Episode Summary:
Whether it’s sweet potatoes gone rogue or a Buzz Lightyear scaling the stage, the Fun Table crew (Libby Sundgren, Alysse Bryson, Kristin Graham, Dele Downs Kooley and Amy Liz Harrison) unwrap the messy magic of holiday gatherings. From stocking traditions and grief rituals to ditching gifts in favor of gratitude and connection, this episode celebrates the power of togetherness — sparkly elf glasses and all.
Takeaways:
- Every gathering tells a story — embrace the unplanned moments that become tradition.
- Gratitude bowls and “thankful cards” can transform any table into a connection circle.
- Experiences often outshine gifts; the best memories don’t come in boxes.
- Honoring multiple cultures and faiths makes celebrations richer and more inclusive.
- The true gift of the holidays? Showing up — messy, mismatched and present.
Timestamps:
01:25 — Welcome to The Fun Table: Holiday gatherings are both art and adventure.
04:01 — The Buzz Lightyear story that stole Christmas Eve.
07:20 — Dele’s legendary sweet potato Thanksgiving moment.
10:12 — Finding joy through grief and gratitude.
16:15 — The crew ditches gifts for experiences.
20:09 — Stocking stuffers, olives and depression-era traditions.
24:03 — Blending faiths and cultural celebrations with grace.
28:30 — “Come as you are” holiday hosting and open-house joy.
Resources & Links:
-Meet The Fun Table: Kristin Graham, Dele Downs Kooley, Amy Liz Harrison
-Alysse & Libby: Bios & LinkedIn
Connect with Us:
-Website: www.beatsworkingpodcast.com
-LinkedIn: @BEATS WORKING Show
-Instagram: @beatsworkingshow
-Facebook: @Beats Working Show
-YouTube: @BEATSWORKINGPODCAST
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Transcript
The following transcript is not certified. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. The information contained within this document is for general information purposes only.
00:00:00:00 – 00:00:27:17
Dele Downs Kooley
And we went around the table, as many people do on Thanksgiving and and say what we’re thankful for. We get to my youngest child and she says, I’m thankful for my mom’s sweet potatoes at my house. Oh, I nearly want them to die and crawl underneath the table, because here we are having this beautiful meal with our neighbors who have been kind enough to include us.
00:00:27:19 – 00:00:51:18
Dele Downs Kooley
And I do feel like it’s a big, like circle of giving. And the circle always comes around. So we invite people to our house every year. If you don’t have someplace to go, come to our house. So here we are. Someone has invited me. I take them up on it. And what does my kid do? Trashes their sweet potato souffle, which was delicious, by the way.
00:00:51:18 – 00:01:25:10
00:01:25:10 – 00:01:47:07
Libby Sundgren
Welcome back to another episode of Beats working winning the game of events. Whether it’s with the family you were born into, the friends you picked along the way, or a hand-picked holiday crew you only see once a year. Gathering during the holidays is both an art and an adventure. And in this episode of The Fun Table, we’re exploring the many flavors of holiday gatherings.
00:01:47:09 – 00:02:00:19
Libby Sundgren
If you’ve ever felt like you needed a seating chart, a safe word, or a solid casserole dish, I think they call that a hot dish in the Midwest to get you through the season. This one is for you. Welcome, Fonttable.
00:02:00:21 – 00:02:01:16
Kristin Graham
Then you had me.
00:02:01:16 – 00:02:03:01
Libby Sundgren
A hot dish.
00:02:03:03 – 00:02:07:16
Alysse Bryson
Oh, yeah. Libby, look at those who are not fish.
00:02:07:17 – 00:02:18:22
Libby Sundgren
Just a little elfin here in case you can’t see me, I have my glittery elf sunglasses on. I just found them, and my husband keeps trying to get me to get rid of them every year, and I keep. Oh, my goodness, is that for you?
00:02:19:04 – 00:02:21:13
Alysse Bryson
This is exactly proof. Why you need.
