Couple Things with Shawn and Andrew - 244 | your strange family traditions

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

We absolutely had to make a part two of this “Weirdest Family Traditions” episode because we had such a blast recording part 1! Seriously you guys, getting to read through your family’s weirdest traditions for each holiday made us SO incredibly happy and honestly inspired us to introduce a few new traditions into our own family this year! Let us know in the comments if you plan to incorporate any of the traditions from part 1 or part 2 into any upcoming holidays :)  Love you guys, Shawn & Andrew Subscribe to our newsletter  ▶ https://www.familymade.com/newsletter Follow our podcast Instagram  ▶ https://www.instagram.com/shawnandandrewpods/ Follow My Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/ShawnJohnson Follow My Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@shawnjohnson Shop My LTK Page ▶ https://www.shopltk.com/explore/shawnjohnson  Like the Facebook page! ▶ https://www.facebook.com/ShawnJohnson Follow Andrew’s Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/AndrewDEast Andrew’s Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewdeast?lang=en Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up, everybody? Welcome back to a couple things. With Sean and Andrew. Today we're going to finish off the weirdest family traditions, which is also a weird first part episode. It was hilarious. We did part one a couple weeks ago. It had so much fun that we wanted to do a part two because we still had, I don't know, several dozens of submitted family traditions that we didn't get to. And the first ones that we ran through, I mean, we giggled like we hadn't giggled before. So if you hadn't listened to that, then we'll link it down below. Go check that out.

this is part two to that but a lot's happened since we sat down and recorded a podcast yeah christmas happened new year happened all the holiday break happened all the holiday the long year long holiday break i say that jokingly let me start by saying it was such a blessing to be able to have three straight weeks with our kids so much fun um and that three straight weeks was like just us five pretty much who went to indie for a week and got to celebrate with the family and then the rest of the time was spent at home with just us and our kids and we did so many activities but it was absolutely freezing outside so we couldn't be outside yeah there weren't like feet of snow to play in so it was kind of just like cold and cold I think it's good for everybody to have

something new to do after the last three weeks for sure but it is comical how drew every single day was like when am I going back to school she I want to go back to school can I please go to school I was like a home baby love school two weeks left uh our kids usually stay pretty busy they have school they have several events and extracurriculars that are in granted they're only five three and one but they have a lot of things they like doing and they have so much energy and they thrive when they go out and do something and for the last three weeks the normal routine of all that has halted so we were at home and what's really fun about having kids that you don't experience until you do have them, I think, is like you're sitting there

and the kid has a lot of energy. Yeah. You know? And you might not feel like doing anything. Yeah. But by golly, you better find something to do for that kid. Yeah. That's kind of how I feel.

So we did the Science Center. We did Monster Jam, went to an ice skating rink. Yep. We did gymnastics gyms just to like run around. Yeah. We did SkyZone. we did a lot you find stuff to do and then all of a sudden you're doing way more things that you otherwise wouldn't be doing like we have experienced and explored so many different parts of

Nashville that if we didn't have kids we'd probably just be like hanging out at home you know so it's fun I also want to say something that has rubbed off on to Drew and Jett which I think is really sweet I think during the holidays we just are around less people even though we're still around like a lot of people because it's family but it's been funny we always do pasta nights on saturdays and we always invite friends over and multiple friends and friend groups come to our house throughout the week it's just kind of like how our lifestyle is the amount of times drew said can we invite uncle dave over tonight or can we invite friends over tonight for dinner can we have the lip men's over i was like you're missing people yeah she's so sure you're used to so many people

in our house. Yeah. Like you're missing that aspect. Yeah, that's the other thing. With the holiday break, everyone's going somewhere where the normal crew is like dispersed.

It's fun stuff. But I also am so thankful that we got a piece of advice with our first kid that I think about often still five years later that you shouldn't try to multitask.

And the way I applied that to this past three weeks is like, it takes a little bit are trend just and into this. But understanding that like, okay, this is holiday break, not only is this such a rare time in the year, such a rare time in our life to have kids at such a precious age to spend time with, but it's like I, it would totally drive me crazy if I'm trying to be productive and still do some work or chip away at the dissertation

and be with the kids, you know what I'm saying, with without them being gone doing some activity. it was like a nice reminder of me to not multitask just be present be with the kids enjoy this little phase that we're in but now we're kind of working our way out of that you know so yeah remember when mallory told us that I do don't try to do two things at once you got to you're either full on parenting or you're full on working and you got to separate yeah it's a good way to delineate a couple of other things real quick we have officially started the like kindergarten assessment process who had our first kindergarten assessment this morning.

