Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where from now on we'll be shouting Rocket Top.
Whenever we sink a three.
It's Monday, December sixteenth, and on today's show, Alex, Meish and I catch up on a big weekend of life and sports. Alex talks Art, Meich talks progress, and some slices share their holiday traditions. Plus we'll talk about ours too. And it's time for the College Beb's Final Four. It's all coming up right after this. Welcome back, slices, Happy Monday. Here's what you need to know today.
To volleyball.
The final four is set Louisville, Pitt, Nebraska, and Penn State. We'll meet next weekend in Louisville, Kentucky. Here's how they got there. First, up, the hometown team Louisville, the number one seeded Cardinals punch their ticket with the three set to one win over nine time NCAA champ and second seed Stanford. On Saturday, Louisville will meet fellow number one seed and acc rival Pitt in the semi finals. This will mark the third straight year Louisville and Pitt have
met in the Ncaattorney. Last year pitt defeated Louisville in the Elite eight the year before. Louisville got the w in the semifinals. Number one Nebraska also headed back to the Final four after.
They swept Wisconsin on Sunday.
Penn State earned the final spot with a win over Creighton, meaning all four top seeded teams qualified for the Final four. Final four gets underway on Thursday with back to back semi finals at seven and nine thirty pm Eastern on ESPN. National Championship game will be played on Sunday at three pm Eastern on ABC. Have you been checking your brackets?
Producer Alex was in first at one point in the good game of Sara Spain Group and I was looking real rough, but I'm surging back, So check your brackets see where you are.
There will be some trash talking that will take place.
To college hoops, Tennessee smashed a wild record on Saturday. The Lady Vols recorded thirty three pointers in their one hundred and thirty nine to fifty nine win over North Carolina Central. Yes, you've heard that correctly, one hundred and thirty nine to fifty nine. That is an eighty point margin. Now, not only is thirty, the NCAA record for most three pointers in a game. It's also never been done in
the WNBA or NBA either. Samara Spencer led the way, hitting nine threes, with eight of her teammates also recording at least one three. Also in college hoops, we got to tip our caps to the twenty fifth ranked Georgia Tech team, who pulled off an eighty two seventy six upset over number fourteen North Carolina on Sunday in Chapel Hill. The wind brings the Yellow Jackets record to eleven and oh good for the best start in school history. Head coach Nel Fortner squad is one of nine unbeaten Division
One teams left across the country. So y'all might remember last week's conversation about co ed adult sports leagues and the etiquette code that we made with Josh Bart and Klaan Conahan. While certified slice, Amanda Vaalo had a few more suggestions. She emailed in and wrote in part, you guys are doing a great job.
I'm a huge podhead.
Podhead is what she said, and you've definitely made a top spot in my listens. Here are my suggestions if anyone is caught man splaining, they are assessed a foul. If repeated, this can be upgraded to a flagrant and the player can be asked to leave arena or playing field immediately. Any jokester with a joke about playing shirts versus skins must take a lap. If getting owned by a badass woman, don't be lame in fake and injury.
Thanks again for making my world and the world in general a better place.
Thanks Amanda.
I was on date like number four with a guy once and we were playing one on one basketball at the gym and he full on one thousand percent absolutely guaranteed faked and angle injury because I was whooping that ass not attractive. We also had some friends on social that chimed in with their additions to the etiquette code.
Dave on Blue Sky at DPS nine to five to two said, if it's not a piece of advice you would give to a male teammate on the bench between shifts, slash plays, slash whatever, don't give it to your female teammates unless they ask, I would add Doug Dennis on Blue Sky set, if a girl kicks your ass, don't be a whiss about it.
Buy her a beverage of her choice.
Love that addition, after somebody suggested to remember it's just a game, Jamie Bartlett on Blue Sky added, my version of this is you're not getting a scholarship today, Calm down, or there are no scouts out here.
It works for all genders, big and small. I like that one.
Finally, at that kraz On Blue Sky said, having seen it happen, don't take it personally if you're guarded or matched up with the player of the opposite gender. That is so true, especially because you have no idea what that person did before they got to you. They might be a d one superstar and you're throwing a fit about it and you're about to get cooked by the way. So thanks for all the thoughts on that. That was fun to make with them. It made me miss being
able to play all that stuff. So if you are still capable, if your body is still functioning enough, free to play code adult sports, have fun with it, enjoy it. I miss it all right. We're gonna take a quick break when we come back. The Peals, the Grove Senior slices. We're still working on her Navy Hall, still working on this, and we're going to figure it out today, along with a bunch of other stuff coming up next stick around.
Welcome Back Slices.
I'm gonna let you behind the scenes for a minute here and tell you that Alex, Mesh and I have been all over the globe and back and we have not really been together much at all for like a month, I want to say, because it was like Spain and Alex and I were there, and then it was Kansas City and Mesh and I were there, and then.
