Sugar Plum Fairy Dust - Dinner Plus Drinks #102

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, everybody. Hello. We have one of Bridget's favorite things here. I don't know. Actually, a number of Bridget's favorite things here. A Christmas themed item that's a red wine from California.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

And Christmas wine glasses.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

How bad could it be? Stay tuned and find out.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

How bad is it, Nick?

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Let's open it up and tell. So this is a holiday traditions red holiday wine.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

So I'm all about all the festive themed things, but like any wine that's fully covered in a label, so you cannot see the color of it. It's called a wrap. Oh, yep, this is exactly as bright red as I expected it to be.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Okay, this is gonna be great. Cheers to you, Bridget. Cheers to Christmas. Cheers to baby Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Cheers to 9 a.m. drinking wine. Tastes actually better than I thought, but my expectations were very low. Better than I thought. I also just had a mint, which was a mistake. I was like, I don't know if we're gonna be drinking. We're recording early today. You know, it's fine. Yeah, it's fine. It was a really shitty day yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

So um I actually think it would be better after it's been open for a little bit. It's got a little bit of like just tastes like juice. It's been sulfited to here and kingdom come, and that'll blow off a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Yeah, I mean, I expected it to be like sweeter. Like I would.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

I would want it to be a little sweeter too, because I think the pre people buying a holiday traditions red would like a little bit more fruitiness to it.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Yeah. I, however, might buy a bottle of this now to like have a fun movie night because yeah, this is I would pay 10 bucks for this. I feel like it's gonna give me a headache.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

I would, yeah, I would agree with all of those things.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

It's a cute bottle, fun little thing if you're not sure what to bring to a gal pals night for a Hallmark movie marathon.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

It's it's in offensive, it tastes like red wine and it's not too dry. Is inoffensive a word? Yes. Unoffensive? Inoffensive? Unoffensive. I don't know. Anyway. Okay. Now that we've had our little Christmas traditions, red wine to get this day started.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

It's cute. Yeah, to get this day started. Uh yeah, right. My kids were up fucking 400 hours ago. Just kidding, only one of them was up. Which one? Elliot. What's he doing? I don't know, man. I think he's just he keeps waking up before 6 a.m. And we're like, the day starts at six, Elliot. Your day starts at six. So that way if mommy wants to do something, it's between five and six. But yeah, it's I don't like it. I don't like it either. But Lucy's sleeping in. We have to like wake her up. That's good. Yeah. So anyway.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Good job, Lou.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

How about your week?

unknown 2:41

What's going on?

SPEAKER_01 2:42

You know, I'm just from here to there to there. We're recording early because I have a luncheon I have to go to. Yeah, which should be held in January. Big luncheon thing. Nobody wants to listen on the January thing. It's for uh open arms free clinic, of which I'm on the board. And it's great cause. And the clinic was founded more or less on this day, uh nine years ago. So we have a birthday gala slash holiday party every year. And uh I really wish it was in January because this is just the most incredibly stressful time of the year.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

From my like time in Milwaukee doing corporate events, January to April is nonprofit season. And every day you have a nonprofit, every weekend, every Friday, every Saturday you have a nonprofit gala, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, all the time. And so I'm like, what is this in December competing with holiday parties?

SPEAKER_01 3:29

So I understand it's a festive event. Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

It's a great event, but it's just a tough time of year, man.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Yeah, it takes a lot of time, takes a lot of attention. It's hard to find people to go uh of our age.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Yeah, because it because it's the tree lighting tonight as we record, it's the Lake Geneva holiday parade, it's every surrounding community. Like this is the weekend of all the holiday things to kick off the season, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

All of the things. So it's just not uh but it's a great event. So I forgot about it because I also have had uh a number of other things happening and uh that have taken up a lot of time. And so I forgot about it until about 9.30 last night.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

I thought of it last night and I'm like, does Nick really think we're recording at noon? I should check what's happening.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

So I had to apologize to Bridget for my late notice. That's okay. But it's just one of those times where you're kind of like, I can't think about anything other than the absolute next task I need to do. And then you have some inefficiencies and miss some things, but it's just I would love to be in the holiday spirit yet, but it's still like for us, Thanksgiving is so busy, and there's always one thing every year that just gets not done until Thanksgiving week. And there's certain things that can't be done until Thanksgiving week. So for me, like the week after Thanksgiving is this like, oh crap, all this stuff needs to be done for Christmas uh at my house, at work, in my personal life. And it's just very stressful because you can't really relax and get in the Christmas spirit because it's all this ketchup stuff. Which is the whole season.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

