Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1235 | The Robertson Wives Spill All the Secret Family Christmas Traditions

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

The Robertson wives join the table for family stories, evolving traditions, and the moments that keep their growing clan connected. Al gives Jase a “forever” gift that has Jase railing and Missy shaking her head.  Zach’s stomach-virus disaster is the highlight of Jill’s holiday season, and Jase shares how a simple surprise for Missy turned into a powerful Jesus experience. Chapters: 00:00-06:35 Zach’s wife finds his bubble guts hilarious 06:36-11:14 Al gives Jase a forever gift 11:15-20:08 Jase surprises Missy with an “experience” 20:09-28:15 Meeting Charity Gayle in person 28:16-31:24 Living out your faith in front of your kids 31:25-39:13 Zach & Jill’s family gets a new addition 39:14-46:11 Christmas morning traditions 46:12-50:32 Taking a Sabbath with your family 50:33-56:08 The heart of family & a message for Christmas — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. The Jays, the buzz and electricity in the Unashamed podcast studio is crackling this morning. I think it's the women's presence. It's not crackling, it's cackling. Did you say the women's presence or presence? Yes. We'll get to that in a minute. I think it's both, Zach. And Zach is back. as well. So let me welcome, first of all, Jill to the podcast. Welcome to Jill. Looking very Christmassy

if you're watching. We got Lisa and we got Missy. This is the official Christmas episode of Unashamed. We're super excited because this is, this will be airing a couple of days before Christmas. So we're super excited to have the ladies with us. And Zach, Ralph the bat, we were having a conversation before we came on. Because the last two podcasts we did, you, for the first time ever, I think, called, in sick the day of the podcast and Missy stepped in. I thought it was because I was on again. Yeah, Missy said it was because she was on. She says there's a history of you not coming on.

So you were skeptical that I wasn't actually sick? I was just skeptical that. It might have been questioned. I don't know. I would say I'm guilty of that. That did cross my mind. It may have been questioned. Jill, was I sick?

Listen, I can tell you, this man was sick. So sick. I hate to, I mean, I just have to say this. Say it. Say it. I don't think you should say. I don't know what you're going to say. The sound that was coming from him was something I have never heard in my entire life.

I will just tell you, the stomach virus hit our family pretty hard, but I'm never in my life. And I've, you know, I have five kids, so I'm always around this. What did it sound like? Yeah, give us some sound effects. Okay, if I was to... I thought this was a Christmas episode. It was something like this. Blah-br-br-br-br-br-br-br-br-br-br-br-br.

For like 10 minutes. I mean, I'm not exaggerating. From what body part? My mouth. We're not sure. It's just vomiting. This is vomiting. It sounds like a trouble.

Jake's breaking on the highway, from the sound and the smells. I don't know. there could have been all kinds of stuff going on in there. That's too much information. I'm just saying. I had 103 fever. I mean, it was just, I mean, it was bad.

We've gone on this. Did you ever figure out what it was? Did you have the flu? Did you have a bad burrito? I know the patient. The Polar Express got him. We'll just say this. I don't want to say how much money she spent on this, but we had this trip.

That's always where Zach goes first, if you know, sir. She's got a family thing about an hour away from here and Bryson City, Tennessee, no, North Carolina. A family thing. What's the quote? A family thing.

So she got tickets on the Polar Express and so we did that. It was hot chocolate and I mean, the whole, I mean, we've done that before. Yes. Yeah, that's a whole other thing.

But anyway, so Ruth was sick apparently while we were on there and then that was patient zero. And then, and then we slept in the same bed that night because she slept with us. and then just she's breathing all that, just a virus all over me,

and I'm just, like, soaking it in. So you're telling me is that the Polar Express turned into the molar Express? It all came right out. It came out, I'm telling you. And now I'll never watch that movie again. I'll never, I hate hot chocolate. I hate Christmas.

Anything associated with, I hate Tom Hanks. I hate it all. You've been joined. It was formed into the Scrooge. He had. Wow, I didn't see the Christmas episode starting at this particular place, but that's the beauty of it. The only thing I can compare that to, Jill, when you said you've heard things you've never heard come out of your husband before is when I went on a mission trip with Zach with your dad Gordon to Mexico. And it was a bad burrito.

There you go. And our hotel room walls didn't go all the way to the top and they were concrete and it was all open in the top. And I could hear your dad all night long. And it was it. That was the sounds. And a lot of moaning. Like your father like son. Your mom had to take care of him.

But you know, why is because they eat stuff off the street. But we were told it was okay. No, no, he does. I don't. Yeah, they just eat stuff off the street. I'm not that kind of guy. This was, no, when I went to Haiti, I mean, I brought my own, like, Munchy bars.

You know, I didn't touch any of the food there because I didn't want to get Montezuma's revenge. But the worst part is I'm laid up after that whole episode and I still got the fever. I mean, my body's hurting every joint, I mean, down to my bones. I mean, excruciating pain. And I hear Jill telling my sister about the episode and she's like, I just couldn't help. It was just funny. I'm just back there laughing.

