Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel Cruze and George Kamel - Mariah, Dolly, Darlene, Lindsay and the "Christmas Queen" Controversy

Episode Date: December 22, 2022

Are Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” royalties enough to crown her Little Miss Queen of Christmas? Rachel and George check out the competition and decide for themselves who the real winner is. 👸🎄💰 In This Episode:   ·     A candid comparison of the iconic divas out here making major Christmas cash ·     The Dolly Parton merch that left Rachel and George speechless ·     The unlikely starlet that made Rachel’s prayer list Helpful Resources:   ·     Be entered to win a $100 Visa gift card when you take our listener survey: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7014625/cf367876c335 ·     Do you have a Guilty As Charged question for Rachel and George? Send a DM to @rachelcruze or @georgekamel on Instagram! Be sure to type “GUILTY?” at the top of your message so we don’t miss it.   ·      Get your finances organized, make a plan, build up your confidence, and kick money stress out of your life for good with the EveryDollar budgeting app. Click here to get started today! ·     Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices ·     Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy   This Week’s Happy Hour Special:    Peppermint Martini 🍸   1 ounce peppermint schnapps 1/2 ounce vodka 1 1/2 ounces crème de cacao 1 1/2 ounces heavy cream Peppermint candies (optional)   Want the freshest happy hour breath of your life? Rim your glass with peppermint! 👉 Finely crush a handful of peppermint candies and spread evenly on a plate. Wet the rim of a martini glass with water. Set the glass top-down on the crushed candy and rotate until fully coated.   Now for the drink! Add peppermint schnapps, vodka, crème de cacao and heavy cream to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until frosty. Strain into your candy-rimmed glass and go find some mistletoe. 😉 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys, I'm Rachel Cruz. I'm George Camel. And this is Smart Money Happy Hour. That was nice. That was nice. This is the show. We're two friends who happen to be money experts hang out and talk about what you're talking about, pop culture, current events, and money.

I wanted to say, this is the show that never. But it will end as soon as we're done with this drink, Rachel. That's exactly right. Which we'll go fast because it is a really good one today. And today is obviously all about Christmas. And we have a Christmas-themed drink to celebrate. It's a peppermint martini. It is absolutely delicious.

And we are focusing this Christmas episode on the queen of Christmas. Or is she? Mariah Carey. This is a dramatic episode. What is going to happen? She's a pop diva. She has the number one theme song of all of Christmas. It is debatable.

It is the theme song of Christmas. That's fair. We're going to break down an estimate of how much the pop diva rakes in every Christmas, mostly thanks to this song. And we are going to make ourselves de facto judges of the culturally critical Queen of Christmas pageant. That's right, Rachel. We are a pageant. Are we a pageant? Are we like...

We are the judges. They will be verdicts. Oh, my gosh. They will be gavels. I was saying like a pageant judges. Oh, that's very different. We sit there in like a tux and a long gown. I once had to film one of those pageants. It was miserable.

It was part of my college. Wait, really? Yeah. Miss University of Mobile. The event of the year in Mobile, Alabama. She got crowned. Queen of Mobile, and we're about to crown Queen of Christmas.

Wow, which one's more important? Well, let's see. Let's get festive. We're going to give you the cost of our drink here and give you our rating at the end of the episode, so stick around. All right, let's get festive, George. I mean, this martini is fantastic.

Anything peppermint, I'm four. You're here for it. Okay, so Mariah Carey is back as the unofficial queen of Christmas. Yeah, unofficial. Did you hear that, George? I did, and here's why it's unofficial last month. in November, Mariah was denied her petition to trademark the title,

Queen of Christmas and make it her official brand. She's got a company called Lotion LLC. Very interesting. That's a weird name. And they wanted to use Queen of Christmas, in quotes, in other terms like Princess Christmas, for a product line that included fragrances and makeup and clothing and jewelry and dog accessories.

I mean, why dog accessories? Why queen? Could you imagine going to trademark your name, Queen of Christmas? Well, first of all, are you the princess or you're the queen? Choose. Choose a role. Yeah. You don't get to be both.