Alex went to freaking Machu Pichu. I'm so jealous.
And then I went to Mirror Ball in Arizona, which was a delight.
And now we're all back.
Together before we break again for Christmas and New Year's and everything. So we wanted to take this opportunity to catch up on a bunch of stuff, sports and otherwise. And the first thing is, well, really quick, Alex, can you give us a highlight from Machu Pichu?
Because that is like top of my list right now.
It's actually second's second on my list of where I want to go in the world.
And it just looked magical from your Insta.
I loved it. I did the Inca trail. My highlight was for sure. You wake up early the fourth morning, you walk almost in the dark, and then you get to the sun gate, which is the first place that you can see Machu Pichu from and it's just this beautiful, beautiful view.
So it was stunning. Highly recommend.
Okay, I feel like there was also like a babyl packet involved, which I was also jealous about.
Yes, so my hotel hired a babyl paka and I guess the baby al pack is caretaker to come to the hotel every morning to meet and greet.
Her name was ben Cheetah. She's eight months old.
She rides to work in a taxi and she was lovely and soft and wore a very cute costume. And then a few hours after that, I was outside on the streets of Cusco with my friend Kate, and I am somebody I have traveled a lot. I know that when you get approached at the airport by a rando offering you a free or cheap taxi, you say no, like I know all the things.
But across the street.
From me, I see a woman carrying an even smaller baby alpaca and I just light up when I see it, and she sees my face and she b lines over to me, and before I know it, she hands me the baby alpaca and it's like, let me take a photo with you and the baby alpaca, and I was like, of course, that's what I want. And then as soon as she does, she's like, give me money, please, and I'm like, of.
Course, Yeah, she ain't raising that artpacka for free, Alex. No she's not.
No, she's not.
And I had not had a Taurus mistake like that in a very long time.
But super cute alpaka photo. Zero regrets.
I'm gonna say worth it. I'm gonna say worth it on that one. Okay.
So the other thing I wanted to actually ask you about was over the weekend, you did an art show, and I don't think we've talked on this show at all about your art. So unless people have gone diving into your Instagram, which we don't normally list, they might not know that you are a very talented and prolific artist.
So what did you sell? What was on the table? How'd you do?
Okay, Well, I'm going to back up for one second, because this art show was at the Winnemore Center at the University of New Hampshire, and this is a building I grew up going to, and from the age of four until I went to college, I went to almost every single unh men's hockey game. Do not worry, I talked to my parents all the time about how they should have brought me to.
More women's hockey games. Yep, got it covered.
But up until probably like the age of six or seven, I did not watch the hockey games. I had my back to the ice and I did arts and crafts the entire game, and one of my parents was always on the lookout for flying puck to make sure that it wasn't going to bunk me in the.
Back of the head.
Eventually I started watching the hockey, but it was very, very cool to be back in this same space, to essentially be able to see my old seat from down on the ice where I was selling my goods. It was a super fun show. I make pressed flower lampshades. That's my favorite thing to make. I grew all the flowers in my garden and then I pressed them and
I apply them to lamp shade. And as somebody who desperately waits for spring every year, they always bring me some real nice joy and light in the thing in the dark winter months.
I love that.
I do love that like full circle moment of your sitting in front of your table where the ice would be and selling the arts and crafts that you grew up starting to learn how to make like in the seats.
That's really cool.
I personally love the image of little Alex with their back turn to the to the accident. It feels on rare, but it also feels adorable. So that's yeah, that's awesome.
And I just need you guys to know.
A few months ago, I was also at UNH because they hosted the women's Frozen four and I was determined, I really want to learn how to knit, because knitting is the one craft that you can do and watch sports at the same time and like not have your attention taken away from it. And so I was like in between periods trying to teach myself how to knit, but didn't go too well, so we're still working on that one.
Alex is trying to combine her two loves at once. It's not enough to do them separately. They need to be done simultaneously. Also, Alex, if you ever write a book about becoming like a famous sports analyst slash artist. You've got the perfect little early metaphor of the day you finally turned around toward the ice and embrace.
That you could love both crafts and sport. I love that. Well, congrats, super fun.
I'm very jealous every time I have the tiniest opportunity to do a craft or get back into art, it is so calming and meditative, and I just don't do it enough.
So whenever I see your posts, I'm.
Like, Oh, Alex is out there mixing paints and doing cool shit and I'm not doing that at all. Speaking of cool shit, meche, I loved your Insta post about watching progress in action. You're posting some of your work from the Rising Media Stars group that you were a part of, and we mentioned it a while back, but remind everyone what it is and some of the stuff that you've sort of learned over the last couple of months.
