Ep. 484 - 2022 Christmas Special 🎅

Join Rob for the audio of the previously live-streamed 2022 Christmas Special! 

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• Ep. 484 - 2022 Christmas Special 🎅

This is the final episode of 2022 before we take a much needed break for the holiday season in preparation for a great 2023!  

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome back to another episode of the All Around Growth Podcast. My name is Rob Kaiser, and I am your host. Today is Tuesday, uh December 20th, 2022, and this is episode number 484 of a show that seems to be constantly changing, much like us in our lives. And uh today is the Christmas special. We are not going to talk about anything in particular except Christmas and the time of year that it is and what we do here on the homestead with my family and how we celebrate the holidays. And for those of you who are tuning in, who are watching the show, who may not be familiar with the show, uh, this is a show where we talk about the five W's and how as we grow all around here at York Meadow Farm, which happens to be one of the sponsors of today's show, along with Food Forest Farms. And you can learn more about both at YorkmeadowFarm.com and FoodforestFarms.com. And I would encourage you to do so. And uh without the help from all of those guys, uh this show wouldn't be happening. And guys, I've got to take off that Santa hat because it's it's I'm not gonna lie, it's warm and I'm sweating a little bit, but um in today's show, yeah, we're gonna talk Christmas. It's a stressful time of year for a lot of us out there, and I know a lot of us have a lot going on, and I hope that all of you out there that are watching this with me now, and we are live streaming on Facebook and YouTube and Twitch and Twitter. I hope that all of you who are out there watching can take a moment to simply relax. And when you do that, I would encourage you to give thanks because this um this time of year, it's often difficult to remember to do that, to give thanks. It's easy to get caught up in the stress and the chaos of the holidays, and it's easy to forget about things that are really important, and the things that are really important are the things that we oftentimes talk about in this show, you know, the seven aspects of life financial, physical, personal development, family, spiritual, social, and career. And as we're going into the holidays, it can definitely be stressful because we are oftentimes dealing with a lot of family, and we lose, we oftentimes lose track of everything that's going on out there um in the rest of our lives, and it's easy to it's easy to lose sight of what's important. So um, yeah, with that said, I hope that as you as you watch, as you listen to this, either now or in the future, for those of you out there listening in uh audio format on the podcast, I hope that ultimately I hope that this message finds you well as we approach the upcoming holiday season. Uh, it is the 20th, and if I'm not mistaken, today is the first day of winter, it's the winter solstice. In the past, the winter solstice and the solstice in general has had a bit more of a significant meaning to me, but and that's not to say that it is insignificant now, but I would say that it's less uh significant than it was to me, at least earlier this year. And the reasons why are well the reasons the reasons why are are complex and and that's not really something that we're going to discuss in this show today, but what we are going to discuss is how we do Christmas here on the homestead and ultimately why we do it this way. So, to be brief and to the point, for those of you that are wondering what I'm talking about, the way that we do Christmas here on the homestead here at York Meadow Farm is very different than the way we used to do it in the past. And what I mean is that in the past we would simply do Christmas like many other people do Christmas. We buy all the gifts for all the people, and that in and of itself was a stressful thing to do because you know, for many of us, we're on a budget, we're living life, we're trying to um well, we're just trying to get by half the time. And when things like the holidays come up, more often than not, you know, we we we find ourselves consumed with consumerism, all right? And that that idea of consumerism is something that we as a family decided to opt out of, for lack of a better term, and I'd like to welcome anybody who is coming in and watching at this time. If you are, I'm I'd like to encourage you to drop a comment and and let us know where you're listening from and also your name. Um while we're doing this, um I'm going to drop a few comments here in the chat. So bear with me, guys. For those of you who are listening to the audio format, um, I'm just going to say, please drop your name and where you are listening from. Okay. And the the reason why we got away from that, or let me backtrack. We started doing Christmas, all right. Before I backtrack, the long and short of it is what we do is we buy gifts for one person, we have a set dollar amount, and a set quantity of gifts. And this manner of gift giving, this the way in which