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22. Sing Out, Wilde Bells
18 Plays1 month ago
It’s the mooooooost wonderful tiiiiiime of the year!
We hope you’re ready to get comfy cozy this Yuletide. We spent the final evening of our Thanksgiving weekend together recording our thoughts and memories about Christmas and Yule - and decided to indulge in the tradition of caroling together. We are wishing you all a blessed Yule and merry Christmas, and a very happy New Year. We will see y’all again in 2025!
We're grateful you're here! If you like what you’re hearing, you can follow us on Instagram: @soulpodthepodcast. You can also email us directly at soulpodthepodcast@gmail.com.
Molly does tarot readings online and locally in Massachusetts: https://www.thehighpriestesscoaching.com/
Christina sells delicious microgreens in the greater Detroit area: https://www.christinasgreens.com/
Hosts: Christina Bell & Molly Wilde
Music: The Confrontation, by Jonathan Boyle, licensed from Premium Beats by Shutterstock
Editing: Molly Wilde
Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is for entertainment and enjoyment. We are not professionals in any regard. We do not have professional knowledge, training, or education in physical health, mental health, or spiritual matters. Any suggestions or recommendations made during our episodes should be independently researched by the listener before considering implementation, or better yet, listeners should ignore everything we say. We cannot be held responsible or liable for anything we say, or any actions taken by any persons as a result of listening to our podcast episodes. Stay safe, stay informed, stay smart.
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Transcript
Creating a Vision for the Podcast
00:00:22
Speaker
That's really good focus. We've been having such a hard time i'm focusing. Because we're together. Because we're together. We have to be freaks when we're together. I know. We're having too much fun. Can I talk about our little project that we did earlier today? smooth Without giving away too much just yeah about it. oh Generally speaking, okay. Please.
00:00:48
Speaker
We had an amazing time making a vision board for the podcast. Yeah. And it was so fun and it's so beautiful. I want to take it home with me, but I cannot. Alas. That was a ah good, what, three, four hours. Yeah. And that's the fastest I've ever completed a vision board because I've never had help. Doing it together makes it a lot easier. But it was awesome.
00:01:16
Speaker
yeah I'm so proud of us. We've accomplished a lot today. Yeah. Yeah. Because even before that, we made a full English breakfast and ate so much food. It was so good. Molly made it. I didn't really help at all. I don't think. And I sliced some tomatoes or something. You slice tomatoes, you wash the and or you wash the ah mushrooms and you Slice the I cut a little tiny little pearl onions Yeah, you've been super helpful with the food like this is why I like I'm like I can't make this stuff all the time because I don't have the help right and it's too much work for me to do Regularly, I definitely manage it on like special occasions so yeah, so it's our last night together the tip of our long visit and and it's been an awesome visit and I hate to see it come to an end. Me too. We just have to plan. We've got to plan more. We've got to plan. Well, we'll figure it out.
Blending Yule and Christmas Traditions
00:02:19
Speaker
I feel like that's part of our manifestation is being able to do this more often and just generally, I mean like
00:02:31
Speaker
already as it is, starting recording the podcast back in August. I mean, we started recording in July, technically, she but like starting recording all the way back in the summertime has given us a lot to be able to focus on together. Because it's like, yes, it is, you know, coordinating times to record, but also coordinating topics like sort of outlining what is it we actually want to talk about with those topics and what don't we want to talk about? what What do we want to like steer away from? um And then also having like our regular conversations in the meantime, it's like it's increased the frequency and like the amount of us like working together and talking together while giving it some like focus and direction.
00:03:25
Speaker
and we're coming up with ideas and we're like, you know, pitching them to each other and seeing how we can execute them. And part of it is certainly needing to get together, like we'll be together geographically in one place. So we me to take this opportunity as well last night together to record our Yule episode. Yeah. And we may or may not make it be a combo Yule Christmas episode tonight. Yeah, and I'm feeling like that's how it's going to end up. Okay. um Just because there's it is kind of all getting jumbled into one, you know, and it's a little hard to decipher. I think I still struggle a little bit with like separating traditions and things between Yule and Christmas.
00:04:11
Speaker
And it's it's odd to, and I feel like this is something we're going to have to address or talk about, as like it's odd for me to still enjoy Christmas as much as I do, not being a Christian. Where it's like, yeah, I can certainly fall back in the hole like, well, I enjoy it like, you know, secularly. right um But it's like, it's not even necessarily that I enjoy the capitalism of it all because I don't like to do all the shopping and spend all the money on gifts that don't feel that important to the people that I care about. and yeah you know I'd rather, and I think I'm shifting that direction anyway, of just like I'd rather get crafty and like send cards and like nice thoughtful things that are coming from the heart and not like you know things I had to swipe a credit card for right and go deeper into debt with. you know um
00:05:03
Speaker
that is more important but like even still it's just odd because like one of the other things that we've been working on today tonight has been practicing uh some Christmas carols because we are both singers the two of us not professional, obviously.