I uh talking to Shannon last night and we were both just like kind of lamenting about our day. And I said, I think that I very clearly have like PTSD from having COVID last Christmas because I am like super anxious everywhere I go, and now there's all this like, is there another COVID? Is the world gonna shut down again still whatever? And I'm finding like it was Christmas season was so shitty last year. Yeah, um, so many people were sick. I was sick, I was so sad for my kids. I was, you know, whatever. Um, we made the best of it, but like I I seriously think I'm having PTSD from it. So, you know, here we are. Uh, but you know, in other news, Tyler came home, he was gone for five days. Hey, Tyler's back, and that was a blessing. Um, it was five days that my kids were not in school. Uh, they were not in school for four of those five, which meant many days of having tons of help from my family and friends, which was fantastic. Um, yeah, and then we have we have actually our whole extended family in town this weekend for like a family reunion of sorts. So big weekend. Um, I did have a follow-up from a previous uh, I don't know if it was a moose boosh or um or if it was dinner plus drinks, but I talked about the um Sex in the City Airbnb. I'm pretty sure it was on a moose boosh. There was um Carrie Bratch's apartment from New York. Uh, they were renting one night in an Airbnb or through Airbnb, one night in her apartment in New York City. Well, I just saw that they are doing the same for the home alone house in the Chicagoland area.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Yeah, so talk to me about this. I I saw the thing and I'm not really entirely sure about it. It was only like $75 or something.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Yes, so that's the same as the Carrie Bradshaw apartment. It's like cost nothing, but like one person does it. So it's just like a total PR.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Yeah, how are they getting the person picking the person though?

SPEAKER_00 6:39

You have, I think it opens on December 7th. Um, let me open. I'm pretty sure did the Home Alone House opens on December 7th, and it's just like whoever the heck can book it the fast enough.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Oh, that's not fair. It's terrible. That's because it's gonna be some bot.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Um, but they'll host a one-night stay for up to four guests at the McAllister residence on December 12th for $25. Look how beautiful it is.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

That is beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Yeah, so I'm pretty sure I I just scrolling through one of 900 articles about this. Yeah, December 7th at 1 p.m.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Central is when you can do it. I'm surprised there's not like a lottery or like a charitable element to it.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

I mean, this is like the I love when I was in college for advertising in PR, um, I remember learning about maybe in high school, I think I learned about gorilla marketing, and I thought it was like so cool. So I love like PR stints like this. Like, this is a creative way to advertise Airbnb. Like that's what this is for, right? It's gonna be a disaster and Airbnb is gonna have to deal with a lot of shitty comments. But you know, other than that, like I'm talking about Airbnb on here, which I never would normally.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

It's hosted by Buzz. I like that.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

It's very funny, and the descriptions are great. Like it's great. It's I love it. So anyway, I had to follow up on that in case you were very curious about the sex in the city apartment. Now there's a home alone house, and you have to get yourself to Chicago. So I say maybe I'll try and book it because all I gotta do is just like drive an hour and a half down there.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

It's real close. And I think it's in one of the northern suburbs, so it's even closer.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

It is. I don't know where, but anyway, it's awesome. Check it out on Airbnb. We'll put a link in the show notes.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

I have a hilarious news story because I thought about doing that one, and then you beat me to it in the notes. That's right. But I saw this yesterday, and we all have had the situation where you call a wrong number, text a wrong number, especially the text one's awkward because it's like, do you just ignore it, or do you text a person back and say, like, hey, I'm not sure who this is, but maybe they actually do know you, and then you just admitted you didn't save their number.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

This just happened to me.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Yeah, and it's very awkward. And this story is hilarious. It's a high school basketball team in Michigan started a group text chain, uh, freshman high school basketball team to discuss practice times. And the boys on it included one number that was one digit off. And it turns out to be one of the players on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And he responds, you know, they're all playing out practices, and he's a football player, a professional football player. So he's like, hey guys, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be on this. So he was probably like, is this some other team? Are they having practice without me? Am I being cut? They're using a lot of emojis I don't know about, they're using slang I don't know about. And so they're like, Yeah, who is this? And he's like, It's I can't remember the guy's name exactly, and I don't want to look it up because it'll screw up our recording. Uh but so they started saying, like, who is this? And he goes, I'm a football player on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And he takes a selfie in front of his locker because it's like right after practice or something. Like, we don't believe you. Show us, you know, whatever. He's like, Okay. So he goes and gets he goes like, let's FaceTime. So, first of all, they all must have been blue texters. Suck on that one, green texter.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