we do things is yeah, like I said, it's different. So I'll get to the I'll get to the why in just a little bit to but to provide a little bit of backstory about what we do and a little bit more detail about what we do. We simply early on in the year, um, we drop all the family names and a hat. And for us, right here on the homestead, it is my father, my mother, myself, my brother, my sister, uh, his wife, and her husband, and uh their collective three kids. So on the mantle in the homestead, there are probably oh, I don't know, you do the math, um, about a dozen stockings or so. So instead of simply buying gifts, like I said, all the gifts for all the people, we don't do that. One person, each person has one person that they get a gift for, or gifts for. And the caveat is the gifts need to be used, homemade, uh, locally, you know, locally produced from a local purchase. You can get by with something new, um, if provided it's made locally, or you know, secondhand, something like that, or or handmade yourself. You know, we've got people in the audience making a lot of cool stuff. Um, Andy down in Cincinnati does a lot of cool uh, I believe they are woodcuts with a band saw, and they're stained and painted up nice. He gives those out as Christmas gifts. We've got a lot of crafters out there making different things, uh, a lot of people cooking, doing things, giving away food. Um, my man Yosik, Larry out there, I know he's doing some cool stuff as well, perhaps with the CNC machine. And those are all things that we would buy or barter for um to give to each other. So, why did we start doing this? You know, we started doing this probably around ten years ago, and at that time, I was living out west in California. My sister was living in Texas, I believe, and my brother was either in Miami or DC. I can't remember. At any given point in time, all of us have lived in various different places throughout the country, and luckily now and for the past few years, we've all moved back home because we all value our family, and you know that's that's what's important to us is our family, and it's the importance of family that led us to get to where we are now with doing what we do regarding the gifts and the manner in which we give them. And like I said, at that time we were we were all we were scattered all throughout the country, and in addition to gifts, we had travel expenses, and it wasn't just travel here, you know. At the time I was dating someone uh in New York who lived on Long Island, and that involved flights into uh LaGuardia, I think, and a lot of back and forth. And you know, it that wasn't just me having travel expenses, that was my brother and my sister, and ultimately traveling to the houses and families of their significant others at that time as well. And we all realized, and really, this was something that I think that I think mom cooked up, and we did we however it came to be, we collectively agreed that the focus during the holidays should be on family, should be on cultivating the relationships that we have growing with one another during this time and sharing with one another, and simply being grateful for all that we have. Um, and that's how we decided to do what we do. We shifted gears and we simply stopped acting in the typical western consumer manner that so many of us do, and we started behaving differently. We started buying gifts for one person for a set dollar amount, um, and all of the gifts at that time, like I said, had to be homemade, had to be secondhand or used, or had to be locally produced, or something to that effect, and it still remains that way to this day, 10, 11 years after the fact, and really the only thing that's changed is the dollar amount that's increased a little bit. I want to say that the cutoff limit is around $125 or something like that, and what we also did was we limited the number of gifts, um, in large part because there are now kids in the mix, and the age ranges of the children, well, in my parents' case, the grandchildren, and in my case, the nieces and nephew, the age ranges are from boy, uh 14-15 months up until uh about four years old. So, you know, a lot of you guys out there listening, you know what I'm talking about with kids and how uh how challenging that can be when it comes to trying to maintain some semblance of order around the holidays, especially excuse me, especially when it comes to uh unwrapping the gifts, and unwrapping the gifts is also something that um that we do a little bit differently as well. I know you know many of you guys have a favorite Christmas movie, and uh our favorite Christmas movie, I think collectively as a family, is The Christmas Story, uh, which you know has a lot of Cleveland roots. And um as you guys know, or or for those of you who have not seen it, when the time comes on Christmas morning, what happens is there's a melee and everyone's opening gifts at the same time, everyone just tearing into everything at the same time. No, we don't do that, and this tradition started with, at least as far as I can tell, my grandparents because what we used to do as a kid was we would go over to grandma and grandpa's house on New