00:02:21:13 – 00:02:27:02
Libby Sundgren
Better. I keep him in a basket under the coffee table from December 1st to December 26th.
00:02:27:04 – 00:02:29:06
Kristin Graham
Necessary perfection.
00:02:29:08 – 00:02:58:09
Libby Sundgren
Love it. Okay, I want to start by hearing your favorite holiday gathering moments. Either ones that melted your heart or made you want to melt into the floor. I feel like I have a lot of both, but my one of my favorite just heart melting memories is of my boys. They’re now four and eight, but a couple of times through the year, so maybe this isn’t one memory.
00:02:58:09 – 00:03:26:22
Libby Sundgren
This is like many memories blended into one, but a couple of times throughout the year, they will remind me that our Christmas tradition is that my mom and my stepdad and my brother come up from Pendleton, and they stay with us. One year they couldn’t because it was like snowy. The weather was really bad and my oldest son was devastated until we made him realize we’d have a do over later.
00:03:27:00 – 00:03:50:13
Libby Sundgren
But I love my family and I just love that it is like, you know, it can. It can be a lot when you have two kids, two adults, and then you add three more adults and two of them are of a senior age. But you guys look wonderful. I’m sure you’re listening. And it can be a lot, but they don’t see it.
00:03:50:13 – 00:04:01:18
Libby Sundgren
They love it. They think it’s so fun and it wouldn’t be the same to them without it. So now it’s my heart every time. I love that. Yeah. It’s pretty sweet. Yeah.
00:04:01:20 – 00:04:24:06
Alysse Bryson
I this is Elise and I have a little melty story. This was back when Jacob was little, and one of the traditions that I have with my family is that we go to the Christmas Eve service, which may or may not fall on actual Christmas Eve. That doesn’t really matter. But he was wearing they encourage little kids to wear pajamas.
00:04:24:08 – 00:04:47:17
Alysse Bryson
They probably still do, I don’t know, but he was wearing Buzz Lightyear pajamas because this was back when Toy Story one was brand new. And, so I got to that. Yeah, just yesteryear gods at that point in the service where we’d sung you know, several hymns, and now they ask all the kids, little kids in the pajamas to come up onto the stage so they can tell them a story.
00:04:47:19 – 00:05:18:18
Alysse Bryson
And so Jacob just runs off, you know, and it’s little Buzz Lightyear pajamas. And then whoever starts reading the story of Mary and Joseph, and they’re going through it, and Jacob has a hard time sitting still, and he just starts exploring the stage. And this particular stage set up had like choir levels that went way up. And then there was like another thing that went way up and all you see is Buzz Lightyear, like climbing to the top of whatever.
00:05:18:20 – 00:05:50:15
Alysse Bryson
And I’m just mortified. And my mom and my sister are looking at me like, are you going to do something? And I’m just like, no, not at all. Sure. Yeah, yeah. I was like, I’m not. I’m he’s going to run if I go up there, you know? So my sister, my sister went in after him. And to this day when we go home, there are certain people that were there that are still going to that church that will always remember Jacob as Buzz Lightyear, totally winning Christmas Eve,
00:05:50:17 – 00:05:53:13
Libby Sundgren
Winning that Christmas Eve event. Jacob.
00:05:53:14 – 00:06:26:13
Dele Downs Kooley
So we’re a military family and I love the tradition that you shared. Libby. And the Buzz Lightyear I’m going to bring both of those together because we’re a military family. Traditions and rituals are really important because no matter where we are and the kids always feel grounded because we do the same thing for all the holidays. We’ve got traditions that we practice so that the kids felt connected and they didn’t feel like they were so far away from home, or they were missing something.
00:06:26:15 – 00:06:52:18
Dele Downs Kooley
We got invited to Thanksgiving dinner one year at our neighbor’s house, and I took them up on the offer because I was home and their dad was deployed. He’d been gone for three months at that point in time, so I was accepting help in any form. We go to Thanksgiving dinner, and I am so happy that I don’t have to make Thanksgiving dinner, because that is we we have the same menu.