No, all it is, all it oh yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

So they FaceTime, yep, uh, a group FaceTime. So he goes and gets Gronk, he goes and gets Richard Sherman, he goes and gets Leonard Fournette, puts all of these famous teammates on, and they're like, This is awesome. And so the kids are all doing it, and they're like, get us Brady, get us Brady, get us Brady. Brady was in a meeting, uh, so they kept on long enough that he got out of the meeting. They grabbed Tom Brady right away, and he had a real nice chat with the kids and said, you know, keep working, all the stuff. Uh, it was a really cool story. That's awesome. Nice to see the athletes. They're like, it was really cool that this happened like that. Tom Brady is a University of Michigan alumnus, so he said, you know, really cool that was from Michigan. Go maze in blue. Uh and it was really funny. But can you imagine if you were the kid who they screwed up his number? Yeah, good for. First of all, you facilitated it, but you missed it.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

His name is Vinny. He wasn't there?

SPEAKER_01 10:20

No, because that's how they got the guy on the thing. They screwed up this kid's.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

Oh, the other, oh yeah. Well, the guy who started it was named Vinny for the freshman boys basketball team. Oh, that's so cool. So that's very cool. Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

I thought that was just like an awesome. Could you imagine that happened to you? And you're like, oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Oh, cool. Um, okay, so I, this is embarrassing, but I'm gonna admit it. So I was I watch Hallmark movies like pretty much nonstop now, right? They're on all the time. They are they are all the same, but I'm watching them all the time, right? So I have not seen them all because last year I feel like I didn't have a way because like we don't have cable, we watch, we have Netflix and Hulu and all the things, but there was no way to watch Hallmark movies. So I have a way now. And um It's called illegal streaming kids. No, it's not. I have it's a legal thing that I pay for. Um, so there is one called Welcome to Christmas, okay? And I've I had never seen it. All the plots are exactly the frickin' same as if you didn't know. But this one had this really adorable thing. They're like, there's a town called Christmas, and sorry if you haven't seen it. Spoiler alert, the guy and the girl end up together. And um there's a town called Christmas, and they do, excuse me, they do all these festive activities. And I used to plan festive Christmassy activities for our town, and I literally want to do this like rogue because I don't work for them anymore. They do an ornament hunt. So they have a guy in town who makes all the ornaments, whatever. But this new girl comes into town and suggests why don't you tie, you know, coupons from all the local businesses? And when you find the ornaments, they get a coupon, whatever. They do this ornament hunt throughout town, and I thought, oh my God, this is so cool. Like, what a fun little thing. You get points, you win prizes, whatever. It's a scavenger hunt throughout town. So I Googled it to see. I'm sure some other cities stole this idea, right? Well, I only got so far as the Willamette Valley. Um home of great Pinot Noir. Yes, I was like, I know Nick's familiar, but they do an annual um forest ornament contest and they hide ornaments and it's through it's um Willamette National Forest and the Umpqua National Forest. They put 200 wooden ornaments, each featuring a colorful valley sunrise across non-wilderness trails in both national forests. And so you get one per house household, but it's meant for hikers and visitors, try and track the ornaments down, and then they keep the ornament they find. They register to win a grand prize if they grab one ornament, and then they um put ornaments on their own tree back at home. So the person gets to keep the ornament and then they get to like, I'm sure there's a code or something on it to register to win a prize. So these national forests do it, and it's uh the shape of Oregon, it's really cute. So, like, cool. I got nothing else to say. This was insane. Wave go Oregon. I just was gonna tell you about the Hallmark movie and how fun I thought it was, and then I found a real city, a real area doing it to national forests. So I'm sure there are more, but Lake Geneva, if an ornament um hunt starts, I did it.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Well, guys, uh, we're gonna take a quick break. We have some great product recommendations, and then man, do we have a segment after the break for you?

