A Different Holiday Plan 44:47

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Take a look in the five and ten, glistening once again. With candy canes, the silver lanes are glowing.

Welcome to the Jan Arden Podcast. We are going to be talking about the holidays for the next month. So get ready, strap yourself down, because never before in the history of our generation has the holidays been such a cluster of confusion of what to do's, what not to do's, what's... Anyway, I mean, here we are, Caitlin Green, Adam Karsh.

Let's talk about, I mean, Caitlin, you brought this up this morning, just before we started this podcast, people are secretly happy to not have to frigging go anywhere. They are. This was this, this little survey came across my desk for the morning show that I work on. And I thought, I think a few people feel this way. Maybe some of them are actually just trying to find the silver lining because we're living through such a weird dumpster fire of a Christmas season this year, but I

Um, 72% of the people who took part in this survey said that they were looking forward to a smaller, more intimate holiday season this year, whatever you celebrate with their immediate household members. And, you know, like maybe, you know, a small handful of other people. And then of that 52% also said that they were relieved that they don't have to travel anywhere. And yeah.

I mean, I get it. I get it. I talked to a few girlfriends about this and they said, you know, between like my family, my, my partner's family, we are running all over, you know, either Ontario or the city to like wake up in the morning and hit one house and then hit another house in the afternoon, come back home, do the same thing on box and do the same thing on the 27th. Like it's just, it's, it's craziness. And I think people, people are relieved. They are. I mean,

I don't know if any of you all saw this, but it's American Thanksgiving. So hello to our American friends and happy Thanksgiving. We're a little bit late, but we know that... Well, I personally saw pictures on the internet of people in airports. They were flying everywhere. The lineups were ridiculous. Like, I...

I'm just, I'm holding my head right now, folks. If you can picture me, I'm literally hanging on to the top of my head with the images coming out of the United States of people traveling on the busiest time of the year. For those of you that aren't in the know, Thanksgiving is the biggest American holiday. It is bigger than Christmas by far. It is probably one of the biggest travel weekends on the planet. So it's almost like, you know,

you know, people that make that trek to Mecca, like that's kind of what I was picturing. It's just, they're hurtled around the airports in these droves of human, you know, just like herds. Anyway, freak me out.

I saw, because you know how people do, they have flight maps all the time of airplane activities over the skies. And I saw a doctor who I follow on Twitter, she tweeted a map of the air travel routes that were planned, populated airplanes that were flying across the U.S. And she said, oh my God, we are our own murder hornets.

because she just is like, look at the number of people flying around in the middle of a pandemic. And they said an estimated, at least an estimated 2 million people in the US were still planning on air travel. Not just like, not just traveling in a car

or whatever, but getting on airplanes. Now that's drastically reduced for a country of the U S size from regular years, for sure. That's still a ton of people getting on, you know, Greyhound buses in the sky and deciding that they're going to risk it because they want that Thanksgiving feeling. Well, we'll see what happens in the next couple of weeks because the numbers don't lie. Anyway, we won't, we won't dwell on that. It's just,

everyone's dealing with this in their own peculiar way. And I wouldn't be, you know, flitting around on a plane. I am the antithesis of that. So me and Mindy are out here in rural Alberta. I'm pretty sure Christmas is going to look like this as well. My parents are passed away. My brothers live close by, but they're not in my household. I haven't been...

you know, with them at all. So I don't think I'm going to be doing anything Christmas here. Like usually my nephews are here, my sister-in-law, you know, there's people, I'm not doing that. And this is what I wanted to ask you guys about. And this is my quandary. I know that there's going to be hurt feelings.

I know there'll be hurt feelings of just saying, listen, you guys, I can't do it. And I am worried about it. I want to be healthy and well. I start filming my television show the end of February and I have to be in tip top shape. There's 150 people that work on that TV show. Everyone's so excited about moving forward.

So I am going to be sitting here probably with a roaring fire and I'm gonna make myself a nice vegan toe, firky something. I wasn't swearing folks. And, and I'm going to play some Christmas music and probably watch Scrooge again and, and, and FaceTime with friends and phone people. And I might drive to my friend's house 15 minutes from here and leave a, a bag of something on their doorstep and just say, Hey,

Yeah, I won't be going in. I think, you know, the thing is, it's so different. It is, it is COVID-19 has become such a regional issue now that like there are parts of Ontario here that don't have very many cases at all. And so they're in a different risk category than say here in Toronto or in neighboring regions like Peel and Halton, whatever.