We have narrowed it down to three schools in Nashville. We definitely have favorites. I can't tell you who they are. But it was really sweet to see her kind of like take a new step today. And she was so nervous, but she came out of her assessment, which is two hours long,

which is wild. That's even a thing. For a five-year-old. She came out, like, jazzed. super jazz with so much sass and had so much fun but that was cool as he also ander just started last night a 96 hour fast that's right doing a 96 hour fast that's four days for all of us trying to do the math right now i find myself getting talked into doing these challenges you say yes to all of them uh but i do like experimenting you know yeah and i think that's what

that's part of the thing that's part of what i love about what we do sorry if if i if I'm all disheveled is because I'm doing this fast. So I'm way off. Have you drank any bone broth yet? No, not yet. That's smart. Okay. So I find myself doing these challenges, but I love the experimentation of it all. And what I love

about what we get to do is like pretty much whether it's a product or a place or a experience of some other sort, we could experiment all the stuff and then decide hey, this is worth trying. This isn't worth trying. Here's why. Here's why not. So this is

one of those things you know our church is doing a fast this one day that's that's big time 21 day fast we're only doing four days the rules are you get water coffee and one cup of bone broth do you don't get electrolytes that you said you got electrolytes in emergency it's preferred not you know so it's like if you work out it's kind of like a reward is how I understand it so anyway But I'm doing a nice six hour of fact. I'll let you know how it goes. But if I feel mellow during this episode, now you know why. You don't seem me to me.

Thanks. I hit a peak of energy like 12 hours into the thing, and now I'm coming down off it. So I definitely feel it a little bit. But we got three days to go. Yeah. Good luck to me. To all of us. I might be taking lots of naps, but we shall see.

Okay. Let's jump into it. Let's do the episode. So just to revisit part one, some of our favorite things were. the Easter Bunny bringing gifts on Christmas. I like that one. Comical. Making the new significant other stand up

and state their intentions to the broader family or read an inappropriate silly book. That's pretty funny. Dude. Or. Barbara's, what is the name of the book? Barber's Bush needs a whack. That's awful.

Oh my gosh. And then lastly, one of our other favorites was a themed Christmas dinner, like Tex-Mex, Martha, and Snoop Dog, however they want to deem it. But we have 31 new ones for you. Yes. So buckle up.

Here we go. Rachel says that each person of her family opens one gift an hour until we run out on Christmas Day. We get to spend time actually enjoying each individual gift before moving on. That sounds awful. One gift an hour. You obviously don't have toddlers. Hold on. I kind of get it.

It's better than every. Okay, so there's some people we know that they open gifts. gets one at a time. That was my family. That seems worse than this, actually. Because if everyone gets one an hour, you go around, you open it up, and then you get an hour to play with it, you know? Yeah, but think about kids.

It's just, it is unreasonable at this phase of life, I feel like. Good for you. You got the next one? Karen, every Thanksgiving Eve, our entire family goes to White Castle for hamburgers. I dig it. I call it the annual Colin Flames. Ouch. Thank you.

Actually, one of our cousins, every year for Thanksgiving, makes a White Castle stuffing. Stuffing. It's actually pretty good. They go to White Castle. They order a ton of hamburgers. They chop them up really, really fine and make it into a stuffing. I'm curious if anybody listening, if your favorite fast food restaurant is White Castle, it doesn't get a lot of love in that list, you know? It's not mine.

Shake Shack gets a lot of love, I feel like Wendy's would be mine. No, Wendy's gets love from you. Anyway, what about White Castle? What about White Castle? And by the way, if you're listening to this and you don't have a funny, silly, really branded family tradition, start your own.

No, but start your own. I mean, because it's fun. It really is fun when you get everybody to buy in and it becomes a thing. It's really fun. Okay, next. Taylor says, for Christmas, we do American Idol. We randomly draw teams and judges.

then each team has 10 minutes to rehearse an assigned Christmas song and perform it for everyone using whatever props they could find around the house. Judges score on participation, creativity, and overall performance. I love that. That's great.