00:06:52:18 – 00:07:17:16
Dele Downs Kooley
They finally got an old enough now that they’re adults, that they’re willing to flex on the menu. At the time, we had the same thing to eat every year at Thanksgiving. And we went around the table, as many people do on Thanksgiving and, and say what we’re thankful for. We get to my youngest child and she says, I’m thankful for my mom’s sweet potatoes at my house.
00:07:17:18 – 00:07:20:10
Amy Liz Harrison
Oh I nearly want.
00:07:20:14 – 00:07:43:00
Dele Downs Kooley
To die and crawl underneath the table because here we are having this beautiful meal with our neighbors who have been kind enough to include us. And I do feel like it’s a big, like circle of giving, and the circle always comes around. So we invite people to our house every year. If you don’t have someplace to go, come to our house.
00:07:43:02 – 00:08:07:14
Dele Downs Kooley
So here we are. Someone has invited me. I take them up on it. And what does my kid do for their sweet potato souffle? Which was delicious, by the way. So we had to go home. We enjoyed our Thanksgiving. Everybody laughed because she was so little, but she was serious. So when we got home, all three kids cornered me and they were like, we expect Thanksgiving tomorrow.
00:08:07:16 – 00:08:22:07
Dele Downs Kooley
And we had our full traditional Thanksgiving the next day, which was much more low pressure. But oh my goodness, talk about wanting to melt and hide underneath the table all at the same time, you know.
00:08:22:12 – 00:08:45:04
Kristin Graham
You know what though. And this is this is Kristen. It just shows the the things that matter in that that what we offer. And I think that that was so expressive and lovely because you you can plan. Hello. As all events planners and listeners out there are doing, you can plan all the details, but you can’t plan for what’s going to sink into somebody’s heart.
00:08:45:06 – 00:08:55:15
Kristin Graham
And so that sweet potato moment is actually, well, sweet. And it just it kind of goes to show that traditions matter. Yeah, yeah.
00:08:55:17 – 00:09:04:18
Dele Downs Kooley
We’ll talk about the sweet potatoes before we eat. Like, anybody eats them anymore, but we make sure we have them on the table so that we honor that funny memory.
00:09:04:20 – 00:09:15:16
Kristin Graham
See, that’s the best part. The unplanned and sometimes crunchy turns into a memory. Just just to be clear, was anybody else here planning to invite themselves over to delis house to try those sweet potatoes?
00:09:15:16 – 00:09:18:15
Dele Downs Kooley
Because table’s always set. Anybody’s welcome.
00:09:18:17 – 00:09:21:06
Kristin Graham
That’s actually a true story that will help.
00:09:21:08 – 00:09:23:14
Dele Downs Kooley
Bring you and the doors always open.
00:09:23:16 – 00:09:24:12
Kristin Graham
It’s actually always.
00:09:24:12 – 00:09:25:20
Libby Sundgren
Set. The table is always set.
00:09:25:20 – 00:09:47:20
Kristin Graham
And dress it is a story is a true story. So on a on an additional melty moment story and holidays, regardless of how you celebrate, can also be hard when people are missing. Kind of like Libby’s story either missing physically or I’m remembering the first. My my dad died right in the fall, and so the holidays was the first milestone.
00:09:47:20 – 00:10:12:00
Kristin Graham
Milestones with grief are always a challenging thing, especially then when you have kids or other. You’re trying to still make it special. And I remember all of us adults were kind of heavy going into it and had planned extra for the presents and the things for the kids. And I remember my oldest turning to us at one point and said, Papa doesn’t have any presents under the tree.
00:10:12:02 – 00:10:45:19
Kristin Graham
And so instead of even though he knew Papa was in heaven, that’s my ring, by the way, and a ring of joy we went out and got balloons and everybody wrote messages for Papa but helium in them, and then released them as presents in heaven and another day reminded me of that. Unplanned like wouldn’t have seen it from the child’s eyes, but it ended up turning into this crazy upside down member trying to find helium, like during the holidays, or I suppose, any time of year.