Vocal Coaching and Singing Experiences
00:05:21
Speaker
know um But we have experience and we sing in choirs and school and et cetera, et cetera. Took years of vocal coaching from like through the end of high school and through college because it was A, I wanted to stay on top of it, and B, it was required as a part of my ah curriculum through Berkeley.
00:05:49
Speaker
I never had any professional vocal coaching or any of that. Yeah. And it's odd for me to think of it as professional. even it was like it's It for sure is professional that I got, but but like it was you know through my schools. It never felt very geared toward like what my ah my voice actually does best. you know It always felt like I was trying to be channeled into like certain styles and genres that didn't really work for me. Gotcha.
00:06:18
Speaker
particularly at Berkeley when they were just like, jazz, jazz everything. And I'm like, I can probably move sound jazzy, but it's not really my voice, you know? Anyway, point to being, we were practicing Christmas carols because we kind of wanted to, while we were together here, record something together.
00:06:36
Speaker
And we're not going to make you sit through an hour and a half of us just being like alright now verse four But we love Christmas carols for probably mostly for their sentimental You know value, but like I was mentioning to Christina. It's odd to still enjoy these songs so much when they're so So some of them are so Jesus focused. Yeah, there goes the heat. It is beginning. But yeah, she, you know, made the point. It's like, we don't have to believe in Jesus to still enjoy the music. yeah Like, it's traditional for a lot of people to, yeah you know, that they've grown grew up with it. They also may still enjoy listening to it like we do. Right, right. And it's like, it's hugely sentimental value for me. But I feel like also,
00:07:33
Speaker
like I think I've said to you before, like I do believe Jesus was a real person. And and like even though his birth certainly did not take place in December, I think what he what his like whole shtick was through his life was really actually important. And it was what humanity needed to hear. It's what it but humanity still needs. And yet his followers like in large quantities have deviated so far away from the like truth or like the foundations of what he believed in and what he wanted, like the messages that he wanted to spread. You know what one of my favorite songs was from childhood from church? What? Love One Another. I love that song. I still love how it sounds like when I hear it in my head.
00:08:25
Speaker
And, uh, it's super mellow, like slow, and it's just very loving. I love it. As I have loved you, do you love one another? Yeah. And like that is, that's the main, I think I wouldn't have been, I wouldn't have been so prepared to ditch Christianity if that really was the whole truth of what my church had taught me or had taught in general.
00:08:55
Speaker
you know And even as it is, like I'm still glad I made the choice I did. It was the right choice for me. But it does make me a little sad sometimes to think about, like yeah there is such a great message there and it's lost. it's It's pretty heavily lost. And I'm really grateful for the Christians that I do still stay very close with who definitely still hold to those tenets and make that their focus in their spirituality. Yeah, like I'm really grateful for those people. I wish they weren't so much the minority. Right. But yeah, like it's made it basically, I do anyway, getting back to the point of the Christmas carols. It's like, it's sentimental, but it's also just sort of like, it's good. Like,
00:09:48
Speaker
And i'm I'm still sifting through and like separating out the stuff that doesn't resonate and the stuff that I don't want to give any credence to. But I think that like Christ and Christmas and the music celebrating him and celebrating Christmas are things that I want to keep in my life. you know And if I've done so, so far, you know without having had this like thought process very deeply so far. Just been like, I still want to celebrate because I like it. But now I'm like feeling more intentional about it. But yeah, so anyway, later, later, we're gonna sing a little bit. Yeah, yo. But I'm going to bamboozle you avoid with your with to ask for your
00:10:46
Speaker
favorite Christmas memory. Oh my goodness. Or top three, if you need to pick three. Or tradition. You can't pick a specific memory from a specific year. There weren't really specific traditions. Our family was just not really into having a family tradition. I don't remember exactly how old I was. I think I might have been around seven.
00:11:15
Speaker
when I got my Barbie Dreamhouse for Christmas and it was what I wanted and it was next to the tree when I got up that morning and it was so exciting. I love that. um I don't know about a specific tradition.
00:11:30
Speaker
i Oh, some memory. That's kind of funny. so yeah I remember looking out the window um Christmas Eve before falling before going to sleep.
00:11:41
Speaker
and seeing a red blinking light in the sky and thinking it's Rudolph. I did that too. And it was the fucking airplane as we all know now. Yeah, it was Rudolph. Oh my god. Isn't that funny? Yeah. I love it.
Family and Community Caroling Traditions
00:11:58
Speaker
ah I used to do that too. I used to, because I knew they were planes out there, I was like watching them really intently and I would try to guess which one might be Rudolph.