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Oh god.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Everybody, I have two product recommendations. What? I only had one, but then Bridget with her ornament talk reminded me of something that I thought I should recommend. This is uh when you talked about ornaments and you know, Lake Geneva, get on it. Uh, we do have a local crafter that does some really cool ornaments every year. He uh he's a friend of ours. His name's Noel Wynn, and his shop is called Avenue Artworks. You can find him on Etsy. He is a sculptor, artist of many types, but mostly a sculptor. So he does like different cast ornaments. If you're in our area, you can find them at the various Christmas markets and things like that. Um, we did some stuff with him last year where we did some Christmas, or was it two years ago? Man, time flies. Oh, I don't remember. But uh anyway, he does some really cool stuff, Avenue Artworks. He sells on Etsy. Yeah, he has a shop. Um, he's at these Christmas markets, check him out. Really cool, unique things. Yeah. Um he did some custom, it's probably too late for custom work for Christmas now, but he did some custom work for me. Uh, I wanted something special for my wife Sarah when she gave birth to my daughter Simona. I'm just gonna keep using all the names. Uh, but uh he did something custom, really cool, really special. So he's a great guy, does awesome work. Yeah, and I would check out his stuff if you're looking for a coup uh a cool ornament from a local person, they're beautiful, a new tradition, or just a really nice gift that's made by a really talented crafter.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

And a really nice guy. Good product rack. Way to add that in. Thanks, Bridget. Um, mine is not as exciting, but I generally am keen on like, don't care if my tree is messy as long as it has all the memorable ornaments on it, because that's what it's about, right? So, but I do always hate the giant space between the floor and the bottom of the tree. Like, I understand tree skirts, but they look dumb. It never works how I want it to. Gotta fill it with presents. Last year, yeah, but that's one day.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

Well, it's the anticipation.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

I hate it. So last year I was really in on the Christmas basket, but then I got COVID and couldn't leave my house, so I couldn't like track one down and I didn't know what they were called. They were just becoming like popular. So now this year they're everything.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

I'm actually not aware of the Christmas basket. What is the Christmas basket?

SPEAKER_00 15:36

They're called, I mean, I didn't know they had a name. They're called tree collars. So they're it's a basket that wraps around the base of your tree like a collar. Like a wicker basket? And well, I mean, they have a burger like this. They have baskets, they have metal, they have whatever. Um, and they come in all different, you know, you can get ones that have Santa, you can get them that say Merry Christmas, or just plain ones. So I love them. They take up the space under the tree and they look very lovely. Tree colours, everybody.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

My recommendation is to solve um a problem. I thought of this yesterday that my dad was having that our Christmas lights at work all kind of go on on different times because of the way the timers are set, and you can never get the damn timers lined up. And he's like, is there a way like with Wi-Fi you can just do it? I'm like, eh, not really. Then I'm like, what about smart outlets? So I did a little bit of research, and I am going to recommend the WISE smart outlets. They're about $10 each. You can plug your Christmas lights into them, they very easily connect to your Wi-Fi through an app. You don't have to have a base or anything, and you can plug them all in and say you put power onto them at the exact same time, and all of your Christmas lights will turn on at the same time and then turn off at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

Um, we love Wise. That's who we use for our baby cam.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

So, anyway, if you two are frustrated by Christmas lights not turning on and off at the same time, which is annoying.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

I will say though, I have another alternative to this. Can I just give you a fourth product recommendation, everybody? We bought a like solar outlet for our outdoor lights last year. So it just when it got dark, our lights flipped on. I got it at Aldi.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

That works if you have only one plug.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Yeah, we plug them all into one plug.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

So if you're in a situation where they have to go into multiple plugs because of the number of strings you have or different locations, no way, mate. That's where this one works.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

We just power them all into one. Great product ideas for your Christmas season.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Get going on your life if you haven't already. There's not enough up this year. There were so many last year, it was glorious. Get them up, guys.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

Be right back. Nick here with a paper full of questionable things. You have to sing. We're back.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