Mariah. We love you, but let's not be greedy. Number two, I don't need like peppermint mocha-flavored poop scoop bags. I just don't need that in my life right now. Oh, man. Mariah. Well, again, the trademark is, it was a little bit controversial. I thought she thought she had it in the bag.

She was like, oh, we got this. And she did not, in fact, got this. No, she didn't. So let's talk about who. possibly deserves the crown more than Mariah. You ready? And we're going to get into the drama of why she didn't get the trademark as well. Yes, yes. You got to wait until the end of the podcast. Dun, done, done for that. That was not a very fulfilling done, done, done, done. You didn't sell it. Dun, done, done. No, it's done, done, it's got out the un. Anyways, contestant number one,

come right up, it's Darlene Love. Who? Never heard of her. We're not sure who this is. But we're about to find out who she is, Rachel. So she's a rock and roll hall of famer, Grammy winner. Wow. Seng a backup for Elvis and his historic NBC special in 1968. You know what her contribution to Christmas is? I do now. Christmas.

Baby, please come home. Sing it, Rachel. I know. I want to so bad. I just can't sing. We won't use it. Just try. You go.

You have to try. No, I can't. I can't even. Now I want to know. Because my thing is I can't laugh. We've talked about that. I physically cannot laugh. Like if it can't verbally.

Sing it, George. I'm going to sip on this. They're singing deck the halls, but it's not like Christmas at all. Yes, George. Anyways. You're supposed to finish it, Rachel. I know, I can't. It's like my worst fear ever.

Put a mic in front of me sing, like American Isle gives me sweats. I can't do it. Oh, wow. Can't do it. Okay. But I'll do a lot more. I can give you the top three budgeting facts of the year. Nobody that's the worst Christmas ever.

Why would you do that? I don't know. Well, this is a close. classic song. I would say it's in my top three Christmas songs. It's really good. And covered by a lot of artists, including get this, the quote unquote queen of Christmas herself, Mariah, covered it. Oh, wow. Okay, now, here's the tension point. Can we say this? Can I just go right to it? Right here. Here are her thoughts on Mariah trying to get this trademark. Okay. Okay, because Darlene's still alive. She's 81. Yep. So David Letterman, she, this is what she said.

David Letterman officially declared me the queen of Christmas 29 years ago, a year before Mariah released all I want for Christmas is you. And at 81 years old of age, I am not changing anything. I have been in the business for 52 years, and I have earned it, and I can still hit those notes. Shots have been fired. What is happening?

She's feisty. Oh, I love this so much. I probably will be like that shoe at 81. Just feisty? Yeah. I mean, just, just, just, she's probably looking at this young whippersnapper, Mariah, who probably, I don't know, is probably in her like 50s by now. I have no idea, no context for how old she is. But I love that she came at her saying, I can still hit those notes, because she's implying that

Mariah can't. I know. So her song again, Christmas, Baby Please Come Home, came out in 1963, didn't hit the Billboard Hot 100 until 2018. Wow. The highest that ever got was number 16. but all I want for Christmas is you made it to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, three years running.

Dang. So, I mean, I hate to say it. All right. What's your verdict on this? I mean, I think Mariah takes Darlene in this comparison. Are we comparing Queens? As far as relevance in today's world, I know. I think we can all agree that the torch has been passed and Darlene ran so that Mariah could sprint.

Would you agree? Would you agree with that? I think she could be like the Christmas like grandmother. You know? Yes, let's give her that. You know. The Christmas. The Queen Mother.

Fine. I don't know if that's a thing. The mother of the queen? Is that not the grandmother? The Queen Mother. I guess that's, no, okay, never mind. It fell apart. I don't know.

Contestant number two, come right up. It's the legendary. Dolly Parton. I mean, the question is, who is she? The Tennessee legend. We don't need to say who she is. No explanation needed. She's one of my top, like,

three to meet in life. Wow. I wonder who the other two are. I think Dolly's amazing. Hmm. A president. A sitting president. And please some of the third one is like a reality star.

It's one of the real housewives. I'm going to go Elsie from Laguna Beach because I've been binging it on a flip. Oh gosh. That's sad. All right. It's off the cuff. That's offensive to Dolly that she's on the same top three list. Anyways.

