Reflecting on Christmas: Faith, Traditions, and Timeless Themes

Merry Christmas, friends. I love this time of year and we're going to dig into the profound significance of this joyous season. We'll explore the miraculous story of how God became human, born in humble circumstances, accessible to all, bringing hope and redemption. In addition, we'll reflect on timeless Christmas themes such as joy of giving, the power of kindness and compassion, the importance of reflection and renewal, finding joy in the simplest pleasures and enduring spirit of hope and positivity. Join me and my pal Joe as we celebrate the heartwarming essence of Christmas and its lasting impact on our lives. I'm Curtis, my very humble, simple and joyous pal. Over there is Joe. And we are dudes in progress. Hey, Joe.

Hello, Kurt. Merry Christmas, my friend.

Yes, Merry Christmas. We are recording this on Christmas Eve, so for us it's appropriate. I don't know about others listening to this when it finally comes out after Christmas.

That's all right. I like the theme of the show today because while it comes out after Christmas, I think this will Release on the 30th. I think we're all still in that Christmas spirit and maybe we've taken a little bit of a dip. So if we get a chance to listen to this episode on Friday or on Monday, lift us up a little bit, right? Take us into the new year. Very cool.

I agree. Doesn't everybody say they love the themes and the spirit of Christmas and why can't we keep it all year long?

I agree with that. In fact, I have a neighbor that wants to keep the Christmas spirit in his house, on his house and lighting up his house. I think through March or April comes a time that, hey, listen, let's put our bathing suits on, man. Take those lights down.

People do love the lighting and the decorations for sure. I had a fantastic surprise trip down to Disney World. That was one of the things I was something I forgot because we did that 20 some plus years ago, Christmas time at Disney World. And my gosh, the spirit of Christmas was everywhere in the decorations. It seemed like just more than I ever remembered. The music, the smells and really put me in the kind of mood where I thought I could bring that spirit to our audience here, you, and even to myself as I get through the holidays this year.

I tell you, Curtis, this year it took me a while to get into the Christmas spirit. And I think it was because I did a lot of travel through November and December. I was probably gone half the time in those two months. I was probably gone a month out of those two. So it took me a minute to get into the Christmas spirit. And it's actually as I sit here today, I'm thinking I got to do one or two more gifts and then I'm. And then I'm done. But I got most of it done and we got the house decorated and yeah, what fun. Before we get into the show, something happened to me as I. As we were releasing the last episode. Sometimes you and I come up with some real gems and I think last episode was one of those gems. Kurt, with you talked about humility, right? Being humble. I'll say this with all due humility. Last episode was really good. And as I'm listening to it, I'm like, I think wow, this is pretty good stuff. We talked about understanding priority and understanding and prioritizing your values and building habits for consistency and time management and maintaining motivation and being flexible. Man, those are. That's a good way to start off the year.

So I agree.

If you get a chance to listen to our last episode, go take a peek at that. Man, it's. If I do say so myself, it's pretty daggone good.

I agree. And I was reflecting on that when I was on vacation. I told you I would try to think about upcoming year and thinking of goals and values and what I want to accomplish for the year definitely got me thinking. I'm going to be off. I'm still working today. One of the things that happened because I had to change my take more vacation before I thought I was. I'm working Christmas Eve but I'm going to be off Christmas all through New Year's it's going to be a downtime. I'm not looking to accomplish much of anything. Are you? What are you thinking of doing? Because you're off work right now too.

Yeah, I'm off work. I don't want to call it hectic, but it's busy, not work related. Tomorrow, Christmas day we'll have most of my family over for Christmas breakfast and we'll open up presents and have Christmas breakfast and then about 1 o'clock or so we'll drive up to up north to my daughter and son in law and my other two grandkids and celebrate Christmas with them. We'll stay there a couple days and I think we're coming back the morning of the 27th. So from the 27th through the 1st it'll be full on downtime for me. But I can't think of a better way to spend a few days than hanging out with my grandkids. Pretty daggone awesome.

You know, before we get into the spirit of Christmas. We're going to talk a little bit about our faith and what Christmas means to us and some really key points from our faith. But a couple of things from yesterday. My wife had a rough day yesterday. She was doing a lot of that Christmas busy work, wrapping gifts, setting up Christmas tree. Still yesterday, running out, getting food for today's festivities. And she's going to be doing a lot of baking and cooking and all that busy work that really can get you down. And oh, my God, this crowds. I said to her on the weekend, I am not going out in this town. I went out early in the morning, and I said to her, it was already people getting in my way and starting to aggravate me, so I'm not gonna do that. And then this morning, I woke up to a Facebook post from a friend and a neighbor who works in retail. As I read through, she first just pointed yesterday was a bad day is what she posted. It was just as simple as that. But you think the worst really happened. But it was just people being mean to her in a retail setting. I'll just say that. So I want us to forget all of those things and think about the real meaning of Christmas as we go through this episode.

Just to piggyback onto that a little bit, two things for me, yesterday or the past couple days, I was doing a Christmas rush. Unfortunately, Kurt, my mindset, my values lean towards minimalism. I have the saying, memories are better than stuff. Right?