All right. So Bridget uh has been very clear of her love of Hallmark movies, spoke about it on this very podcast without even me having to prompt her. Sure did. Um we're gonna play a game where I'm gonna read you a movie title and a description of the movie title, and you have to tell me if it's a real Hallmark movie or not.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Okay, and what would the appropriate number of movies be? 10? 12? 12. Sorry. I'm like, I don't know. Twelve days of Christmas, 12 movies. So sorry, so sorry. Uh and luckily, the one you talked about is not on my list because that would have been a freebie. So uh they're all like fake names. This is gonna be impossible. All right. Christmas for keeps. At Christmas time, a close-knit group of childhood friends returns home after 10 years to take part in a celebration of life of their beloved high school teacher. That is real or fake.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Fake. It is actually real. Shut up. I feel like all the movies are just about a couple, not a group of friends. Well, that one is real. Shit. These are like on the Hallmark Channel? Yeah. These are legit on the Hallmark Channel. Have they aired yet? Some of them have, some of them haven't. Okay, well, that is not fair. If they have not aired, I haven't seen them.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Some of them never will err. Maybe the Hallmark channels listening to this is gonna rip off my ideas. These are all patented. These are patented.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

I thought about this and I was like, I read somewhere that someone that works for the Hallmark channel, and I was like, is your job just to like come up with the same thing every year, but like with a slightly different twist?

SPEAKER_01 19:28

It's like being a food blogger for Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

Yeah, different ways to make turkey.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

Next one Sugar plum fairy dust. No, Christmas is stressful for the cast of the beloved ballet, the nutcracker, but it becomes romantic with a little sugar plum fairy dust.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

No, that is fake. You're correct, that's fake. Sugar plum fairy dust would never be the name of a Hallmark movie. It would be like Love at the Nutcracker. Then I would have said maybe that was real.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

Alright, so you got that one, right? Great. The Yule Tree of Norway. After being left at the altar, Amy travels to the picturesque town of um Underdal, I think that's how you say it, in Norway to discover her family's Christmas heritage. While there the locals are determined to make her experience the magic of the traditional Yule Tree.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Okay, this is tough because I the description sounds exactly like one that I watched yesterday, but with a carousel. Um a carousel. I think it's fake. It is fake. Yeah, the name, it wouldn't say the same. That's a real that's a real that's a real real traditional thing. Yeah, I believe that. That's why it sounded real.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Uh Debbie Maycomber's a Mrs. Miracle Christmas. When a family faces loneliness and loss of faith, Mrs. Miracle swoops in to renew their Christmas spirit and they experience a holiday of heavenly proportions.

SPEAKER_00 20:50

Feels like that could be real. That is real. Three for four. That sounds really not the greatest, but sounds like a long name.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

An hour to midnight. Cooper finds himself with only an hour before midnight and an urgent mission to make Christmas right for the children of Springfield.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

I think it's fake. It is fake. Cooper. You you lost me at Cooper.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

Uh I Googled douchey man names because I think they all have like kind of you know, like trendy kind of douchey names. That's exactly what I thought.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Yes, I was like, oh, but Cooper's two, it's nope, you want to step too far with that.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Christmas Cousins 3, an urgent delivery. Two years after first uniting to save Greenville's Christmas together, and just a year after their effusive joint Christmas wedding, cousins Aaron and Monica find themselves expecting an urgent delivery on Christmas Eve. Their little bundles of joy are set to pop down the chimney, but a blizzard has made the journey to the hospital perilous. Hop in the sleigh with the Christmas cousins as they venture over the fields of snow in their most important Christmas adventure yet.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

That this is real. It's fake. Damn it. I thought so because there was one sentence at the end there. I was like, no. Dang it. It's fake. Of course it's fake. That'd be a good one, though. Cousins having babies on Christmas.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

And they're married to twins, and like, you know.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

And they're all from the same town or not, or they reunite, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Two of them are Canadian and they have cross-border different.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

One lives in the city, but they came to the small town. Now they're they're moving there for a guy.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

The Santa stakeout. Tanya is a police detective who is reluctantly partnered with fellow detective Ryan to solve a recent string of heists taking place during high-profile holiday parties around town. They go undercover as newlyweds Tasha and Rupert moving into the vacant house next to Mr. Miller, the jovial chair of the community's Christmas committee. And the prime suspect in the case. As Tanya and Ryan partake in the neighborhood's holiday happenings to keep up appearances and crack the case, they get swept up in Christmas. Before they know it, their cover story as a couple in love starts to become reality.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

I think it's fake. It's real. Damn it. So Hallmark movie not during Christmas does a whole bunch of murder-y shows, and that's what I was like. They don't do murdery shows during Christmas, but dang, okay. Man, I'm getting bad here. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