So sorry, Dolly. So what is Dolly's contribution to Christmas? So Dolly brings the quantity to Christmas. She has three Christmas albums and at least six Christmas TV movies. At least. So some example albums. Once Upon a Christmas with Kenny Rogers,

a Holly Dolly Christmas, and some movies Christmas at Dollywood and a smoky mountain Christmas, a mountain magic Christmas. A lot of mountains are involved. Wow, because she's from the mountains. We love Dolly. Okay, so, okay, let's get to the dirt.

Okay, she was asked about Mariah. I love that everyone's being like, what's your take on the Mariah drama? I know, I love it. Okay, better homes and gardens in October. Asking the hard-hitting questions. This is a great source. It says, here's, I just love Dolly. Are you ready for this quote? I'm not going to compete with Mariah. I love her. You think of Christmas, you think of Mariah.

I'm happy to be second in line to her. Wow. What a heart of gold. The humility. Dolly, the audacity. That's why Dolly could be Queen of Christmas. Her generosity, her graciousness. That's a legacy. Talk about a legacy. Dolly, you're unbelievable. That was like just taking the high road to the level that I'm like, she wins. Should Dolly hang out with Darlene? Dolly and Darlene for sure should hang out if they don't already. But you mentioned generosity, and one of the reasons I personally love Dali is her generosity, which we talk about money a lot on the show, and, you know, generosity is part of that

because she's a huge giver financially. It's one of the things she's known for. She's quoted saying this, it seems like the more I give, the more I get, and that is the way it is supposed to go in life. It's so good. And what she got in return for all that giving is an estimated net worth

of, are you ready for this, George? $350 million. Not too shabby. I know. So music, obviously, is part of her wealth. She actually co-founded Dalliwood theme park

and Pigeon Ford, Tennessee. That's our stop-a-grounds. Have you been to Dollywood? I still haven't been. We should go. Stop it. Me either. Wait, what?

We're all going to go. How are we working together? I mean, it makes it sound like I go a lot. I've gone like twice. I go every single day. I know. I could be wrong, but I imagine it to just be like an outdoor Walmart. You know what? God bless East Tennessee. It's so great. So anyways, Dolly, love you. Big fan of Doll. That's her largest asset. She also has a bunch of real estate in Nashville. And she has a perfume called scent from above. S-C-E-N-T. That's brilliant. Only Dolly could come up with that. To have like a heavenly themed. This is, I'm not making this up, Rachel. You know what?

I might get it a few for Christmas. I almost spit out that shnops into my glass because I, wow, Dolly. That's a great business woman right there. So what's your verdict on Dolly? Because it's hard, she's saying, hey, I'm second in line to Moray. But I can't give her, I can give her the queen of so much. Queen of our hearts. Yep. Queen of Country. For sure. Yeah. I just don't know if I can give her Queen of Christmas, though. Yeah.

Personally. You? That's fair. That's fair. I'm going Queen of Country, Queen of Our Hearts. We'll keep Orion first place for now. I know. We still have some other contestants.

And Dolly is so generous that Jeff Bezos gave her $100 million to give away. Because he trusts her heart. Maybe she's Queen of Our Hearts, George. I don't know if I can give her quite the Queen of Christmas title. That's fair. Queen of Generosity, Queen of Country, Queen of Our Hearts. Queen of Sit from Above. than just Queen of Christmas.

Yeah, she's better than that. So Mariah, you're still number one Queen of Christmas so far, but Dolly takes the cake in a lot of other areas. And I think Mariah has leaned into the, like, how can I make money from Christmas? Dolly has not done that as much. That's a moral judgment that you just made,

and I will not touch that. I walk away. And we just saw her trying to get the trademark for dog accessories that are Christmas things. There's nothing wrong with that, but I think the spirit of it, Dolly has a more pure spirit of Christmas. Yeah, okay.

That's fair. I will nod in agreement. All right. Contestant number three, come right up. It is, get this, Lindsay Lohan. Yes. That is shocking. This is a dark horse in this race.

She was on Parent Trap, Freaky Friday, and one of my faves. Mean girls. Oh, my gosh. Do you even go here? Listen, oh, I can't wait. I pray for her and Justin Bieber, like on a regular basis. I just love them both, and I cheer for them both. Okay, hold on. We need to pause.