And the cases change all the time. So I have a really hard time even guessing at this point what we'll do. We definitely won't be driving anywhere. We definitely won't be visiting. You know, my mom's side of the family lives in a small town called Port Dover in Ontario. We definitely won't be seeing any of my husband's family because we use every year we go to Halifax for a portion of the holidays, too. Wow.

Or we go to Quebec. One of our best friends lives in Montreal. We're not doing that. So at most, I mean, my mom lives alone. So we'll probably see her at some point. And both my husband and I work from home. We barely leave. And because I'm pregnant, so my immune system is naturally a little hampered by the pregnancy. So they do want pregnant women to be extra careful. And I am being. So I think I'll probably...

we talk a little bit about with my doctor closer to Christmas, but I'd like to try to just see my mom. And I don't know about my, I'm not sure about my dad, but that would pretty much be it. I'm thinking. Could they not have stayed together for you for this particular time in your life? I know. Would it have killed them to fricking work it out and just get naked a few more times and try and sort through marital bliss? Come on folks.

Gosh. I mean, and the thing is too, right? It is very dependent upon the activities of those in your immediate circle. And here in Ontario, currently at this point in time, we're not supposed to be seeing anyone outside of our household unless of course you live alone. Same here.

Yeah. And they say, they say, if you live alone, please do try to see one other household for your mental health because we're worried about that too. But that becomes the thing. Like I think of all these people who are, who are living alone. I think of all these people not seeing their friends and family, the holidays and just breaks my heart for what everyone's going to be going through mental health wise. But then maybe secretly they're like, Oh, this sucks this year. We can't see each other. Maybe there's like a,

a hidden portion of people who are actually relieved to be sitting at home ordering Chinese food and watching It's a Wonderful Life. I mean, it's not half bad.

I'm used to being on my own. Like I know I've talked about this a lot on this show, but just I've been single for like four and a half years. And I live in rural Alberta. So I always am fascinated by you and Adam and talking about being in the city and downtown and in buildings and people coming and going and sharing elevators and stuff. But even when I was on the road, which is nutty, when I came home and I was by myself,

It was such a nice, it was a relief, but obviously I could have people here and everything. And I'm not going to lie. I've had two people that have been coming here since March. Yeah. And I will probably most likely see them.

uh, Christmas day in some form or fashion, but I, I, um, yeah, I don't mind being on my own and I really do hope that people reach out if they're feeling lonely. And I'm not talking just about at Christmas time, but running up to it. Um, you know, my friend does, she has a catering company and she said she normally does 60 parties in 20 days. So her entire thing has been wiped out. And I know she's really, really down. Um,

60 parties in 20 days. She goes, that's like eight months of our income. That's crazy. I know. And the lockdown that's happened here in Ontario and it has really impacted small businesses because I, and this was just, this is me and I'm no government official and I know they have work. I'm not. Tell me that now. Cause that's why we had you on the show. I thought you were a government official. I know they have their work cut out for them. I wouldn't want their gig right now for sure. But yeah,

I had hope when I saw our numbers climbing, I thought to myself, well, if you're going to do this lockdown, do it now, please do it sooner. Do it sooner for these poor retailers, because now it's just run roughshod over the holiday season. And, you know, I think restaurants are one thing because you got to take your mask off to eat, but retailers here, these small retailers, they have been so safe, like keeping people apart in the store, only letting a certain number of clients in at a time, even appointment shopping. And everyone has their mask on the whole time they're in the store.

So to see these storefronts shuttered in Toronto right before the holidays has understandably ticked a lot of people off. Everything's open here. Yeah. And the discrepancy between like Ontario where our cases are lower than in Alberta and you guys have a much lower population than we do. Jason left everything open. He just left everything open. Did you see? It's so confusing here.

Did you, I see your tweets about it and I love them because it like, it's like clear as mud, all these recommendations from the government. But I saw, did you see this week? I saw, cause I follow the, you know, whatever's trending on the morning show that I work on here in the city. And I saw Amber Alert was trending one morning when I woke up and I thought,

No, I, oh my God, there's a missing child. Like I, so I click on it to see what's going on. And it was, it was an Amber alert for Jason. It was hilarious looking for the premier, looking for a premium. Where is Jason Kenny? But the thing that is, it's gotta be difficult. You know, say what you will about any person in, in government right now. I don't, I don't care what party you're on this. This really is an issue. It's not about part. It's gotta be hard leading.

and it's got to be hard making these decisions, and it's got to be very devastating thinking about the economy, you know, having to shut things down. In Jason Kenney's case in Alberta, there really wasn't a lot that changed, and our numbers are...

