¶ Intro / Opening
I it would have to be Korean barbecue.
Boys and girls, mom and dads, ladies and gentlemen, it is with great enthusiasm that we welcome you to the Sun Life podcast.
Where we discuss all things raising kids, marriage, our wind, but more importantly, our failures. Join us in our journey because we're just like you.
It is my greatest honor and privilege to introduce to you my co host, my better half and my best friend straight out of Irvine, California, Christina Song.
Hi, everyone. And sitting next to me is my 5 baby daddy, Daniel Song. And there is no place we'd rather be than right here, right now with you. Love you, daddy.
Love you, Martina. It is Thanksgiving. It is Tuesday. Thanksgiving is 2 days away, and it is officially the kickoff of the holiday holiday season for 2024.
Even before Halloween was even over, pretty much, I think, beginning or middle of October, I sent you a picture inside Costco where it was Christmas or Halloween decorations, a little bit of Thanksgiving decorations, and Christmas already Christmas decorations were already up.
It's nuts. My friend told me that, this year, starting in March, they were selling Christmas trees.
Are you serious?
I'm just joking.
Oh my god. Oh my god.
But it's getting earlier and earlier and earlier. And now I don't know if it's if we're at a certain age where we don't notice this anymore as much or if it's truly going away. But I think it's a little bit of both, but Black Friday is no longer a thing, I believe.
¶ Hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas, New Year's elsewhere.
I think ever since the Internet, online shopping, it is definitely not a thing. I don't think our kids will ever experience the rush of I actually even went that midnight, Thanksgiving night midnight to get in line and, yeah, buy things. It was when we were opening the office and yeah. I bought
When we were opening our first office, I remember the next day for Black Friday, we would buy, I think we went to Staples. We bought,
Like chairs. I think I bought chairs, printers.
What is that? The clip machine or you clip papers? Stapler?
Stapler.
Stapler. That's a stapler. Uh-huh.
Right? Yes.
Yeah. Staple. Staple. Yeah.
Clipping?
Yeah. Because, you know, if you think about it, our kids probably don't know what a stapler is.
I know. Because no one really uses they don't write anymore. Everything is turned into the computer. Exactly.
Yeah. But, yeah, I it's it's interesting how how time kinda evolves. But full blown Thanksgiving, and there might be some of you. You guys are probably getting ready to either go out of town, start packing, or expecting family members or friends coming into town because you're celebrating it at your house. But if you are hosting this year, thank you.
Thank you very much for taking on that burden and that load of making sure that everybody gets fed, everybody's getting to spend quality time together. And thank you, Tina, because once again, we are hosting, Thanksgiving. And I don't think there's been once we started hosting, I don't think there's been a year where we skipped. Mhmm. And, you know, we kinda go around, you know, the actually, it's so we're doing Thanksgiving at our house, Christmas at our house, but New Year's at my parents' house
Mhmm.
Only because for New Year's, the extended family comes over. So my parents like hosting that.
Yes.
¶ Traditional family holidays; potential new holiday ideas.
But but a couple things, we wanna talk about on this episode is there are very much traditional things that every culture has. And you don't even it's not even a certain culture, but the fact that you might be the firstborn child, that you have responsibilities. And there's traditions and expectations, because maybe because the grandparents are still alive or that you have kids now. But our Thanksgiving has been always, always been with family. I don't remember, New Year's Day where we didn't deal with family, Christmas Day where we traveled anywhere because for the longest time, our kids were the only grandkids that I'm especially on my side.
Mhmm.
So we always felt bad if we were to travel for the holidays that, you know, we would be taking that opportunity away from my parents. But Thanksgiving is one of those, one of those holidays where we have we have always done it the same, meaning always stayed local and and, you know, spent the holidays with with family. So we put together a list, 5 top things that we would want to do or anything different that we would wanna do if we didn't do it the way that we've been doing it. And
You go first.
I will go first. My number one is I would absolutely want a destination Thanksgiving. Meaning that we're not at home, we're not in our city, we're not anywhere familiar, but we go away to a hotel, to a resort, to a completely different city and have Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving have Thanksgiving be provided for us. I just think that would be super cool to go somewhere and actually eat at a nice restaurant and have them cook for us.