Right.

Somehow I throw that completely out the door when it comes to Christmas.

That's okay.

When it comes to buying Christmas presents.

Especially, I think it's the exception. I think it is the exception.

It is the exception. I don't know what it is about watching kids open presents and what that dynamic does for me, but, man, I love it. I just love it. I love watching kids open presents. I love watching seeing the paper fly all over the place. I love their excitement about getting something. There's even a little part of me that likes to see those little disappointments. Right. When they have this big box and they're all excited about this big, heavy box, and it's a box of socks. And you're like in the. Oh, thanks, dad.

Like the Christmas Story, when they open up the socks and they throw them over their right shoulder.

Well, yeah. Or, yeah, the show them over the right shoulder. Or the pink pajamas, the pink rabbit pajamas, or whatever it is that Ralphie has to wear.

When we were at the resort, the Pop Century Resort at Disney World, they had lots of Christmas. Souvenirs out there and clothes just. That was like blowing me away. How much things were. That were just so Christmassy. But they had this Santa Claus like outfit with the hat that would fit my Johnny. My baby Johnny. Although he grows so fast. The thing was. But it reminded me of the Christmas story with the pink rab in a way. Like he could only wear this once and he'd be so embarrassed. Not now. But seeing this years later. It might embarrass him. We did not end up buying that. We ended up getting him a Mickey Mouse. Like his first plushie. Big size Mickey Mouse. Which I think is appropriate.

That's cool.

But I'm worried about filling up their house with all kinds of junk that's concerning because he's only seven months old.

That's their problem, dude.

We did get an appropriate gift which is the. A playpen which I hope they perfect. Really like it. We valued the playpen when the kids were little. You could put them in there and make dinner and hopefully. Except my daughter did bite my son one time when they were in the playpen together when they were.

That'll teach him three and one years.

Old or something like that.

One of the best gifts that each one of my kids have that my two daughters have. And I think they genuinely do appreciate it when you give a babysitting gift certificate right now. This baby's brand new. But we've been doing this from the beginning to say, okay, we'll babysit the kids for a couple days. Just give us a couple weeks notice or a week's notice or something like that.

Oh, great idea.

Because parents need that, man. They need that downtime.

Absolutely.

And they would really appreciate it.

I like that idea.

If you want to get. If you want to give a gift of. That's not stuff. Yeah. A couple nights babysitting is pretty awesome.

We're already getting ahead of ourselves. Joe leaned into something that I'm going to talk to him about a little while here. But we're going to split this in a little bit. Two parts. One's going to be really centrally faith based and then we're going to get in. I had a talk with Santa Claus earlier yesterday.

I can't wait to hear that.

And I asked him a few questions and you're going to get his response and where he's coming from in the joy and spirit of Christmas. Because he's a pretty cool guy. I thought it'd be fun to talk to him about his feelings on Christmas.

I dig Santa Claus. Yeah. I'm a Santa Claus fan.

Well, we're also a pretty big Jesus fan. And I was thinking about this, Joe. Easter seems to be, wouldn't you say, is kind of the number one religious holiday for our faith, and then Christmas comes in second. Or am I?

Oh, it's clearly. When it comes to faith, it's clearly my favorite holiday. Easter is Easter.

Significance, too.

Yeah. Yeah. The significance behind it, we can dig into. We will dig into faith stuff as we go, but Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, if you believe in that, is the linchpin for our faith. If that didn't happen, nothing else matters about our faith.

So that's why it has that significance.

It's the ultimate redeeming moment.

Yeah.

So, yeah, it's pretty awesome.

So Joe and I both have been sick since we traveled. We both have a flu. Cold flu. Whatever it is. I think we're both feeling a little bit better. But during my deep. Trying to get some sleep, I was. I started watching some movies, and I like to do that this time of year. I watched the movie Risen. I say I slept during part of it, and I don't think I've ever seen it before. But it's the story of. He's like the number two Roman in Judea at the time of Christ's crucifixion. But to take the story, I think one of the miraculous things about our faith is how the Romans crucified Christ, yet years later became the official religion of the Roman Empire. And this particular story, and I don't know what it's based off of, but how this. And I'm trying to remember his rank. Let's call him a general for lack of me remembering, but he's the second one in rank underneath Pilate. He's put in the position of investigating where'd the body go? And at the end of that, and I've slept through part of this, but he becomes a believer at the end of that investigation that this man was the son of God and he was resurrected.

Yeah. If you look at the historical accuracy of the resurrection, the lack of a body, the inability of anybody, the Jewish people, the Jewish leaders at the time, the Romans at the time, all had a lot invested in this story not being true. And all they had to do was produce a body, and they couldn't produce a body.

So I'll just leave that. That was just. I. I brought that up because it was an interesting movie. I think, again, I might go back and revisit it because wasn't feeling that well and missed part of it.

But, well, Easter's right around the corner. Let's talk about Christmas.