And so she's telling my sister that she's laughing at me. in my pain and that was probably the thing that hurt the most. You should just be thankful I didn't video. I didn't. I should be thankful for that? What kind of sick person would video their husband in such a vulnerable position? That's right. I didn't.

I didn't. But I should be thankful for that. Had I caught the audio of that? Just the audio. I don't even know. She actually answered a question I had because I was going to text her and say, Did you happen to video that? Blackmail.

I would love to see that tagline on this episode if she did. We need to add that to our sound button. The sound of sight. Make me want to put up. You know, I almost threw up on this podcast one time, and you were talking about a certain story, and y'all got a kick out of that. Yeah, I got a week stomach.

We did make him gag that time. Yeah, he had a natural gag reflex. Which was very funny. That was when we started. to what we thought was a cutting up. Oh, that's right. That was that episode. It turned into.

That's not bring it back up. Well, so that's a perfect segue, Jay's excellent segue. That particular story into, I brought a gift because it felt like, since we're doing a Christmas episode, that we should have a gift on set. So something nice and big and colorful

if you're watching with pink flamingos. And so this is for you. Because, you can go ahead and open it. Because it came from my house. So why would you not have pink flamingos? Of course. And B.K.

Wrapped it for me last night. You actually gave us a gift that was in your house? No. The paper was in my house. Well, Kay did that for years. It's not a re-gift. Is this a re-gift? No, not a re-gift.

Yeah, one year, mom, she just wrapped up her cat and gave it. Well, wrapped up anything around. All right, babe. Do you want me to do it? Yeah, you do it. I just acquired a knife. Oh, my goodness gracious. I think from what Jill said, Zach needs this.

And what it could be, that's why I'm saying, And this was actually the perfect segue into this gift. Oversized toilet paper. Oh, my word. That's one roll of toilet paper. A wagon wheel. It is a wagon wheel.

And Jay's telling them what the name of it is. Three wagon wheels of toilet paper. Let Jayce look at the name. Oh. Here's the problem in our culture and our society. For people that are listening, this, well, I've got to be able to read it. It says this is the. ultra soft.

I won't name the brand because I'm fixed to throw them on the bus. This is called the Forever Roll. Forever toilet paper roll. Which is not true because there's an end.

Hang on, babe. Look under in the little writing you may have to put your glasses on it. Right under big letters that says forever roll. Right under it it says go up to one month.

This is my problem. If you're using this much in a month, you've had some serious dietary power. My whole point, I appreciate this gift,

Al, and I'm going to leave the do not take the packaging off of this because I'm going to use this as an

illustration. I don't have anywhere to put that. If you got to roll that, that'll fit in one of your bathroom. I have a place

for this, Al, I have a place where people give gifts when I do things, little, little badges

and coins and buttons. I'm not putting it there. Oh, yeah. This is... No, I'm not putting this

there. I'm putting this on my poker table that you want to get rid of. In the middle of the room? On top. Because it's a conversation starter,

this is a gift that keeps on giving. I knew it, Jay. Because our culture... It only for a certain time until it runs out. Our culture tends to persecute people who put their faith in God. And yet, they use the principles that are only found in the Bible, like forever. We were talking about the resurrection here. I know how you loved eternal things.

They're trying to take your money that you make. Because look, you know why they did this? You know why this particular brand did this? Because their competitor has a roll of toilet paper called Angel Soft. They have discovered the softness of paper in the celestial world, despite the fact that no one has any evidence. Well, this is their – they said, oh, y'all have Angel Soft? We have the forever roll.

It will, because they know the inner person has this longing to worship God, the eternal God. And this is what we've done. See, I do Jay's can turn this into a rabbit. What's interesting, though, is angels in the Bible, anytime I read about angels, people are scared to that. It's scary.

They don't think a softness. In fact, Jill, to your point, after you saw an angel on the Bible, you might need this role. You know, based on what I read. Well, and I will admit this is a great conversation starter. But if you experience what Zach experienced, this might come in handy. Literally handy.

This might have been a weekend for old Zach boy. And I hate to tell you, Jill, as he, as Zach ages, the sounds that are going to come forth, they're going to keep coming in interesting ways. You know, we should get one of these for Kay? Because you know how she's always so afraid of running out of toilet paper? Yeah. I mean, it's like a fear. So like in the bathroom, she has 12 rolls of toilet paper on the back of the toilet because it's a fear of her running out.

We need to get her one of these. We'll get her one for. Because I don't know where it would fit. We'll get her one for her birthday because that was another reason I brought this out to kind of help us talk about family traditions, which is some of what I'm going to talk about today, because mom introduced gag gifts to the Christmas, what, maybe 15 years ago, maybe further back? This is not a gag gift.