You're still uh bat number 500. Okay. Eight gifts of Hanukkah.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

This is real. A woman journeys to find her secret admirer during Hanukkah. This is real. Literally, when you're watching a Hallmark movie, they just advertise the next coming movie 400 times. So yeah, I've seen that.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

A very merry bridesmaid. Also real. Also happy Hanukkah.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

She is getting married.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

The same day as her brother's wedding. Her childhood crush is back in town for the wedding, and he is determined to make sure her birthday does not go by the wayside.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

It's real. Duh. Duh. But I think it airs like tonight. So those two that you just read air this weekend.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Tyler Perry's A Christmas Homecoming. Tyler Perry brings all the fun he's known for into this heartwarming tale of family, faith, and redemption at Christmas time.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

I think no. It is no. Tyler Perry, I don't think, does stuff.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Yeah, he does. Um He's with the Hallmark channel. Is he? Well, he's kind of retired. But he used to, you know, like all the things, all the stuff.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Sorry, I have a urgent request from the husband on the way to the doctor. Oh no. Um stand by everybody. Okay, go on.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

Christmas CEO. A small toy company CEO gets a once-in-a-lifetime offer to merge with a mega toy company, but will need her estranged ex-business partner signature to seal the deal. Son, I just watched it. What he helps her rediscover will change both of their lives.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

I gotta tell you, there is art that's real. I just watched it yesterday. Um, there is artwork in that toy in the I don't want to ruin it for you guys. In one of the toy places, there's artwork that's so cool. I want, I want it. It's the evolution of a robot. Like, I want it for Elliot's room. Who can I reach out to? Hallmark channel.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

Finally, our 12th one, Adrift at Christmas. Bryce sets out on a fishing journey with a promise to his fiance, Jamie, to be home in time for Christmas. When Waverly's lighthouse fails, Jamie must rally the town to light the way for Bryce on his dangerous journey home in time for Christmas.

SPEAKER_00 25:29

I think that's fake. It is fake. Bryce, you lost me at Bryce. Man, I keep getting these wrong. Yeah, I mean, I I yeah, I get it. But okay, that was funny. I would have been totally lost.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

Six, seven, eight, nine. You got nine right. Yes. See, look at that. 75%. That's awesome, Bridget. Yeah, I watched a lot of the five. I tried very hard and I also chuckled to myself a lot as we did this.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Really good. Chuckle. Really good. Um I had if I hadn't been watching the Hallmark channel and like literally watched these this week, I would have not been as good. But they advertise a lot of their own movies. So there's also one coming up that I want to see with Jana Kramer in it. Oh, I saw that one. I think it premieres on the 8th. Anyway, they're all the same. Uh literally all exactly the same. I'm like, could we just have one that's a little different?

SPEAKER_01 26:15

I was thinking next week we could maybe like brain shop some uh on the air. Like I could give you like a there's the bingo things, you know, of like every Hallmark movie must be this. So I could give you like one of them and you have to fill in the rest and then likewise.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

I love this, like a mad lib for Hallmark movies.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

Yeah, like a mad lib for Hallmark movies. I think that'd be a fun one next week.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Okay, I put it on the outline. Sweet. Ideas for Hallmark movies, mad lib.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

So I hope you guys at home are playing along. I should have said that up front.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Oh, yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

But let us know how many you got right if you think Bryce is a real name or not. Bryce and Cooper.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

I know a Bryce and a Cooper.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

I mean, I thought about making one of them, Elliot, because it would have added a layer of like, are you messing with me? This has to be Nick making a joke, but Nick would know not to make that joke.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

That's what all of this was was like, did Nick go this in depth? Because this sounds like a Hallmark movie description. Um, those were great. We should print it out and let people play. We should. Um, okay, man. Great job. Thanks. We have food on the docket here.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

Maybe I'll make this into a Google Forum thing and we can send it out that way for people to get uh uh their own thing.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

You have to tell your friends who aren't listening. Yes. Okay. You you can quiz them at your next one.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

And then tell them if they have fun, they need to listen.

