444. Baby Wants a Gas Mask

Kids ask for the darndest things, and this year, Nora’s youngest asked for… a gas mask. An old-timey gas mask. So, she asked for the weirdest things that your kids have asked Santa for, AKA a nightmare fuel gift guide. (Warning: do not listen with little kids in the car because we will discuss Santa!)

Transcripts may not appear in their final version and are subject to change.

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Before we start this episode, I’m Nora McInerny and It’s Going To Be OK.

And before we start this episode, might not be one to listen with little kids because we’re talking about Santa. We’re talking about Santa, and if that’s a controversial topic in your household, I would just skip this one.

I’m not going to say anything inappropriate, but I think as adults, we can all read between the lines, right? We’re going to talk about Santa. So maybe don’t listen to this one with a child who wants Santa to come to their home this year.

Hi, everyone, it’s Nora McInerny, and It’s Going To Be OK. This is a very special Christmas edition of It’s Going To Be OK. I was inspired to make this episode by my youngest child.

I’ve been done with our Christmas shopping for quite a while now, because at our house, we keep Christmas shopping very, very simple. I cannot take any credit for what I am about to tell you. I found it on Pinterest before I even had my first child.

I was pregnant in 2012. This is like peak Pinterest. We’re getting all of our information from Pinterest.

And I just found out from my niece who’s 19 that that era is back. Pinterest is being revitalized by a new generation of kids. I don’t know if they’re taking it quite as seriously as we did in Pinterest heyday, but Pinterest is back, baby.

And I will get to that at another point in time. I will venture back into the world of Pinterest. But imagine me.

I’m pregnant for the first time. I’m about to become a mother. I want to do everything absolutely correctly.

And I am taking any small bit of information that I can that seems like it could be helpful. And I’m putting it on Pinterest.

And I pinned something that said four gifts for Christmas, something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read. I could not find that pin anymore.

I’ve nuked my Pinterest account several times because there is just something a little bit too vulnerable, even if they’re set to private, to seeing all of my hopes, dreams, aspirations and potential selves laid out in Pinterest board form.

So I don’t know the originator of that rhyme of this idea, but it’s stuck, it’s stuck. There are so many objects in the world, and I swear to you, my children own all of them somehow. I am, I’m not a grinch.

I’m not a grinch, but I think that holidays, birthdays, even kids get very overwhelmed by these things. I would get very overwhelmed by receiving a lot of things, having a lot of things, and, you know, my kids do have everything that they need.

And so do I. So we keep Christmas super, super simple. It’s a nice level set of expectations, too.

I’ve explained to my kids, everybody does these holidays differently. Some kids, Santa comes to their house and brings them a ton of stuff. Some people, Santa comes to their house and just leaves gifts in their stockings.

Santa has never come to our house because I am not giving old man credit for my work and also because my children are not believers. They were born skeptics. I don’t want to repeat what they said after just a few years at a Lutheran preschool.

They were like, I am not buying this. Although I will say the story of the crucifixion, a little too heavy for toddlers, a little too heavy for toddlers.

And that they did buy into, and I think that was, and maybe put them off organized religion forever, but they never believed in Santa.

Even just like floating the idea when they were little, they were like, no, no, no, that guy’s never come to our house and he never will. And I just stopped pushing it. My kids are not Santa kids.

So we keep it simple. The holidays, they understand we get four gifts, something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read. They also understand, you know, you can’t talk to other kids about whether or not Santa exists.

All right, that’s that’s that’s their belief system. You know, a lot of kids believe a lot of different kinds of things, and that’s just not for you to get involved with. So I think I hope they’re pretty respectful of that.

It really just doesn’t come up a lot in our house.

The kids know that they can ask for something they want for Christmas, something they really want, you know, and they can make a list as long as the day, but they’re not going to have all those presents underneath the tree, at least not from us.

Maybe a grandparent will step in and fill one of these other wishes, but I think we all know, we’ve all looked around our home and seen things that any one of us, even as adults, just had to have something that we really, really, really wanted.