I don't think we each need to come up with number 5 because I think it is basically going to be the same list.
True.
But I that was also on my list, and I think partly is because we generally host. And like I said on our previous episode, I don't actually make the turkey. I just have to heat it up. But the whole thing of hosting, not just Thanksgiving, but just a big meal for, let's say, 10 plus people, it's kind of getting the timing right so that everything is still somewhat warm. The temperature is good because no one wants to eat cold food, and it's still stressful.
There's still and just because we plan on meeting at 5, not everyone shows up at 5, and there's just a lot of stress to it. Growing up, my dad would probably host every weekend if he could. He loved having people over and truly just feeding people. My mom, on the other hand, hated hosting. She is an extreme you know, I was I was just gonna say she's an extreme introvert, but I don't think that was her actual personality growing up.
But she's not the most kept like, the house was never really kept clean, and she just hated people coming over and, like, kind of in in in a way put on a show. So they actually fought about that a lot growing up in that family or in in our family. And I kinda just had this negative tone about hosting, but also you love to host. And I think as I've gotten older, I've I'm embracing feeding people. And, yeah, having people over, watching them eat, and it's not even just I'm making the food because a lot a lot of times, you don't wanna, like, put that burden on me, so we'll just cater or, you know, just buy food, and we're just really opening up the house so that we can eat comfortably.
¶ Hosting at home prioritizes comfort over eating out.
We're not on a time crunch to try and, you know, open up the space for the restaurants and such. So, you know, as I'm getting older, I am definitely enjoying company over at the house. But having I feel bad because all those people that's serving us the Thanksgiving meal, let's say at a resort, at a hotel, at restaurants or whatever, they're not able to spend time with their family. And so I think I would sit there, feel a little bad about it, but also it would be awesome to just get dressed up, go to a nice Thanksgiving meal, everything is just, you know, laid out in front of you, and you get to just enjoy the food. You don't have to worry about the cleanup, and you get to just come right back home.
Yeah. I mean, it's almost like a vacation. Right? It is.
I think
I think one of the reasons why your mom didn't enjoy it is because, truly, it's work. It is. It's a lot of work.
Mhmm.
You know, hosting. And that's why mentally mentally, it's, you know, you can't you're on. Yeah. And especially if you're hosting, you can't enjoy a meal Mhmm. You know, because you're you're hosting. Right? Making sure that everybody else is taken care of, has enough food, you know, making sure that everybody else is comfortable. But I think that'll be just really neat to just go away for Thanksgiving.
I also have to throw in there. Side note. Did I mention it? No. I didn't mention it in the last episode.
So our dishwasher was broken, and it just got replaced today. So we were without a dishwasher for about 2 weeks where me, you, Nicole, like, we were hand washing dishes again. And mind you, we never ever used the dishwasher until COVID. Once COVID hit and the kids were home from school and we were doing dishes, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I think after the second or third day, I was like, f this. I am not doing this anymore.
And so we started loading up the dishwasher and running it overnight, and, oh my gosh, I don't know what it was about the dishwasher where we didn't do that sooner. And, yeah, I was really, really, really worried that the dishwasher was not gonna get fixed until, you know, after Thanksgiving. But, yeah, it's fixed now.
But luck luckily, it is, it's it's it's fully functioning now. But number 2 on my list is actually not having turkey on Thanksgiving Day. We were just talking about that, and I don't know about other families, and I don't think we're any different than a lot of different families out there. But who like you said, who really has turkey? Mhmm.
Because it's such a massive bird. It's a it's a huge meal. It takes all day. And on Thanksgiving, I get it. You can you know, everybody is selling it, so it's easily accessible. But I don't think I don't really think anybody has turkey Just throughout the year. Throughout the year.
I agree.
¶ Considering alternatives for Thanksgiving meal tradition.
But I would love we were just talking we're I would love to do KFC. You know, fried chicken. We I I even said, hey. This year, should we just do Korean barbecue at home? Right? And just not have turkey at all. And then you said, how can we not? It's once a year, at least for, you know, just the vibe of Thanksgiving. And, yeah, I don't I I honestly don't think my mom will let us not have Thanksgiving Yeah. A Thanksgiving meal. You know, she's all about that. Yeah.