Yeah. So Christmas to me is still just one of my favorite holidays for so many reasons. But let's talk about the faith reasons and the number. I mean, there's just so much importance of his birth in God becoming human. So even though Jesus was God, he came to us in this little helpless child.

Mm.

And experience all of humanity. This act of becoming human, it just allowed him to fully understand and share in this human experience. So it makes his teachings and sacrifice even more profound and relatable. And I don't think there's any other religion on this planet that has that spirit.

You're absolutely right. And I did some research into this many years ago about the faiths of the world. Faiths. And I was on a spiritual journey myself many years ago. And one of the reasons that Christianity is separate from all other religions is it's the only religion, Kurt, faith, tradition, whatever you want to call it, where God voluntarily came to us and we were not forced to go to God. God voluntarily came to us, we were not forced to go to him and he became human. And I love how you put it in this. He could have come down as a human, fully adult form, but he chose to come to us as a helpless child. And he put. If you think about this, in the Bible, it says Jesus emptied himself of all Godly powers. Right. So he was fully human and he put his life, his well being, his safety, everything, his whole existence in the hands of. Of humans by becoming a helpless child.

And you think of the time, too. There's nobody that humble in as far as a deity or a king, royalty, nobody goes this far, Right. That's got that level of prominence except for our God and our Jesus. So it's really special. All right, number two, humility and simplicity. Very similar. But Jesus was born very humbly in a manger, which really symbolizes the importance of humility and simplicity. So despite being the Son of God, Jesus came to the world without grandeur. This just emphasizes that greatness is not material wealth or status, but about inner virtue and humility. There's no poor destitute. He could have come with a blaze of glory. And that's what many of the people of his time, the Jews, believed. It would have been a spirit of just this, like, take over the world, become a king and destroy the Romans, all of these things. Be a rebel. That's not how he came to us.

Yeah, there are some historical studies that show that this was Jesus the manger. The whole manger thing was a room full of animals, right. With everything that you would expect to see with a room full of animals, right. From dirt and the smell. The smell. And there's pretty good evidence that shows that this, where Jesus was laying this wood thing with hay in it, like you see in the nativity scenes, it was probably a food trough, right, that was cleaned out. The baby was placed in this food trough. And you're right, there was no pomp and circumstance, there was no grandeur about this. People might say, well, didn't the three kings come? Well, that if you look at the. If you look at the timeline, the first of all, there's not necessarily three, but the tradition says three Kings or three wise men, whatever it might be. But there was probably not three. There was probably more than that. And they showed up later. They showed up later in Jesus. Jesus was probably a couple years old by the time they showed up. Despite, of course, what the nativity scenes say or show. So truly is about a humble of beginnings as you could possibly have, is how God came to earth. It blows me away, dude.

Not only that, it was a tumultuous time and the authorities were trying to kill him.

Yep, yep.

Let's just throw that in there too.

Yeah. It's crazy.

Yeah. Accessibility to all. So being born of a poor virgin Jesus birth demonstrates that God's love and salvation are accessible to everyone, regardless of social status or wealth, which is extremely important in so many different cultures. This inclusivity is a core message of Christianity, teaching that all people are valuable and loved in God's eyes.

And this is a lesson that modern day Christians could probably revisit about who Christ is for and how do we express our faith. Jesus came to this poor woman, a very young woman who had nothing. And her husband was a carpenter. And I don't know how well carpenters did back then. I'm sure there wasn't a carpenter's union that gave six weeks of vacation and top pay. But Jesus came for everybody. And I love how you said it, regardless of social status or wealth, he started from the very bottom to show that from here up he's accessible to everybody. Right from the top, all the way down to the most humble beginnings. And the value that we put on other human beings should be focused with this lesson in mind that everybody is valuable to God, everybody is valuable to Jesus. So much so that he was born in the most humble of beginnings to the most humble of people.

I think the most important things I've always heard in my faith was in our Christian faith. It's a personal relationship. And it's so much easier to have a personable relationship with someone who's been in the trenches with you. If you've come from a rough childhood or you've had difficult times, you can relate to this guy. He can relate to you like nobody else. He's been through all of it. That's a special thing about our faith.

Absolutely.

Divine intervention and miracles. I love this part too. I'm reading a book about miracles. I'll talk to you about it as I get deeper into it. Joe. I found it at the airport or it was emailed to me and I started reading it, bought it. But the virgin birth is a testament to God's miraculous intervention in the world. It reminds us that God's power transcends natural laws, that he can bring about extraordinary events for a greater purpose. So there is that part.

And he came in with a miracle and he left with a miracle. Both supernatural occurrences. And this is very important. These supernatural occurrences are very important, Kurt, because outside of these miracles, especially these two big ones, right, the virgin birth and the resurrection, outside of these two miracles, Jesus is just another guy right now. He performs other miracles, of course, water into wine and healed the sick and a whole bunch of other stuff. But these two bookend miracles are the biggest, right? The virgin birth and the. And the resurrection. And without these two, everything can be explained away in some sense. But there's no way to explain this. And here's what I'll say. People say, well, this is just a story that's made up. There are some strong historical evidence for both of these being true stories. And if we compare these stories and measure these stories, the accuracy of these stories with how we measure the accuracy of other historical events, these two events stand up to historical scrutiny. And the fact that they're bookend by these divine miracles just points straight to Jesus being God.