Then you get it and you’re like, oh, yeah, that wasn’t, you know what? Might have been better to just have that as money. So that’s Christmas at our house, something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read.

People have texted me that there are variations on this. I think there’s a lot of ways to, it doesn’t have to rhyme, for example, but it’s a nice way to keep things simple.

But as soon as I had done all of the shopping, checked it all off, I get the biggest curveball thrown my way from our youngest child. He says, what I really want for Christmas, I want a gas mask. He wants a gas mask for Christmas.

And I said, what? He’s like an old timey gas mask. Old timey gas mask.

OK. Why? I just want one.

I just want one.

OK.

OK. So if anyone out there is looking for a gift for our youngest son, he’s like an old timey gas mask. None of these new ones.

No, no, no, no. He wants an old gas mask. Unfortunately, the one my dad brought home from Vietnam, we got rid of it probably 20 years ago.

And that’s why you just don’t get rid of something, because someday someone might want it.

So Q asked for a gas mask. And I say, I know that I’m not the only person out there whose kid is asking for something odd, something funny, something weird, who maybe even as a child, we’ve asked for weird things for the holidays.

And that’s what this episode is. OK. You might be stressed out about this holiday season.

You might be feeling a little bit grinchy. You might just be feeling a little bit sad. But I can’t promise you, but I’m going to hope that hearing these goofy stories are going to make you feel a little bit more OK.

Hi.

It is absolutely OK to use this in an episode because people need to know and not make the same mistake that I did. One year, what I really, really wanted was a ventriloquist dummy because is that not what every 11-year-old girl wants?

So I wanted a ventriloquist dummy. I spent the entirety of my birthday money on one. His name is Lester.

I am 35 years old now. He lives in my closet. His shoes are off because I’m scared of him.

And if his shoes are off, he can’t run after me and get me. Duh. But yes, he has moved.

Every time I have moved, we’ve spent 24 amazing years together of him terrifying me and haunting me. And yeah, I spent all of my money, over $100 of my birthday money on Lester, and my parents let me do that.

So I don’t know if we can retroactively report them for that, but I think we should, because he’s still here a quarter of a century later, haunting me. If you need pictures, I am more than happy to share.

Yeah, we need pictures of Lester. We need pictures of Lester. You’re telling me that you have had this ventriloquist dummy for 24 years, but you don’t bother to say whether or not you can really properly use him.

I do have to agree, if you keep a ventriloquist dummy’s shoes off, he actually can’t run after you. That’s just one of the laws of haunted dolls, is they do need the right equipment.

Shoes, footwear to be able to truly harm you, and you disarmed him in a very meaningful way. Spending $100 on a ventriloquist doll is such a special thing in a little girl’s life.

I don’t know a single little girl who didn’t turn 11 years old, gather up her birthday money, head down to the haunted doll store and say, I’d like a ventriloquist dummy. I’m going to name him Lester. I’m going to name him Lester.

And the fact that you kept him for 24 years is so perfect. Thank you for sharing this. I actually think it’s an example of really wonderful parenting, that your parents said, OK, OK, spend a hundred some bucks on a ventriloquist dummy, baby.

That sounds like a great thing to do with your birthday money. I love that. And there has to be something, you know, there’s something going on right now.

I don’t know what it is, but this is not the first time I’ve heard about a ventriloquist dummy this week alone. I’m not going to name names, but someone very close to me, an adult woman, said that they just bought a ventriloquist dummy.

And I listened the same way your parents did with non-judgment. I said, OK, that’s your money. That’s your money.

Spend it on a ventriloquist dummy if you would like to. I think this is what this is the best thing about kids is you don’t know if they’re going to come home and say, I’d really like a ventriloquist dummy.

And as a parent, you really do have to sort of nurture your children’s interests, even if it’s, I don’t want to say it straight, even if it’s ventriloquism, OK?

As a parent, don’t become a parent if you aren’t willing to love your child, whether or not they are into ventriloquism.

Don’t become a parent if you are not willing to support your children, even if they come home and they say, I want a ventriloquist on me. And that’s the bottom line.