One another thing on my list would be not so much even just having a Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant or hotel, but I think you mentioned that in part of your number one was just to get away. The 7 of us. To just go away on a trip, and that's kind of our Thanksgiving break together. Not so much even just half turkey, but just because for me, thanksgiving is about family. Not so much turkey.
You know? It's about gathering. So not so much I in a way, not extended to extended family, but the 7 of us just getting away for 2 or 3 days. And the kids used to not get the whole week off, but this year, they get a whole week off. But because of that one Thanksgiving dinner Thursday night, it's like, do we go somewhere? Do we not go somewhere? And then, like you said, like, my parents, your parents, what would they do if we're not here hosting?
Yeah. I and I and we as much as we want to, we would never Yeah. Because our family, we're kinda like the cornerstone
Yes.
Of both sides, where if we don't host, are people even gonna get together type type of thing? Mhmm. Because then who's cooking in? Whose house are we gonna have it? Mhmm. So I
just if we do go away, it's like I would it would just be in the back of my mind.
Oh, it'd be a total guilt trip also. Totally. And then we wouldn't enjoy because we would Totally. We would feel bad.
Totally.
Yeah. So number 1, destination Thanksgiving. Number 2, not having turkey. But let me ask you this. So if not having turkey, what what meal would you like? Oh,
I it would have to be Korean barbecue.
I agree. I agree. Number 3, instead of a Thanksgiving, I would want to experience a Friendsgiving.
We did. We did before.
When? But, I
mean, it wasn't in lieu of Thanksgiving. We did Thanksgiving with family, and then we also did Friendsgiving.
Oh, we did?
Uh-huh. With in North Park.
Oh. I don't I don't remember.
Yeah. We got together There was at our friend's house.
That was a long time
ago then. It was, like, more than a decade ago. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. So but, you know, with different friends
Mhmm.
With different friends and just getting together and big meals, big family, just and, you know, I wanna fly somewhere. Mhmm. And right? Even even if it's at a hotel, not at a friend's house, just fly. Everybody get together and a family or 10 families or just something.
¶ Celebration with close friends, like family.
Right? A truly, truly just celebration.
Yeah.
And I think that would be just kinda cool because the whole meaning behind it, the fact that you got you were together, it would have to be really close friends.
Mhmm.
But the fact that everybody's willing to not be with their families and be here altogether, that's some close friends. Yeah. But I think I think of friends I and and what comes to mind is the movie Home Alone, how they all gather together at their house, you know, just people flying in and, you know, just just chaos Mhmm. But also just controlled chaos and just yeah. I think that that just sounds like a lot of fun.
What would be, like, boujee would be to just rent, like, a mansion. So you have, like, the address Yeah. And everyone just meet there. And a lot of the bigger cities, let's say, like, Palm Springs or whatnot, you can hire chefs to just come and prep the whole meal for you.
That'd be cool.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. So a Friendsgiving. Number 4, instead of us cooking the meal or providing the meal, the kids cook the meal or provide the meal.
Very cute.
That would be because
once they're adults.
Yeah. Yeah. Because that would be a lot more meaningful and everybody would have more thought behind it, and they'd be invested more in the evening or in the day.
Yeah. Because I truly wonder where our kids are gonna end up, like, permanently once they're settled and married and, you know, doing adult life. And if they're I told them if they're within an hour driving distance from where you and I live, that would be a huge blessing.
Yeah. An hour? Yep. Because that's from here to San Diego into LA.
Uh-huh. Within an hour. Yeah. Yeah. But to fly to see them would be tough for me.
But let's say the distance of even here to Vegas, which is about 3 and a half, 4 hours.
Yeah.
I think that's not I think that's okay. Yeah. That's okay.
¶ Annual family gatherings evoke nostalgia and connection.
Yeah. But, you know, for us to all gather and they're in charge of a couple sides and to see what they come up with. That would be interesting.