This is so far, this is the best gift I've received in this Christmas season. Which is the beauty of gag gifts. My favorite gag gifts are the ones that people love. Like, ooh, I love this. Like the first time Lisa gave Cy some body spray as a gag gift. And we all laughed about it because it was one of the brands of body spray. And Cy's like, the next year he's like, where's my body spray? He was then expecting to get it because he loved it so much.

So then it became an ongoing gag gift. Remember that, babe? Yeah. So that's one of our, that's the theme of this discussion is our traditions. Tradition. So obviously today we're talking about family and Christmas and all the things that brings in. And so it reminds me of our good friends at Family Research Council because they share the same values that we do. They love the Lord.

Tony Perkins is a good friend. He's from Louisiana. This group is on Capitol Hill. They defend faith. They protect families. They remind leaders that biblical. Truth matters. Their statement is pray, vote, and stand, which we love.

So we want you to help out FRC during this Christmas season to keep defending what matters most. Visit FRC.org slash unashamed to learn more. We just, while Zach was making these sounds, I'll tell you a story. Can I tell a story? I don't know. What is it? I have a story.

Tell it, Jays. So I meet a guy in an airport. We're in like California for crying out. loud and always leave early and i guess today as evidence show up late which i had a good excuse for being late today but just imagine a huge terminal with all the seats and i'm the only one there i got there that early because i'm ready to come home and see my baby and baby is go i know i was like are we going to see here comes a fella who's carrying what i believe to be a case for a musical instrument. And he kind of had a little hat on. He just had the look.

And of all the seats, he could have chosen, he sits right in front of me. And you got the whole thing open. It's 4.45 in the morning. And I say, I have to admit, you look like a person who's in a band, which was obvious. And he just kind of looked up at me and I thought, well, I guess he's a quiet guy. It is 4.45 in the morning. Most people are. I did the follow-up question. I said, what kind of music do you

play? And he said, I actually play contemporary Christian music. And I am in a band, so you're right. He's like, what gave it away? I was like, well, I saw the case and figured, you know, it was a musical instrument. So I said, well, who do you play

for? Because now, that's my music. And I pulled up my phone, and I said, all my songs, but about three old rock and roll songs. They're all contemporary Christian music, which I realized I set up a stressful situation here. Because I thought, what if he says somebody I've never heard of, which could have been a possibility.

But he said, now I play for a woman called Charity Gale. And I said, well, wait a minute. I have one of her songs as my walk-up songs. I speak Jesus. Now, this is a... Is she related to Crystal Gale? No, no.

No, I actually asked that. I was the... No, no relation. And so I said, well, this is a couple months ago. And I was like, well, do y'all ever come to Louisiana? And he's like, actually, you know, we do. And he said, we have, there's a... In Alexandria, how far is that from you?

I'm like, not very far. He's like, we'll be there December 14th. And I thought, let me check the duck. season real quick. I looked at the duck season and it was during the split. And I thought, I have my Christmas gift for my wife. It's not going to be a present. It's going to be an experience. And if you've never experienced Alexandria. Yeah. Exactly. You don't know what you've been missing. So for all of you who are just now tuning in, my wife is real musical. I knew she liked Charity Gale songs because we've sang together in the car.

And we pass these on to our kids. Read and Brighton have her playing all the time. So even our grandkids know her songs. So I thought this, and I was going to keep it a secret. Well, it's time. But I told him. I was like, well, I'm going to give him my number because I may forget. And I was actually doing it because I thought, if he just doesn't want me around,

because he didn't say a whole lot, he was kind of a quiet guy. Do you think he knew who you were? At this point, I wasn't sure. Because he's looking at you might have thanked him, this guy. Well, I mean, you were talking about what he looked. He was tapping into his inner field. You know, that old boy had to look about it. Now, I realized that, me saying, let me give you my number because he didn't acknowledge

he knew who I was up until that point. And it is weird for somebody to say, let me give you my number. Because if I'd have been here, I might have said, no, I'm good. Let me give you the email of my sister, Bonnie. She handles on my correspondence. I will confess my sins. I have given the old-timey, uh, Weather and time number?

That's my number. I have done that. I'm repented of that. Do you still remember the number? No, but we shut that down. We talked about that on the pocket. We shut it down. 3, 8, 7.

What is that? Well, it's no longer in service. Oh, because we call it. Forever we knew it. Yeah. But now we forgot it. So anyway, long story short, then I found, so he texted me about a couple weeks ago and said, hey, are we on?

And I was like, he's serious. Yeah. I'm fixing to do this. So then it spoiled the surprise because when I said, Missy, what's our plans? And she's like, well, Reed and Brightner coming in a couple weeks before Christmas. And we're going to have Christmas with them. Well, then I said, what's the dates on that?

Well, they were in that time period. So then I called Reed. And I was like, look, I had a surprise. Merry Christmas for your mom. But now y'all are coming. See, I'll spoil my surprise, unless y'all want to go. And I told him, and he's like, oh, we're in. That sounds great.

Because I said, it's not going to hurt my feelings if you don't want to do it. And so we all loaded up, which I had to break the surprise because I was like, babe, I want to do this for a surprise. But now it's still a surprise, but we're just doing it as a family. Yeah. And so that's what we did. It was fantastic. It was so, so good.

