Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays — Episode 121

I just wanted to wish you all a VERY Merry Christmas in this episode

In this episode

New York Times Latke Recipe

The Chosen TV Series about the life of Jesus Christ

Light The World With Love — LightTheWorld.org.

You can see our family’s Christmas Card Here.

Other things that might interest you

Previous Christmas podcasts, cards and posts

Producer: Drew Erickson

Transcript

[00:00:00.130] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys.

[00:00:00.450] – Hilary Erickson

Welcome to the Pulling Curls Podcast. Today on episode 121, we are talking about Christmas and Hanukkah. Let’s untangle it.

[00:00:20.610] – Hilary Erickson

Hi, I’m Hilary Erickson, the curly head behind the Pulling Curls Podcast, where we untangle pregnancy, parenting, home and even travel. We know there’s no right answer for every family, but hopefully we can spark some ideas that will work for yours. Life tangled, just like my hair.

[00:00:43.810] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, guys, we are at the most festive time of the year, right? That doesn’t mean that it can’t be hard. And there might be things we’re going through, but I try and remember that it is the most wonderful time of the year. Lots of wonderful things are going on. So today I wanted to talk a little bit about how we celebrate at our house. And one of the things that we do is we have started. I don’t know if we celebrate Hanukkah, if you can really do that if you’re not Jewish…

[00:01:07.640] – Hilary Erickson

But we observe Hanukkah. I’m not always right on the Hanukkah dates, but there’s a couple of things about Hanukkah that I really like. First off, I love the latkes. Okay. There’s a New York Times recipe for latkes out there that is almost like 50/50 onion and potato. And it turns out, that is the key to the latke. And my family really likes them, too. It’s just a fun tradition that we do. We have the latkes from that recipe. I’ll try and put the recipe in the show notes if I can find it.

[00:01:34.280] – Hilary Erickson

I think there’s a good YouTube video. Also, if you’re kind of like because there is a frying to it, which can be confusing. But I also really like the story of the Maccabees. And so in general. Again, I’m not Jewish. I’m apologizing to all of my Jewish friends, but they had conquered the city and they wanted to light the menorah, but they weren’t sure that they would have enough oil. And somehow the oil stretched to be what they needed. And I think that’s such a good story.

[00:02:00.070] – Hilary Erickson

The oil didn’t stretch to be 64 gallons of oil. The oil stretched to be what they needed. And I think that’s something that’s so important to remember with our kids and stuff like that. So it’s just a fun thing that we really like to do to celebrate Christmas. And I know Hanukkah was super early this year, so you probably miss celebrating it early, but you can celebrate it now. And I just think it’s fun to learn about other people’s traditions and maybe get a dreidel and all that kind of stuff.

[00:02:25.600] – Hilary Erickson

So celebrating Hanukkah is something that we have done. And I actually believe, like, Hanukkah parallels a lot of Christmas, at least kind of how I think about Christmas in that you get the things that you need. And as we think about the Christmas story, Mary and Joseph just needed a place to stay. Now, of course, they probably would have liked to be in. I don’t know what they had back then, but more of a bed or like with a room without cattle. And they probably would have wanted to put their baby in a cradle instead of a manger.

[00:02:55.660] – Hilary Erickson

Right. But they got what they needed. And of course, it was prophetically told that baby would be born in a manger, and that was what was going to happen. But they did get what they needed. Somebody gave them what they needed. And I think Mary is a fascinating figure as well. When I used to work for the Catholics, we had so many Mary statues and as I would be walking around the hospital like I’d be taking blood to the lab and I’d see Mary, and I would just think a lot about her.

[00:03:22.000] – Hilary Erickson

And I wish the religion that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. We don’t talk very much about Mary, and she’s definitely not the figure that she is in the Catholic Church. But I really like that she was so young and had such a big burden putting upon her. She’s 14-16 something and she’s told she’s going to have the Son of God, and I love what the scripture says, that she just pondered it in her heart, and that’s something I’ve really been working on.

[00:03:47.580] – Hilary Erickson

My brain is so loud. I don’t know if your brain is so loud, but I have so many things going on in my brain usually, and I don’t take a lot of time to ponder things in my heart. My brain is more like shooting stars where the stuff just runs through. And I’ll put it on my to do list, but I don’t really think about it so much. So I’ve really been trying to be a little bit more like Mary and ponder these things in my heart and to really think about what’s going to go on, right?

[00:04:13.250] – Hilary Erickson

Because we all have heavy burdens put on us. And maybe if we took the time to really ponder them in our heart and think about how we’re getting just what the things that we need, even it may not be what we want. We can still have such a great outcome because obviously she was still the mother of the Savior of the Lord. Joseph stayed with her and I think she had a pretty fulfilling life. I don’t know if you guys have watched The Chosen, but she’s one of my favorite characters on there as well.

[00:04:36.580] – Hilary Erickson

So this year for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, we are lighting the world with love. And I think that’s a fun way to view your Christmas service, because love doesn’t normally need to cost a lot of money. It can be service, it can be a smile. It can just be being Kinder on the roads. There’s lots of ways to give our love that doesn’t cost money. And so I’ve really been enjoying that as well. And maybe that’s something you can consider. Also, I will put the link to the Light the World video, which is just really sweet.

[00:05:05.900] – Hilary Erickson

I think our Church is really trying to concentrate on helping out the refugees, because again, if anybody gets just what they need instead of maybe not what they want, it’s them. So I think the more we can help them, the better. So I wanted to wish everybody a very happy holidays and a very Merry Christmas. We will actually be taking next week off, but we will be back strong as ever in January. And I can’t wait to see you guys then.

[00:05:27.700] – Hilary Erickson

Thanks so much for joining us on today’s episode. We know you have lots of options for your ears, and we are glad that you chose us. We drop episodes weekly. And until next time, we hope you have a tangle free day.