00:10:45:21 – 00:11:06:03
Kristin Graham
And then one of the balloons got caught in a tree and we were at the cemetery. My brother had to climb up on a headstone and release it, and we were like, you’re so worried about, you know, eternal damnation. But all of a sudden there was floating wishes up, up in the sky. And that was better than anything in a box that year.
00:11:06:05 – 00:11:16:06
Dele Downs Kooley
What a beautiful tradition. I’m going to borrow that, and I will think of you one day when I doing some for the Crown in a letter.
00:11:16:08 – 00:11:43:04
Amy Liz Harrison
Yeah, okay. I’ve got one too. Based off of Elise sharing about Jacob and the Buzz Lightyear pajamas one year about, I don’t know, pre-COVID. So isn’t that kind of the way it is? Like pandemic is like pre and post, right? At least in my mind. And our church put on a little choir production. We’re in a little church at this point.
00:11:43:06 – 00:12:09:21
Amy Liz Harrison
And so we had my four littles with us and they were all in the production. And the person who was leading this production was trying to figure out a way to engage the kids, because usually, you know, you’ve got the kids who are lifting up their dress. And, you know, I mean, audience loves it, right? But I think with the director, they feel a little bit like, oh my gosh, like really like all these hours.
00:12:09:21 – 00:12:38:02
Amy Liz Harrison
And this is what happens, you know, and I think it’s just a wee bit frustrating. Although they can appreciate it. But anyway, the leader of this production had this idea and I just thought it was brilliant. I’ve never seen anything cuter. She got every kid up there, a fake microphone, and so every single child was up there just belting out the Christmas jams with a fake mike.
00:12:38:02 – 00:13:00:16
Amy Liz Harrison
And I mean, it looked like I don’t even know, like, cool in the gang combined with Earth, Wind and Fire. Like everybody had a mike and was giving it their all and just pretending, you know, it was their show, like so low. And it was so cute. And I just loved those new and fresh things that like, I can’t think of that stuff.
00:13:00:22 – 00:13:06:09
Amy Liz Harrison
And it was a moment of brilliance. I thought, so yay! Hashtag. Thanks, Kelsey.
00:13:06:11 – 00:13:13:16
Dele Downs Kooley
And got a stamp tastic because I have a pink microphone and if I can’t take it with me, I don’t want it.
00:13:13:17 – 00:13:44:09
Libby Sundgren
We tried to do karaoke at Christmas last year and it it was a raucous, a raucous thing. I think we might tone it down a little bit this year. Karaoke will still being involved, but I think we might take our celebration down just a little bit of a notch. Kristen, I love that story that you shared because the holidays can be so hard for somebody navigating grief.
00:13:44:09 – 00:14:32:22
Libby Sundgren
And, you know, especially right now in these times when we have burnout and inflation and emotional fatigue, I mean, there are so many things that we and the people in our lives are, you know, just dealing with and just surviving, you know, thriving and surviving, on a daily basis and how, you know, it’s just how do we show up for each other during the holidays, you know, personally or at events, you know, how do we make room for those kinds of feelings for that kind of baggage to come into the events that we’re hosting or that we’re attending, I guess.
00:14:33:00 – 00:14:55:12
Kristin Graham
It’s such a good question. And one thing, when I was raising my kids, we had different religions, so we always called it our Christmas season. But more than that, we tried to stress the religion side more and then the the commonality and the people. But you have such a good point because there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of rawness.
00:14:55:16 – 00:15:17:07
Kristin Graham
Whether you’re navigating grief, as I shared or loneliness, you can be around a lot of people and still be carrying loneliness and, of course, differences. One of the things that we chose to do is I find commonality and gratitude. So we did two things in the and it could be for any, any holiday, including ones that we’re thankful for.