Yeah, I love talking about RMS now. So basically, it is a nonprofit started by la China Robinson, a world class broadcaster. She broadcasted the Olympics like women's basketball for all of my life. She's amazing. But a nonprofit basically set up to help early career broadcasters looking to get into those kind of careers network and learn and connect
with the people in her network. So a couple of weeks ago, we went back down to Atlanta for the second time for like a two day intensive kind of vibe, and the first day was covering the Atlanta Falcons versus the Chargers game, which was nuts. That was my first time ever doing football. I know football, but you know, as a spectator, and so it was challenging in that way.
We had to do six different on camera hits, so basically for folks who were not into broadcasts, like thirty to forty five second, many stories about an aspect of the game or the players, and she threw some surprises in there. We had to do the press conference with head coach Rohie Morris and Kirk Cousins who threw four interceptions or in that game if you were watching it rough.
So that was the first day, and then the second day we had about six hours of classroom sessions with everybody from Ros gold On, Woude, Tarico Foster, brasby Amina Hussein, who's the head of US Sports at Prime Video. Their talent department which is insane to have that kind of connection. And then we went to the Hawks game. The Hawks played the New Orleans Pelicans, got to meet Swin Cash, which everybody else nobody knew why I was so excited.
We all learned about her beforehand because the China gave us an assignment, but as someone who grew up watching her, it's stuff like that, Connections like that that this program has been able to make for me and for other folks and just super exciting. One of the hardest things I've ever done, for sure, because I'm My aspirations are
in play by play and color commentary. So I got the headset on and you can't see me for the most part, but you know, doing stand ups, being in front of the camera, getting used to doing that kind of stuff. It's the challenge I wanted it to be before I applied. So good.
Yeah, you guys don't follow me on Instagram.
They post the most adorable little clips and photos of them doing the play by play. And I have promised to turn you into a meme and I just haven't had time. The aforementioned travels have gotten the way of me turning you into a meme. But it's going to happen meme worthy content, Yeah, for sure, and you and I answer you and I had some good like bonding conversations about doing hard stuff and microdosing failure and learning
how to get into stuff that scares you. So I love that you're doing it, and I love that you're getting so much out of it. So shouts still a China Robinson. She's such a badass and it's helping out.
The next generation is just so cool.
Speaking of the next generation, that's the next topic I wanted to get into. And you, the three of us all like made the migration to Blue Sky around the same time, and it was interesting that I still occasionally will post on both Twitter and blue Sky, both because there are still people that haven't made the move that I want to get to, and also like for social questions and stuff. I still have so many more followers there that I got a lot more back sometimes over
there than Blue Sky. But this was something I posted about this next generation of superstars, and the difference between the feedback I got on Blue Sky about what I wrote and what I got on Twitter was night and day and very illustrative of like what's going on in those sites right now.
But I posted sort of.
I had been posting about the Notre Dame Yukon game as it was going on, and posting about Hanna Hidalgo cooking because she was going off, and also that she's very entertaining. She did just about every different kind of three celebration you can.
Across the course of that game.
She was super hyped, she was getting the crowd into it, like she is definitely both a playmaker and an entertainer. At the end of the game, I just wrote and I said nice things about her play throughout. At the end of the game, I said kind of just kind of mad at Hannah Hidalgo for having problematic opinions and beliefs, because I just want to enjoy watching her play so
bad and it kind of gets in the way. And for those who don't remember from previous shows, Hannah reposted Candice Owens on in saying that gay marriage is a sin. She's also had some other posts allegedly from her father who's a pastor, saying similar things.
And it's especially.
Complicated and fraught in women's college basketball, where a high percentage of players are queer, and the women's sports space where fans and players and people who she will be working with and playing with and against will probably have thoughts on her opinions about their life and their love. And that was not to say I hate Hanna Hidalgo, and it was not to say she can't grow and evolve, and it was not to say that a nineteen year
old is a finished product. It was just to say it gets in the way, like when she's being real swaggy. Instead of my usual feeling for extremely swaggy women players, where I'm like, yes, I love this, it's tinged with like damn it, yeah, Like I don't know if I want swaggy from someone with those beliefs about people and their love and who they are and their identities.
It makes me sad instead of wanting to root her on.
And it's complicated and a lot of people could separate those and everybody on Twitter wanted to tell me how fucked up and stupid I am forgiven a shit and I'm terrible and you're an old lady and she doesn't give a fuck about you, and I'm like great, cool, And then on Blue Sky, it was almost entirely people who were like, totally get it, it's really hard, or like I'm a queer woman and I'm trying to watch and enjoy and it's really difficult for me to feel
like that and blah blah blah. So I wanted to ask y'all how you deal with that, because I've always been my main thing is obviously people will be able to separate or not. But like, let's say I'm listening to music from somebody who is no longer with us and they were proven later to be problematic, I'm not going to go out and buy it. If it's on I might still enjoy it, and if it's extreme, like r Kelly, I don't even enjoy it anymore because I
can't not think about it. Right. If it's an athlete and they're part of a team, I might still try to root for the team and not the athlete in particular, because it's a larger thing. And if it's an individual, it is difficult for me to root for them in the moment that they're playing, because then I'm actively rooting for them while knowing.