I love that. Yep. Audrey says every time our family goes on a camping trip or travels across the country, we always play Willie Nelson's song on the road again. We listen to it on the way back home too. Even if we're driving and stop several times along the way, it's the first song we play when we're back in the car.

And if we are split in the car, into two vehicles, we'll play it over a walkie-talkie. Oh, that's great. The kids love it. The commitment to that. I like it. It's a small thing, but the commitment to it is big. Camille says, we always got a tin of sardines in our stocking growing up.

My dad loved sardines and would hide them so as six kids wouldn't get into them. And because he treated them as such a rare treat, we all wanted to eat them. So at Christmas, we would each get one tin of our very own sardines. Our house would smell awful for days, but we loved it. That's gross. Wow. how often sardines are in caesar salads right or no those are anchovies anchovies also a small fish right i think they look very similar i don't know how often i've had sardines all i can remember is i had this aunt

kathy who god bless her soul was so sweet but she was like a hoarder and everybody knew this like chronic order and every family gathering that we like went to she would always bring pickled herring which was like

kind of like in the sardine anchovy family but pickled and it was always in like this plastic jar that she got from behind the counter and so it just kind of tarnished that whole group of foods for me

Oh, funny. We'd always get some sort of, like, miniature cat calendar for Christmas, you know? Interesting. I like it. Yeah. Huh. Let's try sardines. Maybe they're worth trying.

Aaron says, on our birthday, we go through a spanking machine where the birthday person would have to crawl through everyone's legs who are standing in a line while they got spanked on their butt. You try to crawl as fast as possible. I now think it's so bizarre. Yeah, that feels bizarre. Yeah. That feels bizarre. How long do we do this for? To what age?

And like who all is spanking you? Oh man, it's great. Tammy says every Christmas Eve we get together and have chili and we make a birthday cake for Jesus. We sing happy birthday and even blow out candles. Our grandparents started this tradition when we were young and we have continued it as adults with our children. I actually love this because the night before Christmas, our kids said we have to sing happy birthday

to Jesus in the morning Yeah they were into it Yeah I like the candles for Jesus I also like the chili cook-up That's why I like Wendy's the most We made chili really close to Christmas You're chili? Babe, did you share that recipe? No, it's my mom's show.

Oh my gosh, it was so good I can't take credit It is my mom's chili I want that again now that we're talking about it Great, I can make it for you No, we can't talk about food right now The fat, it's crushing me Okay, so

Babe, you need some more Jesus Tap into Jesus, okay? But I will say the chili thing is interesting. Chili seems to have like a real devoted following because, you know, Uncle Don does a chili cook-off. I know, but chili, some people call things chili that are not chili. What do you mean?

People have different definitions of what chili is. Some chili is like sloppy Joe's, and then some is like bone broth. Like on what spectrum are we considering it chili? if it has chili powder why are you why are you trying to isolate chili to one little definition baby

because I just it's interesting your chili doesn't have to be my type of chili okay but it is because it's chili which is what what's the viscosity number that you're looking for the resistance

like a four okay like a heavy four so pretty thin, though. No. But you like a good amount of chunky beef? It can't be a sloppy Joe.

It can't be sloppy Joe meat. You know, like... You're talking about... Yeah. When it's more like creamy almost. When you can like ladle it and it's like a... Like you got to give it a little... It's like of the wrist to get it out of the ladle.

That's not chilly. You know, okay, we haven't done a food tasting in a while. What once have we done? The wine tasting, the brownie tasting, the... Pancakes. the waffle off. We did brownies. We've done popcorn.

Yes, popcorn. We should do a chili off. We did a chicken sandwich. We have a gift of skyline chili. We can't do a chili off because we're not just going to make all pre-made chilies. Like, chili is such a homemade-style thing. Let's do a pre-made chili cook-off.