00:15:17:09 – 00:15:39:01
Kristin Graham
But in the in a bowl in the middle of the table, everybody had, index cards or post-it notes. You know, I love me. My post-it notes, to write down throughout the course of the day and the dinner into the middle of just thankful, pop up, thankful. And then throughout, anybody could stick their hand in the middle, pull one out, not attributed to anybody, and read something, some grateful or thankful.
00:15:39:03 – 00:16:03:21
Kristin Graham
Another thing that we did in this does depend on who’s around the table, but it could be a good, joining force is we put someone’s name at the top of the piece of paper or card, pass it around and everybody writes something on it that they are thankful about that person for. So again, you have to trust the audience it was on there and the level of calories and other intakes.
00:16:03:23 – 00:16:15:18
Kristin Graham
But based on some of that, finding the common ground in gratitude instead of in organized or prescriptive ways.
00:16:15:20 – 00:16:42:11
Amy Liz Harrison
I would say our, thing that we’ve done recently, within the past decade is we don’t do gifts for adults anymore, which sort of had a little bit of a stop and start. Yeah, it was kind of just one of those things where it was like, you know, what, do we really need to do this? Maybe not. And so now we take that money and we go and we do an experience together.
00:16:42:13 – 00:17:07:12
Amy Liz Harrison
We go on vacation together. We go see like a play together or whatever. And it’s much more meaningful, I think, at least for me, it is might not actually be a well sold act, activity to those who are, you know, like young adults, for example, who might be super broke. But, by and large, we’ve had a positive response.
00:17:07:14 – 00:17:12:06
Amy Liz Harrison
Unless they’re just hiding it from me, which is always a possibility.
00:17:12:08 – 00:17:33:03
Kristin Graham
Well, even though presents are so stressful, it’s like. And it could be from from birthdays to graduations, not just end of year holidays. They can be super stressful. And back to the spirit of gratitude finding. Or sometimes we’ll do those adopt a adopting angel or something, but the money that we spent on each other into something that way.
00:17:33:03 – 00:17:36:14
Kristin Graham
So it’s really hard to shop.
00:17:36:16 – 00:18:02:11
Alysse Bryson
Yeah, we gave up presents a long time ago. I’m not. I mean, I don’t know, many, many years before Covid we might still do like stockings because my dad actually really doesn’t like the fact that we don’t do gifts. So there, you know, if it can fit in the stocking, then maybe you’ll get something in there. But it’s the idea is really, you know, no more gifts.
00:18:02:11 – 00:18:35:09
Alysse Bryson
And I, I just find that so refreshing because that allows us to focus on what the season is actually about. And that’s spending time with the people that you care about, or going out and being of service to others. There’s many years, whether it was Thanksgiving, holiday or Christmas holiday, where we went out to different places and served people food or took them things, and that was much more rewarding than opening up a new set of bath bombs.
00:18:35:09 – 00:19:06:13
Libby Sundgren
I got to tell you, we are a big stocking family. Not stocking as an stocking, but stocking as an stocking. They were always very big at my house. You got like some of your pretty much your best things came in the stocking. It probably started as all good traditions do with me because I was born on December 17th.
00:19:06:15 – 00:19:30:06
Libby Sundgren
Oh, just a mere eight days before Christmas. So I was born in a snowstorm on December 17th, as my mom likes to say in Pendleton, Oregon. And they took me home from the hospital in a stocking. I was probably actually in a car seat that truly there’s a picture of me in this big red stocking. It’s a stocking I’ve used every year.
00:19:30:08 – 00:19:51:00
Libby Sundgren
You can fit a newborn baby in it. And you guys, I was pushing 10 pounds, so I was not a little baby. I was a big baby. So this is a big stocking. This has always been my stocking. It is now my stocking at my house with my family. And stockings were the thing. And so I do that at my house.
00:19:51:02 – 00:20:09:08
Libby Sundgren
Unfortunately, I’ve got to rein in him because now the stockings are like a mountain beneath. And then the stockings. Stockings can’t hang. They have to be on the ground because they’re too heavy, you know, they can’t hang on a mantle. There’s too many things in there, so I might have to scale it back a little bit. This year.