00:12:10
Speaker
and But even still, like, ugh. So fun. So And I'm trying to remember. Yeah, my family, like, I feel like the vast majority of our traditions were centered around Christmas and kind of New Year's, kind of just like the the holidays, quote unquote.
00:12:33
Speaker
um like that season of the year but it was like always just the biggest deal and we had a lot of things that we did and one of the best ones was that my family would host every single year we would host a huge caroling party which is probably partly why Christmas carols are so special to me in addition to like you know growing up listening to the Nat King Cole Christmas album and um those things but this caroling party it was like absolutely the event of the year for like our community that's amazing when i say like hundreds of people would show up um wow we would try to invite i mean we we wanted to invite the neighbors but we also needed neighbors to be home so that we could carol to them so we didn't invite everybody oh my god
00:13:31
Speaker
Did you say this is your family? Yes, my family. yeah i family would do this We would do so it was a caroling party. And um like everybody would bring food. So there's always tons and tons of food. The whole house would be packed full of people. And, we you know, everybody would bring their like big coats and their gloves and their hats and their scarves. Because we were gonna all you know, hype out and carol around the neighborhood and so and it was always led by this one lady whose name I will not did not mention but it was always this one lady who led the carols because she was sort of like the music lady in the church ah in the ward and we would literally just be like 200 300 people
00:14:27
Speaker
walking walking all the way down these like dark, dark roads because there's no street lights on our neighborhood. Oh my goodness. um with The houses are not super far apart so like it wasn't like it was that scary or anything but it was also you a huge crowd of people and it was a little difficult if a car tried to you know come because it was also like a single lane road where if you hear just a tiny bit off the center of the road you're your ah side mirrors will start hitting leaves on the tree. Oh goodness. oh So we got a little bit chaotic whenever a car was trying to come down the road while we were caroling. um But we would go out and you know gather in people's yards and take up their entire driveways and just be like a huge a huge crowd of people. We would sing like one or two carols and then always end at each house with we wish you a Merry Christmas as we walked away.
00:15:25
Speaker
which was really fun. um And we would try to hit, you know, eight to 10 houses maybe. um And then we would head back to our house and the whole, the but one of the like biggest traditions of the things that people loved the most about going to these parties was always hot chocolate and scones. And they were not like scones like British scones.
00:15:53
Speaker
um or even scones that you'd get at Starbucks. I don't know why they called them scones. They're really just a deep fried dough is what they were with like powdered sugar on top. But they were so delicious and hot chocolate obviously as well. um I remember when I was younger and there were a lot more younger kids that would show up to these parties, they would set up like tables and a little like TV with the built-in VHS.
00:16:24
Speaker
and they would put on like the Grinch or like um like the animated Grinch or like the ah um Rudolph ah little stop motion for me. John was just so talking about that the other day because he loved those movies and he he said oh my god it's like 60 years old today or 60 years old this year, I guess, because like it came out the year before he was born. Oh, that's crazy. God, that's wild. Yeah, we love those. We loved the ah Rudolph one and who's in there? I love the one with the heat miser. We never really watched that one.
00:17:09
Speaker
I missed their song. I'm trying to think that because I know there was like another one that came in like a set with the Rudolph. one Yeah, Year Without a Christmas. It wasn't that. They they locked up St. Nick or something. Wow. Yeah. Wild. Rudolph. Well, there was that was the dryer down in the basement. Wow. We got noises all over the place. gay those ones And actually,
00:17:39
Speaker
If you wanted to watch one or two of those, I have them on Prime. Maybe. But but see we'll see. We'll talk about it later. We'll talk about it while we eat. OK. But yeah, the scones and everybody that had like tons and tons of good food, because you know everybody, it was like potluck on steroids, basically.
00:18:09
Speaker
It was always so much fun. I always looked forward to it and I do miss going, going to that, or rather being at home for that.
Personal Christmas Eve Celebrations
00:18:22
Speaker
I don't think she's done it, my mom, in several years now, since all the kids have been out of the house for several years now. The year without a Santa Claus, 1974. And Santa Claus is coming to town.
00:18:37
Speaker
That might be one of them. Oh, the, um, isn't Frosty? No, that's, that's just an animated, not like a stop motion. But Frosty the Snowman was one that we did watch. Rudolph with a Red-Nosed Reindeer came out in 1964. Crazy. Yeah. Crazy. And I think that might be all that I have. You know, what was the memory that you thought of? Um, I actually remembered that my grandmother's husband,
00:19:06
Speaker
He was an engineer and he worked for like Chrysler. And after he retired, they, they even hired him back as a consultant because he was that valuable. Oh, nice. Yeah. So, but anyhow, because of his engineering, you know, knowledge, he rigged up the lights on the Christmas tree to the stereo system. So they would blink to the music. Oh, that's so cool. It's very cool. That's awesome. I don't know how he did it. I wish I, I wish I knew.