SPEAKER_00 27:22

They need to buy a bottle of holiday traditions red wine. Um, okay, so it's time for food because 'tis the season. Tis the season. And mine makes sense, doesn't it? It does. Um, I'm just gonna go with mine and then you can go next. We Monday was my last day at home with my kids before Tyler came back into town, and I was like pulling my hair out. Um, I'm very like, count the minutes to bedtime because honestly, your kids need to sleep on go to sleep on a schedule, because I love a schedule, but also scientifically it's proven that kids do better with schedules. So, and structure. Um, so anyway, I'm pretty good about like, all right, it's time to wind down, it's time to brush our teeth, get your pajamas on, go to bed. Don't have sugar right before bed. But I had given up and it was just like I need to get through. And I somehow brought up the idea of making Christmas cookies and like I was not prepared. I haven't like bought baking ingredients, but like everyone has flour, right? I had one and a quarter cup flour left in my house. And so I'm like googling small batch cookies, whatever. So I found one. I let my kids make Christmas cookies at 6 p.m. on a Monday night. That is not very bridge. It is not, but I was cool, Mom, and they had so much fun, and then I let them frost one because I was like, oh, sorry, they gotta chill. So I'm like, you gotta get your pajamas on. So they're in their pajamas frosting cookies on Monday night, which of course I had to let them take a bite of. But really honestly, they only took like one bite and then they saved them to show their dad the next day. Oh, smart. But I put this down right away because we always talk on here, and I'm gonna say it every time about the food that is important is the one that carries the memories, and that's exactly what this was. Like I couldn't tell you what I ate for dinner any day that week if I ate dinner ever. But I did remember making Christmas cookies at 6 p.m. on a Monday night.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

So I haven't been home much this week at night for dinner because of all the things happening. And I'm not gonna be home tonight because I have another thing happening. All the things. Uh, but I did have the opportunity one night this week to sit down with Sarah and Simona and Sarah's little brother Mitchell and just have a nice family meal. And I made something really fast, really easy, and it was dump some marinara sauce into a casserole dish, lay out some chicken thighs, a little salt and pepper, a slice of uh ham, some slice of uh a little bit of marinara sauce on that, a little bit of spinach, and then just a slice of mozzarella cheese and bake it.

SPEAKER_00 29:37

Wow, it even sounds healthy.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

Yeah, and uh, you know, a little uh herb mix on top and comes out and it's like crispy, yummy, and melty, and carve it up. Simona loved it because you know it's got ham and cheese, and it's delicious. We had a little bit of noodles on the side, you know, to scoop up that sauce that baked, which I love the like baked marinara sauce. And like when you do like marinara sauce and then like baked meatballs or something in it. I'm like not all that cooks down. I like that. It just you know gets a little thinner, a little bit more flavorful at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

And there was spinach hidden in there.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

Yeah, so it was just really good. We really enjoyed it. It was nice to sit down and have like kind of a plated meal in a way, because like that chicken thigh just like looks very nice when it's like that.

SPEAKER_00 30:15

So it's like we had that ever.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Felt like a nice meal.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

Good. Well, that's lovely.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

It took, you know, 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

A 30-minute meal, everybody.

SPEAKER_01 30:23

30-minute meals. Great job, Nick. I didn't even do it in the instant pot. Oh god. I hate the instant pot, you guys. I hate it. On that note, it's time for Kid Corner. We are not recommending the Instant Pot for Christmas.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

Sorry, I'm not. I hate it. I don't own one, but I hate it.

SPEAKER_01 30:40

So my Kid Corner is we had to, as part of the like, our lives been all over. One of the ways we spend time together is we make Simona do work with us. Uh so I made Sarah and Simona go take a delivery to the candle mercantile with me. I was like, well, I gotta go there. I have some candles waiting for me to pick up. And I said, let's go pick up Simona from school, daycare, and give her a big hug and then take her to the candle shop with us. And she loves the candle shop, and they're very nice to her and very accommodating to the fact that there's a two-year-old running around their store. And she um um she ran up to all the snifters, pointed at them, said what she thought the picture, because they have like uh their their price signs are like eucalyptus, and then a picture of their eucalyptus leave. Um so she ran up to everyone, pointed at the picture, said what she thought it was.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

I would love to hear her say eucalyptus.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

And then, well, she said like green, good gallery, yeah. Uh because she can't read, so she doesn't know what eucalyptus is. Uh there's one that's like a bonassa, and one that's like gorilla, and Sarah was like looking behind her, and Sarah goes, monkey, monkey, and Sarah's like, There's no monkey scent. And I'm like, Sarah, it's it's a picture of a monkey. It's a picture of a monkey. She don't tell her she's mommy. Uh so she was just going around smelling everything, and uh it was just very funny, very cute. She was providing her insight on the candles, and it was just a really fun little family activity that we didn't expect.