My son asked every day for a falcon, for Christmas, for his birthday, for any event. He wanted a falcon. He knew how he was going to train it.

He had all the research done, and yet no falcon for him. We were not going to get a falcon. Anyhow, he’s a veterinarian, has done lots of raptor care, so he at least gets it at work.

Thanks.

OK, so your 12-year-old son comes home and he says, I want a falcon. You are within your right to say, you know what, where do we tell you’re an adult? Because falcons are a bird of prey.

And to become a falconeer, to get into falconry is a true investment. It’s an investment into ornithology, which it believes the study of birds, and if that’s instead the study of feet, OK. Then that is so be it.

It is, it’s a, you get in a falconry, much like ventriloquism, you’re putting a flag into the earth. You were saying, this is who I am. I’m into falconry.

I’m into ventriloquism. The difference is a ventriloquist dummy, you can disarm by taking their shoes off. A falcon could eat a small dog in front of you and you couldn’t stop it.

I guess that’s what they teach you in falconry school. But look, I said you got to support your kid no matter what they’re interested in, but I think you can draw the line at falconry. And I think that it’s because it’s a very big bird of prey.

I love them. I love going to a nice resort here in Phoenix, Arizona and seeing the falconer, falconerist, I don’t know, walk around the pool with just a falcon on his arm to scare away the pigeons. I love that.

Every time we see that, what do you think my kids say? They say, I want a falcon. What do I have to say?

Well, you know, I don’t know. Look at this ventriloquist. That means what I say.

Wouldn’t you rather get into ventriloquism is what I say.

A year ago, one of our kids wanted a metal detector.

And I said, you can get a metal detector. You do have to spend your own money on it. And they saved up.

They got a metal detector. And that’s a great toy for a kid. Metal detecting is honestly kind of like a great gift.

It really gets people talking. You’re out there metal detecting. People want to know what you’re doing.

They metal detected in the alleys. I don’t think they bought the highest quality metal detector. They are children after all, but they’re detecting metal.

They’re getting bottle tops, coins, nails, screws, nothing of value yet. But the possibility is always there. And actually, that’s kind of what I like about metal detecting is it’s all about possibility.

Yesterday, literally yesterday, again, all the Christmas shopping is done. Ralph, who is 12, who did not ask for a falcon yesterday, but he did ask for a magnet fishing kit.

And if you have not watched magnet fishing videos on YouTube, I need you to go do that right away. It’s fascinating. I mean, it’s exactly what it sounds.

It’s just big time metal detecting. You throw a high powered magnet attached to a rope into a body of water, into a river, into a lake. You guys know what bodies of water are.

You wait for it to kind of like hit, you know, pull on something. You pull it in and you see what you got. And it could be garbage.

A lot of the time it will be garbage. It could be jewelry. Very rarely in the videos that I’ve seen.

I did watch a video where these guys were magnet fishing on a bridge that’s technically part of an army base, but they said was in a green zone. They later got a ticket and they found quite a lot of artillery. Quite a lot.

Quite a lot of live rounds in the bottom of this river. One other video they found like a cannonball. So there’s a lot.

There’s a lot happening in our waterways. And I just think that the promise of magnet fishing and metal detecting in general is just like, what if there is a treasure? And when you watch these videos, they think anything they find is a treasure.

And there’s something kind of nice about that. And then the side effect too is like that they are cleaning up the environment. So I don’t know.

I don’t see them getting a magnet fishing kit for Christmas, but I will allow them to spend their own money if they would really like to get a magnet fishing kit.

And may this episode inspire you for some out of the box gift ideas for the children or adults in your own life. So we got this message. My kid wanted a cedar for his birthday.

We got him a cedar. He gets mad because seeds are expensive and we can’t. We can’t continue to supply seed to satisfy his need to seed.

I love I love this kid. I love this kid. And you know what?

If this kid needs seeds, you send them to me. Say you call your auntie Norn because she would love to buy you seeds because she doesn’t know how much seeds cost.

And so she likes to commit to things, especially with children whom then you can’t say no to. So you know what? This kid is just into gardening.