Gross. Why? Nobody should be buying pre-made chili. What do you mean? You make chili It's like I'm not eating chili out of a can I'll tell you that

You've never eaten chili out of a can No What is we're talking beans in a can Have you ever had beans? They're in a can That's not chili Andrew Just because you put it next to something else

It totally changes I'm not eating can't What about? No, I don't know I was ready to move on But now I want to double down here What's wrong with frozen chili? Because chili is a labor of love

It's like an expression of your family okay chili is like chili is a recipe it's not something pre-made you're saying you're saying part of the chili experience is the ancestral history that goes into getting that chili right in there pretty much that's really interesting exchanging of chili recipes is like a sacred thing I'm not just I'm not thawing out a frozen hunk of something and calling a chili do you feel this way about any other food groups I kind of might, I might. I'm trying to think.

We have put together a... Oh, like a roast. What, I don't even know what a roast is when he said like that. I don't think you could freeze it. Oh, you're saying like with the carrots on the side of a piece of meat? Like that takes... Yeah. Interesting.

That was an interesting. Anyway, thank you for that. Allie says, my extended family does random family photos every holiday with people from different immediate family members looking like a family in hopes to confuse future generations about who belongs to what family it's hilarious wow that's a deep practical joke that is that is one that no one that no i feel really bad for whoever marries into your family oh my gosh that's playing the long game because you know what marrying into a very large family coming from experience where i'm still trying to study names and like lines

that would have just effed me up. Wow. That really is strategic. That is hilarious. Claudia says Santa always gets a shot of whiskey left out with his milk. My dad always said it would help keep Santa warm. Also, every Christmas we have chocolate pudding and biscuits for breakfast. Only on Christmas morning, and we love it.

When we take the kids out to leave reindeer food, we also look in the sky and wait for a plane to go overhead and point out that it's Santa, because the lights are red and green. That's good, I like it. I don't know if I like the Santa drink and whiskey. Why? Because it's Santa. Santa's pure. Have you seen the movies about Santa recently?

I love it. They always have, like, rough edges on the guy, you know? Whether it be in Red One, the guy just being a meathead Santa, you know? Because he burns, what is it, 13 million calories in one night? Yeah. Yeah, he also has, like, this dark, adopted brother. I love it. Anyway. Tiffany says every family member on my mom's side sings this extra chorus after the end of singing someone at the happy birthday song. They sing sin and sorrow in the air, people dying everywhere. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Wow. My grandpa started it and we all just thought it was normal. I didn't realize how creepy and morbid it was until I had kids and sang it and they ran scared. Sin and sorrow in the air. People dying everywhere? Good. Heaven. Yeah, that is. It's pretty grim.

When you're saying that to like a three-year-old, it feels a little weird. We did, what was the, what was the end of? And on channel two, what is that? Yeah, I don't know. It's been so long. This is a dark twist. But imagine me ended a five-year-old's party and. Sin and sorrow everywhere, people die.

Okay, Jen said my grandma was widowed at a young age. After my grandfather passed away, Christmas tradition began that my grandma wouldn't open her own stocking in the morning but would wait until midday when a lot of family was around she would climb the wooden hill the stairs and go to bed everyone sometimes 15 of us would go upstairs saying we wish you merry christmas and wake her up to open her stocking together this happened every year of my childhood and now well into my adulthood my grandma is now 93 wow that's really sweet and sad that's great 93 that's a good age that is you look teary-eyed from that Megan said No, no, I'm good.

But if we made it to 93, that'd be a good run. Megan says, and my grandparents, every Christmas Eve in Iowa, we did fireworks. The whole works from big explosives to sparklers. A core memory is one year when I was about five. My mitten caught on fire from a sparkler. My grandma was the absolute best, and we did fireworks no matter how cold it was. Wow.

Wow. I went through a big fireworks phase. I'm not in it right now. Maybe because we go to bed at 8 o'clock, you know. And it wakes our kids up and stuff. We're still in the, please help our kids sleep phase. I feel like we should get out of that phase, by the way. Speaking of this, not we have fireworks on the table.

I feel like some things are worth not sleeping for, you know. For sure, and we do that. Are fireworks one of those for you? Up until about this year, our kids have been, terrified of them and they've needed to sleep. Are they terrified, though, because they haven't been exposed to it? Do you have an existential crisis right now?