I do. Who else is on your prayer list? I mean, those two, though, I, like, look at them. I'm like, I did. I had such a heart for Lindsay. She doesn't know me. You legitimately pray for Lindsay Lohan. Oh, I did.

When she went downhill, I did, yes, because I was like, I'm so for you. She, she just had the world against her, George. You pray for Brittany? But she's back. No. Wow. I don't. I didn't.

Okay. Well, now we know. Justin, I know loves Jesus. I know he does. And I just want him to make great choices in life. I just want to be for him. And same with Lindsay. It's how I feel about Lindsay.

I think we need to do a whole episode on Rachel's prayer list. Because I'm for sure not on there, but Lindsay Lohan made it. Her other favorite Lindsay isn't either. You've upset the producer. So here is why she's on our list for Christmas because she is back with a Netflix movie, George. People are calling this the... Have you seen it? No, but...

You haven't? You should have watched it for this episode. Okay, can I tell you why? It's getting rave reviews, but I use Rotten Tomatoes as my judge. And I use the critics side. It's got a 58% from the critics. 60% from the audience, which is fresh. Yeah.

Versus rotten. So I will be watching it. Okay, so it's called Falling for Christmas, and I watched it. Winston watched half of it with me. He only made it through half. And at the end he said, so what happened to Lindsay?

So I'd give him the ending. I'm adding Winston to my prayer list because you forced him to watch falling for Christmas. It was over Thanksgiving break. And he was like, what do you want to do during the kid's nap time today? And I was like, if I were to be honest,

I want to watch Lindsay Lowhan's new movie. God bless. Well, Lohan's come back. They're calling this period the Lohanissance. Do you like that? I am so for this. You have no idea. I don't know, Renaissance, Lohanescence.

Because listen, the movie, are you ready for this? She has not been around. She's been MIA. I think she's been in rehab. Right? Is that fair? Can we say that? I think that was true.

Lindsay? I hope it's not like slander. Geez, I don't know. Sorry, don't. She was going through some things. Yeah. So now she's back with a Christmas movie, a sweet Christmas movie. It's a hit, though, the movie. Are you ready for this? 31.2 million views in the first four days. How many of those were you?

She's back, people. She is back. How many of those views were just you re-watching it? I'm just very curious. There's 31 million unique viewers. That's impressive. I know. That's like 10% of America watched it. And again, she's coming back from behind, George. So she made an estimated $28 million during her film, career, but then was close to bankruptcy in 2010. Wow. I mean, she made some mistakes, but she's back.

And that's what we teach on this show, George, too. That's right. Your past doesn't define your future. It's never too late. Those past mistakes don't define who you are. Your net worth is not your self-worth. And Lindsay took it to heart, and she ran free. She's running a new race.

I feel like you wrote this in your prayer journal for Lindsay. You were like, your past doesn't define you. It refines you. Like, I can just see you writing that to Lindsay. I love it. That's a good reminder, though. And she's also got a new cover of Jingle Bell Rock as a way to promote the new film, and I listen to it. What do you score that one, George? I would give it a six out of ten.

I don't know how much was actually like her real vocal versus some auto tune, but she sounded fine. Should I autotune? Anyone could sound good with autotune. That's what we need to do for the show, so I don't have to feel so vulnerable. Or Lindsay can be your stand-in singer, and we'll just say it was you. No, I think I like Rachel singing on Autotune better. We just need to write a jingle and then we just need that to be your theme song

when it comes on. Jingle bells, you could do that one. So Lindsay, we're for you. So, yeah, I'm for it. I'm going to call her the comeback queen. That's my verdict. She's not the queen of Christmas. No, for going, yeah.

We love a comeback story. We love an underdog and we stand low hand. I just came up with that. I thought that was pretty good. That was good. All right, Rachel, all roads lead back to our final contestant number four, Mariah Carey herself.

Can you do contestant number four? Contestant number four, step right up. Last but not least, it's Mariah Carey. Yes, thank you. So yeah, her smash hit, all I want for Christmas is you. I mean, it's a hit. So what do you think she makes on this song every year? A few mill feels right.