00:19:35
Speaker
but I always thought that that was cool. yeah That's one of the things okay that I can remember. that's so cool um Especially before, because like obviously there's now like, probably, you know, stuff out there you can buy, but like lights out there that you but can buy that do that does that. But like before that was readily available. Yeah, he was doing it in the early 80s, mid 80s. I love it. Until whenever, you know, until he couldn't do that stuff anymore. Yeah.
00:20:05
Speaker
We have, I think the, I mean this is a really common thing with holidays in general, but like one of the biggest like traditions slash memories is like food memories. Particularly our food tradition of Christmas Eve before my dad passed away. We did like Chinese food sometimes, but then we also started to order Domino's on Christmas Eve. And I think In the video that you saw, and you might have heard who we had ordered pizza and Chinese food so that people could have, each family member could have like what but it is that they wanted. I think that year I was having the Chinese food. I love Chinese. um But after my dad passed, I think we then stuck to just doing Domino's on Christmas Eve. And that's a tradition that I brought with me.
00:21:02
Speaker
not necessarily because like I was still going to going home for Christmas, you know, throughout school. But after I graduated, and I stopped going home for Christmas because I was working so much, umm particularly working retail and all that shit, I really couldn't really get time off around the holiday could only get the day off. And then also at that point, I was also in a relationship with my ex who, you know, I lived with before I moved here.
00:21:31
Speaker
to my, to my own home. Um, but that's, I brought that to our relationship, the tradition of Domino's Pizza on Christmas Eve. Sweet. Yeah. It's actually kind of funny. Um, before we had my son, John and I were starting to do Christmas Eve at Chinese restaurants, but they were very busy. Yeah.
00:21:57
Speaker
Yeah, we started to make that a bit of a tradition. And then after our son was born, my mom wanted us to come on Christmas Eve to her house or whatever, because um John's family always had has Christmas morning brunch. Yeah, big, huge Christmas brunch. Oh, yeah. And so we would always just load up and go over there in the morning, Christmas morning.
00:22:24
Speaker
um which you know it it was really great but after our son was born we really like and as soon as he was old enough to like get excited to open Christmas presents and stuff really wish that we could have just stayed home and chilled and had our own little Christmas at home before we ran right across town because it's over an hour drive. right that's right But we always had to like rush through our own stuff and then pack up the car with all the gifts that we had to take over there to their house and you know it's always hectic and it's never been relaxed and just enjoyable for me. yeah so yeah So I really want and actually this year is the first year that they have said like
00:23:08
Speaker
Thanksgiving was on a Saturday this year, the Saturday prior to. And then now they're talking about doing that for Christmas as well. And John's sister basically pointed out, well, you know, they all the kids are grown up now and stuff, and and they got their own family. You know, her eldest daughter has her own daughter now, and they want to have their own little Christmas at their house with their kid. And I just thought, hmm, I wish people would have extended that courtesy to me when I had my kid.
00:23:37
Speaker
Yeah. So that we could just stay home and enjoy our our own Christmas at home. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, things are not ever, not always ideal. Right. Right. But I did my best and this year it's that it's looking like we're going to be able to actually stay home at our house for Christmas. Yay. Yeah. We're excited about that. Yeah. not You mentioned, you mentioned Christmas morning brunch though.
00:24:04
Speaker
yeah And it reminded me, which I think I was telling you a little bit about, it it reminded me of like our Christmas morning breakfast being like our traditions as well. Cause it was always orange sweet rolls, pigs in a blanket, which that's what we made for our Thanksgiving breakfast this weekend, this yeah holiday. And my mom would also make a breakfast casserole sometimes. It wasn't like every single Christmas morning.
00:24:32
Speaker
but Yeah, sometimes that's it that's one of the things Michelle would make, a breakfast casserole with the eggs and sausage in it and stuff. Yeah, yeah. Super good. Super good. And then like, you know, orange juice and cider and hot cocoa.
00:24:53
Speaker
delicious Should we talk about what we did with our pigs in the blanket this year? Oh, yeah. I don't think we talked about it in the podcast so far since we did it. I don't think we have. Yeah. We talked about it to our Marco friends. Yeah, yeah. But we, um and you'll have probably seen, if you follow us on Instagram, ah at Soul Pod the podcast, on Instagram, you'll probably have seen it because, I mean, as of this moment, I haven't posted the photos, but I will be posting my photos.