This kid is into… Why don’t you get anything with the other word for gardening? That’s like, what’s gardening when it’s farming?

Agriculture, that’s the word I was looking for. This kid is just a little agriculturalist, and God bless him for that. Hi, Nora.

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In 1998, $20. I’ll say this slicer though, that does look like a good deal. It comes with a free slicer too, and that’s a good deal.

That’s a good deal. $20 though in 1998 was quite a bit of money. And also I love, my dad wrote infomercials, so I’m biased, but I loved them.

The weirdest thing my kid wanted for Christmas was a giant pair of scissors, as in ribbon-cutting, three-foot-long scissors. Yeah, great gift, great gift. Novelty gifts for a child who really wants them is so great.

My nephew last year wanted a metal sign with a frog on it that said, hippity-hoppity, get off my property. And I couldn’t find one. And then I had an idea where I was like, oh, I could cross-stitch it.

Obviously, I haven’t done that. That would take hours and hours. And instead, I just didn’t do that.

But yeah, sometimes kids just want something, like a three-foot-long pair of scissors. And I want to know if you found it, is what I want to know. Because now, I want a giant three-foot pair of scissors.

OK.

At age eight, my son Martin wanted a frying pan, a t-shirt can, yes, a potato launcher.

I worried he’d been watching Jackass. At age 16, Martin wanted a solar panel generator, a first aid kit and a tent. I worried he was the Unabomber.

OK, we actually have the Christmas list from Young Martin. He also wanted a paper bag designed as a person, and I don’t know what that means, but I am intrigued by that. OK.

When I was four, I wanted a bath brush. I wanted to be like Ernie on Sesame Street. I was more enamored with it than the Cabbage Patch dolls that I got.

Amazing photo. This little girl with perfect 1980s blunt bangs, the look, staring lovingly, lovingly at this bath brush while a Cabbage Patch doll, two Cabbage Patch dolls, wow, rich much, are just sitting there, completely ignored, a bath brush.

That was, you know what?

Ernie was showing children what hygiene actually means, which is important because I have it on good authority, that there are people, the ones that I met were men, I’m not trying to say anything sexist here, but who bathe, shower, and don’t use a

cleaning tool, like a bath brush, like a washcloth, like a shower poop, they simply use their hands. And that’s not getting you clean. That’s your skin needs the lather, the exfoliating, just rubbing. You can wash your hands that way.

You can’t wash like your back that way, your legs that way. Like I think you need to use, you need a tool, you need a tool. You need that bath brush.

And if you don’t believe me, ask Ernie. Last year, my three-year-old asked Santa for a Christmas tree for her stuffed bunny.

Hargett came through with the mini tree kit complete with an 18-inch tree, ornaments, tinsel, and a star, and you got it for her, for her little bunny. That’s so sweet. I love a little mini Christmas tree.

My kids do have a little mini Christmas tree. We used to have two mini Christmas trees. We are in a smaller house now, so we just have the main tree, and then we have one mini tree in one child’s room.

The other child who remains at home with two kids who moved out, just for any new listeners, who are like, what? Only two kids remain at home?

That was a weird way of putting it, but the two kids who still live at home, only one wants a mini tree and he has that mini tree. And you know why he got it? Because he begged for a mini tree with mini ornaments.

And who came through? Not me, my mom with mini vintage ornaments for him. OK?

OK.

Ah, when I was three or four, I asked for a snowblower two years in a row.

That’s just a that’s a sensible. You were just a sensible toddler who wouldn’t want a snowblower. Honestly, you saw your future.

You saw a future of back pain from shoveling. And you said that will not be me. I will be using a snowblower.

Thank you. That is a really good gift idea. And I if your parents didn’t get you that snowblower, they are bad parents.

And that’s the final word on that. As the foremost authority, a woman who said you are required as a parent to get a ventriloquist doll for a child, but also you can say no to a falcon. You can’t say no to a snowblower.

That’s like one of the main things that they tell you before you leave the hospital with a baby. They say someday this baby might ask for a ventriloquist doll or a snowblower. Make sure you say yes.