It was, I mean, I love her. Her voice is amazing. Their worship songs are the gospel. and they're inspirational and they're just, they're so encouraging. And, I mean, I speak Jesus is what I think made her famous, but then thank you Jesus for the blood. Thank you for the blood. That song is just amazing.

Just the gospel through and through and how we should feel grateful to the Lord for what he did for us. And so I just got really excited about it. So the whole reason I want to tell this story is because of what? Oh, no. Oh, no. Missy doesn't want me to tell this, but something happened. The opposite of what happened to Zach.

This was a beautiful, spirit-filled moment. Missy's not going to tell it because it's about her. And so I tried, as we get closer. My mind went somewhere else, but go ahead. We are available tonight if y'all need us. As we got closer, look, I actually shared this last night. We had a little round table that my daughter designed. that we ate supper together.

That's a new tradition. I know, but I told... I'm setting up the drama of what I'm fixing to say. It was like best memorable moments of the year, and I actually shared last night with my family at the direction of my daughter. This was a memorable moment that happened here, of the year. And it was actually top five.

I'm so proud of Missy. She's embarrassed. She doesn't want me to tell this story. So I'm texting. back and forth through this process with my new guitar buddy. And I'm like, what time should we be there? Is there a chance we could meet charity? I was just going for it. You're just playing fanboy now. But it was all gray. He was like, you know, look, I play guitar. That's basically what happened. So I thought, well, let's just show up. Jay's now you know the conversations

that happened with Bonnie. Oh, exactly. Before you miss it. Bonnie's the assistant. That's the one you should be having the conversation. Exactly. I had gone off on an aisle. I shouldn't have done that to this poor fellow who's awesome. He's a great guy. So we just, I just said, well, let's show up to the concert. So we get there. And look, the people there that ran the church there, it was a Pentecostal church. Pentecostals of Alexandria, and they were amazing.

Awesome. Amazing. Now, they knew who we were, and they treated us so, so well. And so we get there. Well, the security guy about really, what was it, 10, 15 minutes before the conference. concert because they put us in the green room. We came through the side door, which was awesome. Three toddlers in tow. Yeah, three toddlers in tow because I said, look, we have three kids. During the text exchange, I said, we have three small kids, but they're well behaved. And he said, that's fine, bring them.

And I think they were the only kids there. But anyway, so about 10 minutes for this all starts, the security guy says, would y'all like to meet Charity Gale? And I was like, sure. I, I mean, I wanted that the whole time. When we go up to where they were getting prepared, and it was a pretty large, because you had the band, you had all the backup singers, which was a big crowd. They were all standing in a circle when we walked into this little room. We went around and met everybody.

Charity Gale wasn't there yet, but her husband was, because he sings with her. And so we met everybody. Then Charity comes in, and then we were just, And she's so personable. I mean, look to everyone in the eye and just, you can tell when someone is real. And they're being led by the Lord to do this. And this was their 10th concert in 14 days.

So they're tired. They're tired. They're fixing out for their life concert. We've been there. But Missy's right. I've been around a lot of celebrities, a lot of people fixed to do an event with me. The vibe in that five minutes was these people love. the Lord. They're serious about what's fixing to happen for the Lord. That was obvious, which is what led

to what happened. For some reason, Missy just started talking. Now, I know her so well. When she started talking about a minute in, I thought, she's fixed to start crying. And a minute later, she starts crying in her speech. And she's like, I don't know why I'm crying. And Charity's like, oh, it's fine with us. We cry all the time. There's a large group of people. The speech was awesome, babe. And it was about music and doing it for the Lord.

And this is hard work. And you've done this 10 times in 14 days. She was kind of motivating them. Yeah, giving them a little. I thought. So after the cry, then the minute, I thought, she's fixed up preaching. Then the sermon came, which was awesome. Jay says segmented him, is he?

We got the cry. I got the sermon. I do it. I was just thinking, yep, here we go. She had that look. And it was so... Did she sing it anymore? It was so inspired.

Oh, yeah, we're getting there. Not in the room. Not in the room, but she did an audience. And so then the sermon came, and then I looked at charity, and then I thought, she's fixed to preach a sermon, which she did, and was wonderful. It kind of encouraged us as a family. Yeah. And she had become familiar with us.

And then she said, you know, after everything that's happened, she said, we do this before we go out. We all pray together. And we do, everybody puts their hand in a circle. And they did a little chant. They taught it to us. And so we had the prayer. We all went all in. It was kind of a one, two, three, a manual.

I forgot the exact quote. But it was all about God with us. Yeah. I'm telling you, when that was over, I was ready to run through a wall. It became like a corridor, a portal of heaven and earth in that moment. And so it just made the whole, I almost called it a concert, but that was the first thing she said when she came out.