00:25:23
Speaker
from Thanksgiving Day, which include our Pigs in a Blanket breakfast, which include the runes that we put on the tops of the Pigs in a Blanket, which was mostly Christina's idea of because we had some extra dough after rolling all the little piggies up.
00:25:46
Speaker
We had just enough extra dough to like slice little so like long so thin slices and curtain fashion little rooms to put on top of them. And we tried to do abundance and joy and gratitude and gift and
Balancing Holiday Stress with Gratitude
00:26:00
Speaker
just things like that. I don't know if gratitude is one of them, but you know what I mean? yeah All the positive things that we need to invite. Yeah, everything. And we covered most of them.
00:26:11
Speaker
Like there was a, it was a big old tray that we covered most of them with. I mean, we repeated a lot of them, particularly like the gift one, because it's just an X is very easy. um But like we, we did a lot. It was really cool.
00:26:26
Speaker
It was a good idea. Yeah. I don't know how that came to me, but it's like, you know, things come to you when you need them. Yeah. A lot of times. It's true. And we needed that little extra oomph, oomph. Yeah. Since there was a slight setback the night before. saga We don't need to talk about it if you don't want to. I mean, we did already sort of mention it in the previous recording we did, but, um, you know, it's as of right now, still not resolved. But of course the, uh,
00:26:56
Speaker
It's only, they've only had my car for, uh, since Friday afternoon. Yeah. So a day and a half and they're closed Sundays and they were swamped. So they weren't expected to get to it anyways. Yeah. Immediately. They were like, it'd be a miracle if we got to it this weekend. I'm like, yeah, that's, that's expected. Um, so, you know, maybe I'll hear from them tomorrow, maybe Tuesday, not exactly sure, but you know, it's, it's okay. Yeah. It's the, I think the majority of my anxiety was stemming from leaving my car in a lot where I couldn't like you know keep an eye on it. It's my baby. like Honestly, ah just I hate it. I hate doing that. it was made it made me really That was the biggest thing. right Once I knew the tow truck had picked it up and and was dropping it off at the at the shop,
00:27:52
Speaker
I was like already feeling so much better. So so yeah, the runes were to help us with our you know good fortune yeah regarding the car yeah yeah situation. We still don't know how much it's going to cost, but you know we we're putting it into the universe. It shouldn't be too much, yeah but this is what emergency savings are for. And I'm really grateful that I made that decision to start saving earlier this year.
00:28:20
Speaker
Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, truly. Because that's going to be what covers this repair cost. And I just feel like I need to figure out a way to incorporate runes into holiday meals. Yeah, or any of your meals really, but like, yeah, especially the holiday
Integrating Dark Aesthetics in Christmas
00:28:41
Speaker
one. But it could be a tradition is what I'd say. Oh, it absolutely could be. I love that. I love it.
00:28:47
Speaker
um Yeah. And runes, I don't know why, but it's like, you know that, like, I think I sent you some, like, inspiration pictures of, like, dark Christmas aesthetic and stuff? It's like, I feel like runes fit into a dark Christmas. It fits, I think, goes right along with yule. It does. It goes on right hand in hand with that. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. I mean, but a dark, douglas dark yule, like,
00:29:18
Speaker
absolutely yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i love it oh my god really cool and speaking of you it looks like dark christmas up there it is kind of i've got a little uh a little what was my like christmas tree that i kept in my room because basically after my accident broke up we didn't really do much in the way of that kind of tradition together But I wanted my own little tree to be able to have in my room because all I did was hang out in my room because it was a very depressing existence. 2020 was a dark time. oh But I got myself this little two foot tree um with that's like pre lit or rather it's got like the light. Yeah, it's got the lights all through it. And I got little pink like of blush pink sparkly pine cones in a little set.
00:30:16
Speaker
And I also got blush pink, sparkly little ball, like, oh, I think they're over here actually. Showing and telling. So just to clarify, these little tiny Christmas ornaments that are set. I got something sort of like that at one point. I'm looking up at that little tree on the shelf in the corner with the pine cones and the pine cones to me just look like they're brown.
00:30:41
Speaker
with sparkles on them. Are the sparkles just the pink part? No, I think it's like spray painted of lush pink, but then also pink sparkles. But it is, they are pink. They might just look brown because of the angle. There's not a lot of bright light. Yeah, there's a lot of bright lights. But there's also, I don't know where I got it, but there is also a set of antlers popping out the top of this tree. Yeah. It's my tree topper. Yeah, it looks awesome. It's like it's on a little stick and I just stuck the stick down. That's so perfect. Into the branches so it hangs out like just at the top of the tree. Yeah. And then next to it, you've got that velvety reindeer. Yeah, black one. It's like a velvet reindeer figurine, but I don't know how, like it's larger than a figurine. It's just like a, you know, decor item. Right. And so I would say he's probably 7 or 8 inches from chest to butt. And he's probably about 8 inches tall from foot to antler tips. But he's very cool. Little dude. And then the little mounted antler set on the other side. Right.