That would
be cool. Every year, Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year's, even if we have the the schedule to meet with our parents that day, that morning, I will call both of them and, you know, wish them Merry Christmas or wish them happy Thanksgiving or wish them, you know, a happy New Year, even though I'm gonna see them in a couple hours. When we wake up, we call them. And every year, it's kinda like, oh, dad and I, we're just sitting here reminiscing, just, you know, talking about you guys, talking about the grandkids, talking about life. And I just picture them counting the hours, counting the minutes of when they can leave their house to come see us.
And I don't know what it is about my current state in life, but I reminisce and no. Reminiscing is thinking about the past. Right?
Yeah. Daydream? I daydream. Or daydream about the future.
I daydream about the future of what our life would look like, you know, once our kids are grown and what our empty nest, you know, stage would look like. Because, I don't know, the idea of the kids all being out of the house, and it's literally just me and you, I think the days are gonna be so long.
Well, it's funny you mentioned that because I think I shared it with you this week. I know for a fact that I'm gonna have withdrawal.
Yeah.
And only because my life is gonna completely change. And anytime you have major change, of course, you're gonna go through some withdrawal. Mhmm. But as much time as I spend with Nathan right now, to think one day that's not gonna be the case, following him around, you know, doing all these sports, it's gonna I get saddened by it. Mhmm. I get saddened by it.
But I
know it's probably gonna be a slow progression because once he starts driving, I don't have to go to everything with him. But he's gonna be kinda he's gonna be weirded out, Like, when he starts driving and goes there by himself, and I still
show up. He'll be like, hey.
This is this is just a tennis practice that you've seen thousands of times. You know? Literally. But I, you know, I I enjoy it so much that it's not one of those things where, oh, okay. You're driving now. I don't have to go with you anymore. It's to me, it's gonna be like, oh, you're driving now. I don't have to go with you.
Yeah.
You know? Yeah. Where, but but, again, I I can't wait for him to gain his independence and everything else, but I'm sure every parent goes through this. And, yeah, it's gonna be it's gonna be really sad.
And last one.
The last one. Very simple, and really all it is is a change of venue, but an outdoor Thanksgiving. Just like that movie parenthood. You know, how they have a meal outside in their backyard, long table, a bunch of food, a lot of people around, and just spending time together and outdoor Thanksgiving. That's interesting. That because that kinda makes it a little bit more Thanksgiving festive,
pilgrimage ish Yeah. Ish than pilgrimage. I I agree, and I have this thing with outdoor eating because California is all about emphasizing outdoor living because we pretty much have great weather all year long. A lot of Thanksgivings is still in the 60, 70 sometimes. And, yeah, we're just blessed with really good weather.
¶ California's great weather hampers outdoor eating.
But even when we had we had, like, a fire pit set up, sitting area with tables and chairs outside When we first moved in here and when we would decide to eat outside, there's just flies and just Yeah. Everywhere where we're like, okay. Let's just take it back inside. So and then you have, like, those fly
Catchers or
Catchers and, you know, the the, propellers where it's supposed to distract Yeah. Or re what is it?
Redirect Yeah. Or
The the flies. But the idea of outdoor space, outdoor living, outdoor eating sounds great, but in reality, to me, it's usually not the case.
To me, I think the major difference is having a pool or not having a pool.
Yeah.
If we had a pool during summer, that's all we'd be doing. And we wouldn't care if there's flies around or anything. We're just we're out there. We're eating, jump in, jump out. Man, because, you know, we've been to some Airbnbs where we were in Vegas one time. What was it? A 115, 118 degrees? We were outside all day. It didn't matter because when we got a little warm, we just jumped in the pool and we're cooled down again. Yep.
That was amazing. And the lawn furniture, you know, the bad thing about going from inside the house to outside, sitting down the lawn furniture and then coming back in, does you get dirty, dusty? But if you're out there in the pool, you don't care, you know, how dusty it is or, you know but I think having an outdoor pool is probably the key. At least for me, it is. That would that would be the difference maker.
Because if
we had a Jacuzzi, we just kinda jump in the Jacuzzi at night and then just take a shower and call it a night. Yeah. We probably do a dry the Jacuzzi, then the dry sauna. Right? Shower outside, come in, wash up, and then we'd be done.