Well said. Hope. The last one I have for our faith section here is hope and redemption. Jesus. Humble beginnings convey a message of hope and redemption. His birth signifies the arrival of the Savior who would grow up to teach, heal, and ultimately sacrifice his life for humanity's redemption. This profound act of love and sacrifice is at the heart of the Christmas celebration.

Yeah, Jesus didn't come for the clean, he came for the dirty, right?

Yeah.

And that's what we're all after. Hope and redemption. We all live with some regrets, right, Kurt? And the fact that Jesus birth and his death and how they both happened eliminates. Eliminates our need to pay the price for the mistakes we made in life. Just off the acceptance of the gift. It's pretty amazing.

You just said the right word. The gift. I remember many years at my church, going to the Christmas Eve service, and what we do there is we have a nativity scene that was built by many people, the church. There's a lot of love and devotion that went into some of those characters that are there. And the whole Nativity scene. And every year, the pastor gathers the children around and the Nativity scene, and there's. There is a box, a present there. And he asked one of the children to open up the box, and it is the baby Jesus. And they take the. This gift and they put him into the creche, and it's a reminder that this is God's gift to us, the baby Jesus.

It's awesome, man. The whole Christmas story is awesome. Everything that you lined out here, from the virgin birth to God being human, the humble beginnings. Because of those humble beginnings and how he was born, he's made himself accessible to everybody who accepts the gift. Kurt. And if we look at it like that and we set aside our own pride to accept this gift and see what happens once we accept it, I think we'll be amazed with what happens in our lives. This is true. Dude, here's what. Here's the thing. We're not talking about some cute little children's Bible story. This is true. The core to my faith and the core to your faith is that we believe that these things actually happened as a historical record. And if they did, we've got to do something about it. There's a decision to be made, and I'll just leave that right there.

Fantastic. I love that conversation with you, Joe. And I hope you guys listen to the Christmas Story and feel that same way. It is beautiful literature from the Bible, like you said. You get a chance to hear that spoken out loud, whether it's at church or other places. They do this down at Disney World. They have this Christmas processional and they have an actor talk and speak out the Bible from the Christmas Story. It's beautiful.

You know, my favorite Christmas TV moment is now. This is not on my top three Christmas store Christmas movies. My top three Christmas movies, by the way, I've said it a hundred times. The Christmas story, Elf and Polar Express. Love them.

I thought you're gonna say Christmas story, but go ahead.

Yeah. Christmas Story.

Yep.

Love Elf and Polar Express. But, man, if you listen to Linus's rendition of what would of the meaning of Christmas. Yes, it is beautiful. It is beautiful and heartfelt. And here's something interesting. Here's a little bit of trivia for you throughout all of the Peanuts cartoons, the Charlie Brown cartoons, what is Linus holding?

A blanket.

A blanket. The only time he's not holding his blanket when he drops his blanket on the floor is. Is when he's telling that Christmas story. That's the only time in all of Peanuts or the Charlie Brown cartoons that Linus is not holding his blanket. Because Charles Schultz was a believer, okay? He was a Christian. And in that moment, Linus didn't need anything but the story of Christmas. He didn't even need the security of his blanket.

Nice.

How cool is that?

Dude, where'd you get that little trivia from?

I read it somewhere.

Yeah. But that was the inspiration for Charles Schulz's, and that is a beautiful moment. Good job. Well, yeah. Just to turn into one of our favorite pals, Santa Claus, I was able to ask him a few questions. Joe. The first one I asked him was said the Christmas tradition includes the giving of presents and the joy it brings to others. And I asked him to explain the significance and joy of giving and what this has meant to him. And he said, the joy of giving is central to Christmas. It represents love, care, and generosity. When you give a gift, it's not just about the item, but the thought and the love behind it. This act of kindness brings immense joy to both the giver and the receiver, creating bonds and spreading happiness. Now, you were already getting ahead of me on this particular one. Do you prefer giving or getting presents, Joe, at Christmas time?

Oh, there's no doubt I prefer giving. Now, listen, I like getting presents. I'm not going to be that. I may be a little shallow there. I like getting presents, but I like getting gifts of time. Nothing brings me more joy. My. There's a couple Christmas presents that I get every year from my oldest daughter, and that Christmas present is a picture book of all the moments that we spent together as with the grandkids. And it's from the grandkids, technically. And it shows labels it my. Our favorite moments from 2024, 2025, or 2023, whatever the year was. She's been doing it for years. And that's one of my favorite gifts, man. I. I just leaf back and look at all the moments, all the memories that we made with the grandkids. It's just a blast. I like getting gifts of time and memories and that kind of stuff, but, man, there's nothing cooler than watching kids open presents that's the only time that I'm not. That I'm not such a minimalist. I like messy. Lots of presents, just paper flying all over the place. I love it, dude. I. And listen, don't start cleaning up the wrapping paper as people go in this neat little process. I like processes. And I like all that stuff every time of the year except for when kids are opening Christmas presents. Make it messy and sloppy and paper flying all over the place and screaming and hollering and everything, man. I dig it, dude.