00:31:50
Speaker
Yeah, it's definitely dark Christmas fuel shit up darkest there. Dark Christmas vibes, except for it's in the room that's not Christmas colors. Yeah. ah My kitchen is green, my living room is red. Yeah. And it's in my office here, which is this light purple. like Like lavender slash mauve almost. Yeah, mauve is what I was going for. I believe the color is called Thistle. Thistle. By Sherwin-Williams.
00:32:17
Speaker
Shroom Williams, please sponsor us, please. Send me your paint. We need more paint. Send me your people to paint my house, because I don't want to do it myself. Send me people. But yeah, it's the law room. But it still works. It's still nice. I like it a lot. Yeah, maybe I'll post a picture of that as well. But yeah, dark aesthetic, dark Christmas. I'm super into it. I'm kind of thinking about Speaking of which, Sherwin Williams sent me paints and to sponsor us. I'm thinking about, um, I like the green that I've painted in my kitchen and I like the red that's in my living room, but I almost want to go for darker tones. Darker than that. Like they're not very dark. They're kind of bright. They're dark because they're not light colors. Yeah. But they're bright themselves.
00:33:15
Speaker
like yeah in a vacuum. will Okay. Let me say one thing. Okay. If you ever went and did a second coat of those colors, they would be darker because you can still see some of the white through. Yeah. Well, the the living room definitely got, we got slacky by that point. The kitchen does have a sufficient second coating of paint and it's still pretty bright. Like I don't want it to be, cause I've got the dark, dark green that I'm going to do my bedroom in, the Jasper by Sherwin-Williams. I don't want it that dark, but I want it like somewhere in between. And then the dark red, I want it, it might be, it might be that it comes out a little darker if I just finish off. Finish your the job. Do your second call.
00:34:03
Speaker
but yeah Because it's more like a cranberry red to me. It is a little bit. Or like a slightly darker than cranberry red, but it's beautiful. Yeah. That color is Academy red in the living room. It's called... It's an interesting name. Yeah. It fits in with the dark academia aesthetic. Yeah. like It's so popular. Yeah. I just like found out about that recently. Yeah. Because you know me, I'm not on the nets. The webs. Chronically offline. Yeah. Yeah. I think speaking of like traditions and like food traditions specifically, I know it's traditional to do like a yule log as like a dessert.
Exploring Yule Traditions
00:34:52
Speaker
But it's such a difficult, well,
00:34:54
Speaker
to my perception it's such a difficult recipe mostly because it's difficult to like roll your your cake effectively to do like a swiss roll that I'm like I don't even want to I don't even want to I don't want to do it it's too much but like kudos to anybody who does ah but I think I've seen cake tins that are shaped like Yule logs so that you could just do like a regular cake tin. Oh my goodness. So it's like a whole cake and there's not like icing inside of it. Right. So it would be like a half a cylinder. Effectively, but and you would have like a little like knobby, you know, branchy thing. Oh, like it's it's like a detailed cake tin, which is like, that's a little difficult because you want to you will be able to ice it and it's going to lose that detail when you ice it.
00:35:48
Speaker
But you can always, you know, it's not too difficult to do like a bark texture. Okay, now I might have to go and order some of those. Yeah, go find that. because That sounds really cool. Yeah. And there was also forever ago, I found a recipe probably on Tumblr for a Yule wreath, bread wreath.
00:36:10
Speaker
bread or bread or like bread but like dessert bread so like oh I can't remember exactly I'm gonna do a terrible job because I can't remember exactly how it was done I think it was like dough and you like stretch it like roll it out stretch it like to make a nice big like rectangle and then you spread like a cinnamon nutmeg sugar mixture and then also craisins and maybe walnuts or you know whatever kind of nuts you like I can't remember exactly the details spread that over the whole square of rolled out dough and then you roll up the dough so that it is rolled together and you seal the edge but then
00:36:59
Speaker
you slice it down the middle so that it's kind of like stripes visually and you do like a little like twisty thing in a ring and it is just like really cool like stripey and like twisty braidy a little bit um i don't know i'm trying my best to describe it because it was like really cool looking and i wish that i have tried i would i wish i would have tried it or have tried it already but because it was years ago that I first you know found this recipe and I've always been like, maybe this year, maybe this year I'll do it. And then I just never had the energy or the time. I am also not a baker. I'm a cook for sure. I'm not a baker. of And i I watched the Great British Baking Show and I'm like, these people are fucking magicians. yeah how do you do It's like the crazy thing is
00:37:56
Speaker
It is a science, yeah so they're practically scientists in my view. But I'm just like, I could never. I could never. I could. what it is I could if I really wanted to, but it also is just so intimidating. yeah I will buy the pre-made dough. Maybe someday I'll do that. um I'll buy some pre-made dough and then I'll see how it turns out but with that recipe. I doubt that I'm going to be able to find it.