Year's Eve, uh New Year's Eve, Christmas Eve, and we would do a Christmas there with the whole extended family. My dad had four brothers, and uh it was really just on the Kaiser side of the family. My my mom's family is from Pennsylvania, and um, you know, unfortunately, uh both of her parents passed away when I was a kid. I was lucky enough to spend some time with uh with with my grandmother, uh, my mom's mom. And as she got older, she and and and her health declined, she came and lived with us. And I'm I'm supremely grateful for that because it instilled in us as children the importance of family. And not only that, um my my grandfather was was had long been passed away at this point. Um he passed away several years before my grandmother passed away. And but nevertheless, she came she came to live with us, and we took care of her. And as my father's parents grew older, every week we would have them over for dinner, and we've always had this very tight familial bond, and that's something that's been ingrained in me, it's been ingrained in my brother and sister, and based on the way that I see them raise their families, I'm quite certain that their children are going to carry on that understanding of the importance of family and tradition. And the tradition that I'm talking about, that I initially began talking about, that is with regard to the opening of gifts on Christmas Eve over at grandma and grandpa's house was um my cousin Mike, uh my uncle Tom's oldest son, he he he kind of acted as Santa for a while until uh until he got old enough and I and I and I took that job over. And what I mean by acting the role of Santa is all the gifts that were under the tree, he would go ahead and and pass them out to everyone, and then instead of simply opening them up, everyone would open up one gift at a time, and we would go from um yeah, oldest to youngest, and that way in doing that, we were all able to give our full attention to the person who was opening the gift, and then as when they were done, the next person would open it, and it the gift giving process was an extended process, and during this time, you know, everyone's eating. Well, you know, it by that time the eating had pretty much taken place, and you know, everyone is having it and enjoying their their beverages, whether it's you know, um hot chocolate or whatever everybody's drinking, you know. Um that was that was it. We were focused on each other, and we were focused on just that time spent with family, and we carry that tradition on in our house on here on the homestead to this day, uh one at a time, focusing on that individual in that moment, and that's very special, and I think you know, with the kids being the ages that they are, that is one contributing factor as to why we you know modified the the protocol for the the gift giving and and and included a limit on the gifts. And we um for those of you who are just joining, we've been talking about the gift giving uh process, and you know, I'd I'd encourage anybody out there just to chime in, say hello, drop a comment, and um and ultimately, you know, even if you choose not to do that, I appreciate you taking the time to join me. And I hope that I hope that this time, even if it even if it's just for a couple minutes here, I hope that you can take a moment and breathe and relax. Because like I said, this is a strenuous time of year. There's a lot of stress. There's a lot of travel. There's a lot of family. And more often than not, one of the things that ends up happening is the stress that that we take on manifests itself in negative ways. And it doesn't have to be like that. I understand that there's a lot of things out of our control, especially with regard to family and some of the relationships that we have. And there's only so much that we can do. But, you know, based on some new friendships that I've developed just recently, you know, over the past week, I'm I'm I'm not only am I encouraged, but I've come to believe, or rather, that belief has been reinforced and validated that that everything that happens in life, no matter how bad it is, no matter how stressful it may be, it's happening for a reason. And we don't understand that reason in the moment when it's happening right now, for example. And you know what? That's okay. There's a lot in this life that is not for us to understand, but I do believe, I don't know about you guys, but I believe in God. Um a power greater than myself, and and I'm not going to turn this particular episode into a spiritual-based episode. I've I've I've done plenty of that in the past, and there will be plenty more of that in the future, I'm sure, because like I said, as we know, for those of you who've tuned in, for those of you who may not be aware of what this show is all about, you know, like I said in the beginning, we talk about the five W's and how as we grow all around here on the homestead, and that kind of morphed into this dial, this ongoing dialogue about setting goals and seven different aspects of life, those being financial, physical, personal development, family, spiritual, social, and career. And I completely lost my train of thought, to be honest