She's like, if you came expecting a Christian concert, I have bad news for you. This will be a worship experience to the Lord God all night. What a great one. I was like, yeah. It was amazing. And so it was a wonderful memory. it will go down as one of the greatest Christmas experiences.

And to do it with Reed and Brighton and the kids. You know, and Brighton's pregnant, you know, like big pregnant. And she's due in April. And of course, that was one of the questions are, you know, talking about this fourth child and Charity said, as we walked out the door, she hugged Brighton said, I'll be praying for you in April. Yeah.

Brighton said, I really believe she will. I believe she's going to pray for me in April, you know, to have this child. But can I say something, too, that's a little off subject, but just having the grandkids who Maris just turned four, David will be three in about a month, but they're watching all of this. And, you know, you kind of take that for granted sometimes because we do this so much.

We're backstage a lot, which is such a privilege to be able to meet some of these people face to face and really see their hearts. But they're seeing all of this. And even before that, we stopped at Raisin Cain's to get some chicken because we thought we got to feed these babies before they can sit there a couple hour of worship session. And people in Raising Cainz recognized us and asked us for pictures and as we're getting to the car.

And then even in the worship center where we were, people saw us come in. I look up one time and there's just cameras out. You know, it's like, okay, we've got to have my good resting face on because all the candid pictures are, you know, being taken of all of us as our family walks in and sits in the pew. And then people are asking Jay's, oh, let me get a selfie. They're coming up to us before it starts. We're causing a little bit of a ruckus, you know, which is not what we want to do in a place like that.

But I'm looking at Maris and David are watching this. They're thinking, I know they're thinking, like, why are all of these strange people wanting to take a picture with Jay Rock and Lulu? I don't understand it, you know. And at one point, Maris even, she got in a picture and she said, I smiled. It's like, oh, great. somebody's random. Oh, somebody's lacking that limelight.

Yeah, but I think that it's important. They're just now going to start under, they haven't yet, but understand kind of that we're in a limelight situation, and there is some pressure to, you know, do the right thing, say the right thing. Not that I felt that in that room. I just felt the spirit lead me to encourage them.

Because I love, that's my world. You know, singing, music, songwriting, arranging, performing, that is my world, and I love it. So when someone does it really well, I'm like, bring it on. Let us just, start crying. No, no, no, no. Let us just like bask in the worship enjoyment. This is an overview of it. Raise up the intensity about three levels. When worship is done well, you don't have to think about it. And that's what they do. They're one of the ones who do it. well, when it's done well, then the person who's participating in the worship on the other side of the stage gets to just bask in it and enjoy it and not have to think about it. And that's what

that night was. It was wonderful. Oh, she's right. There was one moment where charity and three other women just stood forward. They sang, oh, holy night. It was amazing. I don't even think they had any kind of music behind when they started, and they started singing. And I thought, okay, if anybody ever doubted that heaven and earth is connecting through spirit-filled people. Which is the theme of the focus. It was beyond just anything I can describe. I thought, okay, this is amazing. Well, I like this idea, too, of transition, which I want to hear about the other thing you guys did.

But, Joe, I want to ask you because you're on the podcast the least amount, and we love it when you're on. Because this year, you have, Max is getting married, Max and Annabelle. which we've talked about a little bit with Zach, but we haven't heard your perspective on that. Now, that was interesting because it's another idea of merging, and what made me think about them was yesterday. So I get, for some reason, for the last 20 years, I bought an LSU ornament yearly that I get every year,

has a year on it, and it's a different thing every year that they send me. So I've been getting them for years. But for some reason, they double it up, and they've been doubling up for years. And I figured that's just because they wanted me to give one away, which I have every year. So I decided this year I would send it to Max and Annabelle. So sweet.

With them getting married because Max is an LSU fan, the smart one in your family. And so I did that and I was writing them a note about it. But I thought about this being their first Christmas as an engaged couple. And then, of course, next year it will be their first Christmas as a couple. And Missy was just talking, speaking eloquently about worship. And they got married in a setting of singing. And, you know, because obviously that's the one thing that does.

So what Max does, what was that like when that happened? Because we heard it from Zach's perspective, but I wanted to hear it from yours. In terms of the him proposing and then being together and all that. I thought you said the marriage. I was like, wait, what? Did they get married? No. Oh, man.

But, man, she is ready. I love it so much. It is a sweet season for our family. I'm going to cry. Now, I'm going to cry. but the engagement was so precious because, you know, music is Max's love. I mean, I would say it's his first love and now, of course, Annabelle and obviously the Lord. But I've never seen him really be nervous with music. That's just kind of a natural. I know he gets nervous,

but he doesn't, you just don't see that a lot from him. And so it was actually Layla's idea. She said, mom, we should, we should plan an outdoor concert, like with family and friends in Black Mountain with all the people that we love and are close to us here. And Max should do it in the middle of the concert. And we're like, oh, that will be amazing. Because, you know, people are different. Some people would never want to be proposed to in a public setting like that. But Annabelle is one of these. She is just, she is just a ball, of joy and she loves people and she loves big groups and settings, which is good because she's coming into a crazy family. And so we thought, oh, that'll be perfect. And so we planned it all