And then I break out my coffee cake my mom used to make. And my sister makes a lot of cookies and like this Danish that was always famous when I was growing up. And like the food. And then my wife or somebody will get me like pistachios and I'll just sit there and eat the whole bag during the day and just blob out. You're right. Place is a disaster area.

Love it, dude.

Kids are playing with toys or I'm playing with my toys.

It's the best for Christmas. Something new.

Is there a. Can you. I have a couple of Christmas gifts I remember as a kid. Is there something like. Ralphie, his gun. I got you the gun last year. Was it last year or the year?

Yeah, Yeah. I got you the bb, the Ralphie gun. It's sitting right back there.

A favorite Christmas gift maybe you got as a kid?

I do. It was the Atari 2600.

Oh, my gosh.

That was my favorite Christmas. Is it really, Kurt?

That was what I was going to say.

Yeah. The Atari 2600.

Is that the first one I was going to see the Atari first?

Atari, Right. With the joysticks, with the red button.

And that's what I was gonna say.

I. I asked for it. There was no way in the world I was getting it. My family didn't have. I didn't come from high means. Right.

Yeah.

My family, we lived pretty modestly, but I did ask for it for Christmas. There was no way I was getting. I was certain there was no way.

It must have been a tough gift to get, too. That was one of those hot Christmas gifts. I would imagine that they. I'm. I wonder how we both got it, because that was not an easy one to get.

It was $100, I remember.

Yeah.

And asking for a hundred dollar gift, Christmas gift was like asking for, I don't know, a virgin birth or something like that. And I. And they got me. And I was, I, I. Right now I feel the tingle, the overwhelm, the emotion.

I'm glad I Asked this question. I had. I had no idea.

Yeah.

Atari.

And I played that. I played that. I played Space Invaders and Pac Man. I don't know if we had Pac man at the time. Yes, definitely Space Invaders for hours and days. Yeah. And then I discovered the generic version of Atari games called Activision.

Right.

And loved those games. So I guess yours is the same, huh?

Yeah. What was the Jungle one? The Activision one? You remember, you ran?

Huh?

You know what I'm talking about. You had to jump and grab these things and swing and.

Yep. Felt like it. Not. Was it Donkey? Donkey Kong?

Asteroids was the other one I played.

Asteroids was awesome, dude.

Yeah.

And the Asteroid. The Atari Asteroids game was actually better than the arcade Asteroids game because the Atari Asteroids game was in color.

Yeah.

And the color.

What's that get to.

It was in color. Like, different colors. Blue and red and green and it was in color.

I walked past in BJ's this Christmas, and they have a unit there that has all the games, all the classic games that you could put on. I wouldn't be surprised if I get that for Christmas because my wife knows this about me.

The Atari.

Yeah, she's really good at getting presents. My parents used to put money in the bank every single week when they went to the bank for their paycheck. Into a Christmas club.

Yeah.

My mom made Christmas for us. Incredible. And she did that for my kids, too, when they were little. So I also asked him.

Let me. Before you go on to the next question, let me ask you. Let me ask you this. Where do you stand on the big guy, Santa Claus? Where do you stand on allowing kids to believe in Santa Claus? And. And, oh, I'm all in living in Santa Claus.

Oh, yeah, I'm all in.

Me, too, dude. See, I get.

There are some. I didn't know there was. I didn't know there was another opinion.

Yeah. There are some Christian circles that. That say, well, Santa Claus takes away the meaning of Christmas and he's replacing Jesus. He's replacing God. I'm a fan, dude. I'm a Santa Claus fan. And to this day, the kids. The gifts that I give my own kids come from Santa Claus.

He drops them right off at your house.

And the moment that they want it to come from somebody else, the moment they stop getting gifts from me, they don't come from me. They come from Santa Claus. So I'm a fan. I say, let your kids believe in Santa Claus for as long as they can hold on to that innocence, man. For as long as they can hold on to that imagination and yeah, I'm a fan of Santa Claus, dude.

Awesome. I asked him about the Christmas tradition that includes kindness and compassion. I asked him to explain the significance of kindness and compassion and what it's meant to him. He said kindness and compassion are the true essence of Christmas. They remind us to treat others with love and empathy, fostering a sense of community and togetherness. By showing kindness, we can uplift those around us, spreading warmth and joy.

Yeah, we can forget about that sometimes, can't we? Curt about kindness and compassion.

For sure.

Pulling people together. And I think you've got a neat little story here to illustrate that.