with you. But I think where I was trying to go with that was that everything happens for a reason, and despite the fact that we don't understand those reasons, and even if you can't get down with with God, maybe you don't believe in religion, you know, maybe you're one of the people like I I'm not really sure where I stand on this now. You know, I I think religion and government are human constructs largely created to control people, and you know, I digress, it's not our place to understand, but if you believe in something greater than yourself, a universal spirit, an infinite creator, whatever whatever it is that you want to call it, I would encourage you to have faith that while we may not understand why things are happening the way that they're happening right now, provided we continue to do the next right thing, and and and sometimes that's hard, but we know what wrong things are, so if we don't do those and strive to not do that, then chances are we're doing the next right thing, and in time, I also believe that we will have an increased understanding of why the things that are stressful and negative are actually happening. And whether that's something in life that's happening to you in this moment, whether it's family or in any one of those seven areas of life, whether you're in experiencing some financial distress, some physical challenges with your health and wellness, just some overall challenges and roadblocks with regard to your personal development, some family problems, kids, not really moving in the direction that you'd hoped and planned. Maybe challenges with your spouse, your wife, your girlfriend. Whatever the case may be. Maybe you feel alone, abandoned. Maybe there's other relationships in life that just in socially that that trouble you, even if it's just with the lady at the bank, or the woman at the grocery store that shut down the register right as you were about to put your items on it. You know, these are things that are out of our control, and and I tried that happened to me today, as a matter of fact, and I it was an exercise in patience, and I realized that you know I could have pitched a fit, and and and you know, really uh encouraged her to keep that line open because I didn't have much. You know, I bought some things like like this, which I might dive into, maybe not little butter cookies and some hot cocoa and little things for the holidays, but I realized that chances are that lady in the line, she'd had a hard day too, probably a lot harder than I had, and she had to deal with a lot of people who actually executed on some of the ideas that I had, but I I decided to turn around and have some conversation with the people behind me and who were also frustrated, and all I all I did was smile to them and say, you know, everybody needs a break, and I guess all we can do is just try to find the next shortest line, and then carry on some pleasant dialogue with them while we wait. Because what's the point? You know what are we gonna do? Get angry, stress out about all these things that we can't control. I know, I know I have for um for a long time, and by no means am I some sort of you know uh bodhisatpa guru that that's that's found my inner peace. Far from it. But um but I'm trying, and and I'm grateful that I was able to tap into a little bit of that today, and I think it made the day for the people who were behind me that smiled right along with me. I think it made their day a little bit easier, and I'm fairly certain it made the day easier for the gal at the checkout line who honestly seemed a little bit disappointed that she had to shut it down because she saw all of us in line and and she saw the length of the other lines. But chances are she'd she'd been there for hours, and um, and that break that she earned, or the break that she'd worked for, she earned. And that's what that's that's kind of what this this show is about today. You know, this is the last show before the holidays. This is the last show of the year, quite honestly, and it's a it's a change because for many of you guys out there that are listeners of the show on a regular basis, you know that this has been um an almost daily show for uh for just about as long as it's been in existence for the past two years. There were some times where I did experiment with a weekly show, but for whatever reason, I felt that it was important to stay consistent, and I'd like to give a big shout out to Chad. Um Chad is uh he's a member of the Telegram group. Big shout out to everyone in the Telegram group. Um first of all, you know, that that community on Telegram, all of you guys out there in the group are you guys are the core, you know, you guys are the ones that know what's up, you guys are the closest to me in the audience. Uh personally, that's where I'm most active. I I do a terrible job on social media keeping up. I I don't promote this show very well. Uh, I most certainly did not promote this episode tonight, and and and I really haven't been present there as much as I have been over the past week. And uh, and you know, and that's okay. I'm I'm I'm I'm putting focus on other areas of life, you know. A big part of this