That that's who were what they are.
It feels different for me than like some musician that died fifty years ago and you find out that they were trash and I've always liked their music. I'm like, oh, that sucks. I don't know, and I'm not making equivo. I'm not equivocating to get myself off the hook. That's just my natural sort of like gut.
Niche. How do you handle it?
It's so extremely tough, and you already kind of mentioned the caveat that means the most to me, which is Hannah Hidalgoes nineteen twenty. And I know from personal experience, right, because I believe it or not, Folks, there was a point in time where everybody in the world thought I was straight and baby that closet was glass, you know what I mean. Not to say that, not to say that it's the same situation for Hannah, because I don't
know her life or nothing like that. I just say that to say that was a product of the things that I had heard and taken in and it took me a long time to sort through that and make truth out of that. And so I say that to say, like Hannah hopefully has wnba aspirasus, I feel like that's the track. Where's it's safe enough to say we're looking at a league of players who are in gay marriages, who are getting proposed and hope to be in gay marriages and a very fraught time in our country's history
in terms of you know, queer rights and things. So my hope is that she's gonna move on to have conversations with people around her that changed kind of her worldview, right,
that changed the way she feels about things. But that aside, if it happens, if it doesn't in this current moment, yeah, it's really hard to be like, damn, I freaking love it in her dollgoes game like she Caitlin Clark last year, Like they said, something on fire inside me as somebody who loves the game of basketball to see the level of competitiveness and just balls to the wall. I don't care what happens. I don't give a about you or the rest of your team. That she has in her
it is very hard to separate that out. But my saving grace is that she is a kid, and I do have hope for her future that you know, somebody will get in her ear and be like, baby girl, we know what you've been told, but it's gonna be different than the life that you walk. If you end up being in the w or what have.
You Alex, Yeah, I think I want to step back for a second because something that I think we probably all agree happens a lot in society right now, is this villainization of someone at the first sign of something.
And Hannah reshared.
A video in which someone else said gay marriage is a sin. And I'm not making that distinction to let Hannah off the hook or to say that those aren't her thoughts, because if she's reposting it, those are probably her thoughts what I wish would happen, and I don't
think has happened. But has anyone asked Hannah about this, because I think sometimes what happens is there's not kind of this check and balance system that happens in a lot of other arenas, right like if a politician or other public figure says something that's controversial, usually there is a follow up of clay rrifying or asking for more detail.
And I don't feel like that's happened with her. And I think it even gets back to Sarah the conversation that you had with Alexa a couple of weeks ago about some of the other complicated topics and just the lack of reporters in this space and how much there is to cover, So not saying that to let Hannah off the hook. I just sometimes worry about what happens when we kind of come to conclusions based on one thing. That being said, I do think it makes it harder
to root for her on the court. But am I rooting for her to continue to grow and change and develop.
Off of it, absolutely, and rooting to keep watching her be amazing because it's great basketball and I would never not want that.
It's just complicated, it's not as easy. And I completely agree with you.
I think we have similar thoughts about Corbin Albert, and I think you can have really thoughtful conversations about how when you're a young person and you've been raised with a certain belief system, it is very hard to break out of your family systems and the expectation and say have for your beliefs.
It is very hard, especially early on when.
You've just left your family home, to change your mind about stuff like that. And that's why it's not that I'm mad at her or I dislike her. It's that it's hard for me because it makes me sad. I want her to be able to evolve her viewpoints and hold both things. If she wants to that she can be religious and spiritual, and she can believe in other people living their own truth and.
Identity and be happy about it.
I think your example is very true about sports, Like there's people like Sophie Cunningham that continue to confuse a lot of people. The Phoenix Mercury player that, according to the Internet and lots of allegations, she can't beat the rep that she's like a conservative Trump supporting whatever, and yet she's like bff with all of her teammates. They seem to embrace and love her so much. And how's that working? Like what's going on behind the scenes that
we're not sure of? And I wish we could have more open conversations with those players, And you know, maybe that's.
Part of our responsibility with this shit. Maybe we should be having them on and asking them.
But I think also the reporters that are covering these teams regularly and the teams themselves, if there is an intention to be more transparent about what's going on, then do it. You know, that's been my complaint with Corbin Albert. I respect that Emma Hayes wants to do the calling in instead of the calling out and work with her. But if all of the things she's said have been public, then all of the work she's doing can't be private.
We need to have a little bit of it out.
For us to see and witness in order to believe that there's work going on. And I guarantee you probably not as many listeners of our shol though it's possible that there are plenty, would be in their heads arguing with us about they're allowed to believe whatever they want.