Yeah, I was trying to think of things that during this time of year you'll see fun little stories. This is one from a year ago. A young boy named Finlay J regularly gave out goodie bags to ambulance staff at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in Shrops, Shropshire. This must be in England. Obviously his small act of kindness brought smiles and joy to the hardworking medical staff who often faced long and challenging hours. Finlay J's thoughtful gesture reminded everyone of the power of compassion. Now, even the smallest acts can make a difference. And I really like that story because people that are working at the hospital and the medical staff, ambulance staff, they see a lot of nastiness in the world, don't they, Day in and out. Wouldn't they appreciate something from a child especially? I love these stories of children who express kindness and compassion. Can't we learn a lot from a little child's just innocence in this area?

Yeah. And you have to ask yourself, where does that come from? You hope as a parent that if your child is wants to give to maybe somebody who they appreciate or underprivileged or whatever the situation might be, you hope that you had some impact on that decision. But you also think, man, kids can be pretty selfish sometimes. And for a kid to think about ambulance workers or people who are out there trying to help others and to show a little appreciation, that's something special right there.

Hey, just a couple other themes, Joe, that we can think about. Reflection and renewal. We talked about this in the last episode that you were so humbly bragging about before we started. But this is a great time to get a journal writing down your thoughts and experiences, help you reflect on your past. And this renewed your focus for the future. You might even keep a gratitude journal. Write down some things you're thankful for each day. So this is a great time. We talked about this in thinking of your values as we turn over another year I love this time of year to do that.

Yeah, we talk a lot about keeping a journal and a gratitude journal and however, whatever journal means. Heck, you can just make a practice of every day writing on a post it note or a napkin or something you're grateful for. And even if you don't keep it in some kind of formal format or structure, just that act of writing stuff down that you're grateful for can really reset your mind to the spirit of what Christmas is.

I'm reading this book. It's related to putting your mindset together, accepting miracles. And it's a good theme at Christmas time to think about and the journaling. I just opened up a brand new journal this morning and the prompt was wouldn't it be cool if and just let your mind wander in that kind of miraculous thing. And he's comparing goals to miracles. Goals are something that you, you set and you, you. It's all on you. But what about those things that, hey, wouldn't it be cool if something miraculous happened? And just have fun with that, Kurt. Lots of fun.

I'm blown away by this mindset right now. I'm blown away by that.

I'm glad you like that.

I don't know why I never would have thought about that. But if we were to start off the year saying what miracles do we want to see in our life this year? Something that I have no control over, something that I can't do within my own power, something that is nearly supernatural, what would I want that to be this year? What miracles do I want?

That's a fun thing to contemplate.

That is. Dude, that's awesome.

For the upcoming year, the joy in simple pleasures. I think you'll like this one too. Finding joy and simple pleasures of life is all about appreciating the little moments. Whether it's sipping a warm cup of cocoa by the fire, enjoying the twinkling lights on a Christmas tree, or sharing a heartfelt laugh with loved ones. These small experiences fill our hearts with warmth and happiness. Remember, it's often the simplest things that bring the greatest joy.

I have nothing to add to that other than a big fat amen.

Dude, you talked about it that Christmas morning when. Just enjoy. I know all the hard work that goes into it. The food preparation. Hopefully you don't have the Christmas vacation leading up to it. From the movie we looked at.

Listen, leave Clark alone, dude. The fact that he's trying so hard is enough for me.

Take this moment to enjoy the simple pleasures. Have some time off. I hope you have some time off like Joe and I do this coming week. Hope and positivity. Embracing hope and positivity is all about focusing on the good around us and believing in a brighter future. Whether it's setting small, achievable goals, volunteering to help those in need, or simply spending time with loved ones, these actually can fill our heart with hope and lift our spirits. Remember, even in challenging times, a positive outlook can light the way forward. I'll leave it with that.

Perfect, dude. Great show. Great show. I love talking about Christmas. I love talking about miracles. I love talking about our faith. My faith is very important to me. I know your faith is very important to you, Kurt. And it's a real faith about a real man, about a real baby that was born, and about a real impact that he can have on your life. So thanks for bringing this to the table, dude. I really appreciate it.

This was fun. You bring so much to it. I had no idea you loved Atari. Also the best.

I look at it, I look at those legacy consoles, right? There's a few of them out there. Where. There's one that you can just. That you can buy the. You can buy just the joystick. Plug the joystick into the back of the tv and it's all enclosed just in that joystick.

My wife has bought that for me. Yeah. And I thought that was the greatest gift, too. She just surprised me with that one Christmas.

Yeah. And my wife did the same.

That's funny.

And I don't know, I'm. There's one gift I think I might buy, and that's the Nintendo Switch. And I'm not big on video games, but I happen to buy a best buy gift card that I have to use, and there's a whole story behind that. But it's about 400 bucks. Four or five hundred dollars, this gift card. I think it's $450.

Oh, no. How much is the Switch?

I think it's 299.

Okay. So I'm thinking, I think that'd be awesome thing to do with your grandkids.

Yeah, I got the PlayStation 5.

I got the PlayStation 5 for Christmas last year, and I have gotten a lot of great entertainment out of that over the years.

Yeah, you've used that in a couple games as your resource for the week. And I love it. Man, what fun.

I'm actually surprised that my attention went there. And I'm going to do some of that. And I asked Santa Claus for a couple games this year. So there you go.

