67: Thoughts on Christmas (Bonus Episode)

[00:00:00] Welcome to this very special bonus episode. I'm really, really excited to share this with you. Because I have been working really hard behind the scenes. I am launching a brand new podcast. Don't worry. The pursuit of freedom is not going anywhere. But this podcast I'm co-hosting with my friend ruler.

[00:00:23] It is called the Rosie and ruler show. And it's just really short 10 minute episodes. It gives you a bit of a giggle. Ask the big questions. That you can listen to on your break. And I want to share with you one of these episodes, the podcast isn't launched yet, but it'll be coming out soon.

[00:00:42] You won't be able to find it anywhere, but I wanted to share an episode with you because I'm just so excited about it. And because it's Christmas day, I thought I would share an episode. Where we spoke about Christmas.

[00:00:55] So enjoy it. And I can't wait to hear your thoughts

[00:01:00] Welcome to the Rosie and show Marhaba. Good day.

[00:01:10] Rosie: you're wearing your Christmas fucking headband thing. I had my Kookaburra Santa earrings on. I took them off. They were sticking in my headphones. But I want to know your thoughts on Christmas because overall, I think I'm a bit of a Grinch.

[00:01:24] I'm over Christmas.

[00:01:29] What does Christmas mean to you? Is Christmas real? Do you celebrate it?

[00:01:39] Roula: I drink water. Do you hear that?

[00:01:41] Rosie: I heard

[00:01:42] Roula: it, yeah. Wow, I have a complicated relationship with Christmas. Mm, let's hear it. And year after year I think about it, how I feel about it, etc. But this year I think I figured it out. I like Christmas because it's a family gathering. Yes. It's this moment where no matter how long we haven't seen each other, we meet together.

[00:02:07] It's also a moment of drama, of gossip, of frustration. And at the end of the day, I think that it's, it's normal. It's part of who we are. And as long as we still get together, it seems that family are still all right. Um, it's cannot happen without drama. I mean, this is impossible. And if we accept it, maybe we can enjoy it better.

[00:02:35] What I don't like about Christmas is that it has to look at a certain way. There is so much commercialization around it. that it puts so much pressure on a lot of people. Yes. And it's, it's awful. It should not be commercial. So we go back, I don't know, we talked about this maybe in, I don't know if we had talked about it with you or someone else, but marketing is sucking our free will.

[00:03:08] Yeah, it is. This just, oh, ugh. So is, is Christmas religious to you? No, no, it wasn't though. Well, when I was in Lebanon, we used to go to the church at midnight. Yeah, that was the moment where we had the best laugh of our lives because everyone had so much wine. A lot of people falling asleep, snoring, uh, singing false.

[00:03:36] And we would be a group of young people with my neighbors, my mom, et cetera. And we're all laughing our ass off because it's just a shit show. Very funny. These are my memories of Christmas back home. I also have ugly memories, but it's just like, I'm just thinking about the good ones. And since I'm in the Netherlands, I set up with the first years that they were tough because I felt very lonely, but now since 12 years, we celebrated in our house.

[00:04:05] The family comes and I changed this year. I changed the, I asked everyone else to cook. I usually make everything and I worked on myself to not care what everyone is bringing. Everyone's making their effort. They're doing what they can. We're going to enjoy it. We played games. We played bingo with gifts, etc.

[00:04:26] We gave it a totally different aspect this year. So instead of sitting, drinking, eating, we made games. All the teenagers and the youngsters cooked. So we older people were sitting on our phones and the kids were in the kitchen. I cannot tell you how amazing this Christmas was because I did it differently.

[00:04:47] You chose how you wanted it to look. Yes. I didn't make a big tree, perfect big tree. I did not do Christmas shopping like crazy. We just did what we feel like doing. And I think this year Christmas was much better than any other year.

[00:05:05] Rosie: I love that. Yeah, I feel a similar way. Christmas to me isn't about all the presents and all the commercial shit.

[00:05:16] Christmas to me is about being around the people I love. and eating delicious food. If there's not good food involved, it's just not worth my time. That's what it's about for me. But I find Christmas so difficult because my parents are dead now and my sister's overseas. So that's my family. And I've just started to reconnect with family I'd never met before.

[00:05:40] And I'm at this year, I'm actually, Having Christmas lunch with them, which is causing all sorts of stress inside me. Yeah. Christmas is about the company. It really shouldn't matter what day it is. And I think we should all just chill the fuck out a little bit.

[00:05:55] Roula: Yeah. And also we have to mention Rosie, it's about the company, but also not because this is also so much pressure.

[00:06:02] It feels like everyone on Christmas are with their families. Some people don't have these families. Some people just don't feel healthy enough to go, etc. And then it feels so wrong. Then they're like, the Christmas is so fucked up. No, we have to take away this, this pressure thing, because sometimes we have amazing meetings with our families, not around Christmas.

[00:06:27] Right. And we should not forget that. Yes. We can always meet with the family without specific Christmas reason. Yes.

[00:06:37] Rosie: Take the pressure away. Christmas is what you make it, guys. Christmas is what you make it, and it should be enjoyable. So many people I speak to, there's just stress, pressure, overwhelm at Christmas.

[00:06:48] Roula: You know, also for a lot of people, this is the most busy time in their business or at their work of the year.

[00:06:55] Rosie: Mmm.

[00:06:56] Roula: Can you imagine the pressures, pressure of having a nice Christmas, finishing your year end close? I know I used to have year end close and 31st of December, I used to work till 11, 12 midnight.

[00:07:10] There was no fun about that.

[00:07:12] Rosie: There's so

[00:07:13] Roula: much pressure around Christmas, times of work, family, life, and marketing is fucking up our mind. It is. So let's just chill. Yeah. Fuck it. Wear your pyjama and have your gluten and your tea and enjoy Christmas wearing your Chocolate milk if you're like

[00:07:30] Rosie: me.

[00:07:30] Roula: Yes. Yeah, yeah.

[00:07:31] Chocolate milk. How can you make it so festive? With marshmallows in it? Like little stars? Bit

[00:07:37] Rosie: of, um, bit of Cointreau in there. Or whiskey maybe, you know?

[00:07:40] Roula: Okay. Oh, wow. I have to try chocolate milk with whiskey.

[00:07:45] Rosie: Yeah,

[00:07:45] Roula: that's a good recommendation.

[00:07:48] Rosie: Yeah, all right. Chill the fuck out over Christmas, people.

[00:07:52] That's the take home message. If you disagree, let us know. Love a good argument. And let others

[00:07:56] Roula: do the things and accept it and be happy with it and just fuck it. Everyone will go home after the dinner and you can relax. Yes, agreed. See you later.

[00:08:08] Bye.

[00:08:09] Rosie: If you got a kick out of our conversation today, can you pretty please hit the follow button and share it with another opinionated person? This is the easiest way for you to support the show. It also gives Rula and I the motivation to keep going. I have to stop you there. Stop telling people what to do.

[00:08:29] Roula: If they like to follow the show and share it, it's totally up to them. Guys, please, can you help us follow and share the show? Thank you so much. See you next time.