2.5. Overall earnings for all I want for Christmas is you is $75 million. From one song. From one song. She recorded it one time. No way, is that true? Well, I mean, you know what I mean? And she recorded the song one time.

It's mailbox money. I don't think you in one take. But the song is not the only way she makes money. It's coming in from holiday tours, performances, merchandise, product endorsement deals. And just this year alone, she opened for Santa in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, which I was at.

That's right. Did not get to see her because she was in, like, the performance zone. Oh. She wasn't like on a float. She's too important. Yeah. But she was in the performance zone where they film it all. Did you see Lion King Live?

Or were they performance? Oh, they were in the performance zone as well. I did see Jimmy Fallon. That was fun. Good for you, George. So that's part of what she does. She's going on a tour called Merry Christmas to All. It's only four shows, but she will make millions off of those four shows alone.

And she's going to do a partnership with CBS to do a live Christmas special. And she's got the children's book, The Christmas Princess. And she's got the merch line in November with pajamas and robes and candles and aprons. Just $140 for the pajama set, Rachel. Gosh, she's really jumping up there for this queen. All I'm trying to say is, like, I think we've lost a little bit of the spirit when we have just commoditized it into merch. Okay, so she usually does a product endorsement as well of different kinds.

So in 2019, Mariah was paid an estimated $11 million to start in a Walker's Crisp holiday commercial. It's a veggie chip popular in the UK. And I would do the same, Mariah. I would honestly 100%. We can learn a lot from Mariah, can we for just a little bit? She's a great businesswoman. I think we can all agree on that. I mean, just, you know, just like her income, we can plan for our income.

Her income is just like the average person. The average Joe. She's just like another. That seasonal income comes rolling in. So what can we learn? We need a plan. So we recommend looking back over the last year, looking at your lowest earning month and use that as a baseline to budget for next year.

So this is if you have a right. regular income. So Mariah is getting a big chunk of cash at a weird part of the year. So if this is you, which a lot of people do, they have a regular income. You might not, if you're in real estate, for example, that's one. If you're in a seasonal job. And so you've got to use your lowest earning month as kind of your bottom baseline. And then anything extra is gravy. Exactly. And you're budgeting. And then beyond your emergency savings, set aside money every time you get a payday. So when those low earning months hit, you can use cash on hand to balance those things out. That's right. And prioritize.

just like I'm sure Mariah does in life. I hope so. I know. Just the things that you absolutely need, right? So like your clothing, your transportation, your utilities, your food. Those are necessities. Yes, it's the things that you're like, I have to have those. Yes, making sure that you prioritize that.

So yeah, it's all about just being intentional with your money. And you can do that in 2023. And I want to believe Mariah does the same. I would love to know what Mariah's budget looks like. You think she's buying $140 for JAMA sets? I doubt she's budgeting, let's be honest. Well, she has like monopoly money at this point. Pretty much.

From that one song. So I think our verdict is, Mariah, you are the reigning queen of Christmas officially on the Smart Money Happy Hour podcast. We give it to you. So I am cheering for this trademark. I will push for it, Mariah. I don't think there's anyone else out there that can be the queen of Christmas. So maybe we're going for it. And so what's fascinating is an independent artist by the name of Elizabeth Chan filed a declaration of opposition to Mariah's trademark application.

Oh, juicy. That's the tea right there. Oh my gosh. And the court sided with Elizabeth. Elizabeth won it. So who is she? She calls herself music's only full-time Christmas singer-songwriter. I think music only needs one of those.

Oh, God, wait. Man, so she went to court and says that she used Queen of Christmas. That brand since 2014, and she wrote on her petition, Christmas is a season of giving, not a season of taking. and it is wrong for an individual to attempt to own, and monopolize a nickname like Queen of Christmas for the purpose. Oh, gosh, this is you, George. This is my take.

Of academic materialism, my goal in taking on this fight was to stand up to trademark bullying. That sums it up. George. It drops to Elizabeth on this. That way she... So she really went after Mariah in court to oppose it. How do you find out Mariah a place?

for a trademark. Like, who does that research? Yeah, I don't know. That's pretty next level. But I love the way she said it. An individual to attempt to own a monopolize a nickname like Queen of Christmas for the purposes of abject materialism. Man, she's very... Them fighting words.