They're outrageous. Like you said, there's, there's 12 million less frigging people here while I'm exaggerating, but you know, people are just, they're just not sure of what the rules are. And I have been making these very outlandish tweets about, so I can take my grandmother bowling with marshmallows in my underpants, but I can't sleep in bed with rubber boots on.

Anyway, you're listening to the Jan Arden podcast. We've got lots to talk about today and we have a special guest, Julie Van Rosendahl. We're going to be talking about food and fun and lots of positive things. Don't go away.

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Once again, we just want to tell people because of all these restrictions, which are a little bit confusing. We know a lot of us, including myself are living alone this Christmas and Caitlin, you have some like insight to if you are on your own or what you can do to make your

your Christmas and your holidays, your Hanukkah, your Chanukah, your Kwanzaa a little bit easier. Like what, what, what do you think we should be doing? I saw this it's from a, uh, it's from a writer that I follow. And they said that if you are celebrating apart from your family members, but you're thinking of doing stuff like, you know, a zoom Christmas celebration or, uh, you know, a couple of FaceTimes, they said saving, um,

record your calls with your family members, record those zoom calls and consider doing like a round table family interview. So say, start with your grandparents. If you still have them start with your, then, you know, then you do your parents, you do your brothers and sister and you treat it like a journalist. Yeah.

And record it so that you have this because we have so few memories of our friends and our family in life. I mean, more so now with cameras and our phones for sure. But like when, you know, I wish that I had to spend more time recording video footage of my grandparents while they were with us asking about, like asking about family history, but also just asking them about funny things like which celebrity would you want to play you in like a bioparty?

pick about your life and you know what was your the stuff that like jane you were asking adam and i a few weeks back on the podcast like favorite childhood foods and memories and what was your favorite school lunch and who was your first crush and all that stuff and and take the opportunity you're going to be sitting on zoom talking to each other for a few hours anyways maybe on christmas day or leading up to it why not make some some video footage that you could like

clip together and it's a kind of just great idea it's like a cool family heirloom I love it like I'm definitely going to do this especially with my husband's family because they're they're out east this year so I think it would be a fun way to you know make the most of it I thought you're going to say and especially with my husband's family because they're way closer to death than my family so I think I think it's really time to like capture those memories because I seriously give them like on the outside three four years no they're all

They're a hearty bunch. My husband's got both of his grandmothers, thankfully, still with us. What? Yeah, I know. How old is your husband? 23? What is going on over there? He's my age and I lost all my beloved grandparents years ago. But so his grandmother in Edmonton is 93 and she's doing great still. And his other grandmother, we just recorded a big birthday message for her. She turned 90. So I'd love to. I swear to God, the 90s are the new 70s.

Totally. Like we're just hearing about it. I had a, my physical, like my, my yearly physical at my doctor's office last week. And I tried you and you do your blood, you do all your stuff. You have your little chat with your doctor. Anyway, my, my doctor, Rohan, biz and dots shout out to the prevent us people. He said, Jan,

We're similar in age. I think he's four or five years younger than I am. I think he's 54. Sorry, Rohan, I'm giving away your secrets. But he said, Jan, if you and I can like stay alive for another 20 years, like if we can hang in there,

He said, there are so many things coming down the railway tracks with genetics. And he said, people are going to be living to be 125 years old and it's not that far away. He said, they are unlocking those secrets to longevity. But I ask you this.

would you want to live to be 125 years? And I wanted to ask him the question like, okay, what are my boobs going to look like? Like what kind of shape is my body going to be in? Because there's all those other things. Like if I'm hooked up to stuff, just trying to keep my brain alive, no thank you. But if I am like virile, if I am at the peak of physical fitness like I am now, yeah, bring it on. But would you want to live to be 125? Yeah.

I would too, under the circumstances you just outlined where it's quality of life. And I would certainly sign up for that. I'd sign that contract today if I knew that I had a reasonable quality of life.

