Hey everyone. This is a surprise, pop-up spontaneous podcast. It doesn't even have a number. And why is that, you ask? Well, I wanted to give you a heads up on what's going on

here at the podcast through the month of December. There will be some regular podcasts that I have

recorded, but there are going to be several throwback podcasts from Christmas's past that I have recorded, like I said in past years.

And one of the reasons that I decided to do this, actually there's two reasons. The first

is that, you know, when you've already done something and you've already recorded something

and you feel like it's a good message, you want to make sure that it gets heard again.

Secondly, if you, maybe you're new to the podcast and you weren't here last year or the year

before and didn't get a chance to hear the Christmas episodes, I'm sharing those for that

reason. Those of you who have been here, I'm sure if you're anything like me, maybe you're

not, I wouldn't remember what last year's Christmas podcasts were anyway. So I can definitely

relisten and maybe remember some things, but overall, it would be great to hear them again.

So that's another reason that I'm doing this. But the main

reason I'm just going to be honest with y'all is I wanted to give myself an opportunity to really

step back a little bit from the podcast for the month of December so that I can spend some time

with my children and my grandchildren, some unhurried, simplified sort of

version of the holidays. You know, I don't know if you all feel this during the holidays,

but I've been doing the holiday thing for a really long time with a lot of kids over a lot of

years, and our family just continues to grow.

And the thing that I'm finding is that the older I get, the more simple I actually want things,

and the more I want to focus on relationships and just being present, we're not guaranteed ever another Christmas with family members or even another Christmas

ourselves.

And I don't mean to be dramatic, but that is the reality of life.

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