I’m sorry your parents missed that. When I was about seven years old, I wanted, no, needed a statue of Jesus for Christmas. Not sure why, as my family is not at all religious, but Santa brought me one anyway.

Side note, the statue had a Walmart price tag on the bottom, which is also how I learned Santa wasn’t real. That’s not true because Santa could also just, he makes toys.

A statue is not a toy and he had to supplement his store of gifts by going to a store full of gifts, Walmart, because he’s also a bargain shopper.

So I want you to rethink that second part of the text because that Walmart price tag did not prove anything other than Santa was listening to you. A not religious child who wanted a Jesus statue. Ooh, OK.

On the night of Christmas Eve, we each got the chance to ask Santa for our one thing that we really wanted. Little late on Christmas Eve, OK? Little late, little late.

This is a dangerous game for parents to be playing. Go ask Santa for something tonight? Ooh, my cousin announced that she wanted a pair.

My cousin announced that she wanted a pair of crutches. She hadn’t mentioned wanting them any other time that year. Somehow her parents pulled through and she did wake up to crutches just a few years later.

Someone, I’m sure, has studied a girl’s need for crutches. Our daughter went through this? Okay, wanted crutches, also wanted a wheelchair for her American Girl doll, loved her crutches, loved her crutches.

I wanted crutches, I was so jealous of the girls who showed up to school with a sprained ankle.

It’s like, I’m sure I sprained my ankle plenty of times, my parents weren’t bringing me to like, urgent care for really any reason, but certainly not for a sprained ankle, you just rice that baby, rest, ice, compression, elevation, walk it off.

Yeah, having public crutches, having crutches that you don’t need, I don’t know, I know it’s a cry for attention, I know it’s some kind of cry for help, I know that it is also quite common, and we’ve all wanted them, and wow, wow, wow, did your aunt

and uncle answer that call. Honestly, your aunt probably already had them from her own days faking an injury and needing attention from crutches.

When my son was maybe five, he was obsessed with the little mermaid. He wanted to be Ariel. So I took him to see Santa and he told Santa he wanted a fish tail and one of those things that goes over your shoulders to cover your nipples.

One of those things that goes over your shoulder to cover your nipples. I did not see a bra ever being described that way. I guess it’s true.

It does go over your shoulders. It does cover your nipples. And I hope your son got that, OK?

Because you can’t just wear the tail. And I feel this way when I watched, you know, when I watched The Little Mermaid, the mermen do feel a little bit perverse, a little underdressed, like a little too exposed.

OK, I’m also not a person who likes to see like shirtless men. And I was like, OK, like, it’s not so hot in yoga that you had to take your shirt off. I’ve got mine on.

It’s not so hot when you’re running that you have to take your shirt off. I’ve got mine on. So I hope he got his little nipples covered, OK?

Shrimp, a live pet shrimp. For my daughter’s 10th birthday, she asked for a tank with live shrimp.

I’m OK with it, but her birthday was in August, and I still haven’t gotten her the tank with the shrimp, and she hasn’t brought it up, so we’ll see about that. It’s the first, live shrimp, live shrimp, live shrimp.

I don’t know if I’ve seen live shrimp, but I am sure that I would not like how they look, and that is my personal and very biased opinion, is that there are certain creatures that I just don’t like the look of, and one of them is seafood.

I just don’t like the looks of seafood. I don’t like the way that the creatures of the ocean look when they’re dead or alive. I really don’t.

It’s just not for me. I should look up what does an alive shrimp look like?

Let’s find out.

Oh, yeah.

That’s kind of cute, actually. It looks like it’s like really struggling to walk, you know, like, oh, like it just like weighs so little. He’s just like, OK, that’s getting cute.

I bet those would be cute in a tank. I bet that would be cute. But you know what?

That’s another rule of parenting and another rule of gifts is like, you know, you bring it up once. I don’t know how bad you want it, you know, you bring it up twice. OK, I’m listening.