Yeah, what fun.

What was your win for the week?

My win for the week is I am 99.9% done Christmas shopping. There's one thing that I realized I have to pick up this morning here on Christmas Eve that I'll head over to the local Walmart and grab and that'll wrap it up. It should wrap it up, the shopping itself. Now today I'll have to do some prep work for Christmas breakfast tomorrow, but for all intents and purposes, Christmas shopping is wrapped up.

Dude, I'm impressed with people that can wrap it up like real early. I was watching news program yesterday, they had a poll, some people wrap it up Black Friday and Cyber Monday and they're so good with this. I've always been last minute. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of Christmas shopping to do. My wife does it all and she does an amazing job. My family room right now is full of presents, tons to bring up to my son and my daughter in law and my other son and his girlfriend will come over, we'll got a bunch of stuff for them.

And yeah, my daughter, my wife does the same thing. She does all the Christmas shopping. However, I always throw a big wrench in it by coming in at the last minute thinking wow, did we get this? Did we get that? And I purposefully don't start early, Kirk, because the earlier I start, the more I'm going to buy because I'll just, I'll continue to buy throughout the season. But if I start if that season purchasing buying season starts early for me. Katie, bar the door. Dude, we got packages coming from Amazon today. That's right, interestingly enough. So there we go. How about your win for the week?

My December surprise trip to Disney World with my wife Margita. That was, I am reflecting on that. My goal was for her to have a great time. She's had a couple of years of not only been a little bit rough for her, but also her Disney time has been rough. She got Covid down at Disney World. One of our trips over the last couple years and this was a time I can't remember a time when just her and I had a few days at the parks just alone. And that was shocking thought to me. Of all the times I've been, it's of course been family trips and trips with our community and friends. Her good friend Judy, her friend Judy and Ken went on a cruise. So towards the end of the week, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, it was just her and I. And let me tell you guys, if you've never done now Joe has done this and speaking of memories, instead of Stuff. I know you guys had a great Portugal trip alone this year. And for me, just being alone with my wife in a place that she extremely enjoys, and she was riding the rides and we had the lightning lane passes and she was just doing whatever. She even asked me for my opinion if I wanted to do something.

Well, I'll be darned.

I was shocked by that. I know, but I always said my wife could win the marathon if she was in the parks because she just sprints to everything. Like full on.

On the move, huh?

She's on the. She just has great enthusiasm for the rides in the whole. And being there at Christmas time, I think was special too. So we had a great trip.

You guys have to figure out a way to come down here to Cincinnati and I'll take you to Kings Island.

It's funny, we've got a lot of friends that were talking about Kings island and Cedar Point. Funny that came up in conversations while I was down in Disney World.

Yeah, you gotta come, man. Figure out a way to make it.

She likes the dark rides. You have those?

We have a couple.

Okay, what's your resource tip or hack this week?

My resource is a book by Lee Strobel. Now, Lee Strobel wrote many books, but his foundational book is a book called the Case for Christ. And while that is a fantastic book and I'd recommend that book to anybody, he also wrote a book that dives deeply into Christmas in the historical validity of the birth of Jesus as written in the Bible and what that means. And there's some overlap. There's certainly some overlap between the Case for Christ and the Case for Christmas. But this book that Lee Strobel wrote, the Case for Christmas, is a really good book if you want to focus just on Christmas and the Christmas story. In fact, let me do this. Anybody that, let's say the first five people that reach out to us at dudes in progress. Dudesinprogress.com dudesudesinprogress.com I'll send you either the digital format or the paperback of Lee Strobels the Case for Christmas because it's that good. It's that. So just email us dudesudesinprogress.com and. And, and I'll send it to you personally. It's a fantastic book that, again, explores the historical validity of the birth of Jesus Christ as written in the Bible.

Yeah, he's good because of his background as a investigative reporter. I'm sure that's why Joe and I like his writings. Stuff getting. I've always been that way. Even when I was exploring, when I was an adult, really digging into my faith. The historical validity of the Bible was important to me. You've done much more research than I have. I'm good. I did enough.

Yeah.

I like his writings. My resource this week. I haven't been watching or sitting down and watching a lot of television. But when I wasn't feeling well, especially this past weekend, I wonder if my Netflix subscription is even worth it. Quite honestly, Joe. But at least I watched something I really enjoyed. My son Ben really loves historical stuff. I texted him about this. He was already in the middle of it too. But Churchill at war. And we've talked about Winston Churchill a little bit. He comes up in our quotes fairly often. But there's a four part series documentary about Winston Churchill. It does start from his. You get the historical of his birth and his experiences leading up to World War II, and then some in depth. Great behind the scenes kind of conversation. I think they use a little bit of AI to take some of his writings. He was a prolific writer and also use AI to read those writings in his voice. But just. Well done. Did you know of this?

No. Definitely check it out.

All right. I'm glad I could because this is something I think you'll enjoy and you'll watch.

I'm a fan of Churchill, man. He. His. His contribution.

Yeah.