show, where this fits in that spectrum of these seven different areas is the social aspect. I'd like to think that it fits in with other areas of life or or some of those other aspects, but the reality is it it it it does, and I don't make a living doing this. Um I don't I don't I don't I don't make I don't make enough money with the show to actually support the costs that go into it. Um it's a labor of love. And I I've I've done it the way that I've done it up until a couple of weeks ago because what I get out of it, what I gain from it, far exceeds any financial return that that might come from a result of you know uh a monetization aspect of it or something. Would that be nice to have? Absolutely, absolutely. Who doesn't want more money, right? Are there some things I could do to improve upon that? Absolutely. Uh will I? I don't know. I all I know is I don't know, but we can still be consistent in life, but when things become a little overwhelming at times, sometimes it's good to dial it back. And I know we're going in a number of different directions here, so I'm gonna I'm gonna bring it back to Christmas and again just touch on what we do and why we do it one more time for those who joined late. And again, for those of you who are listening to this in the future, um I know that this may sound a little bit uh scattered and disjointed, but um hey, it's the Christmas special, and um we'll get back to the to the nuts and bolts of all around growth after the new year when we start diving back into the rotation of those seven topics. But for Christmas, what we do it's real simple. We have welcome, welcome everybody who's uh who's joined. Um again, if you're uh if you're out there, just please you please give a shout out. Let us know where you're listening from, where you're watching from. And again, I appreciate you being here. But one of the things that well, the way we celebrate Christmas, like I said, is different. A lot of people who do Christmas just open gifts, it's chaos, you know, it's insanity, and that can be fun, but we limit the gift exchange. One person gives gifts to one other person in the family. Those names are drawn out of a hat earlier in the year, and um, and there's a set dollar amount and a set quantity of gifts with some stipulations on what those gifts could be. They've either got to be homemade, handcrafted, locally purchased, second-hand used, you know, and that requires a little bit more thought, effort, energy into the gifts that we give. You know, it's not as simple as just going on Amazon and ordering a bunch of crap and then wrapping it up and giving it away. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that, but we chose to stop doing that, and the reason why was to simply focus on the importance of the holiday, and for us as a family, the thing that matters most during the holidays is family, so to increase the focus on that and decrease the focus on stuff, we made some some rules, some some suggestions, and and so that's what we do. We we draw names from a hat, we give gifts to one person. I think this year the set dollar amount was 125 bucks, max gift limit of uh four gifts, and and then there's the stocking full of stuff, you know, and and there's a little bit of leeway with the stocking stuffers, you know, a lot of things go in there with um you know things like candy or chocolate or um you know, maybe uh I don't know. You you get it's stocking stuffer stuff, you know, maybe a pair of socks or something like that. Um my dad's got this old saying we always used to get him socks for Christmas, and uh it was always and it still is a thing. Oh boy, socks. And he was very excited about it. Um, and I think that was because dad. Dad always wanted the best for us. And my the relationship with my dad, the relationship that I have with my dad is is not unlike the relationship that my brother has with my dad, that my sister has with my dad. We all have very, very special relationships with our parents, and we are blessed to have a family that I think is unlike many families that I hear about and I'm I'm I'm aware of and and yeah, we have our problems, you know, it's not like we're this idyllic family that that just you know is nothing but love and rainbows. Oh it's not that at all, guys. But but my parents, you know, I I like I I I'd like to say that that I come from good stock. I like to think that my parents come from good stock, you know, and I'm certainly not my father, and I'm certainly not my mother, and my parents aren't their parents. And I think the reason why my dad was always so excited about socks was because he made a point to do everything that he possibly could to give us the best life that he possibly could, he was always doing the right thing, and even if that right thing turned out to be the wrong thing, in the moment he was doing the best that he could. And I think that's admirable. And my father's become a you know one of the biggest role models that that I've had in life, he always has been. Um and and I hope that as I continue to grow as a man, that that I not only embody a lot of the characteristics that my father has, but I hope that I can take the