You bring it up, you know, a few times as a child, like for, I think to invest in the shrimp lifestyle, unlike the ventriloquist lifestyle, but similar to the falcon lifestyle, like you got to want it, like you got to really want it because you are,

you know, you’re going on a really high investment journey, I think. OK?

I think like you got the tank, the water, you know that like creating an aquatic habitat is like similar to creating, you know, a safe bird environment where it’s like it’s, you got to have infrastructure at that point, OK?

Different than a dog who just like lives in your house. Like you got to build a separate sort of like environment for them. That’s a lot, that’s a lot.

But I do love a kid who would ask for live shrimp. I got to say.

We call this podcast It’s Going To Be OK because we don’t think everything will be OK, but we know that there is power in trying to find one good thing every day, one OK thing.

We can lower the bar and just look for the small things in the world and around us that are not terrible. That’s like how a lot of us are getting through not just this time of year, but life in general.

The more that you tune yourself towards those things, the more of them you will find. And it is kind of a magic. There is kind of a magic to it.

The more that you tune yourself towards the OK things around you, the more things will start to feel OK. And I have some other OK things from you to share with the group, to share with the group right now.

This podcast is as always a group project, so you can send in your OK things, you can text them, you can call, you can text the number is 502-388-658. That’s 502-388-OKAY. I teach free English classes at a non-profit.

This student is a woman in her sixties who comes to class every day with a huge smile on her face. The class is the beginning English level and none of the other students speak her language, Swahili.

The work is hard for her and I know she gets frustrated sometimes, but the other day she did a spelling exercise on her own for the first time and she was so happy and proud. She clapped and we did a little dance together.

I feel so grateful to be able to share that joy with her. It’s just such an honor to accompany someone doing something so brave and so hard. I feel lucky to be able to experience moments like these with students every day.

It’s really beautiful. Today’s OK came from my son coming into my craft room and just hanging out and talking when we were supposed to be working today. It’s nice that he wants to talk to me.

It really is. I love those little moments where, I think especially with kids where they want to be around you, they want to talk to you, they want to hang out with you.

Really with anyone, I’m trying to be better at noticing just the time that I get to spend with people. Hey, Nora. It’s Going To Be OK because my son gets a dumb dumb lollipop every Friday and this week he discovered his new favorite, buttersquatch.

Also my five year old nephew calls me Auntie Cake. My name is Kate. Please no one ever correct him.

Nobody, even if they do correct him, I believe in the power of a lasting nickname, just being the time that somebody misspoke. Auntie Cake is so beautiful, so iconic.

I know that I’m a little bit dark, but may they call you Auntie Cake, tell your funeral. May that be the name that you are remembered by. It’s so perfect.

I’m so envious. Nora doesn’t really have like a, nothing fun rhymes with it. What am I going to be?

Auntie Bora? A little bit. Auntie Cake is so perfect and I really truly love that for you.

Oh, this is one from Suspected Spam. We don’t contact you much, but I always care about you. I love that.

I actually really needed that today. I don’t contact you much, but I always care about you. Suspected Spam.

Thank you.

I have one more OK thing, one more really beautiful thing. A holiday themed OK thing to share with everybody before we go. This crossed my Instagram feed and warmed my heart, made me cry.

That’s not hard to do. I cry quite easily, but I am so touched by this story. So the post is by Spencer L.

Duncan, and it reads, all caps, Kathy Allen Duncan, snow people village. My mother, who passed away in September, loved snow people, snow men, but she called them snow people. Hey, Kathy, just a woke queen, we love her.

Each year, she set up a snow people village in their home. To honor her, we wanted to share her joy with all of Topeka this Christmas.

So take some time between now and Christmas day to visit her collection at Westridge Mall, across from Petland, next to Spencer’s Gifts on the second floor. Free to walk around.

We also encourage donations to two causes important to my mom, Cat Association of Topeka and Ballet Midwest. Open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Monday through Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. Sundays. What a beautiful way to honor your mother and her love of Christmas and snow people.

I hope that my children see this and are inspired to not just fist fight each other for my Department 56 Heritage Village and Dickens Village Christmas houses when I die, but to display them at a local mall so that everybody may enjoy them.