And his leadership was invaluable. Right.

And his struggles, his failures.

Absolutely. Well, it's funny how quickly the English people disposed of Winston Churchill after the war.

I didn't know that. But that is documented very well. But he has a recovery. He becomes Prime Minister again even after that. Fantastic documentary. I know you'll enjoy that. What's your quote, Joe?

I like this quote by Robert Flatt. Now, Robert Flatt's not very well known. He's actually a photographer and a writer of some sorts. And he's known in some small circles. And he's not renowned as somebody like Winston Churchill, who we quote a lot. But I like what he says about Christmas. Robert Flatt. The giving of gifts is not something man invented. God started the giving spree when he gave a gift beyond words, the unspeakable gift of his son.

Wow, that's good.

Let that sink in for a second. And I like this on a couple different levels. Number one, it speaks clearly about the gift of Christ, right? The gift of the birth of Jesus. But it also gives a little bit of nod to, hey, listen, guys, God started this whole giving spree, right? He started this whole thing. He gave the greatest gift ever. So it's okay. Go buy that Nintendo Switch. Go buy those, go buy that bicycle. Go buy that. Whatever it might be, right? Those roller skates and all those stuff. Because God started it, man. He started this giving spree with the gift of his son. So thank you, Rob, for giving me permission to overspend.

Yeah, I like. You've said that a couple of times on this podcast and I like that you say that too, especially as a minimalist because you can get all uptight about the commercialism of Christmas. I felt like it started earlier than ever. In a way, it annoys me some degree. But on the other hand, I love the magic and everything about the bigness of Christmas. And if it's a lot of gifts.

Then the gifts, the pageantry, the lights, the excitement, even the hustle and bustle of buying gifts and all that stuff. Right.

I think that Christmas morning is so magical still to me, Joe, I.

Me too, dude.

Man, I can't even. It's getting a little better, but as I've gotten older, there's times where I can barely sleep. I'm so excited for Christmas morning.

I'm like that I'm up till 3 o'clock in the morning every Christmas because I've got a couple last minute gifts that I'm wrapping or I'm putting stuff in my wife's stocking that she doesn't know I'm putting in.

I just think there's a magic to Christmas morning that you can't explain. I think for so many reasons, spiritually and otherwise. My quote is longer than usual. Joe's going to have to hang in there with me here. See if he enjoys this one. It is my heart warmed and world embracing Christmas, hope and aspiration that all of us, the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage. Every man and brother of us all throughout the whole earth may eventually be gathered together in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss. Except the inventor of the telephone. I don't even know what that means, but Charles Dickens is the one accredited to that quote.

That's awesome. I love Charles Dickens. Did you see the movie the man who Invented Christmas? I think it's a. I think it's a few years old. 2016, 2017, something like that. It's really a neat movie, man. It's a neat movie.

What's that about?

It's about Charles Dickens and him writing the Christmas Carol.

Oh.

And really bringing the way we look at Christmas is because of Charles Dickens. And I really invite you to check out that movie. It's a good movie. It's got Christmas Plummer in it. Jonathan Price, I think's in there.

What's it called?

The man who Invented Christmas.

Okay. I'm not sure why he doesn't like Alexander Van. What's his name? Alexander Bell.

Yeah, I don't. Yeah, I'm not sure either.

The inventor of the telephone.

Maybe he's aggravated by it, but yeah.

He doesn't like technology. I don't know.

In fact, that that should be one of our resources. The man who Invented Christmas. That's a neat movie. I had forgotten all about that until you brought up this Dickens quote. I like it, man. I like it.

Well, as usual, it's been fun talking to you, Joe, this morning, early morning Christmas Eve. I hope you and everyone else listening have a merry, merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas to you, my friend. This was a good show. I love talking about Christmas. I love talking about our faith. Rightfully so. We don't do it a lot, but I like that we sprinkle it in there a few times a year because this Christmas season is important to us, and I'm glad we're able to share why it's important to us during this show. So I'm glad you did this. Good show, dude. Very well done.

Thank you.

Our website is dudesinprogress.com dudesinprogress.com and our email address is dudesudsinprogress.com and that offer still stands. If you want a free copy of Lee Strobel's the Case for Christmas, I'm happy to send that to you. Just email us dudesudesinprogress.com I guess we'll limit it to the first five people who do that. Either the Kindle version or the paperback version. Just email us dudesudesinprogress.com youm know what? We have a lot of downtime. Many people have a lot of downtime. And it's a good time to rest and it's a good time to reflect, and it's a good time to prepare for the coming year. At least that's how I like to spend at least a couple days. But as I do that, I have to remember that it doesn't have to be perfect. Right. The plan doesn't have to be perfect. We just have to make progress. Because progress is better than perfection. Kurt. As long as we keep moving forward, we're doing the right thing.

Yeah. And hope everyone reflects on all these things. We covered today not only last week, this week, but into year 2025. Have a. Have an awesome Christmas. And we'll maybe we'll talk a little bit about New Year's in our next episode.

Let's do that. Talk to you soon, buddy.