knowledge and the wisdom that I've gained from him and apply that in the rest of the community that I'm involved with and the new friendships that I'm gaining and cultivating. And then grow that and expand upon it in the future with relationships that have yet to be built, things that I'm not even aware of. Um, you know, I'm excited to live a life that I never even knew I could dream of. And that's that's part of what this is. That's part of what this show is about. I understand that this was gonna be a lot of dialogue about how we do Christmas on the homestead, but it all ties together. You know, we do Christmas the way we do it because of our family. I am the way I am in large part because of my family. I think a lot of us are um in large part the way that we are because of our families. And I know a lot of you guys out there in the audience are, you know, came from some messed up families. You know, I'm I'm I'm certainly not going to name names here, but you know, you guys in the telegram group, you you know, we we've all shared stories about our past, about our families, um, about the things that happen when people pass away, um, about the things that happen when you know people experience failures in life and and all the negativity that comes along with all of that. And you know, the people that have come from broken homes and broken families, the people who I know, you're not them. You've overcome those challenges, and you inspire me. It's inspiring to be around so many people who have just, for lack of a better term, in the buffet of life, they've been presented with nothing but shit sandwiches, and you know what you guys have done? Maybe there was a time that you had to eat those sandwiches because that's all you had, and I've eaten plenty of them myself too. But you know what's awesome is that that isn't our diet solely today. We've made active decisions and active choices in our life to nourish ourselves a little bit differently, literally and figuratively, you know, and I'm talking, you know, beyond food. I'm talking about all everything in these seven different aspects of life: financial, physical, personal development, family, spiritual, social, career. I know I talk about that a lot, but that's my gift. That's what that's what you guys have given me. An opportunity to see life through lenses that aren't my own. And you know, what what began as a show that was simply just little else than talk therapy has grown and evolved into a community of good people doing good things. People who have their own communities of people doing good things, and not all of those people in all of those communities are in our community, because there's only so many, there's only so much time, excuse me, there's only so much time to engage in all the communities, but the beauty of it is we intermingle with one another and and and the webs of these communities they they they they extend out, and they they the reach is far. And I think the things that we do, the things that we say I think it's got far more impact than we actually understand. And you know, I'm not here and I don't do this because I want to be an influencer or whatever. You know, I'm not I'm not in it for the likes. I'm I'm in it because I want to be a better person. I want to be the man that God intended me to be, and I think that a lot of you guys that I've connected with intimately in the Telegram group have encouraged me to see it that way. A lot of the communities that we're all involved with have encouraged me to see it that way. A lot of the mentors that that that you guys have that I have that we talk about, they all encourage us to see it that way, and I think that's a real good way to go about doing what I've been trying to do in this show, which is figure it all out. And the reality is not my place to figure it all out, you know, and I think that that's been a big part of why I've had some of the challenges that I've had. Not just over the past two years, not just over the duration of this show, but for my entire life. You know, living a life that's been well, the way I've lived it is resulted in in some challenges in trying to figure it all out. But you know, when when I learned that instead of being the person that I want to be and and trying to figure out what's my purpose in life, and and and just just putting a little spin on that and thinking, what's God's purpose for me in this life? What is the higher powers' purpose for me in this life? What what does the infinite creator have in store for me? And why? And and and and less so on the why, but as long as I continue to do the next right thing, I think I'm on the right track. And some of you guys that that are watching, that are listening, you know, you might be wondering, golly, this is just another one of these shows where he's just going on and on and on. What the hell does this have to do with Christmas? It has everything to do with Christmas. We so often have a tendency to get sidetracked with all of that stuff. And I think by simplifying the holidays with gift giving, with simplifying the things that we're doing in this life, and by simply simplifying, we can focus our our our our energy, our