I agree. Yeah. So when I was talking to Nathan, I think I've had this conversation with him a couple of times to kinda, like, not end the episode, but this conversation I had with him was his one of his least favorite holidays is Thanksgiving, mainly because he doesn't like the Thanksgiving meal, and there's so much association with Thanksgiving with the meal. And for me I'm gonna cry. For me, it's it's about just gathering.
¶ Family gatherings are rare, busy lives prevail.
And, you know, I probably I I have to say, I don't make an I don't make a huge effort in, you know, seeing my brother, more so because, you know, he works and, you know, he I have 5 kids and, you know, we're just every of course, every excuse is everyone's busy. And, you know, even me and my friends and just everyone's busy. But for me, it's more so like watching everyone in our house kinda catching up because at the end of the day, we're family and we're all gathered there. And that's like the one time a year where my parents get to talk to your parents over a meal. And, literally, all they do is my parents are praising you, and your parents are praising me, and all they do is talk about what the grandkids have been up to, and just sitting sitting and watching and hearing all that's going on is it just makes my heart so full, and that's what Thanksgiving is about.
And then so when I talked to Nathan about it, you know, it's like, yeah, Thanksgiving isn't about just, you know, gathering for a turkey meal. It's really just looking back and giving thanks to everything that we have. And, you know, of course, him being 10, he's like, okay. Okay. Okay.
Like, mom's getting emotional again. But, you know, that's kinda like the message I wanna give the kids and, you know, to all the listeners is, one thing I preach to the kids is, you know, you can have a list of a 1000 things to be to complain about. But on the flip side to that, you can have a 1000 things to be thankful for. So when you live a life of, you know, Thanksgiving, I don't know, it just your life just becomes a lot more happier.
I agree. And it was interesting because, you know, you know how Nathan and I are. We joke around a lot. Mhmm. And we we play this yellow car thing. When when we're driving, it's just him and me. And he's in the front seat. Anytime we see a yellow car, we whack the other person. Now he is sitting in the passenger seat. So with his left hand, his so the back of his his left hand, he will just whack me right on the chest.
So it's gonna be my right side of my chest, and it hurts. He doesn't hold back. He whack you know? And then sometimes when he catches me off guard, for a second there, I get, like, almost, like, fierce angry.
Like, why did you do that? And then
I realized, oh, yeah. It's ziggy.
Is it go
for a split ziggy? Like, oh my gosh. But, you know, and then of course, you know, whenever I see a yellow car first, I don't hit him as hard. But, you know, we're we're very close, I think, Nathan and I.
Yes.
And we joke around all the time.
Yes. You guys are you guys are buddies.
And it was funny because I was joking around and just kinda, you know, I said to him one day in the car, I said, hey, did you know that you can't be successful without, Well, I I said, something something along the lines of nobody is successful without a good daddy. Something like that. Aw. And then he gives he turns around.
Gives you a look.
Gives me this look like, are you serious? And then he says, facts. How cute. And then right when he said that, he said, facts. I I it
You realized And and he he gets it.
Yeah. Well, no. Because I was totally joking. Aw. You know, I was I was just trying to pat myself on the back and make you know, making me and and, you know, he and I thought he would know that, but he actually thought about it and said Facts. Facts.
Yeah. He agreed.
You know, where and it just, it made me and I and I had to pause because I had a moment to myself and I said, oh, wow. Mhmm. You know? Because I was just coming from a silly place and I was just joking and I was trying to say, hey, daddy's awesome, Like, you know? Yeah. And and then he turns around and says, facts.
Do do you remember if I shared, like, previous episodes about what Nathan said to me at Cheesecake when I spent 1 on 1 with him?
At oh, no. Or Stitchy, I'm not sure.
I asked Nathan, like, do you know how much mommy loves you?
Right. But you asked him for a number.
Yes. I asked him for a number.
A scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the most.
¶ Child knows mom is happy by expression.
And then he's like, the number is just too high. There is no number. I was like, okay. And then, like, I kinda just told him, you know mommy is very happy? And then he also paused, and he's like, yeah. I know you're happy. And then I kinda just wanted to hear, like, what his meaning of what that looks like. So I was like, what makes you think mommy is happy? Like, how or how can you tell mommy is happy? And he paused, and I could tell he was trying to put some thought into it.