00:38:24
Speaker
hey to be able to share it with our community, to with our listeners. But it was a cool idea anyway. So I don't know like a lot about Yule. Really? I haven't learned a whole lot yet. Yeah. And I was going to say, like i and this would be the moment where I would like ask you what your favorite Yule tradition has been, except for not really that season of Yule celebrators yet. um Like, even if we've been witches for years now, like, you know. I haven't really had a chance to yeah dig into any of the cevats, to be honest. Like, I haven't really done any spell work or any kind of like, any kind of celebration of any sort for them, just acknowledging them, you you know, to to myself and to you, you know. Yeah. And it's like, we've been focusing on them more this year since we've been talking.
00:39:22
Speaker
about them to record episodes, but like even still. I was gonna say. Oh, let me close this. Oh.
00:39:33
Speaker
I don't know how you're gonna integrate this into what we already were talking about, but I was just thinking about, I wonder how I can teach my son about Yule. I mean, like he's obviously familiar with Christmas at this point. Yes. And he's nine and I'm kinda sure he still lives in Santa.
00:39:52
Speaker
I don't want to ruin anything for him, but I really wanted to learn history, yeah what Yule was, how it started, what it's you know but it's about, and you know how Gosh, I don't know. That's a hard one because like you don't want to color things in a nasty way yeah and say, you know, the Christians came along and stole it and ruined it for the pagans or whatever. um Yeah. Well, they look like what they the objective truth of it is that they used existing holidays to incorporate into the traditions of what was then a new religion right um to get people
00:40:38
Speaker
Particularly pagans to convert yeah or to at least make it easier for them to decide to convert right? Because that's the thing is that like traditions are the thing that people cling to the most right? yeah and Yeah, I can understand but like at the same time like the whole My problem lies with the whole you know Roman Empire taking over everything and then being like, we're going to be a Christian nation now. And making everything about Christianity, starting in like, you know, two, 300 AD or CE. And yeah, just like wiping out indigenous cultures effectively of Europe. Right. And also, it's a little hard to find the exact truth of what actually was the original tradition.
00:41:33
Speaker
or like what was the original holiday? Because like Yule is what we assume is the the correct traditional holiday for this time of the year. But then I've heard people say, oh, it's actually Saturnalia. And I'm like, I thought that was a whole different. I thought, yeah, I thought it was a whole separate thing. but it wass like And maybe it took place at the same time. And maybe it was the traditional Roman.
00:41:59
Speaker
holiday before Christianity. Yeah, we should do some but lays research on that. is i'm curious it I don't think that like, for example, you know, Britain, the British Isles celebrated Saturnalia before the Romans but before the Romans got there. So do you want to sing a song?
Singing Christmas Carols
00:42:22
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like I've been nervous.
00:42:25
Speaker
Really? To sing a song for recording that we're gonna release. I am NOT a performer you guys, which sounds weird to say as a podcaster. Which one do you want to do? Do you need me to choose or do you have a preference? Which one do did you like the most that we did together? I think I liked Oh Holy Night the most, which was one of the ones that was getting my brain turning about like how so many Christmas carols that I love are so centered around Jesus.
00:43:08
Speaker
on But Oh Holy Night might be one of my favorite like super traditional religious carols. You can call it a carol. It's kind of a hymn, I guess.
00:43:22
Speaker
It's always one of my favorites and excuse you. I have no idea if that got picked up by the mic. It probably did a little. So you want to do a holy night? Yeah. I think what I'm going to do though, we're only singing the first verse, ah the first verse in refrain, but I do want to address the second verse okay because of the words, the lyrics. yeah and how they apply to our day and age, our current day and age. Truly he taught us to love one another. His law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother and in his name all oppression shall cease. Who are the biggest oppressors? I know. In this day and age. Yeah. It's so ironic, right? It makes me really sad. Yep. But it's like,
00:44:21
Speaker
That's the part that I care about. That's the the Jesus that I would believe in. yeah Merry Christmas, you guys. Jesus was a socialist. I believe that. Yeah. Absolutely. Are you sure? It's the right one? You want me to check again?
00:44:50
Speaker
That's a C. I just turned to slight from the wrong side. Am I on pitch?
00:45:10
Speaker
It is the night of our dear Savior's birth.
00:46:14
Speaker
when Christ was born.
00:46:27
Speaker
all night.
00:46:36
Speaker
no right so we did that one. Yeah, and we did good. Do you want to do the first Noel?