And I think about, again, we joked about this on the show recently, on our morning show, but about the, we didn't mean to, but it was the sexual activity of people in their senior years. And we heard from a bunch of people who work at long-term care facilities. There's some stuff going on in there that you wouldn't believe. Like syphilis is back and venereal diseases. Yes. Yes.

They have to bring in public health workers. This was before the pandemic. They brought them in to have sex ed talks in like the mess hall of these long-term care homes. And they're like showing them how to put a condom on a banana again. You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast.

And if you think we're talking about teens, we're talking about our grandparents and great-grandparents getting jiggity with it in the nursing homes. Like fired up octogenarians. So, I mean, if that is still happening. I think that's fantastic. Me too. I think human beings resort back to really primal urges. You know what? Because my dad would always look forward to his meals. He was only in a nursing home for like the last few months of his life, but meals were big.

And I just remember thinking how important food was to my mom always. Well, I wouldn't mind a lemon square. She couldn't, she didn't really know who people were, but she could tell you every dessert in the case. That's cheesecake. That's a brownie. That's a muffin. That's a cookie. But honest to God, she would not know. What do you do with this mom? That's a toothbrush. Well, for God's sakes, but she knew food. So food and music and sexuality.

And you know what? If that's what it comes down for me, if I make it to 93, bring it on. I will eat while somebody is kissing my neck. That should be the name of your next book, Food, Music, and Sexuality. Oh, I like that. We are going to be talking about food the second half of the show. Our friend Julie Van Rosendahl is going to be joining us from her home in Calgary. And it's always great to hear about new foodie traditions. And I think once again this year...

Um, as in every year, maybe even more so actually guys, food's going to be big. Hey, it's going to be so big for all of us, even living alone. I'm already planning. What am I going to eat that day?

Yeah, I'm keen to hear what she has to say. Some of her suggestions for some like holiday meals for less than five. I'm going to pick her brain on that. Less than five people. I thought you meant dollars. Or that. Fine with me. Holiday meals for less than $5. I know for sure, for sure, for sure that I'm definitely going to make a big batch of shortbread. I'm going to ask Julie about what her favorite recipes are.

But don't go away. You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast. This is like the holiday edition. And not only we talk about geriatric sex, but now we're going to talk about things we can eat. Don't go away. We'll be right back with Julie. Welcome back, everybody. Jan Arden here. I'm here with Caitlin Green. I'm here with Adam Karsh and our special guest. Welcome back.

Julie Van Rosendahl, you're probably thinking something happened to your car that you got a flat tire. No, that was just me pounding on my table. Hi, Julie. Hey, how's it going? It's going so good. So, so good. We, this show has been, we've been all over the, I'll tell you where we left off.

Okay. Geriatric sex and healthcare workers having to come out and show them how to put condoms on bananas. My great aunt had a new boyfriend at 94, I believe, 96. Yeah. Well, see, I don't feel bad at 58.

I'm going to have a boyfriend or a girlfriend before I know it. Like, and they're going to have their own teeth and hair and I'll probably have to learn how to put a condom on a banana again or something. At least some of their teeth, right? Yeah. Well, no, you will have dentures at that point. I don't even have all my teeth. Yeah. I have a bridge. Like a bridge over. That's all I can sing of that because of copyright infringement. So sorry, I had to cut that short.

Before we get started, I wanted to talk quickly about something very cool that my friend Wendy Williams-Watt is doing. And Julie, you know who Wendy is. She's an artist from Vancouver. She does something called the Inclusion Tree.

And we've been talking on the show today about people that are feeling a little left out. Some people are living alone, are not going to have people around their home. They're not going to have a family dinner. And further than that, there's not going to be like that orphan Christmas this year. Hey guys, where, you know, if you do live alone that you get invited to your friend's place that has, you know, all the singletons and their cousins and this one grandmother, kind of like a kitchen sink Christmas where you're, you become a part of a group that,

normally wouldn't get together. Anyway, the inclusion tree is, it's not an evergreen. It's just like a tree that's lost all its leaves and its branches are hanging low. And what Wendy does is on December the 1st, she asks people to get, you know, a couple of people together, which you can do outside. This is all outside.

Um, and hang balls, which you get at the dollar store. Don't spend a lot of money. You can get them at winners. You can grab them, you know, on sale someplace. And then you get googly eyes from the dollar store for like pennies and you glue them, glue eyes on the Christmas balls.