out. Our dear friends have a big yard and they basically opened it up for a pretty large. It was meant to be a little intimate gathering, but it was probably what, 200 people? Ish. Yeah, Mia was there. She thought it was amazing. Yes, it was so sweet. And we pulled a trailer up and we decorated the trailer and hung lights from it and, you know, made it look so sweet. And she just thought this was an outdoor concert for friends. It was a Friendsgiving, because it was right around Thanksgiving time and it was a Friendsgiving concert. And that's what she thought it was. And so the morning of Max was so nervous. I mean, he just was going, he was like, he was like, y'all, I really think I need to practice. Can I just practice? And so we're sitting in the living room, me and Zach, and Bear and Fred, our whole family, and Max is going over how he's going to propose to her.

And it's so sweet because Zach stops him and he's like, okay, I think you should say it like this. Everett they're producer. Yeah. Producer Zach. He was like, I think, and he just added this little nugget. And Zach was like, I mean, Max was like, oh, oh, that's good. That's good. that's good. So he ran it back and he practiced it again. And he's tearing up as he's practicing it for us.

And so, of course, I'm just a mess. But it was just this moment of our whole life. Since I was pregnant with him, I've prayed for who he would marry and who he would spend his life with. Yes. And to know that he has chosen a woman that loves the Lord with all of her heart really is just the greatest blessing. And so knowing that and going into that night, it was such a sweet moment. All of our dear friends showed up. Mia came in town. A lot of Annabelle and Max's friends from out of town came in town. And we had planned it so that anybody who she would know, like it would kind of tip her off. We didn't bring them in until he had started the concert and she was sitting right up front.

And of course, he starts into this song. What was the song? I'd never heard it. It wasn't a song he had written. It was a song that Annabelle loved. Oh, my word, I can't even remember the song. That's terrible. But the song is basically talking about this guy

who is holding something in his pocket, like special. I mean, this moment. And then he goes into the bridge, and Lela just starts taking over playing, and he calls her on. stage. And it is just, it's just the sweetest moment, you know, and we did capture it on video, so it was special, it was special. But yeah, it was just one of those moments for as a parent watching this and being able to say, man, I'm so excited about this was such an answered

prayer from the Lord. And to know, they're not perfect. They're not, you know, they're going to have struggles. I mean, I know they're going to have struggles, but I know they both love the Lord. And that gives me the greatest piece. And I'm just, I'm so excited. She is so excited. I mean, I think she would get married tonight if we can pull it off. I'm going to be married right now. So in our last segment here of the podcast, I wanted to talk about the idea of kind of Christmas tradition and the sense of all of us obviously were children who had Christmas tradition, that then we became young married like our kids are now. You know, you guys had the first married couple this Christmas, and you start new things.

And then it evolves. And then we become the patriarchs and the matriarchs, and we see something totally different, or maybe just added two through the year. So I want to talk a little bit about that. And I guess we'll start with you guys because you mentioned something about something Mia did. But sort of just, you know, in a few minutes, describe sort of the evolution. of Christmas, from when you were kids to early married and kind of merging of your family, and then now what that looks like with kids and grandkids.

So y'all go first. Well, what we did early on, and I think every family has to go through this is because we live in the same town as both of our parents. There was a time when the boys were a little before me and came along that we decided we weren't going to pack up on Christmas morning, take everything over to the parents' house, that they were going to need to come to our house, because we want to see our little kids run down the hall on their PJs, you know, all of that, which is, this is kind of crazy. But Reed and Cole were such hard sleepers.

We had to wake them up every Christmas morning. We had, they did not wake us up. By like 8, 8.30, I'm like, okay, let's get this party started here, you know? Now, when Mia came along, much different. She hardly slept all night long. And she would sneak downstairs and look in her stocking and see what Santa brought. And so when the boys found out that she did that, they got mad. And so they slept in her room for probably 10 years before Reed left home to make sure that she didn't leave.

There's such hard sleepers. She was able to sneak out of her room and go do it anyway. So anyway, that was just some of the stuff that we learned about that later. But what I was saying about, every family needs to figure out what works for them, and which I've encouraged now, Reed and Brighton to do, is how. have that, we decided to have that special core family unit with just us and our kids. And then have my parents come over a little bit later for waffles and pancakes and bacon and all of that and do a gift exchange with them because there's something special about celebrating with just your core family.

And Reading Brighton a couple of years ago, we're going through the same kind of pressure because they're in Nashville. And they're like, we just really don't want to be at someone else's house on Christmas morning with our little kids, we want to be home. Yeah. So that's why, and I encouraged to that because it's very, as hard as it is, because I want to be there and watch those little grandkids run down the hall too, but those are not my children.

And those are very special moments, I feel like. So I encouraged her, that's why they come two weeks early and spend time with us. Oh, where we're at now. They're like. And then spend time with Brighton's family this next week, and then they go home and we'll have, have their Christmas, but I think that's important because then you have multiple Christmases, and it's okay. It's okay.