And then he said, I can just see it on your face. It's just written on your face. And then, like, during the meal, I just started, like, tearing up. And there was actually a family sitting behind us, and there was a mom and daughter sitting behind me. And they heard it too, because they were, you know, how we were close enough where everyone was listening to everyone's conversation.
But that was the best response. And, you know, when I just think, you know, at the end of the day, you think about all the conversations you've had during the day, and, you know, made made sure, you know, you uplifted your kids and stuff. But, you know, I've I've been seeing a lot more glimpses of just, you know, you know, just I'm happy, and our kids are happy, and, hopefully, you're happy.
Yeah. It's it's interesting. I mean, if we really think about it, right, like, this year was big. We have our 3rd daughter driving now. Our first daughter is planning an international trip for the first time, which is which is a big deal. You know? Yes. They're planning a trip to London with her friend, and it's like, oh, without us.
And she's like, you've never even gone, like, to me.
Yeah. And me too.
I was like, I haven't gone on an international trip with my girlfriends
yet. Right. Right.
She's like, woah.
Yeah. Nor do I care to go to Europe or London. I don't but but yeah. I guess it's true. They do grow up
Yeah.
And leave the nest one day. And I think the biggest takeaway is enjoy the moment now.
Absolutely.
Enjoy it as hard as it is, as frustrating as it is, as scary as it is. And that's the big one, as scary as it is. You know, because we're always questioning ourselves. Are we good enough? Are we doing enough?
Could I do more? You know, I wish, oh, you know, my kids, they deserve more, but I'm not able to provide or my wife, my spouse, you know, no. You know, forget all of that. You're it's you're exactly where you should be and you're exactly where you need to be. I saw, I saw, on social, you know, it's like, you know, everybody who has money wishes or, you know, everybody who everybody who is older wishes they were younger, everybody who's young wishes they were older, everybody, you know, all that kind of stuff.
You know? I truly, truly came to the realization or have accepted the fact that this was probably a couple years ago that and I hate to say this, but the the saying, it is what it is. Mhmm. I've heard some people say, oh, that's the worst saying it is. How do you know? No. No. No. No. But when it comes down to it, at the end of the day, the situation is what it is. Make the best of it. Yeah. That's what you have to do. Make the best of it. Right?
Leah broke her foot or whatever, sprained her foot or tore her foot muscle. Hey. Great. She's gonna get rest for about the next month, month and a half. Right? Which she needed.
All the sleep you need.
¶ Lauren's absence, comeback victory, embracing life's timing.
You know? And I remember Lauren. Oh my gosh. She she couldn't play for the 2 months, and we were devastated. And then she comes back her next 2 tournaments, she wins.
Yeah.
So just even in anything, I mean, we could always say, oh, you know, I wish I got into insurance earlier. I wish we had a family earlier. But, you know and and this is one big thing too, I think, is when you lose a parent or something. And and people say, oh, I wish I would have spent more time with them. But people are people, and you have to live your life too.
And I and I so if you got 5 more years with your parent or something, yeah, maybe for a week or 2, you would things would be different. Mhmm. But then you go back to just life. Yeah. So that's why I always say, you know, life is just it is what it is. You just gotta make the best of it. Greener. And the grass is not always greener. Yeah. Right? The grass
I truly believe watering what you have. You know, you've sent me we've seen so many videos. You know, the grass isn't greener on the other side. You just have to make sure you're watering your own grass.
Yeah. Yeah. So another couple more weeks, and, we're gonna be in the 2025 here. And we truly do hope that everybody, if you're listening to this, that the year has gone your way. And if it hasn't, that you would take us take take a few days to analyze the year and what you can do better for next year.
¶ Reflect on 2024, plan improvements for 2025.
You know? And then I bet you it's probably a few little changes here and there. But
We're both burping a lot.
I know. You
know? And then, like, we're
we this this episode but this episode was good. Yeah. I I don't remember us being I I felt like the prior episodes were kinda fast,
you
know, and they weren't and, you know, it was a lot of
I don't know Ketchup?
Joking, ketchup, kinda, you know. But I think some of these are good. And we're we're rambling now, but it's good rambling, I guess. And that's why it's probably good that we don't have
Video.