This isn't about everyone agreeing this is sports.
But I do think when it's what's at issue is people's fundamental rights and who they are. It is very difficult for me to reconcile that if I was alongside a teammate or someone that I had to work with regularly and they did not fundamentally believe that I could love who I wanted to love and be who I am, it would make it hard.
That's what it comes down. Yeah, that's what it comes down to for me, because the first thing I remember when I saw that she had reshared that that posted Candice owns, and the first thing I was thinking, is, damn, I if she's got a teammate, If she's got a coach if she's anybody who's directly in that network who saw that post.
Mm hmm.
And that's where I say, I hope conversations are being right as opposed to just silos. People are continuing to stand in their own silos and nothing ever changes. Yeah, tough, though tough.
Okay, we just left that tough conversation for an even tougher one.
You guys, we have to pick our name.
Putting this off for weeks, we just gotta get We just gotta like start to you know, what's the what's the saying when you're when you're writing and you have to do some tough edits kill your darlings.
We have to figure out how to kill our darlings.
Some of these names are cute, some of them are close but not quite right. We just got to get rid of them. Here are the ones that I think we sort of narrowed it down to. Some people want to call us coach. It feels it feels right. We're telling them good game. At the end, we're handing them orange slices. Some of us want us to be senior slices, which in my head I keep saying senior slice because I picture like a little slice.
That's that's Spanish speaking.
But we're not seniors, so it doesn't really make sense, and none of you probably want to be just I'm the only one that's a senior citizen, so you don't want to be known as a senior slice.
Can we get a discount?
Yeah, exactly, AARP for orange slices. We got good gamers, And when we were naming our slices, we said, we don't like gamers. The associations come along with, like the video gaming and gamer gait and whatever. We never thought that was quite right. We got good sports, which is good. We got peels, which is good. We're sort of on the outside holding all the slices together. We got orange blossoms,
which are beautiful and a great smell. We've got the grove, which is sort of the headquarters where all the orange slices originate. We've got Slice HQ, which is a headquarters for the slices. What do we feel and what are we thinking? What's standing out to you? I told you my choice is the grove. I do like the grove.
It makes for me a it has to make logical sense, and I think that still makes sense with the slices. Yeah, the slice has to become whole before it to be okay, fine, but grove makes sense. The rest of these flowers are cute. I like orange blossoms, but like, ah, it's not an I don't know. It doesn't feel sports related enough to me. The grove still feels like it could be the name of a bar, or like, I don't know, something like that senior slice. I'm gonna let you have that one
old hit. You got it, od good gamers. I do feel the same way about that. Gamers leave that alone.
Appeals to me.
I don't want to be appeal Like, appeal is something that you do to exfoliate. Appeal is something you discard. I don't know about that.
Yeah, appeal is not the part of the I mean, you can use an orange rine for recipes, but appeal is usually not the part of the orange you're looking for. Yes, so it seems like we don't want to be the part you pe off in discard.
But the way you described it, Sarah, you are like, we hold all the slices together. That's such a nice.
But so does the grove.
Yeah, yeah, the grove is where all the slices hang, and like where it all originates. Yea, yeah, and I don't want to ruin the association, but you might be thinking that the grove sounds sporty like a sports bar because it's the name of ole Miss Tailgates, the tail gate at the Grove.
I don't know if you've ever heard of that.
But that just sounds like a bar that would exist in DC somewhere.
Yeah, and it sounds like when we.
Continue our general worldwide and international takeover, we will have grove franchise bars all the world where orange slices come together to watch women's sports.
Sorry, Jenny Winn of the Sports Bra, we're clearly.
Stealing your idea and then franchising it everywhere. The only problem with the grove is is like, are we in the grove the grove like we here at the grove at the grove, or are we.
The grove where the trees?
Yeah, that's what I like. Trees and plants. You know, that's my ship. So if I can be a plant, I'll be the plant. And that's a grove. Let me let's I'm googled.
It reminds me of an animal name, you know, like a pod of dolphins, you know, tree.
A murder of crows and unkindness of ravens.
That's real.
Yeah, grove, I'm looking at pictures of groves right now that I mean, you're calming. It's quite. It's quite calming. It's quite, it's quite relaxing.
So are we each individually a grove and are the grove?
Yeah?
Well yeah, Well, now I'm thinking of like big Florida Energy and like the orange juice industry, and whether or not we have fair labor practices and are ethically treating our farmers.
And we do not want Big Florida Energy. If there's anything we don't want, it's Big Florida Energy.
Oh my god, we don't want to be accused of being big centrist.
Oh well, have we met an impasse? Here? Are we?
All right?
I think our brainstorming out loud will perhaps inspire some thoughts, and this way we can kick it down the road a little bit longer.
So we're kicking the can down the road.