How did that? We have had babies up until this year. You're right. You're right. You act like we've missed out on a crucial part of life. No, but it's, you know, what it represents. Are there other things like firework? No. I think we're just now getting into a phase of

kids staying up later. I'm down for that. All I'm trying to say is making the bedtime the highest priority I think does have a sunset period to it absolutely then we're aligned other than we can move on you know let's just not sit here for I'll punch you okay Allison said our family has

the great gobble at Thanksgiving my father-in-law started the gobble nobody knows what he's going to start and then everyone 45 plus people have have to join in and gobble and he occasionally called people out who weren't enthusiastic enough and made them solo gobble. Solo gobble. Oh, so like the Great Gobble is like everyone gobbling together. Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble.

Interesting. I like the Great Gobble. Okay. Here, look, look, look, all right, so in the book, The Ancient Generation, this guy, it's not a Christian book, but he talks about the benefits of a group doing a thing, like you do at church, whenever one's singing the same song, or doing the Great Gobble is another example. You want people bought it? It is a bonding experience.

Yeah. Like it physiologically brings the group closer together. Sure does. So whether it's a great gob or whatever else, do it. Lauren says we created a family holiday called First Frost Frozen Pizza Frenzy, where every year the first time the snow sticks to the ground, we get together and eat gourmet frozen pizzas that we wouldn't normally buy at an impromptu reason to get together and hang out.

It's just a fun way to get our family together that is determined by factors outside of our busy day-to-day lives. I love that. We've kept the name since my brothers and I came up with the idea in high school. We have somehow managed to keep it going for 14 years so far. I love that one. I like that a lot. I like the heart behind it.

I also want to do a frozen pizza taste test. Yes. You up for that? I feel like you're just hungry. No, but, yeah, maybe, maybe. Think about the Dejorno stuff crushed. Dejono Thick. Then you have like the classic Jack's pizza that is like $2 a pizza.

Then you have Red Baron. I can just riff off all these pizza brands. I had no idea. What pizza brands do you have, Whitting in the Fold? Huh? Dejorno. That's all I got. Delicious.

Delicious dessert. I didn't come from a big frozen pizza family. That's wild to me. Ladies out there, listen up. I used to have the hardest time finding bras and underwear that are both cute and good quality. So if that's you, I get it. I would spend forever trying on bras in one store and then have to get my underwear somewhere else. But not since I started wearing skims.

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running around with my kids or going to an event. It is the best. You guys, shop skims, best intimates including the fits everybody collection. Just type that in. Anything in the fits everybody collection is incredible and shop more of it at skims.com. After you place your order, be sure to let them know, we send you. Select podcast in the survey and be sure to select our show in the drop-down menu that follows. On the eve of every holiday, my husband and I tell our kids are ridiculous. holiday-related bedtime story, but using the voices that we give our dogs and tell from our dog's point of view.

For example, this year for Thanksgiving, we told the story of how our dogs, Tebow and Brady, got lost in a forest as they hunted for the perfect turkey. They couldn't find one, so they disguised themselves as humans and got KFC chicken instead. I don't remember what started it at all,

but we do this for every holiday and the kids love it. First of all, sounds like a couple of football fans there. Tebow and Brady being your dog's name. Second of all, let me, let's each try to do the dog voice that they're talking about. You go first. Give it your best stuff.

I didn't sign up for them. The voices that we give our dogs from our dog. Well, I don't know. My name is Tebow. You think that's what they're doing? I think that's what they're doing. I think they're just envisioning what human voice does your dog have. Okay.

What's Tebow's voice? I don't know. an English accent English being British Yeah interesting Can you give it a go? Nope

Come on All right Sarah says that Easter Our family always does a pinata With our egg hunt My grandparents would bring an Easter theme pinata back from Mexico every spring

Even though they've both passed away My parents have continued the tradition Isn't that cool? You know what you're doing every time you're doing the pinata at Easter. You're thinking about your grandparents. That's freaking right. Next.

We have a framed photo of actor Steve. Bashimi? Who is that? On our mantle every Christmas. Our young teenager won it. Okay. So, you're curious. At a youth group,

White Elephant Party years ago. And Steve has been part of our Christmas decor ever since. That guy. Wow. The guy from, what movie is he in? Isn't you in Home Alone? No. Always a conversation piece.