We may not all be together on the one special day, but we're together a lot during the year. And I think that's what makes our family special. What I love about our family is that we are very intentional throughout the year of being together. Well, as evidence of what you just said, our daughter, Mia, of course, she's a global traveler, but she tries to roll in and make an appearance when the rest of the family's there in some capacity. So she rolled in last night from where she came from. Dallas.

She's coming in. I mean, dad, my friends, they don't like their family. It is ridiculous. And I was like, back up, back up, Mia. Let me hear the context. Back up, Jan. You know, I was telling. Yeah.

She said, I told them, I'm going to see my family because my brother's there. And they're like, what? I mean, you're driving all the way out. It's my family. I love them, and I like them, which y'all should do. She was then getting into the sermon. Is that not Jan, Dash?

Pre-style. I love Mia. Mia is one of my favorite humans. She will tell you like it is, and you will love her for it, no matter if it's good news or bad news. You're just like, I love you. And then she ended that whole speech by saying, I'm going on record. Not only do I love my family, I like y'all. Well, thank you.

And I said, welcome home, Mia. She's like, I don't want to play the piano. She's a giant candy from planes, trains over. I like me. My wife likes me. And she proves it because she helped me so much last night. And she's always the cleaner. She cleans up every night after we do dinner.

She's the, she's, she said, this is my deal. This is my, I do the dishes. But she, her deal is wanting to cook some of these recipes as well. Oh, she did the crawfish all grott in last night. So good last night. It was really good. Yeah. But she's the one who last year introduced, because we have a round,

table, which I love, a big round dining room table. So everybody can see each other equally and participate. She's like, we're going to go around and we're going to say our favorite memory. And last year was of 2024. I was like, oh, I'm kind of taken off guard here, you know. And so I was trying to think of it. And last year, it came around to Cole. And Emelin wasn't there. You know, they're not engaged. They're not, you know, they're separate. She's it with her family. He's at our house. And he said, well, my favorite memory, Colesbury, laid back, you know, doesn't say a whole lot. When he speaks, though, you should listen. And he said, my favorite memory of 2024 is what I'm about to tell you right now.

So we're like, what? Yeah, very dramatic. And he said, we've been ring shopping. So that was last year. So then I was like, whoa, this year is going to be kind of hard to top, you know. And he's not here yet, but Mia said, we're doing this anyway. So he went around and just hearing everyone's favorite memory of 2025, which now mine, one of my favorite is their wedding,

Colan Emelin's wedding. It was just beautiful and godly and blessed and just a dream, a dream. And so that was one of mine. And, you know, we got to all share. Even my parents shared, read and Brighton shared, and theirs were really awesome. It really was. You know, like I'm tearing up at the table. So being intentional about listening to what everyone else's experiences were as adults has now become one of my favorite memories, for sure.

Oh, it was fantastic. And it's a tradition now, for sure. And it's your youngest child that did it. Zach and Jill, what's something some evolution you guys have seen from child? childhood to early married to what you guys do today. Give us one. I mean, we implemented a new tradition about, what, six years ago that we do after Christmas? Yes. So I think one of the Sabbath trip, one of the things you said, Missy, I think rings true is, is the actual date and time is really not the most important. It's just getting, making a point to get together with your family.

And of course, when our kids were younger, it was we lived 13 hours from my parents. We lived in the same town with Zach's parents for most of our marriage of when our kids were young. So we would travel 13 hours for many years with four young kids. We'd drive from Louisiana all the way up to North Carolina. Yes. And we would spend a week. And it was some of our kids' favorite memories were those times. But then in the recent years, it shifted because we live close now, we're able to actually have Christmas in our home.

And it's become such a special tradition. But the tradition that we started, and I say this, because I think sometimes when you, this time of year, especially you get on Instagram or you tend to think that, oh, man, everybody in the world has these amazing traditions. they've kept them up forever. We don't, like, we're terrible. We don't have it all together. Or my decorations don't look like that or whatever the thing is. I mean, you know how it is. We're comparative.

You can start a tradition anytime. It doesn't have to be something you've done forever. You can start it today. And it doesn't have to be something that lasts forever either. I think sometimes we hold on to traditions too long and our kids have outgrown them and we need to move on. But one of the things we started about, well, in 2019, we started doing a family sabbatical trip every year right after Christmas.

Like we leave the day after Christmas. You mean during duck season? That must be so nice for me. Yes, Smith's season. During duck season. Did anybody else sense the bitter tone of that statement? Sorry. Go ahead.

It's okay. It's okay. And we go somewhere. I mean, usually we go to the beach, but it could be anywhere. It doesn't even matter the place. And it doesn't even, the goal is to get somewhere that's not, it's kind of isolated. And we put up our phones, me and Zach put up our phones, all of our kids put up their phones. I would have to see that to believe it, but continue.