time, effort, and energy elsewhere. Find balance. That that that that balance that's been so so hard to find, so so difficult to achieve. It's not only possible. But you can do it. Just like I'm doing it. You don't have to do it the way I'm doing it, and you don't have to do Christmas the way that our family does it. But I think at the end of the day, as long as we get out of our own selves and begin to think beyond ourselves, that's a good thing. And we begin to make the world a better place by making our own lives a better place, a better place for us up here and in here, our heads and our hearts, and ultimately our souls. And I think that one way that we can begin to embrace that idea of achieving a little bit more balance in life is just simply by modifying the way in which we approach the holidays. Holidays like Christmas, the way in which we give gifts. Once the kids get a little older, that is, um, pretty much once all the kids are beyond the point of you know uh pooping their pants and um are basically at a point where you know they're forming memories, you know, age five, six, seven. I don't know about you guys. Um and I'm curious, if you're out there, you're listening, when was your first memory? You know, just real quick side note, I'll tell you what my first memory was. My first memory was the house, uh, not the very first house that I grew up. We my parents moved around a little bit um a couple times before we settled into the house where we all grew up, and we all you know graduated from high school. Um, and in order to stay there, my my parents made some sacrifices, you know, passed up some wonderful opportunities, um took on a lot of uh you know, and just embraced a lot of challenges, and they they they they did a lot of things that they probably weren't comfortable with. And why did they do that? Um they did it because of us. They did it because they loved us, and that helped form that helped us, but, anyways, my first memory was pinching flower buds of a rhododendron outside the house, right? As those buds were swollen and just about to pop, and the reason why that sticks in my mind is because at that point, when you pinch those flower buds, they're sticky. I don't remember the exact color of the rhododendron. I think it was, you know, because there's a lot of colors white, purple, um, you know, various shades of purple, reds. Um, you know, we can talk azaleas too because they're in the same family, but we you know, we won't go there right now. But the reason I bring up memories and traditions is once those kids get old enough, we're gonna have a device bucket, the device basket. Because right now it's really hard to have a to have a sit-down meal as a family when you've got, like I said, kids that aid range in ages from 14 months to four years, kids are taking naps, doing different things at different times, and it's really hard to just sit down as a family and and actually have a meal together. But when the kids are old enough to do that, I'm really gonna promote this idea of a device basket. And you know, when we go have dinner, we put our phones into the basket or our tablets or whatever the devices are, we put them away and we focus on family, and we focus on that moment, on that meal, on each other. Because in this in this day and age where technology is what it is, now I'm not gonna say that it's the devil, and nor am I gonna go full Luddite despite the uh appearance. Um, you know, I I I think there's a lot of good in technology, it allows us to connect in the way that we are, but I I think that there's a downside in a lot of the technology, too. I think it is a distraction from the balance in life that we seek. And much like that first memory that I had, granted, it was flower buds of me outside, you know, playing in the yard. Um, and much like I have memories of grandma and grandpa's house where we opened presents one at a time, oldest to youngest, and then cycled through again and again until all the presents were gone. You know, those those memories stuck with me to this day, to the point where we're talking about that right now. And and and and and I I very much want my my nieces and nephews to have those same types of memories where they look back when they're when they're my age, that they look back on their youth fondly, and they understand why we did what we did and how valuable that was. So, guys, you know, as we're coming up just over an hour now, you know, first and foremost, I really and truly hope that you have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year, and I hope that those of you who are out with family, whether it's tonight, families coming in. I hope that you enjoy that time because you know life is short and it's fleeting, and it's up to us to capitalize on it and to make the most out of it to the best of our abilities by simply doing the next right thing, and it's easy to do otherwise, it's easy to go along and be distracted, and it's easy to become complacent and to forget about things in life like responsibilities and really just things that are that are important, you know. It's not that we've forgotten about them, they're there, but we've