00:20:09:08 – 00:20:30:01
Libby Sundgren
But stocking stockings are where it’s at. And even in my family now, like when they come, when my family comes for Christmas, we’re like, okay, no gifts. We’re not going to do any gifts. You, we can do stockings. We’ll, we’ll fill stockings. But I mean, you still get presents in your stocking because they’re just stacked underneath, which is great.
00:20:30:01 – 00:20:36:04
Libby Sundgren
And also a little stressful, but okay, that was my stocking diatribe.
00:20:36:05 – 00:20:50:17
Alysse Bryson
I just need to know for the stocking stuffers in the room, how many of you were raised with an orange or a tangerine and the toe?
00:20:50:19 – 00:20:57:02
Libby Sundgren
I didn’t, but I did always get a can of olives every year. Otherwise my favorite.
00:20:57:04 – 00:21:00:19
Kristin Graham
Way. Green or black? Black.
00:21:00:21 – 00:21:02:21
Libby Sundgren
Can a black olives every year.
00:21:02:23 – 00:21:06:21
Kristin Graham
We were also bowl of whole nuts with nutcracker like with.
00:21:06:23 – 00:21:08:22
Libby Sundgren
Oh.
00:21:09:00 – 00:21:20:06
Amy Liz Harrison
Yeah, that’s. Yeah. Why was that a thing? Does anyone know? Because my parents had that to the big nutcracker and the walnut. Walnuts. Yeah. Walnuts are I mean, I call them dirt nuts. I think they’re just.
00:21:20:06 – 00:21:23:23
Libby Sundgren
Do kind of do a little like dirt when they’re straight out of the shell. I’ll give you that.
00:21:24:03 – 00:22:02:10
Dele Downs Kooley
Oh my goodness. So I got the oranges in the toe and the nuts. And if I were to go back and look at our family lore, it was which is actually really timely if you think about history has a way of repeating itself, maybe in different ways. My grandparents were part of the depression. So yeah, when when I would unpack Christmas ornaments, there were nuts that were painted with nail polish and white outs, a red, a red half and a white half with little piece of yarn.
00:22:02:10 – 00:22:31:15
Dele Downs Kooley
And I really enjoyed when I was growing up making popcorn and cranberry strings for the tree. Yeah, and the reason for that was there wasn’t a lot of money, and it wasn’t that my grandparents didn’t move on out of the depression era and create beautiful, Bountiful lives. It was a nod to the past and and honoring their past and kind of remembering it.
00:22:31:15 – 00:22:50:22
Dele Downs Kooley
So my mom grew up. They had the the nots. And then when I was unpacking Christmas ornaments as a teenager, we still had those things. But it started. It was a tradition with the oranges in the bottom of the toe and the knots and and I really had a lot of fun with my grandparents cracking those nuts open.
00:22:50:22 – 00:23:25:14
Dele Downs Kooley
You had the little nut picks and you’d pull everything out. And some of the, the, the things that I learned from my grandparents were appropriate. Some of them were not. In regards to the names of knots from years past. Yeah. However, I still have great memories of all of those things. And my kids, actually, I, I don’t do the same things, but we have made sure that we put fruit or they don’t want nuts in their baskets, but we always have some candies and some fruits in there.
00:23:25:14 – 00:23:38:09
Dele Downs Kooley
As a nod to years past, but I think that’s where it came from. Ellis was my grandparents that went to my mom and then to me and now my kids. Kristin, what do you think?
00:23:38:11 – 00:24:03:17
Kristin Graham
Well, I love all the stories that we’re sharing. I did want to ask, this group because we’ve been talking about Christian oriented holidays. How have you all, as families, grow and people change or people get added into it, how do you ensure either agnostic or additional preferences or even we’ve mentioned Thanksgiving a few times, and certainly not everyone is from the US.
00:24:03:19 – 00:24:12:21
Kristin Graham
So I’m curious how you all have seen artful blending of different, respectful ways to bring people together.
