Family and Finances: Episode 12, Part 2

>> Another thing that brings a lot of joy to people during the holidays, and I'm talking about Thanksgiving and Christmas particularly, is hosting. And you're really good at hosting and enjoy it, and also at doing it on a budget. So give us some clear tips on that. >> Yes, we've -- I've loved hosting. I grew up in a family, a big family, five kids. We got together with my cousins and aunts and great aunts and grandparents. It was always a big deal to have lots of food, lots of family. So I guess the thing I learned growing up is that you share the responsibility. You have people bring different foods, and so we've done that through the years. I try to decorate naturally if I can. I use herbs and pine cones, things I can find in the yard, and I used to shop. I've got quite a collection now of just different things when they'd go on sale. You know, after holidays, I would buy things for the next year to decorate with. >> And we've got plastic tubs of items for each season and each holiday that you use, and you usually shop for a good deal on them. So we've got our Easter tub. We've got our Thanksgiving, Valentine's, all of a day. >> Or the July, yes. >> So you're organized, so you're not scrambling to find the things that you need to host. And you always do things that make it fun for people. So our focus is sort of outward like what would make it fun. I want you to give us a recipe that makes it fun for some people. >> Oh, I don't know the exact ingredients. >> We did a mocha punch, yes. >> That's a tradition. >> For staff, for our staff. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> And it's always a hit.

>> Yeah. I think you can Google it mocha punch, but it's real rich, a lot of ice cream and hot chocolate. >> Good cream. >> Yeah. It's good. >> It's a high calorie. >> Mm-hmm. >> But once a year, it's okay. >> But even then, and we've got staff members who, when they're thinking about coming to our house for the holidays, they're like, "Okay, is that mocha punch going to be there?" >> Well, and we just, there's certain foods, you know, it's a shame when we were growing up. There were only, you know, the foods we got at Christmas weren't available all year long, so they were something we looked forward to. But, you know, making cut out cookies, that's a tradition for me. >> We've got lots of stories, too, around little games and traditional activities we've done, particularly around, I guess it's called White Elephant gifts. >> Yeah, we've been to some fun White Elephant parties. >> I think almost every year we've done that through our upbringing, you know, as adults and our church would do it, our Sunday school class, our small group. I don't know if you remember the time that you draw one and then somebody else can take it from you. I took one from this lady and she was mad and offered to give it back and she didn't want it back. She just wanted to be mad. >> Oh, she was putting on, though. I don't think she was really that mad. >> But I think it was, one of our boys took it to school. >> John, John loved that thing. It was a singing Christmas trait was obnoxious.

>> Motion-activated. >> Yeah. >> And his teacher told him, "Never bring it back. Take it home and never bring it back." >> I would scare you. It would scare the cat. It would scare everybody. >> Then we got this hideous set of frogs one year. Remember that? >> Yeah, they were stuffed frogs, you know, with dressed in holiday attire. >> Horrible looking. >> Yes. That was in our small group and the hosts were very good friends of ours and they were so bad we hid them under their couch and didn't bring them home. >> We gave them back and hid them in their house and then they found them and they never admitted that they found them, but they visited our house and hid them in our house. And I think this is now the eighth year that we have hid those in each other's house and tried to get away with it for, you know, over the eight years of hanging out with them over that. >> We hid those things in cars, we'd mail them back and forth to each other. >> Well, they don't know, but we're mailing it to them this year. >> Yeah, we've got them now. >> Yeah, we've got them. And another thing that we've always done in the holidays that doesn't cost money, but we've had a tradition of playing games or doing something really fun. We've had pinatas, we've done silly games, but all the guys on your side of the family would get together and have a foot race every year after Thanksgiving lunch, which is a crazy time to go outside and run, but it always turned out to be a lot of fun. - And remind everybody who would win that race. (laughing)

- You would win every time you, I think you were the youngest. - Well, I think I made me just the fastest. (laughing) But I loved those memories, and I'm not gonna do it anymore, but that was a fun tradition, just to go and run as a bunch of guys. - We could start it with our sons. - Yeah, maybe they could start racing. - Well, do you remember, did we travel much? - I'm trying to think back. I know when I grew up, we would always drive to my grandparents. - Well, we always had a rhythm, your side one year, our side one year, and so we had to go every other year, typically to travel. And for us, growing up, I mean, air travel wasn't an option for most people, so we drove a lot, and we planned really nice excursions in the car, and that made it a part of the holiday fun. Looking back, you'd drive and see a lot of Christmas lights, whether we were going across state, or even across the U.S., seeing other decorations, and enjoying that part of the season, and the beauty of it all. I think Christmas is the greatest birthday party

the world has every year. We're still just celebrating a big birthday party, and it's fascinating to me to see that we go through such effort to decorate, to celebrate its birth. Everyone does, and I think it's just beautiful. - You know, travel is expensive, especially for families that have multiple children, and it also can be stressful. - Well, one of the ways we've minimized the stress of it is we use a single credit card that accumulates air miles, so that we always have enough if we need to or decide we're going to fly, that we can fly for the holidays or any time we need to. So that's one of the things that we do is accumulate those bonus miles on one single credit card. And of course, we've said before, we don't pay interest, we don't pay late payments, we don't pay installment payments, they pay us. We get the bonuses with no expense. - Well, and we also choose to spend time back in Texas for our families. We go in off seasons, you know, just different times of the year when there's not so many crowds, and we avoid a lot of stress. - You're right, usually the most expensive time and the busiest, most stressful time to travel is actually during those holidays. So there have been times

where we've done a little celebration at home and then said we'll get there after Christmas and save the money on that. - So Chuck, one of the big things we do every December, we have a tradition, you and I, is we pull out all our giving receipts. We total up where we've given and see how much more we wanna give. - You know, and when I think about that, you and I both look forward to it. We know that that sort of downtime, a quiet time of the year is coming. And when you think about both of those seasons, they're really deeply spiritual. The time of Thanksgiving, when you're acknowledging what God gave you and you're rejoicing and you're truly remembering his goodness. And then the second one is you're praising him for coming and redeeming us. And it's really all about what he's given to us. So we've made it a tradition to examine where we've given and what we've done and just pray and ask the Lord if there's something more we could do to finish out the year. And so typically between Christmas and New Year, you and I are finding agreement about increasing our generosity. And for us, it's an area of our life

where we try to get better every year, try to do more than the year before, as opposed to just a set amount. We're trying to stretch. And in the year acknowledging and celebrating all that God's done for us and then giving to honor him and to bless other people, it's really become our favorite time of the season. - Well, we've really made Christ the focus of the holidays. And I think one thing that meant a lot to our children growing up is our little Jesse tree. - Yeah, that was a great tradition. Started the day after Thanksgiving, one of my sisters and I made these, well, we sewed big Christmas trees on a piece of fabric, hung 'em up on the wall. And then we made all these little-- And then we had a guide to read verses and share a little bit of the story leading up to Christ. And it started in the Old Testament with creation and works all the way forward to the birth of Christ. - How many years did we do that? - Oh, decades. - Yeah. - I, you know, the children are grown, so we don't do it. Maybe you and I haven't needed an adult gesture to address a gesture tree, we miss that. - Yeah, it kept our focus on Christ. - We didn't do it last year, but we read through the book of John with our older boys. (upbeat music)

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