SPEAKER_00 32:05

So it was all time.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

And it's just very funny her reactions of what they are and smelling them all. And smelling them because she did the like overly dramatic, like you know, like wafting it to her, like that's what she's supposed to do. So it was it was funny.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

Nice. I um we had a Christmas concert this week, so it was our first one because we didn't get to do any of that stuff last year. Um, so Elliot's in kindergarten and he had kindergarten first grade had a Christmas concert. And man, he we found out about it like two weeks ago, I think, and it was he has to dress up. Like it says on the piece of paper, like your kids gotta dress up, like, but in a nice way, right? So I was warning him because all he ever wants to wear is like a basketball shirts and workout pants, you know, that's he's at that age. And so I'm like, gotta warn, gotta dress up, Elliot. So we started like looking through sweaters and shirts that he would wear online, you know? And so we find one and he's like, I'll wear a Rudolph sweater. I'm like, cool, I can find a Rudolph sweater. Well, Elliot's very big for his age. So finding something that is age appropriate for a five-year-old but fits him is very challenging. That is challenging. And then finding it in the Christmas season to arrive in the amount of time we needed it to, et cetera. So we finally found this one sweater he would wear. One, and it was hideous. I mean, it is not Rudolph in like a cartoony.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

It looks like a buck you would shoot. It looks like a punch or 100%.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

It looks like a buck you would shoot. And but from its antlers are ornaments hanging, and then there's like snowflakes all over it, and the nose lights up, which is why he wanted it. So I found this sweater somewhere. It showed up like in a Google image search. And I want this. Okay, well, it's sold out everywhere. It was like in stores three years ago. So I found it on it, uh, Mercari, which is like Poshmark, it's like a used website, right? New with tags, but it like wasn't really clear what the sizing was. I actually think it was a women's small, is what we ended up with. I'm still not sure. It says small on the tag, but it's like definitely not a boy's small because it's too big on Elliot. So anyway, he waited every day for this sweater to show up and it was like not gonna show up on time. And bless the lady who sent it from Mercari, she sent it with priority shipping for free to me to make sure it got here. So I rated her five stars. Um, but he got it and it was like Christmas morning, and he wore it every second. He wore it to bed. He wore it baking cookies, and I was like, Elliot, I gotta wash this. Elliot, you know, and so then the day the performance came around and he was like so proud to have his sweater with a light-up nose, but you couldn't see it because he was in the back row and a whole bunch of kids were in front of him. So, anyway, if you think that you're not bringing joy to your children by buying ridiculous sweaters, you are. It's all he talked about. He still wants to wear it to school every day, and I'm like, you can't do that every day. You look like the dirty kid. So I could talk about the Christmas concert forever, but I'm just gonna talk about his sweater and leave it there.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

I think that's a good plan.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

Yeah, there you go. I'm sure it was just lovely. It was.

SPEAKER_01 34:47

Oh, but you should mention where you watched it from.

SPEAKER_00 34:49

Oh, yeah. Watch it from the front row.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

She is such a big deal. She got front row VIP seating.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

I mean, props to the Sun Den Music Department and Mrs. Stanfield Dunham, who didn't just say, hey, donate to our program. They said you could donate to the program, and in turn, you get for every dollar, you get put into a raffle for front row seats for the Christmas program, which I thought was awesome. So I happen to have a $10 bill and I was like, cool, I'll throw it in. Like, I love her, I love the music department. And yeah, one front row seats, which really eased the stress level, to be honest, of like trying to stampede the crowd and find seats. It was horrifying. So great job, kids at Sendon.

SPEAKER_01 35:24

Thanks for listening, everybody. We will get this uh here quiz up and uh let you share it with your friends. This here quiz. And uh let us know what your favorite Hallmark Christmas movies are. And if you have any uh starter plot ideas for us to do mad libs with, let us know. Hello at DinnerPlusDrinks.com.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Uh you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. And we hope, and of course, dinnerplusdrinks.com. Um, but we hope you have a good kickoff to your holiday season and get your lights up.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

Bye bye, I'm gonna do it.