And because we want eyes on us this Christmas more than ever, we want to be seen. We want people to see us. So December the 1st, if you can get a couple of people, you can go to www.bigloveball.com.

or Wendy Williams Watt. She's got a Facebook page. She's got Instagram. She's got Twitter. And she's going to walk you through the steps of doing an inclusion tree, grabbing a couple people, hanging these balls with eyes. Obviously, you know, if someone wants to steal a damn ball, so be it.

but it just looks beautiful. And it's in communities that maybe don't have a lot of festive stuff going on to walk by a tree covered in shiny Christmas balls and to see little black eyeballs looking at you. I'm doing mine today with my glue gun, getting them all ready.

And of course you have to go back, you know, after Christmas and take them down. Don't leave them up for, you know, for the rest of the year, go and be polite in your neighborhoods and go take them down. But I'm definitely doing, I'm gonna do it with my older brother. I'm going to get a couple of friends together and I'm going to do an inclusion tree, which is exactly what the word says. It includes everybody. It's not about what denomination you are religiously. It's about being included in community and

And go pick a tree in a community that, you know, doesn't have a lot going on. Something outside of school or outside on a street where there's, you know, maybe a few people that are still walking around. But I think it's going to bring a lot of cheer. So Wendy Williams, shout out to you and the inclusion tree and how special people feel and that it's something that we actually can do.

get a little group together and go hang some balls up and glue some eyeballs on. Anyway, Julie. And you know, I bought some googly eyes from the dollar store to put on my house plants to put on my, cause I have this one succulent that looks like it's crawling out of its cup. And so you don't even need a glue gun. They had peel and stick their peel and stick googly eyes. And so I put them on my plants. So now it's a little bit weird. They're kind of watching me, you know, Oh, room.

my plants, but I like it. They're like little, you know, only you, Julie, um, walk me through Christmas Eve for Julie van Rosendahl at, as an eight year old. So let's go back in time. Cause I'm going to ask you guys. We're going back in time. Only certain age. We'll, we'll know what I'm referring to there. Um, Juliet eight. Okay. So

I was, I've always been obsessed about food. And one of the reasons I love Christmas so much is because of the food, obviously the party food, the big tin of quality street that my parents would buy. Quality street. Right. And I still remember the purple one, the hazelnut one, like each wrapper. I know the order that I would pick the quality street chocolates and eat them. And they would hide them at the top of the shelf because I,

I have two sisters, both are younger than me. I would eat them. I ate all the frozen Nanaimo bars for the Christmas party out of the freezer one year and denied it. And it was clear it was me. Everyone knew it was me. And so we sat around the table after dinner one night and my parents were like, no one's leaving the table until we figure out who ate all the Nanaimo bars. Like,

Of course it's me. So I, I mean, I, I just, I love the whole holiday season, but you know, when, when my parents were having parties and there was party food, there was bugles. Oh my God. One Christmas, my cousin and I hid under the piano and put, put bugles on all our fingers and then ate them off. And I ate so many that I barfed. I'm pretty sure we've worked.

that subject into both of our podcasts now, but, but just having all the people around, having everybody, you know, in a, in a jovial mood and all the party food. My favorite thing about the holidays still is having like all the leftover party food in the fridge. That's just all I eat all the whole holiday season. Right. I have to say that my favorite thing at the holidays and I never eat it any other time of the year.

So funny how we do this, right? Right. But eight-year-old Jan, nuts and bolts, like homemade nuts and bolts. I remember mom getting the boxes of cereal out and putting them on that baking sheet and the smell in the house of the seasoning salt, the garlic powder, the...

All the stuff, you know, the butter and the oil and mixing it all together. Yeah. Nuts and bolts, Julie. I pray that you will teach me or tell me how to make nuts and bolts this year because I don't know how to do it. And I look at recipes and I'm like, no, that's not what I'm doing.

That's not what my mom did. Oh, no. It doesn't look like what mom did. Butter Worcestershire sauce, spices, cereal. Worcestershire sauce. Worcestershire sauce. Okay. Yeah. And I have a neighbor who makes homemade Worcestershire sauce.

And he imports treacle from UK. What is Worcestershire sauce? And it's got like anchovies and it's delicious. I hoard it. I sometimes just take a sip out of the jar. No, you don't. Sometimes. I will show you how to make a big batch of nuts and bolts so that you too can sit under your piano and barf this Christmas.