I will preface. Zach is the only one. He does get to have a checkpoint once a day to like make sure that there's nothing major or whatever. But by and large, we put up our phones and we just rest with one another. And we have deep conversations. We don't watch, we will watch like a family movie, but we really don't have the TV. Like, we check out. And it has become, I remember the first year our kids were like, what?

What? but by the end of that five or six days, just the whole atmosphere in our family was different. And now it's so funny, Annabel came on our Sabbath for the first time last year. We don't let any extras come until our kids are at least 18, and that's kind of how we've done it. And so she got to come on the Sabbath trip last year for the first time. And now our kids, all of them, cannot wait.

that's like the hot they're like we can't wait to put up our phones we can't wait to just and we use it as a time to talk about the new year and what you know our goals are going to be so it's kind of and then we also listen to duck the halls every single Christmas season so thank you very much that I always said that is like the best Christmas it is the best Christmas that and Alabama Christmas album those are the two the two albums that we have on repeat we walked into mom house just day for yesterday I think and she was listening to it so we were talking about it as well maybe we just got a couple of minutes left give a give one from us from our family so being married to a preacher it's a little bit different at christmas time um so our families both lived in

westman row too so typically on uh new year's eve we went to my mom's on christmas day we went to case. But then once our kids got older, then we're like, Mom, we're going to have to do this on a different day. We can't do it on Christmas Eve, just so we could have ours. Well, then we started having Christmas Eve service. Which I was against, you know, because I'd have to do it. Yeah. So the problem with that is you have to get ready, go to church. So there's no time to cook your dinner. so you've got to eat out, you know, or, you know, buy something on the way home. And then you got to eat. Well, then the kids are just like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

They're willing to open the presents. And so this year I was like, let's don't do that again this year. You know, because it's too chaotic. Yeah. And I want to enjoy the time or the day or, you know, that we're together. So this year we're doing it on the 23rd. New tradition. Because on the 24th, we have to go to the church for the Christmas Eve service.

Now, I'm saying that we don't have to go. Did anybody else sense the bitterness in that town? There's no bitterness. I think you've hit on why some preachers kids turn out to be the wildest ones. In the fishbow, that's right. You took Christmas away from them. That's right. I was against it, but now I hold the tradition because after 20 years, I can't imagine not speaking on Christmas season.

It's really not. I mean, it's really not bitterness because I'm grateful that we get to. to go. I'm not mad at all, guys. I'm not mad at all. I'm kidding. But I did want to change it this year because I understand the kids' frustration of not being able to, you know, to come home and immediately open presents. So this year we also have, our oldest granddaughter is married. And so today, they sign papers on their house. So they're officially moving out this week and becoming real adults where they take care of all of their household needs. They've been living with us for the first year.

In the big house. Saving their money. But I told them, I said, now look, here's the deal. I realize that you're in your house. You're going to be in your house. You want to do things. You want to, but you still have to come to family gatherings. So we're having a Christmas birthday party for M.O.K.

You have to come. We're having our Christmas on the 23rd. You have to come. You know, we're having Christmas Eve. I mean, and then Christmas Day, you know, you've got to be with us on Christmas. They're adults, Lisa. They are adults. Can I give you the back story?

Lisa, I'll give you the back story. Look, I read that when we were coming back from the concert. Yeah. And I said, boy, Lisa just gave a withering barrage to a family. A group chat. So I said, I'll soften it. Now you know where that came from. I said, I'll soften it with a joke because it's at our house.

So I said, I was the first one to respond. I put, I'll be there. You know what the joke? That's what I said. You know what Lisa says? You know what Lisa says? She looks at me and she said, you see what Jay said? And I said, I'll be there.

I said, he's trying to be funny. I was trying to be funny. Lisa, it went right over the head. Lisa brings people together. That's what she does. That's why we love her. I'm wrapping it up. We're out of time.

I'm wrapping it up. So here's my thing. There are lots of people across this country, and I've gotten a couple of texts already, who do not have family, who do not have those close relationships, who may live like you did, 13 hours away, whatever, who may not have a relationship with their family at all. We have that. That's a special part of our life.

And to me, for us to just go, ah, you know, it's just family. No, there's no excuse for that. You have it. You need to be grateful for it. And you need to do everything you can possibly do to be a part of it. Now, understand, like reading Brighton, we're here at this time. And they're, you know, they won't be able to be able to come back again. I get that.

But I'm just saying, if you live in this town with us, then I expect your little behinds to be at our gatherings. So funny hearing all. Who's preaching now, Al. Preach. I don't preach. You saw it coming. She doesn't cry. She just preaches.

I'll say right now. No, I will cry too because I just love being together with everybody. Well, let me wrap this up. We want to say, the reason we had this special edition is we want to say, Merry Christmas to all the listeners out there. You guys are awesome. You're part of our family. We love you.

We help you not only have a Merry Christmas, but a great New Year as well. So thank you all for being with us. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed Podcast. help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click the little bell and choose all notifications to watch every episode.