Great with her words. Oh, man. Okay, so I think we open it up. What do you think, you guys? Do you think Mariah is the Queen of Christmas? DM us on Instagram at Rachel Cruz, at George Camel with a K. and let us know. I kind of hate, I love hater right now.

Like, I don't know. I have this, I'm torn in my heart. But out of those four, I think she gets Queen of Christmas. Dolly's close to second though. She takes the Christmas cake. You know those little Debbie Christmas cakes? Yes. She takes that.

She takes that. But I still love Dolly more than her. I do, too. That's where my heart's torn. And I respect Elizabeth's fight. Rally against the elitism and materialism. I mean, strong, George, strong. So is this drink.

But it's delicious. Please sing for us. No. Please. Y'all. Do it. Do it. I think I can.

I feel like we'll put auto tune over your voice. I sometimes now the church during worship. That's what I'm saying. You sing in church. No. I sometimes mouth it. Because I sit with our friends and I'm like, I just feel sad for them. Like, I don't want them to hear.

Yeah, but it's in my heart and I. I bet you're better than you. In racial defense. Do you know how good at Lipsink I am for Instagram Reels? You should see me at a worship service. Oh, wow. Wow. Well, I think that we can maybe put auto tune over your voice.

Rachel, in your defense... That's what I would do. No, we can do it like in post. No, we're sitting here with a crew of like eight people. We can't convince her. But in your defense, Rachel, the Bible does say make a joyful noise. And if you can't do that, if it's not going to be joyful, then don't do it at all. Well, it's almost the end of the episode, Rachel, it's been a fun one.

And we like to close it out with guilty as charged. That's right. This is where our producer gives us a new guilty as charged question every week. and we have to drink if we have and give context behind our answers. Lindsay? Oh, boy. Dun dun dun. How did I do?

That was pretty good, actually. Okay, thank you. All right. Have you ever spent more than what you budgeted for on a vacation? If you have, are you willing to say how much and where did you go? Oh, man. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Drinking. Okay. drinking commence. What was yours, Rachel? Yeah, I'll take a sip. Okay, here's the deal though.

A sip, come on. Okay, but recently, I was saying in the past two years, I think I over budget to justify me spending. So I do kind of shoot for a higher number and like save it. And I'm like, I kind of just go big because I want to have the ability to. And then when we get home and I'm like, oh my gosh, and I'm tracking all my transactions, you know, in the app, in the Everdolar app from the vacation.

I'm like, look, babe, we have like $226 left in the vacation. Oh. We didn't spend it all. You're a justifier. And it makes me feel good. I know I'm a justifying. So if I was being true to what we probably could have made the vacation in, it would have been lower and we would have gone over budget.

So that makes sense? Yes. So I don't know what that. You overshoot it so you can feel good about yourself. That's it. That's what I do. I'll take a drink, though. Wow.

Okay, this was recent for us. We went to New York for Thanksgiving. and in the spirit of Thanksgiving and generosity, you know, we just overspent more than I wanted to. Generosity to who? Well, we had a Thanksgiving meal at a restaurant, and it was exorbitant. Now, there was a lot of food. I took food home with me, traveled all the way back to Nashville.

Stop it, George Campbell. Because of how much I freaking spent on this meal. George Campbell, no, you did not. No, you did not. I went back to the hotel. Did you put it in your little refrigerator in your hotel room? No. going to the airport. Oh, oh, oh, straight from it. So I went back to the hotel to get our luggage.

I got a laundry bag, filled it with ice from the hotel. Stop it. Tide it up. I can't. Put the buckets of food with the ice to keep it cold and trekked for like 10 hours with this food and took it home, put it in the fridge and ate it for two days. Sharon Ramsey, if you're listening, you understand. You understand. Most normal people would just be like, wow, that was a lot of food. We'll just throw it away. Did you take back? What specific foods were they? There was turkey. I didn't take the cranberry sauce because you know how I feel about cranberry sauce. There was mashed potatoes. There was some gravy left. There was a sausage stuffing

leftover. There was Brussels sprouts. There was some yonaki. Noki. There was a lot. Wow. It was so much food. Is Whitney embarrassed when you do that? No, because I carry the food. It was like 14, maybe 20 pounds of food. But like when you pay that much for food and we tip generously. How much was it? Will you tell us when you say I paid that much? Was it $200 a person? No, no.

