topics this upcoming week and I'm going to be really digging deep into my childhood Christmas, which I'm so excited about. I love reliving memories and reliving traditions and family and fun and friends, family and fun and friends. But just like reliving good memes from the old days, because they have a special place in my heart and I'm excited to share them with you. I also feel like I had like a unique Christmas makeup, so I'm excited to share how our Christmas mornings and Christmas days would work. But what else is there that you would like to hear, or is there anything specific that you're looking for? Are you happy with the format and how we're going?

Speaker 1: 35:39

I've been having so much fun making all this delicious food. Oh, my gosh, that shortbread and the Hello Dolly's. The fact that we got to have Hello Dolly's so much earlier normally I'm not having them till Christmas day I was like on cloud nine. I freaking love Hello Dolly's my coffee every morning too. You know how much I love a bitter coffee. Okay, just like a coffee that doesn't have sweet in it. I like coffee with splash of cream and some sweet on the side. That's like my perfect combination. It's been making me so happy.

Speaker 1: 36:09

I'm just so grateful for all of you and I cannot wait. I feel like this is the official like. This is like the countdown to Christmas. Really, now we're like at the point where kids are going to be out for school holidays and we're really just going to be starting embracing those final days to Christmas, which is just wild. I'm so excited, the warmth and the joy of it all.

Speaker 1: 36:37

I'm sending you so much love and I hope that if you're feeling lonely or sad around this time of the year, that this podcast can be of comfort to you and a hug and we will have an episode all about that coming up, because we've been there. I've been there. I feel like it's part of the Christmas feels and I know that when you don't have that community around you or you feel like you, I feel like Christmas is a big thing about other people. So I want to do an episode all about yourself. Well, we did have our magic of Christmas is within you, but I do want to focus on more individualness as well and that know that community is found here and that I'm always here for you can send me emails or reach out to me on DM and we can always have conversation. I love you all so much. Thank you for being here and I can't wait to come back tomorrow.