Some people who don't recognize and think it's a memorial photo for a long lost uncle. That's funny. Oh, he's a Mr. Deeds. Yeah. Funny. That is a random pick, but I like it. Oh, you know what else? What tasting thing you've done?

You did eggnog this Christmas. Oh, that's right. That's right. Also, we did so many things this Christmas in honor of your dad. Not really in honor, but like because he started it, it's now a part of the family, and we're doing it ever since. Yeah. Thanks for bringing up food again. It means a lot.

But what she says about Steve always being a conversation piece or the picture of him on the mantle, I like that too, you know? Because say you're like hosting somebody or looking around your house, trying to find, maybe you've already exhausted all a conversation point,

and you're like, hey, what's that picture of that actor? It's something you're really good at. It's something I am not. Random things? Just exhausting, like, no matter what, finding something to talk about? It's a fun adventure in my mind. I don't know if I'm good at it,

but my strategy is, not that you asked, throw everything at the wall, see what sticks, and then once you find something that, like, kind of, not gets a reaction, but sparks a little something in the other person, then you double down. You walk down that trail, and then maybe that leads to another trail, and the next thing you know,

you have a real full-blown conversation going on there. That's why I like to host, because I can keep myself busy. that's like a that's very great gatsby of you yeah all right haley says my family chugs a drink of choice out of a wine decanter for time the fastest person gets bragging rights this is normally done at christmas oh a wine decanter is a tough thing to chug yeah but kudos to you i would win by the way i am i have a couple random talents one is i could pee on demand we used to take urine tests for football all the time, and I could do it immediately upon request.

Interesting, man. In front of other people, which is a weird. You should be so proud. There are some guys in the locker room who they'd have to sit there for hours, and they'd chug as much liquid as a kid. One of my talents is peeing in front of people. Another one, I feel like I get arrested for that. Another one is I can really, I've only lost one chugging contest to Josh.

Ax? No. No. No. But I'm pretty much under, I'm other than that. Yes. Yeah, he crushed me. Anyway, you're next. You got Dylan. Dylan says, we always pick our Christmas tree in the dark. We go around sunset and cut our tree down at Christmas tree farm. It's fun because we don't really know what we truly got until the next morning. Sometimes we get really good trees and other times bad Charlie Brown ones or some are just missing a whole side to them. I like it. I like that a lot. Yeah, that's fun. That's fun. Because some people really stress out about finding the perfect Christmas tree. Yeah. McKenzie says this episode is going to get me in my feels. My grandma Nancy would always gather up to kids and we'd hurt huddle.

Starting Thanksgiving night, we'd all put our hands in and wiggle our fingers and say, Christmas is coming. Christmas is coming. Maybe five times. Sounds simple, but it always made me so excited for Christmas and all it brought. I have so many cousins, so it'd be pretty crowded. I like that one. That's cute.

Molly says We throw bread rolls At each other on Thanksgiving Nobody is allowed to hand someone bread It has to be thrown Nothing like being pelted with a crescent roll As a kid Fantastic I like it

That's great Stacey says We all get sloshed on Christmas Eve And watch Jim Carries the Gritch Oh my Lauren says after singing Happy Birthday The birthday

Or girl gets their face Absolutely smashed in the cake Everyone chants smash his or her face Season his or her face We had to start getting two cakes One to smash and one to eat We've had incidents like smashing someone's face In the still-lit candles

In full-on food bites Wow, that sounds precarious I'm here for it Tara says for Thanksgiving We throw hedge apples Here's a link You know what a hedge apple is That's like the little

Green chunky things Let me show a picture here here we go a hedge apple that guy we have a ton of us it's like a crab apple kind of kind of is what people get okay uh they throw those hedge apples at a pile of trash champagne bottle plastic plates cans etc that we set up outside my dad will play the national anthem on his phone before we start and then the littlest kid throws first we may be the only family in the world does this but back in 2020 when we couldn't get together in person my mom I'm actually mailed each family one hedge apple to keep the tradition going.

That's cute. It doesn't make any sense, but it's cute that she mailed hedge apples. Yeah, that's great. The National Anthem's a good touch, too. It doesn't make any sense. But, yeah. Peyton says, my family is super competitive. So for Christmas, we win presents by playing games.