Sponsors. Oh. You know what I mean? Because then we can't just ramble like this. Yeah. So we ordered turkey from Lucille's. Lucille's. That's right. Which which I hate Lucille's. Luce the if don't ever go to Lucille's for actual barbecue. It is the most driest
It is. Barbecue I think. I love their apple butter. I love their bread and apple butter.
Yeah. That's all about their good food.
But I feel like the turkey, they're smoking it. Oh. It's they're smoked turkey. So Well,
I'm talking about the baby back ribs.
I know. No. It's horrible. Impressed with
Horrible. They're so dry.
For their actual ribs. So we'll see about the turkey. Yeah.
Well, everybody travel safely. Make a lot of memories. Take a lot of videos, pictures. Have a great, great time, and we will see you next week.
In December.
In December. Yeah. Thanksgiving, I thought was a 3rd week. The 3rd Thursday
always is. But except this year. Yes. It's always the 3rd Thursday.
I checked next year, and it's the 4th Thursday again next year.
Interesting.
So I don't know what happened there. Interesting. Yeah. Because it was always
It was always the 3rd Thursday.
Like the early twenties twenties. Right?
Yes. Yes.
It's interesting.
Nicole was saying she was wondering if leap year had anything to do with it, but I've always known it to be the 3rd Thursday of November.
Yeah. And then the day after Thanksgiving, we are gonna go to, San Diego. We're gonna spend a family day Yes. Hotel del Coronado and just gonna hang out. The girls are looking forward to it. Yep. Girls are very much looking forward to it. That should be a lot of fun. It should be a lot of fun.
And they're actually all about taking pictures also. Yeah. So when we went to 123 Farm, we kinda have to go off to the side because they're still a little bit embarrassed about doing their poses and stuff when we're all eyes on them.
Yeah. Have you you know, it's interesting because the bulk of our girls are still very much in their teenage years. But Nicole is 19 now, soon to be out of. Right? But have you noticed I noticed within the last probably maybe the year or maybe couple years, they actually like spending time together. They're fast. Was a period of time where everybody was just irritated. Yeah. You know? The kids were irritated. Yeah. You know? The older siblings were irritated at the younger siblings.
But now it's like, oh, what are you gonna wear when we go home? Right. Like, oh, you want me to take my camera? You want me to take
pictures for
you? Yeah.
Exactly. Exactly.
I agree.
Yeah. I wonder if which friend we're gonna take this
trip. We'll see.
Yeah. So even if for our family outings, we always end up taking at least one other friend
Outlets.
Or our kids' friends. You know, they have a couple of close friends, so they're they're more than welcome. Alrighty, everyone. Have well, again, have a have a enjoy your turkey, and have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving from our family to yours. And on that note, if you have learned anything from us, remember one thing. It is none of your business what others think of you.
Live your life on your terms. Raise your kids the best you know how because none of us are perfect, and we're all trying to figure it out.
But kids, also remember one thing. Show your parents a little bit of grace because they're trying their best, but also learning as they go.
Thank you all for listening and taking the journey with us. We'll see you on the next episode of the Song Life Podcast. Love you, daddy.
Love you, Martina.
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I didn't wanna say this, but one of the things I wanna do for Thanksgiving is literally just me and you go somewhere and forget the
kids. That defeats the whole purpose of Thanksgiving for me.
¶ Alternate gatherings yearly between in-laws and us.
But I bet you that's gonna happen. 1 year, maybe all. But see, I would much rather have that. Don't you think? Every other year, you guys go to your in laws, but every other year, we all get together.
I would much make it just to understand the or just a stated rule or just a, you know, some we all just are agree to it because to get everybody together every single year, no. It's probably not gonna happen. But if we just make it a rule, say, hey. You guys just go do be completely away from us. Do your own thing with your in laws. But next year, we all come together. I would much rather do that than every year getting together, but 1 or 2 kids don't come. I would much rather do that.
Holidays are gonna become very tricky. I am not looking forward to it.
But cheaper too.
True. Actually, not Christmas. Facts. Christmas is gonna be crazy.
Facts. Love you more More love
you, Tina. Bye.