I love a collection. I love things that other people love, and I love when people remember the people that they love, buy the things that they loved, and sharing the things that their dead people loved with other people who may love them.

If you are in Topeka, you better get your butt to the Westridge Mall.

You better go to the second floor next to Spencer’s Gifts because I didn’t even know Spencer’s Gifts was still, I almost said awake, but still alive, and go see Kathy Allen Duncan’s Snow People Village for yourself.

I’m looking at the preview here on Instagram, and it’s so lovely. It’s so beautiful. And this woman made so much Christmas magic for her family.

And now everybody can go and enjoy this Christmas magic, and it’s not even for sale. This is just a display. And what a loving, loving thing to do for your mom.

I know that her spirit is glowing with joy at this, but also to do for other people. So that is my OK holiday thing right now. And if you are not in Topeka, I hope you find something similar to this.

Because maybe you’ll be inspired to make your own. Rest in peace, Cathy Ellen Duncan. And what a good boy you are, Spencer.

Oh, God. Oh, he’s mayor-elect of Topeka. OK.

OK. You know, we’re not going to get into it. I don’t want to know anymore.

I don’t want to know anymore about this man. I just want to be happy for this beautiful thing that he did this holiday season in honor of his mom.

Again, It’s Going To Be OK is a group project, so send us your OK things. Call in, text in. The number is 502-388-6529.

You can also email us, IGTBO at feelingsand.co. I want to remind everybody right now that this is a tough time of year. It is OK for things to be just OK.

You’re going to see a lot of happy propaganda. Some people are having a happy holiday, but I believe most of us are having a happy-ish holiday.

Many people experience this time of year as a both-and, and you can have moments of joy and gratitude and happiness, and also moments of sadness and frustration and disappointments.

Most people’s holidays do not look as perfect as they look on a Christmas card on a or in a Christmas movie.

And if that is you right now, if you are feeling like your holiday season or your holiday cheer is not measuring up, I want to remind everybody that a lot of this stuff, it is optional. It is optional.

So if you feel like you just can’t do everything, you cannot do a, you know, that you just can’t do everything and you can’t do everything perfectly. Guess what? That’s OK.

That’s OK. Especially if you are the person who is trying to make the holidays magical for everybody else.

Trust me, your family, your friends, they want you to be happy more than they want all of the presents under the tree to be, you know, custom wrapped with a specific gift wrap and for you to do, you know, amazing Christmas decor and for Elf on the

Shelf to be having new adventures every single night. I’ve never done Elf on the Shelf and thank God for past me for not buying that little guy, because I think that would fully push me over the edge.

So I am wishing you, I’m wishing you a happy holiday, I am wishing you a happy holiday. I am wishing you truly whatever holiday makes sense, given the circumstances of you specifically, these are your holidays, they are yours.

You can live them and celebrate them however you want, which also means there are things that you just don’t have to do.

So if there is something that is a little too much, take it off your to do list, hand it to somebody else or just drop a ball, let a ball drop. They are not all on fire priorities, trust me.

And I say that as a person who has a hard time not doing everything. We usually do a holiday show this week, every year. This is the year we’re not doing it.

I just knew that I could not do it with all the other work that I have to do and all the family stuff that’s going on. And I just took it off my list and are some people disappointed? Yeah, am I a little bit bummed out?

Yes, but I also know that if I were trying to sell tickets to a live show and perform a live show right now, I would be truly losing my mind. So I can live with disappointment to be a little bit more at peace and a little bit happier.

And so I wish that for you as well. This is It’s Going To Be OK. If you are listening to this on the Thanks For Asking feed, it’s not always going to be here.

So you will want to go find It’s Going To Be OK on its own podcast feed. If you are listening to this on the It’s Going To Be OK feed, I’m going to work on doing it a little bit more regularly. So stick with us and thank you for being here.

And happy holidays to you all. This episode was produced by Marcel Malekibu. Our theme music is by Secret Audio.

Video production, episode prep, so much work done by Grace Berry. I’m Nora McInerny and we will see you back here soon.