We are tentatively hovering around the grove. But if someone were to swoop in with like just a no brainer that we missed, we will consider it. But we promise by the end of this week we will definitively, just pick something and stick with it.
That's it until we change it. We're allowed to change n.
We change it and evolve, just like Cana Hidalgo.
We have commitment issues soon.
Okay, last thing, my fellow growth first grover.
Now now I already hate it.
Now we're a muppet. Holiday traditions.
After the break, we're going to chat about some great traditions from our slices. So I want to see if either of y'all have holiday traditions around this time of year.
Yeah.
So my family, we always put up candles in every window. Nice and a few years ago, speaking to arts and crafts, I've found these old candles that my grandfather, who I never met he died before I was born, had made. And you know how, like old wiring, you probably shouldn't plug in if you want to prevent fires. Sure, all of the wires were like super exposed and dangerous.
So I learned how to rewire them, and I remade these candles so that we.
Mostly have the new plastic candles, but we do have the one old wooden candle that my grandfather made, and every year when I see it, it makes me very happy.
Alex Is full of skills and crafts and abilities that are.
Just about the time I fix the refrigerator.
She's an electrician, she's a producer, she's an editor, she's.
A Crafter's like, you're the personification of that bag that hermione. Nope, I don't want to make the Harry Potter reference. Actually get leave it alone. But if you know what I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about. I know what you're talking about. Traditions. I don't really have a lot of them. My family's big on Kwanza, but we kind of do it our own way. We don't do
it during the actual days of Kwanza. It's usually actually around the Martin Luther King Junior Holiday, which okay, just a little Jones spin on it. But personally, one thing that I really do a lot, not even just during the end of the year of the holidays, is I'm big on writing. I have a journal. I've always had a journal. It's how I like to process things. I was an only child coming up, so that's kind of just how.
It worked for The journal is my friend.
My journal is literally my journal and namesake. We were locked in a real bad but so towards the end of the year, I write down stuff I want to let go of. A lot of people probably do this, write it all down, sit with it for however long I feel like I really need to sit with it. And then I burn it in a small controlled fire and it.
Caused by your grandfather's candle. Yeah, but that's I love that.
When I was just at mirror Ball, I did a presentation for all our retreaters about mindfulness and neuroplasticity and how you manifest things using actual science, not.
So time out. Time out. You went on vacation and you gave a but.
It was like a retreat that I was running, so it was like a vacation. But I also participated by leading this lecture. And I'm really interested in manifestation and neural plasticity because people always say, oh, yeah, you asked the.
Universe for it and then it gives to you when you rub your crystals.
And that's fine if that's your thing. But I'm not super woo like that. I like the sciencey side, So meish if you ever want to talk offline about both the things you want to leave behind and either habit changes or things you want to bring into your life and the actual science way that you can change your
habits and behaviors over time. It only takes twenty one days to change your thoughts, in only sixty six days to make them automatic if you are consistent and committed and you use the principles of neuroplasticity.
So anyway, that's off topic. I have many traditions. I'm only going to share a couple.
You guys can't see how how she's smiling right now?
I know, I just like love Christmas so much, and I love traditions, and I'm basically like I never was in a sorority because no, thank you, but if I was, I would have been social chair. And I'm basically social chair for my giant like friend group. And it's just a constant stream of me making people wear different outfits and go to different things and have the time of their lives. As far as I'm concerned, I don't need to hear otherwise if they're not having the time of
their lives. But one of my traditions is our annual Christmas tree hunt. So my parents have a place in Michigan, about ninety minutes outside Chicago, and every year, usually the week after Thanksgiving so people can do Thanksgiving with family,
we go to this Christmas tree farm. Well, first we go to big, like boozy lunch, and then we go to this Christmas tree farm and we take a horse drawn thing out to the field and you walk around and find your tree and cut it down yourself with a saw and then bring it back on the horse drawn thing and have all the like spice nuts and
hot chocolate and stuff like that. Then we would usually go to a winery or somewhere in town and like keep hanging out, come back to my parents' house, have a big, huge pot luck where we cooked all sorts of things, and then play a bunch of board games and sleepover and come back the next day. There was a tree hunt running for like I don't even know, maybe eleven years. This year I had to take a pause because I was out of town. But we're back
at it next year on the tree hunt. Also, I hate late Thanksgiving because it just like slows everything down, and then if you wait a week after Thanksgiving, suddenly your tree isn't into like December tenth. Okay, my other big tradition actually just happened this past weekend. It's called Fletch Navidad. This is our annual Christmas party, plus my dog Fletch's birthday. He turned thirteen at the end of November, so this was the twelfth annual Fletch Navidad. This year's
theme was Liffletcher die Hard. And every year you can wear costumes, you can wear ugly sweaters, you could just be festive, and every year people get more and more involved because they know that we're going to like bring it. So this year, my husband, who's six ' five was Elf on a shelf, just a giant ass Elf that we were placing in places. And then I was basically the Zoe da Chanel Elf from the movie Elf, with like the little I.