00:46:54
Speaker
Was to certain poor shepherds in where they
00:47:22
Speaker
Noel,
00:47:27
Speaker
Noel, born is the king of Israel. And like a phlegm or like a little slide that was trying to like fuck me up. So cute. It was like so close. So close. Yeah. I would say let's skip the O come all ye faithful into a Have yourself a merry because that's not a religious one. Right. Yeah, because I value those just as much. I do love O come while you're faithful. i I do. I do. Cheers. Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Let your heart be light.
00:48:19
Speaker
Next year
00:48:28
Speaker
Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Make the yuletide gay. Next
00:49:01
Speaker
are dear to us will be near to us once more someday soon we all will be together if the so have yourself a merry little christmas now i think that might have been our best take yay i hope so
00:49:46
Speaker
and I think even better than when we practiced it. I think that, yeah. It might have been. I hope that my former choir teachers... and I still want to dual come all ye faithful do here i don't because of the cool little parts that I finally learned.
00:50:05
Speaker
I want to be able to do them. Okay. You want to try? We'll try it. And if you hate it, you can cut it out. I mean, if we start to, if we start to struggle with it, let's not like harp on it and try to do it over and over and over again. Right. I'm also really hungry. Okay. I'm starting to feel better. It's 10.08. Okay. Oh, come all ye faithful.
00:51:15
Speaker
fuck We fucking started sliding, didn't we? Every time, but it's okay. We can't do anything about it. Can't do anything about it. We're doing best we can. Hey, this has been really fun. It has been fun. It's been good. It's fun it's been fun. I'm proud of us. Yeah. Have we done every single thing that we wanted to do while I was here? Damn near.
00:51:39
Speaker
We didn't do a ritual, but we did ritual food cooking. magic mad I would consider our vision board yeah kind of a ritual. yeah But you know what? like It's good. Everything we did was what we needed to do. And I'm really grateful that you came here.
00:52:08
Speaker
I'm really grateful that I was able to come. Me too. Very, very. Me too. I'm grateful that you landed in Boston. We managed to figure out a way to get you to my house. Yeah, no, it's got it we got to do it in reverse for tomorrow. i was so The moment I realized my car wasn't starting, I was just like,
00:52:35
Speaker
You poor thing. You were crying when when I called you. I know, I panicked. I mean, I cried, I started to cry when I got my friend on the phone. They were just like, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I don't mean to cry but I'm just freaking out right now. And she was like, it's okay, I understand, I understand.
00:52:56
Speaker
but it's okay. It's all right. It's going to be okay. We hope that you've had a lovely Christmas season, our dear friends here. We hope you are having a lovely Christmas season. Yeah. And we hope that we didn't ruin it with our singing. I'm just kidding. I hope we helped bring a little extra spirit, Christmas spirit to the table for you. Major, major exposure there.
00:53:26
Speaker
therapy for me to have done this. and two And it's going to be major exposure therapy to try to edit and listen to it again, and then publish it. Exposure therapy in what way? like What do you need therapy for? on what Hating, like performing. Oh, okay. My performance things. Yeah, I used to be like that. I'm not so much anymore, but I don't I used to be terrified of karaoke. I used to not be able to do it at all. I did karaoke one time. And you want to guess what song it was? I couldn't. I couldn't guess. Sunday morning rain is falling. Oh, you were singing that the other day. Yesterday? This morning. This morning? Yeah, because it was Sunday morning. Got it. Yeah. Yep. All right. Cut.
Announcing a Holiday Break
00:54:22
Speaker
It's a wrap.
00:54:24
Speaker
It's time to eat mac and cheese and watch Bridgerton. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, everybody. Blessed Yule. Blessed Yule. Blessed B. May your Yule-type be gay.
00:54:40
Speaker
Oh my God. May your Yule-type queer as fuck. Make your yule tide care. Okay, sorry, I'm good. I'm good. We silly gooses. We had a great time. Thanks for joining us. We love you. We love you so much. And we're grateful for you. It's been a good day. And it's been a good weekend.
00:55:13
Speaker
I'm trying to remember what, are we going to say that we may not release an episode between Christmas and New Year? Oh yeah, you know that's a good idea. That's a good idea to mention. Yeah, this is probably going to be your heads up then that we're going to take a little break between Christmas and New Year. Yeah, we may not release any episodes at all between Christmas and New Year. Yeah, I'm thinking we deserve a break. We owe it to ourselves. Give me a break, give me a break. Oh Jesus.
00:55:44
Speaker
See, you got me all in the singy-sing mood. i Sing-a-ling-a-ding-a-ding-dong mood. More emphasis on the ding-dong. Hello, my name was Belle for a long time.
00:56:34
Speaker
You should know of all the holidays, you are fine.