We ended up paying about, it was $200 total and then we tipped on top of that. So it was closer to $250. But for $250, I'm like, I'm taking every bite of this food home. Okay, I'm going to, I won't. I wouldn't. In my head. If it was $200 a person, I would. 250 total?

No. Now we know your limit for leftovers. I'm leaving it. But to travel on an airplane with other people's coughing flu germs on it. It was all wrapped in containers. No, no, no, no. I'm done. I can't do it.

We went over our budget. We still made it work. We shifted some things around. And because I didn't have to eat for two days because of leftovers, I just moved it from our food category. And so it worked out. Oh, George. Let me tell you.

Here's my, here's what I'm just curious about. Did the ice melt? Because when you say a laundry bag, like, There came down holes in. Like, you got to, it's got to be a sturdy bag. Like, it's not styrofoam we're talking about. It was in one of those, like, to go, like, little cheap cardboard kind of, you know, those kind of bags. And it didn't get all soggy from the...

It was a little soggy toward the end. And when we got home... I'll be honest. When we got home, it was kind of like, we could get food for us. That's really what I was wondering. But listen, like, as a child of immigrants, I was like, I will not let this food go to waste. Oh, my gosh. This was an extra...

And we got some, we got a cocktail each at the... So that... kind of up there. That spikes the meals. It does. But Whitney deserved it.

Oh, it was all Whitney. Did you hear that? And it was I found one restaurant in New York City that does a completely gluten-free

Thanksgiving meal, which is hard to find. That's really cool. That's good. So it was special. All right, we'll give it to you. Worth the trip. My wife loved it.

Loved it. Oh, George. Well, if you guys have any fun at guilty as charged questions, make sure to DMS at Rachel Cruz at George Camel

with a K and maybe we'll use it on an upcoming episode. Make sure to label it guilty as charged. So who finished their drink first? Rachel did. Because she had. I think I did. Wow. It was delicious. I love a peppermint. Piperment martini. What's your rating? I'm going to go nine out of ten. It's a little, this is going to, I hate this word because it sounds

weird. Milky? Yeah. I was going to say the same thing. I mean, there's heavy whipping cream. So it's if you enjoy a nice cold glass of whole milk, you will love this. What do you give it? What do you give it? I'm going to give it a nine out of ten. Okay. Yeah. It was delicious. It was delicious. Not quite a 10 out of 10. It's like an adult whole milk with peppermint.

So it's got some vodka. It's got creme de cacao. Peppermint schnops, heavy whipping cream, and crushed peppermint to rim the glass, which really adds to the ambios. Yeah, our bartender, Michael Reddish, who's on our team. Mixologist Michael. He did great. So the cost to make this drink comes out to 475.

Oh my gosh. Which is high, but you got to remember it's got a lot of ingredients in there. and if you want to impress your guests at a Christmas party or small gathering, this one might be worth making. That's right. And you'll have lots of ingredients for later too. So if you want the recipe, make sure to check it out in our show notes. It will be there.

And you guys, you know, spread the Christmas cheer. If you have some friends that you think would love this podcast, make sure to send it on. I hope you have friends. That would be good. Yes. And make sure to follow us on all the socials and subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already, so you don't miss an episode. Yes.

And if you're thinking, you know, you're in the Christmas spirit, you want to be generous and send us gifts. Hey, in lieu of gifts, Rachel and I, all we want for Christmas this year is positive reviews of this podcast. So thank you in advance for your holiday generosity. That's right. Be like Dolly. Be like Dolly. That's right. Send us $100 million if you're like Jeff Bezos.

I mean, that would be even cooler. And be sure to join us next Thursday for an all new episode of Smart Money Happy Hour. Rachel, let's end with a toast to the queen of Christmas. And to Merry Christmas to all of you listeners. Thanks for listening. Merry Christmas, you guys. And happy birthday, Jesus.