So what was the evening like the eight-year-old Julie so food but was there anticipation for gifts like did you we tried to find everything in the house my brothers and I searched and

you know, for hidden stuff. We never, I don't know where they hid them, but we never found anything. I didn't want to find them. The anticipation. I mean, anticipation is the best part of so many things. And I think that's one part of this holiday season that people are struggling with is having something to look forward to. Like there's joy in anticipation of things.

And so I love that our bar has sort of been lowered and we're anticipating a different kind of Christmas, but I didn't want to find my presents. My sisters and I, my parents were always focused on being even. So we would have like an even number of presents to open. And we would...

- We would kind of on Christmas morning, sorry, I keep jumping ahead. Christmas Eve was just like us running around and our PJs being like, you know, off the wall, bouncing off walls. But in the morning we would like hide, or maybe my sisters did, maybe it was just me. We would hide.

The present so that like when they were all, it was all down with, oh, what? I still have like three more left to open and yours are all done, all opened. You little trickster. It's hard to not be competitive when you have two sisters. We're all of similar age. Anyway, yeah, it's great.

it was a great time. I'm really lucky to have the family that I have. I, I just like looking back, Caitlin, I think we have a minute. I just want to know what, what your Christmas Eve look like as, as, as an eight year old, eight year old Caitlin was like a little adult. I feel like because I was an only child. So,

So it was quieter for sure. Um, but my mom and dad always did go all out on Christmas. It took me a half day to open all my gifts. They definitely went over the top. And so Christmas Eve, we always watched, uh, how, how the Grinch stole Christmas. That was the tradition. We always did the leave snacks out for Santa carrots for the reindeer. Uh,

One, for some reason, one of our traditions was always like cheesies. We wouldn't have them in the house normally, but I got all the like brightly colored junk food the night before Christmas. My mom would make the cookies for Santa. I'd have the cookies for Santa. So all that stuff happened. And then it was just, you know, pretending that I was asleep for eight hours when I was just playing ceiling inspector, just ceiling inspector for eight straight hours, waiting until I could, you know, tiptoe downstairs and see what my parents had left out.

It was great. Still great memories, but definitely, you miss the siblings at Christmas, I would imagine. Don't go away. We're going to be talking more about, we're going to be talking about the holidays for the next month. So get ready for it, folks. We're with our very special guest, Julie Van Rosendahl. Don't go away. This is Jan Arden Podcast. Rocking around the Christmas tree, the Christmas tree.

Welcome back. Julie Van Rosendahl is with us today. It's the Jan Arden Podcast. Julie, food is so big this time of year. And I think this year more than ever, it's big.

Thank God, all the box stores are open. All the big grocery chains are open. We don't have, I think a lot of people were concerned with some of the new restrictions that were coming in. How is that going to affect us? Are we going to be able to get our turkey and our toilet paper and all the teas, which is turkey, toilet paper and tea.

Tater tots. Tea. Okay. Tea and tots. So, I mean, there's so many things growing up that are just traditions. I want to hear about Christmas disasters. I want to know if you guys can think in your minds of things that went wrong. I'm just going to give you an example. My mom...

And my grandmother always would like do most of the baking, but my grandmother took the turkey out of the oven one year and it dropped on the floor. Like the whole pan hit the floor and the turkey skidded across the floor like a wet two-year-old child going down like a water park. So we rinsed it off, reseasoned it and then broiled it for two minutes. So it was all fine, but we were all just shocked. Can we still eat a turkey that hit the floor? Anyway, disasters, Christmas disasters, anybody? Yeah.

We've had a few where like there were dental emergencies and like my mom's retina separated one Christmas. That is a good Christmas. That's a Christmas disaster. It was, but I mean, it was, you know, it didn't turn out to be a disaster. It just wasn't what we imagined that particular Christmas to be. So what did your mom do with it? With a disconnected retina? Where do you?

go on Christmas day. You find a, you know, a Jewish ophthalmologist and get it fixed. I don't even, I can't even remember. My parents both have detached, have had several. Oh come on, a little glue, a little gorilla glue. Just like squirt the little crazy glue in your eyeball. No biggie. I could have fixed that. Caitlin, come on. Not every Christmas is perfect. I have

Kevin had what I would call disastrous Christmases that I can recall. One year, my dad's from Prince Edward Island, and he insisted that we drive to PEI for Christmas. And maritime weather in the winter season is not reliable. And this was back before they built the bridge that took you to

Prince Edward Island, and it was the ferries. And I remember we were in a snowstorm racing through, you know, somewhere in rural New Brunswick, trying to make it to the ferry crossing before the last ferry left for the night. How stressful is that?