Each year, we play approximately five to six games, and the winner of each game gets to pick a gift. My aunt, the host, purchases these gifts, and she notes which gifts are more for women. men or gender neutral. Ultimately, this makes for fun memories and takes the pressure off of gift giving. Some presents in the past have included lottery scratchers, gift cards, nice shampoo, dishware, wine, etc. I like that. We have a friend who loves gifting lottery scratchers.

Walker. Yeah. Loves it. I will say we have started redefining and doing the gift giving process in our family as well. We've now done an Andrews' extended. family like on his side where we have so many people we throw all of the adults in a hat and you pull one name and it's usually kind of a surprise but kind of not but that one person you get you get one gift yeah and then we do it for the kids as well so all the kids go in a hat each kid pulls

one so each kid gets one gift and then grandma is allowed to get another gift for each kid it's nice it makes a whole shopping experience way less overwhelming. Yeah. Audrey says since my husband and I started dating anytime we had a fortune cookie with Chinese food, we would eat the whole cookie first, including swallowing it,

before we would peak at the fortune. We've been married for 18 years and we still do this. Funny. I like it. I thought you meant eat the paper too. Yeah, that's what I thought too. Ronnie says when my oldest child began to lose interest in Easter egg hunts, we added the Egg Olympics, a series of games

in the backyard, done in pairs with the goal of not breaking your team egg. That's great. The Egg Olympics. The Egg Olympics. We do an egg hunt. We used to do at your grandma's house where they would put the golden egg. They would hide it somewhere. Yeah.

And then the golden egg was like a bunch of cash. But the adults would always, were the ones who would like run out and try to find it. Yeah, it's pretty good times. We should start that up again. We should. Carly says for Christmas, my grandparents always gift every. new underwear when you open your gift you have to open the new pack of underwear put a pair on your head and wear them until everyone has opened theirs then we all take a picture together with

the underwear on our head i used to think all families did this growing up until i got older and talked about it and got weird looks from people interesting just says leapier always means ice cream for dinner if it is february 29th we go out for dinner to an ice cream shop that's fun i like that is leap year leap year is this year i think is it this year i think so you want to start it here let's see when's the next leap year is it every other year 2028 sorry oh wow how many years go in between uh four no wait eight it said january 20th January 2020 January 2020 January 20 28 wow but it's always in February is when you adjust? Okay. Anyway. Jenna says over 20 years ago, my aunt and uncle started the traveling fruitcake tradition. The fruitcake starts it to venture the day after Thanksgiving

and the person who has a fruitcake at midnight on Christmas Eve has to keep it until the following year. What? You don't want to get stuck with the fruitcake. We've had many creative ways to sneak the fruitcake into someone's house, purse, car, etc. I love the memory of my aunt showing up to my grandma's house on Christmas Eve for dinner. She gave my grandma a beautiful centerpiece. for the table with a candle in it. She stands up and lifts up the candle and out comes the fruitcake. My aunt had carved out the middle

of the candle to hide the fruitcake in it. Wow. We have so many fun memories like this of driving around trying to get rid of it by midnight. That's funny. I like that. It's a game. It is a game. And it makes you see each other too. Yeah.

Allie says the first night it snows during the winter my husband and I go outside after the kids are in bed and stand in the middle of the yard with wine and watch the snowfall. We live in a pretty wooded area so the quiet snow falling seems magical. Sounds like a hallmark movie. That's great.

Wow. All right, that's all of them. Thank. Really good family traditions in there. I love it. I just love, even though they're so weird and most of them don't make any sense, like when the mom was mailing hedge apples

across the country to people, it's just to wait to one feel thought of to feel included and to truly just like be reminded that you're a family and as quirky as it is and however weird your traditions are it makes you a family

yeah it's a shared experience that cannot be replicated and then it has all these associated memories with it pretty good we are thankful for all of you who submitted your family traditions If you don't follow us on socials, then you can check us out everywhere at Sean Johnson, Andrew East.

Also, if you have not subscribed to our newsletter, it comes out every week, and there's some really good helpful tips, some fun ideas, and also some more thought starters for you and your family. So anyway, thank you for watching. Thank you for participating. And if you don't have a family tradition, go start one. That's all we got. I'm Andrew. I'm Sean. We'll see you next time.