00:24:12:21 – 00:24:40:05
Dele Downs Kooley
We celebrate Hanukkah with our friends and family, so I think my kids prefer a Shabbat any day on a Friday. If they’re invited to go, they’re down. I mean, you had them at Shabbat, so. And for a great. Yeah. So the kids love I mean we do try to be inclusive. So while we grew up with a very traditional.
00:24:40:07 – 00:25:13:20
Dele Downs Kooley
Holiday Santa and and Christmas Eve celebration at church, my kids celebrate Hanukkah and and any Shabbat that they get the opportunity because we have friends that are Jewish and we also, as we are, a little tiny un because we have lots of different backgrounds that we welcome into the family, that is a tradition that we’ve started is whether it’s bring your favorite photo and share your favorite holiday memory and tell the family about it.
00:25:13:20 – 00:25:40:21
Dele Downs Kooley
Or what is your favorite tradition. And we create space for anyone who comes into the family to share. We we go from dumplings to, we’ve done tamales. We’ve done lumpia throughout the years. Whatever the holiday, tradition or festivity is for the people in our lives, we we want to make sure that we learn about it and and honor it.
00:25:40:23 – 00:26:11:19
Libby Sundgren
You know, I feel like we I have been really lucky to marry into a family where you just mother is just a born party hoster. She’s so good at it. It’s her thing and Steve to his dad. But they really turned Thanksgiving and Christmas into more open house style events. So that’s the so that’s kind of how we host them now.
00:26:11:19 – 00:26:35:05
Libby Sundgren
I mean, we do kind of, you know, smaller stuff on Christmas Eve, but, you know, we may or may not go to church. We usually don’t. Sorry. God. We you know, there are games. There’s always bingo on Thanksgiving. There’s usually bingo on Christmas. We mix it up with some karaoke. We invite, like all kinds of friends and family.
00:26:35:05 – 00:26:59:10
Libby Sundgren
Friends and like friends of our kids and old neighbors, we had I mean, I think we had like 40 people here at Christmas last year. So it was it was a little big. I don’t know if it got that big this year because I was a little tired. But I do, you know, they try we try to model it after the way they do it, where it’s just a house where everyone’s welcome.
00:26:59:12 – 00:27:15:19
Libby Sundgren
The main goal is just to be together and eat food. There’s all different kinds of food, you know, my father in law is Swedish, so there’s always a Swedish smorgasbord. Not many people hit that part of the buffet, but he loves it.
00:27:15:21 – 00:27:19:09
Kristin Graham
I thought you’re about to say Swedish Fish. And I kind of got excited there.
00:27:19:11 – 00:27:40:04
Libby Sundgren
You know, we’ve actually never put Swedish fish on there, but there’s what might help. There’s always pickled herring, you know, the Swedish meatballs usually go. Those are always gone, you know. And his, he makes glug too, which is a, you know, a, Swedish thing. But, you know, there are some years there’s a prayer, some years there’s not.
00:27:40:04 – 00:28:30:09
Libby Sundgren
Usually we just try to keep it very casual and come as you are. And, that’s why I always have these around. So if people want a little festive something, they can put it on and just try to keep it open. Open to everybody and while we do have some traditions in the sense of my family coming, we also try to keep it, I guess like a little flexible on the tradition so that our kids and the people who are here and everybody that we’re inviting know that it’s, that the point is really just for us to be together and have a good time.
00:28:30:11 – 00:28:34:05
Libby Sundgren
So.
00:28:34:07 – 00:28:38:15
Libby Sundgren
What about you, Amy? I’m curious about you guys.
00:28:38:17 – 00:28:47:13
Amy Liz Harrison
We’re all. Look, I mean, basically, my husband grew up in Australia where it was hot as balls on Christmas Day.
00:28:47:18 – 00:28:49:18
Libby Sundgren
They had that hot Christmas.