I can't think of anything less fun. You're like white knuckling it and it's pitch black and all you can see is snow flying at you. And then we just hit taillights and it's the lineup to get on the ferry. And my dad realizes that we are not going to get on this ferry tonight and we have to turn around.

and go into like Moncton or something and, you know, figure out where we're going to stay. And there were no available rooms. And again, this is before hotels.com or like anything to do with, you don't have a computer built into your phone. So what did you do? He literally knocked on my grip, my godfather's door.

And in the middle of the night, and I've never once met my godfather. It was the only time I met him in my life. It's one of my dad's old high school buddies. And he knocks on the door like, hi, it's me. You're a long lost high school friend and his angry wife and single child. And we need somewhere to stay because we missed the ferry. He was a nice guy. He took us in. There was no room at the inn on Christmas Eve? None. Like how much more Christmas Eve? You were born in the, no, you were already born. Yeah.

And I think I will say, I believe this was like the 23rd. I don't think it was like actually Christmas Eve. It was close enough though, that it, you know, it definitely tempered the holiday spirit for, you know, a couple of days because my mom was so irate that this happened the way that it did. And she wanted to fly. She was like, why the hell are we trying to drive to Prince of Ireland? And your parents are no longer together. And that was the beginning of it was that night. Yeah.

And I, but I, so it was entertaining, like good story value. We made it to PEI. It was so good. But yeah. And another year in Toronto, we gave up and said, we actually were also tired that my mom and dad and I, and my boyfriend at the time said, why don't we just not do Christmas? And my boyfriend at the time was Jewish. And he said, yeah, great. And we were like, okay, we're going to do something different. We're going to go to a hotel for their Christmas dinner.

on Christmas day, which we did. We went to the Hazleton Hotel here in Toronto. They do a fabulous Christmas meal. And then we went to go see The Wrestler, which is a very depressing film to see in the holiday season.

But it was kind of fun. Is that Mickey Rourke? It was. It was Mickey Rourke. And his face was starting to look a little different then, I think, at that time. He had done something. Well, you know what? Those are the memories, though, that bind us together. I have another one. I remembered another one. When Willem was in kindergarten, Caitlin, take note of this, he got lice from his Christmas pageant. All the kids were sharing their Santa hats.

And so we were getting all ready to go to my parents' house on Christmas Eve. And my neighbor came down, knocked on the door and was like, oh, you know, just so you know, we have lice. And so sure enough. So we were like banned. My other sister was like, well, if you guys are going, then we're not going. And so, yeah. So I...

I personally have never had lice, so I don't I'm glad that I've never endured that. And I find that hard to believe because I went to such a small kind of a country school where people had chores of feeding farm animals in the morning before they got on the school bus. And we were on top of each other constantly. I mean, we were just wrestling and I don't even know how I survived that.

I want to make sure that I talk to you, Julie, about something that you do that is so special. And I followed your story last year around this time. You do something called a reverse advent calendar. Oh, yeah.

And I wanted to talk about that. Go ahead. You fill in the blank. A reverse advent calendar. Yeah. So it's something that we started. I started with Willow, my son, who's now 15, a long time ago, years ago. I had a couple empty wine boxes in my kitchen, not because I drank all the wine, just total coincidence. Sure, sure, sure. Which are 12...

12, you know, sections each. And I thought, you know, like the advent calendar, he always gets excited about the little chocolate, but I really want to teach him giving the importance of giving and to be thoughtful about giving. And so we did this reverse advent calendar and every day we would put something that we felt, you know, it could be useful to somebody in our community. It could be a pair of socks. It could be some pasta, you know, non-perishable food is a big one. Toothpaste, you

you know, feminine protection, all these things. And it really got him thinking every day for the 24 days leading up to Christmas Eve. And then we had these two boxes that, you know, once we sort of got, got going and got into it, you don't have to drop it off on Christmas Eve. You can save it till January. There's always a need. And especially during that lull, people are super eager about giving at the holidays, but then January, February, March, people are, you know,

not around as much. It all stops. Exactly. It all stops. So save it, you know, put it away, take it to the drop-in center, the food, there's so many agencies and so many groups, schools, take it to your school. There's such a need at schools. You could do snacks. Oh my gosh, I'm getting, I'm going to get all worked up. There's so many ways that you can help. And it's a great way to get kids involved in a really real way, in an affordable way, right? Because it can be