Think her name's Dobe or Dobby or whatever.
Nobody didn't ever really call her by her name, and cute little pink and red little Elf outfit. And we always have I make a game using these solo cups that look like a Christmas tree, and then they have tissue paper covering. I mean, you have to come up and punch through and whatever's inside you have to do or eat or drink or whatever. So a lot of
times it's mellort shots. That's Chicago this year, there's also like some dramatic readings where you had to read like one of the famous scenes from like National Lampoon, like why is the carpet wet Todd I don't know, Margo or things like that. And then we also have a dance off with the animatronic Santa that they chances that gets real nasty Santa just gets torqued one for twenty minutes straight and he never said, Oh, I.
Thought it was a nasty Santa.
You're saying people get.
Nasty with no.
I mean, he is a nasty Santa by the end of it. There's no way he can escape. Oh he is complicit and everything that happens to him, I've never once seen him stop dancing or walk away, so consensual
as far as I'm concerned. And then this year I also invented another malort related game where I changed all the lyrics to Santa claus Is coming to Town to Milert Clauses coming to town, and then throughout when I handed out pieces of paper to six people who had to sing it, and then different parts of the song, it would say something that would mean that they had to take a Milert shot.
So I'm a benevolent Milert fairy.
I'm mostly gentle, but I wouldn't be a real Chicago And if I didn't write actual Christmas carols about lort and force people to drink it. So those are my two main Oh, and I have a third one I forgot really quick. So then also a couple of days after Christmas, when all the tourists are out of Chicago and there's like a million pop up bars and beautifully decorated hotels and places, we do holiday day.
Oh fun.
Now this is where when all the tourists are gone, we do a full day again in sort of festive attire, and we go to a handful of different like deck pop up bars or other Christmas things. We go curling, and then usually start with like a big meal and stuff, and then we get to go around the city after like most of the tourists are gone and still experience the festive joy of the holidays.
Wow, that was that feels like a so much love and work Welcome to my life. That is gonna be on my grapestone.
So much love and work Spain.
Always tied together pretty much though, I'm like, I'll put in the work because it's for love and I love bringing people together and having fun.
So that is why I love the holidays.
Okay, we gotta take a break, but when we come back, Supermarket sweep meets white Elephant. Yes, this is one of our favorite traditions from you slices, So stick around, Welcome back everybody. As you heard before the break, I love the holidays. I'm such a sucker for Christmas, and I love seeing all the trees in people's windows. I love the music and the decorations. I love how all the stores and everything feels so welcoming. And I love to hear about all of your unique and special traditions.
So thanks to all.
Of you for sending them in, and thanks to all of you for responding on social. Here were a few of the favorites that I saw so Dana og on Blue Sky said, tacky ornament exchange. This year I got pickless cage. Yeah, I just want you to know the picture is as amazing as you're imagining pickless cage. Tracy Lynch on Blue Sky said, I never put names on the wrapped presence that appear on Christmas Morning.
Each GIF tag has a code name.
I'm the only one with the code and the kids try to crack the code. By the time all the gifts are opened, I switch the code every year.
They love it. That's really I love that.
Tracy brent Sheppard on Blue Sky. In a tradition begun the first holiday we spent together, my ex and I still call each other late Christmas Eve for our annual reading of the David Sedara short story Dinah the Christmas Whore. This will be year eighteen and I can almost make it through the whole story without breaking. First of all, I love this because it's non traditional and now I
want to go read Dineah the Christmas Horror. But also because I love the idea that you've been doing this for eighteen years and this is now an X and whoever y'all are with now, if you're with, everyone is like, oh there they go in the middle of Christmas Eve to go call their X and read a short story together.
You sound healed therapy works.
I think Kate w on Blue Sky said, we do a special pie based friends giving where the entire meal is a variety of pies, savory and sweet, so you can do dinner pie course followed by dessert pies. Every family brings at least two pies, but there's always an overachiever with a bonus pie.
It's incredible. That sounds magical. Please invite me.
Kate jack Orian and his kids put out and rearranged the holiday Gremlins like Elf on a shelf, but with gremlins. Mish has no idea what the gremlins are, but me, it's a movie, you know. Don't feed them after midnight, don't get water on them, etc.
And so forth.
Stuart Wexler still gives his fourteen year old son at least one unwrapped gift under the tree to prove that Santa brought it, which is adorable. My mother still signs at least one or two gifts from Santa to my sister and me, despite our age, which is adorable.
Justin Baird on Twitter.
So when I was a kid, my mom got burned out having to host and cook food for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. So we collectively agreed we'd rather have homemade pizzas when we got together for Christmas. So everyone picks their toppings and we trade slices. That sounds delightful and very Chicago.
