Church, how we doing?

Good.

Good.

So glad you're here.

The joy of the season, you know, I, this Christmas is the most joyful season, they say,

but sometimes it's kind of replaced by all of the scheduling.

Like it just feels one, like one big kind of schedule protocol, like problem

solving. Like, hey, we're going to go to your parents on this day and your parents on this day.

And we're going to see your cousins. We have this gift exchange. And you just feel like we're

trying to figure out, hey, where are we going to go to who's here? Who's going to church with us here?

And then we have to do what? And we have that lunch afterwards, just a lot of, and Christmas is really about being together. And I think one of the things that we experience so much joy being together at Christmas is because we're not always together. And so it's that contrast of not always being together and then you're together. And growing up, that was the thing for us. Every Christmas, it's like we're going to be together. We would go to my parents. My siblings that were out at college or wherever they were, they would come home and we would be together. And I can remember that first Christmas where on Christmas day I had to tell everybody, hey, I'm not going to be there.

And they were like, wait, what? So, you know, throughout college, I would go home so we could be together. But after college, then I worked retail. So my first job out of college is I worked for

Abercrombie and Fitch. And you know those guys that stand outside with no shirt on? That was not

me. I was in the back folding the shirts. And Christmas Eve, you'd have to work late. And so I had to tell my family, like, hey, I won't be there Christmas Day, which is like, oh, that's a bummer. That's a disappointment. Are you sure? It's like, yes, this is just a part of the job. And so it's like 11.30 p.m. Christmas Eve, and I'm in the back folding shirts. I'm just like, man, this just doesn't feel right. Like, I want to be home. I want to go home. And so I get off work. I go to my apartment. I can remember just kind of tossing and turn in. Like, okay, I'm going to go to sleep tomorrow. I'll wake up. I'll do the six-hour drive, you know, home. And I just can't sleep. I'm like, this is, I'm not where I should be. So I get up, throw some clothes in a duffel bag, throw it in my truck, and head south. Drive all night, and I get to my parents' house, you know, the house I grew up in, about 5.36 a.m.

And I walk in and my mom's getting her coffee.

And I'm like, Merry Christmas.

And there's this like surprise element.

Like, oh, this is not what I expected.

This is awesome.

Like you're home on Christmas Day.

There's joy there.

Okay?

...