A dollar or two a day. It's not, you don't have to write. So everybody that's listening to this at home, I'm going to be doing this for sure. I'm going to be doing the reverse advent calendar. It's something that you inspired so much. And I wanted to make sure that we spoke about it today. Oh,

So I do have, I don't have wine boxes as per se, but I'm going to do something every day and I'm going to get a little box because everyone's going to have an Amazon box or a packing box or a shoe box. And I thank you so much for reminding me of this. And I'm going to put something in there every day. Whether it's a pair of gloves or a hat or, you know, a bag of something fun to, you know, a bag of little chocolate balls, but to do 12 things.

And, you know, even a bottle of wine, I stopped drinking five years ago. So I have 400 bottles of wine in a wine cellar in my basement and

which my friends love. So everybody, a couple of things from this podcast, the inclusion tree, which would be really lovely to do and a reverse advent calendar. Don't forget to treat yourself. Of course, go get your little advent calendar. They've got so many ones. My, my friends in London have a beer advent calendar. So it's literally this giant fricking thing that they ordered and they drink a beer. They split a beer every day. Like absolutely.

A beer advent calendar. There are wine ones too with those little half bottles of wine. It's a big thing. That's a lot of wine in 24 days. It's a lot of wine. And they're heavy. Half bottles of wine are super heavy. Well, 24 of them. Yeah. What are some other ideas? I mean, you, we got, I know you started getting really very like

intense about kids going to school and the lunches. And once again, we're dealing with a whole high school kids are now taken out in Alberta. So we've got the little guys going up until what sixth or seventh grade. Yeah. So the seven to twelves are doing homeschool starting on Monday. So today's the last day.

And then they don't go back until January 11th. So you've got the last couple of minutes, Julie, I'm going to give to you about what that means for kids that are not getting school lunches, because I think it's important to talk about. So all these thousands and thousands of kids that normally eat at school aren't. Tell me what we can do. Tell me how we can help. In one minute? In two minutes. I think just being conscious that they're out there and that that is a need. There are so many resources that are available to adults that

But for kids, there are a lot of kids who are left to their own devices and who rely on breakfast and lunch programs at school. So that's their connection. You know, that's their support system. So in Calgary and of course across, I mean, and Edmonton, it's Alberta wide. Yeah. And, and across Canada, this is happening with school closures with kids doing school from home. They're disconnected from that source of food. So, I mean, I've been doing little things like I've

all the little free libraries that I go by, I have granola bars in my back of my car and I stuff. I love that. Kids will find food, right? The teachers know where the kids in their communities are. So, you know, even like dropping off gift cards at the school or snacks or, you know, it's just, it's such a big...

it's such a big thing. I also would, I really think it's important that we engage our hospitality industry, our restaurants that are really struggling and starting to go under. I wondered if there was some way we could create some sort of a pay it forward program where, you know, take out restaurants that do take out, you know, pizza or, you know, take up any kind of takeout that are around school. Put their kitchens to use.

Yeah. Yeah. So if you, you know, and we saw that during the flood in 2013, people were giving food trucks, here's a thousand dollars go into bone house and feed people who need to be fed. So the same thing could happen in areas, you know, where they're junior and senior highs. I have a teenager, they're hungry, they're hungry and they're growing. And so some way to start, here's some money that in turn that supports the restaurant, right. The small business. And

You know, have a chip system. I've been mulling on this for the last few days. I wish we could talk about this forever, Julie, and we don't have time. Sorry. That's the end of our program. No, I'm so grateful. Give what you can. Make sure you have your eyes wide open and drop a whole bunch of granola bars off at your little local...

library box or at a school. Anyway, you've been listening to the Jan Art Podcast. I've been here with Julie Van Rosendahl, Caitlin and Adam. Thank you so much. We're going to be talking about the holidays for the next month. So don't go and, you know, listen to be somebody else. Just stick with us. We'll see you next week. Totally do. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.