got all this life on life's terms, and it gets in the way. Changing tradition or creating new traditions is a way to bring some of that back, bring back the importance and the understanding that holidays aren't what the TV says they are, holidays aren't what the advertisements say they are. Holidays are largely about things that we've distanced ourselves from over time. Family, tradition, love, friendship, truth. Things that are important. So, anyways. Me personally, it's a little after nine PM here, Eastern Standard Time, like I said, December twentieth, two thousand twenty two. I am personally almost ready for Christmas. Got most of the uh most of the shopping done. Food and gifts. Um you know, I've I've I've got some things to take care of for the remainder of the week, and then we are doing uh we've got family coming in on the eve of Christmas Eve, and then we're gonna spend all day Christmas Eve together, and then family will depart. Um Uh, probably sometime in the afternoon, late afternoon, early evening on Christmas Eve, so that they can do Christmas um in their own way, in their own time, and with their own kids at home. And on Christmas Day, it will just simply be my parents and I here on the homestead holding down the fort. And um, and that's nice. That's that's that's nice. It's uh and and and then begins the the week of decompression where I plan on doing as little as possible and catching up on work that I need to do for me, and I hope that you have some time to do that as well. And I would, yeah, again, guys, I would really encourage you to think about introducing some new traditions into your family during the holidays, especially with the giving of gifts. It's so easy to be caught up in this in the way that we do things now in this age of consumerism. I mean, I I know I say that, but that's that's the fact. I mean, you know, Black Friday has turned into a you know a week of Black Friday, and then Cyber Monday, and at least there's giving Tuesday, which doesn't really seem to get the credit that that deserves, but I think Giving Tuesday just became a thing because Black Friday became a a week where you know it's just get buy stuff, get buy stuff, you know, bye, buy, buy. And that's not what it's all about. You know, I understand the premise, and the you know, it's all done under the guise of giving gifts, you know. What we have to give isn't simply stuff, it's ourselves. And if you think or you feel that you're not getting what you want in life, then maybe you're not giving enough. Because I firmly believe that you got to give it away to keep it. Yeah, I know I've talked a lot about Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace University in the past, and I also have talked a lot about how I never gained traction with my own financial peace until I fully started to work that program and do the one thing that was the hardest for me at least to do, which was give. Because I was broke, man. But you know what? When I started doing that first, and I made that a priority, boy, did things start to change, and did they start to change rapidly? So when we take that and spin it, you know, with regard to the manner in which we give gifts to family and friends for that matter, however we celebrate Christmas, it can have a profound and lasting impact. And like Dave Ramsey says in Financial Peace University, you literally can change your family tree. So guys. I see the way that you guys raise your children, I see the way that you guys live, I see the way that you guys treat other people, I see the good deeds that you do for those who hurt and who are in need, helping people out who can't afford to heat their homes. That's inspiring, brother. You didn't simply change the life of that family and that house by helping her out and calling that propane company, but you changed my life and the life of everyone else who heard that story. And if you want to know what I'm talking about and gain some insight into some of the good works that people do, then you've got to join the telegram group, guys. It's as simple as that. T.me slash all around growth. It's uh some of the some of the the best content of the show comes from that group It makes me feel good to be a part of your life. And I'm very grateful that you're a part of mine. As I get to concluding this this rambling and long-winded Christmas special. Again, I just want to say thank you. It's been a hell of a year. It's been a hell of a couple years, actually. And as far as 2023 is concerned, it's gonna be the best year ever. May not be the easiest. As a matter of fact, I can guarantee you that it won't be. But it's gonna be the best. So join us over at t.me slash all around growth. Find out what's going on with everybody out there. See the good that they're doing, share the good that you're doing, learn from people, gain wisdom. Seek wisdom, find more, and join us as we do it here in that group, and everywhere else, everywhere else in life for that matter. So, guys, that is it for today's show, and um I just want to say thank you, and I hope that you have the most Merry Christmas and uh and the happiest of new years. This is Rob Kaiser, and thank you.