00:28:49:18 – 00:29:15:19
Amy Liz Harrison
Yeah. And so, I mean, the only blending we really had to do that was even partially significant was he had to put on like, sweaters and things because everything that he had growing up, I remember he was like in shorts that is jorts with a J, by the way, and like, you know, bro tanks and barbecues on Christmas and we did things a little differently.
00:29:15:19 – 00:29:39:10
Amy Liz Harrison
We had the ham and all of that. So not too, distinct of cultural blending per se, but I know it’s coming because I have a lot of kids, and a lot of them will end up having partners at some point. And so I’m looking forward to, you know, kind of seeing what’s next. What’s the next chapter hold.
00:29:39:10 – 00:29:50:07
Amy Liz Harrison
And, you know, I hope that I will hold space for that and not be one of those curmudgeonly like, no, this is a tradition. We always do this in my day.
00:29:50:09 – 00:30:01:13
Dele Downs Kooley
Yes, we this and I’m always asking my kids after the holidays, I’m like, what worked and what didn’t? Let’s talk about it so that next year we can do it differently. But I.
00:30:01:13 – 00:30:02:00
Libby Sundgren
Love.
00:30:02:02 – 00:30:02:22
Kristin Graham
Your holidays.
00:30:02:22 – 00:30:06:03
Dele Downs Kooley
Oh my God, that’s why I.
00:30:06:05 – 00:30:08:05
Libby Sundgren
Don’t I do not ask me, I.
00:30:08:05 – 00:30:42:23
Dele Downs Kooley
Don’t think brought up your Swedish father in law because being part of a military community and living outside of the US, my kids went to school in Italy and in Germany, and one of the things they do is host nation. So I loved when the kids would come home and tell me about the local holidays, and then we would try it like putting shoes outside the door to have something put in it, or the Christmas mouse, or like whatever it was, because being part of a military community means you’re globally mobile.
00:30:42:23 – 00:31:09:23
Dele Downs Kooley
They marry people wherever they’re at. So we had this beautiful blending of holiday traditions, and that was one of the best things about it was the kids coming home and sharing. That’s why we do post-mortems and after actions after the holidays, because they have strong opinions about what they like and don’t like or adding. So we were always adding the Chris I there’s a like a Halloween witch in Germany.
00:31:09:23 – 00:31:34:12
Dele Downs Kooley
So wherever we were, whatever the traditions were, or a classmate, because if you had a classmate whose parent was not from Italy, Europe or the US, then you have something else to throw into the mix. So it was always fun to hear the kids come home, tell us what they learned or what their friends were doing, and then we would try it because, I mean, hello.
00:31:34:14 – 00:31:54:14
Dele Downs Kooley
So yes, I do have my traditions and the kids feel very strongly about some of those just keeping them intact. We also love to play and learn something new and bring it in to see, now that we have a couple more cultural nuances that we get to layer into our holidays, it’s fun.
00:31:54:16 – 00:32:06:23
Alysse Bryson
Well, as we start to win this down, there will be no postmortem on how this episode went. No, no survey or any feedback, or anything of the sort.
00:32:07:01 – 00:32:13:10
Libby Sundgren
Except if you need stocking stuffer advice. I’m always here.
00:32:13:12 – 00:32:15:12
Dele Downs Kooley
And I hear more at Costco.
00:32:15:12 – 00:32:16:15
Alysse Bryson
You’re always at Costco.
00:32:16:15 – 00:32:18:02
Libby Sundgren
Costco advice? I’ve got lots.
00:32:18:02 – 00:32:19:07
Kristin Graham
Of Costco advice.
00:32:19:09 – 00:32:39:12
Alysse Bryson
Yes. Well, unfortunately, that’s that’s all the time we have for this episode. But if you have a holiday holiday tradition that you wanted to share with us that you don’t think we covered, please feel free to email us or slide into our DMs. And if you have a different idea for the show, we would always love to hear from you.
00:32:39:12 – 00:32:46:09
Libby Sundgren
And remember, every detail matters, every moment counts, and no matter what, the show must go on.