I love that.
Justin at the Vague Queen on Twitter for generations, our family has done tree gifts. At the end of the day, we'll go to the Christmas tree and find small gifts hidden in the tree and open them over dessert. Many family engagements have capped off Christmas Day.
That is adorable.
Except one year I was looking inside my tree and I saw this weird looking like nest circle thing, and I posted it and it turned out it was actually a eggsack, and I luckily got it out of the house before thousands of tiny little tree spiders hatched in my house. So I hope when you're searching your tree for little gifts you never find an eggsack instead of an engagement ring as song as you don't, that's cute.
Cute tradition.
Narcoleptic moth Man says, Christmas Eve, we hand out one gift which our pajamas to.
Wear that night and during Christmas Morning.
I love this one because I love a matching family PJ set and it is very rare that I can get my family to do it. But a couple of years I did, and I made my dad in his seventies wear the same outfit as a two year old, and it was so delightful for me and my family's all very tall, so they never fit us, and it's still very fun and cute.
So I love that tradition.
John Robertson from Insta said, my wife's family does and has had traditions for years. A Jimmy fallon game night, we do drinko eggreu lette, and a lip sync battle all on Christmas Eve. And this year my family is performing I'm Just Ken and the Bye Bye Bye song from the Deadpool versus Wolverine opening scene. People go all out. I wish my family would do this. I'm going to try to start to convince my family to this. I
am really the performer of the family shocker. I don't know if they would want to, but I used to love watching the family dance wars between some of the Dancing with the Stars folks. I don't know if you remember this, Maybe like a decade ago they started to go viral where they would do dance wars and like send them back to each other via Instagram video.
Yeah.
I don't think my family's going to want to do it, but I would like that, so that might be one that I steal.
That's really cute.
My favorite one of all though, which I'm definitely gonna steal. Comes from my friend Aaron Ryder on Instagram, and her tradition takes place in a mall or a shopping center. So she said, quote, it's a real time white Elephant.
We get a bit tipsy and people pick numbers.
The first off of the group goes shopping for twenty five minutes with twenty five dollars and comes back with things in a bag. The next group shops and then it's like white Elephant rules with stealing and such. So I say, it's a matchup of white Elephant and shop till you drop or supermarket sweep.
We started it in La at the Grove. It's a sign.
We started in La at the Grove in two thousand and nine it was called the Grovy Games, and now in Nashville it's the Opry Reindeer Games.
But you can do it at any shopping area. That sounds super fun.
I love White Elephant, but the idea of the pressure of like running around them all trying to find a good white Elephant gift and coming back and playing super fun.
Thanks to everybody for sharing.
I love, love love hearing about all the ways that you get together with friends and family and continue traditions or start new traditions. And there are a few in there that I might steal. And you, of course are welcome to steal Fletch Navidad. Even if you don't have a dog named Fletch, you could still do it. As always, we love that you're listening, but we want you to get in the game every day too. So here's our
good game play of the day. Okay, y'all, we're nearing the end of the year and we would love to hear what you're excited for in twenty twenty five and what you want to hear about on this show. So, guest ideas topics, What do you want us to cover?
What do you want us to dig into?
Message us as always on social at Sarah Spain, on Twitter at Sarahspain dot com, on Blue Sky at Spain two three two three, on Insta, you can leave us a voicemail eight seven two two o four fifty seventy, or you can always hit us up on email. Good game at wondermedianetwork dot com and don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. It's easy watch gingerbread Houses rating five out of five gum drops review, what other dessert makes you want to pack up a suitcase and move in.
Unlike every other dessert inspired item out there, it somehow doesn't matter how it tastes. Gum drops, after all, are reliably disgusting, especially the green ones, and no one wants to chomp into some stale gingerbread that's been sitting out for a couple of weeks, especially after the family dog has taken a bite actual lived experience here, or the family cat has rubbed up against it, leaving behind a few stray furs, actual alex.
Lived experience there.
All that matters is that it looks delightful, and that's enough for us. Shout out to my hobby Brad, who last year had an Actual Food Network gingerbread show competitor make a perfect gingerbread replica of our house, right down to the Christmas decorations on the fence out front and a light up tree inside. Plus there were little doghouses on the side for our pups and that happened to be one of the dogs eight. Anyway, I wanted to
keep that gingerbread house alive forever. It was such a delight Now it's your.
Turn, rate and review. Thanks for listening.
See you tomorrow, Good Game, pickleus Cage, Good Game, Christmas Gremlins, gew bacterial micro organisms and fungal spores that prevent gingerbread houses from living forever. Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network, our producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones.
Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan, and Emily Rudder. Our editors are Emily Rudder, Britney Martinez, Grace Lynch, and Lindsay Cradowell. Production assistants from Lucy Jones and I'm Your Host Sarah Spain